The Rose Saga song cycle is set in the Lincoln Tower building complex, with its several gardens, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. These apartment buildings are built in a cement-block style of architecture otherwise known as ‘Moscow on the Hudson’, but the gardens are lovely and mostly unpopulated, so you can have them all to yourself.

The Rose Saga I:  In the fall of 2009, there was one very pink rose that sat on the top of a ten-foot stalk in the front garden of my building. This flower endured several months of drastic weather changes and was the inspiration for The Rose Saga I. (Seven songs—15 minutes.)

The Rose Saga II: takes place two years later. A long dry spell has just ended. The pink and purple roses are huge, almost frightening. A bug infestation forces the narrator to inhabit another green area on the premises; a large green park with a cluster of blossoming trees inhabited mostly by robins and fireflies. (Seven songs – 11 minutes.)

The Rose Saga III: two more years have passed. The narrator is moving. She takes a final look around at the front garden and the park. Her loyalties remain with the pink roses. She says her good-byes to the robins, the speckled birds and the lightning bugs. (Four songs – 9 minutes.)