*Concerning this copyrighted music: Gary S. Bergren is the creator, arranger and recording artist ; ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Above is a cd cover that was designed by a close friend of mine,  (Flavio Robles Jr., a fine artist, music composer, etc. View his work at Flavio Robles, Jr. Creativity) for an original music composition in which I recently created. It is classical in nature and is eight minutes - forty seconds long. On an emotional level my initial inspiration resulted from the Civil War era and the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, with the many complexities that were present at that time. During the creation of this music I would gaze at the pictures below for further inspiration and write the music that expressed the feelings I had felt through those images, as well as to the knowledge I have concerning that critical period of history.

For an example, as the music opens during the first minute, I gazed at the two images on the left below showing the intense confrontation of the military as my inspiration.

I felt compelled to create this music after 25 years of absence from music writing due to painting and painting instruction. Questionably, I did feel an uncertainty to whether I could write music at all after not having done so for well over two decades, nor having played a keyboard for as long, which is used as a medium to write. I then noticed that when the passion kicked in, everything else started to fall into place. That passion was fueled by

the love for my deceased father.

Music / My Early Years

Throughout my lifetime I have bounced back and forth between fine arts and music, spending the majority of my time with fine arts. As a child, my father introduced me to classical composers such as Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Gershwin, Liszt, Chopin, Khachaturian, Puccini, and more, educating me on their historical significance and their basic, but effective construction of music. My mother on the other hand exposed me to jazz, the big band era, with such composers and instrumentalists as Dave Brubeck, Stan Kenton, Paul Desmond, Maynard Ferguson and more. 

As a child, I watched  and listened to my father's own beautiful compositions on our grand piano with classical and jazz influences and passionately desired to one day do the same.

Although playing in several bands, working with several instruments, and writing various styles of music, classical music always seemed most significant. During my late teens, I took a music appreciation course and heard Aaron Copland's musical composition 'Appalachian Spring', and  soon afterwards 'The Lincoln Portrait'.  My soul was moved like never before, and that still holds true today. What inspiration, what beauty, and what a composer!

My Original Music / A Recent Score 

Title: Lincoln , "The Struggle Between Right Or Wrong" Movement 3

Please click on the triangular icon above to start the music and slideshow, thank you!