When a song is simple and elegant, and if it is delivered with honesty and meaning, it can help us learn something about ourselves and peel another layer from our normal level of awareness. That’s not always a pleasant experience, but it can work much like a medicine - you’ll feel better in the morning. When someone like Matti Caspi, who has written over 1000 songs and is one of Israel’s best known musical figures, chooses to write a song, he can certainly aim for any emotional goal or subject he pleases, having mastered the process of songwriting at a young age. However, more often than not, Caspi chooses to communicate personal themes, sometimes difficult and tense, and won’t settle for less than the absolute truth, no matter how harsh it may come across.

Caspi’s 1993 album Matti is a case in point, immediately inviting the listener for a close look at the artist’s personal life at a time of great turmoil and change. Considered Caspi’s most personal album, it’s full of songs about confession and pain, despair and fear, but it was the very last song that most caught my ear. Called “Lullaby for Myself,” its chilling pathos delivers the final blow after the album’s long emotional journey and at the same time proves empirically how such hard times can yield such beautiful music.

The short piano arrangement that I’ve created and recorded (below) reminds me of short songs by the French composer Gabriel Faure, again utilizing the power of simple, elegant and economic writing, with subtleties of color and little musical treasures to be found in every verse. I hope you can learn some musical elements from this song, and more importantly be inspired to tap into your inner world and show us something important about yourself.