TuneMonger, Rayc, Marty, Mike, I am so very grateful for your time and thoughts!!

TuneMonger: I’m glad you liked the story aspect, it really does loom large in my feelings about this piece. I guess I would have left it well enough alone as an instrumental if not.

Rayc: “A classic example of dark hidden in light” – oh, yes yes yes indeed. This tale is DARK, but the main lyric is “la la la”, and I really like that. It’s pretty twisted, I just hope it isn’t taken for mere lyrical laziness on my part.

Marty: I am honored by your interest in an update and should have one shortly. I’m close to the point now where I’m running out of things I think I can improve on my own.

Mike: I once used an aspirin bottle as a shaker on an old old old recording, totally ruining that section of the recording, and I guess I’m still traumatized by the memory.

If anyone’s curious, here’s the original recording from 1995. The piece was created using ConcertWare on a Macintosh SE/30 (or maybe it was a Centris or something by then) driving a Yamaha PSS-680. This recording was the all-at-once audio output of that multitimbral keyboard. It may sound cheesy now, but in its day, the ability to do this was absolutely incredible to me, a dream come true.

https://soundcloud.com/mark_hayes/the-juniper-tree-1995

PROGRAM NOTE: The cymbal crashing at 2:30 was specifically intended to represent the millstone crashing down onto the wicked stepmother. But I don't think I'm going to preserve this particular bit of programicity.