Musical Compositions

Waltzing Sweet Georgia

I arose as it was barely becoming daylight on Saturday, June 12, 2021. I went straight to my electronic keyboard. I turned it on and kept the sound volume low so as not to disturb my wife Robin in her continued sleep. I was highly motivated to play and write down a tune that was taught to me in a dream that had concluded just prior to my arising from the bed—a tune I had never before heard.

In the dream, my deceased wife Dianne, who died more than six years ago, wearing white and looking angelic, taught me the melody at an old piano. She sat on the piano bench with me for about two hours and made me play the tune until I learned it. She encouraged me to play the melody repeatedly, I mean over and over, until I got it right, and so that I would not forget it when I awoke. I had some difficulty because she taught the song to me in the key of F sharp major (all the black keys), a key in which I have never played a song. I play a little by ear, as they say, and mostly in the key of C major.

In the dream, I did not associate with Dianne as my wife. We neither kissed nor hugged. I clearly recognized that she was in a different state of existence than me. I knew she was an angel, and I had great respect for her. She was in the position of being my teacher in the dream. In fact, during the entire dream, we were seated together on the piano bench with her to my left either showing me or directing me how to play the song. There was a minimum of eye contact between us. By the time I awoke, all four lines of the song’s melody were firmly fixed in my mind.

After writing down the notes that formed the melody, it came brightly to my mind that I needed lyrics, and then even more vividly and with considerable reactive emotion, I heard a voice clearly saying only four words: “This is for Georgia.”

I knew then that the tune was given me specifically for my and Dianne’s daughter Georgia, who was at that moment in the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, undergoing treatment for life-threatening cancer. My clear impression was that the plain voice in my mind was from deity, and not from Dianne, and that God was fully knowledgeable of and interested in Georgia’s dire cancerous situation—a clenched fist-size tumor pressing against her spinal cord and renal glands, appearing within five years after undergoing treatment and surgery for uterine cancer.

As I was taught in the dream, the timing for the tune is that of a waltz, so I named the song “Waltzing Sweet Georgia,” which has the triple meaning of my waltzing with her as father-daughter partners at a daddy-daughter dance in her youth, and then watching her waltz as a maiden with her husband to be, and then watching her waltz with her own four children.

I rather quickly composed the lyrics for the song:

Sweet Georgia Brown, our little one,
She came from Heaven’s realm,

A regal daughter of our God
With her mem-'ry slightly dimmed.

Sweet Georgia danced a maiden fair,
so lovely to behold.

Sweet Georgia, once our little one,
Now she dances with her own.

The timing is 3/4, which means three beats per measure with a quarter note getting one beat. I am thinking the song should be played gracefully in staccato-waltz style about 75-85 beats per minute or thereabouts, a timing to which people might easily dance in a moderately lively manner.

I guess I have always had a problem following my wife Dianne's instructions with exactness and precision. Remaining consistent in that regard, I have changed the key from F sharp major to F major. The song sounds wonderful to me in either key. The tune reminds me of the waltzes that come from the late 1700’s.

I am very grateful to my son Joshua A. Enslen, who has a degree in music from the University of Alabama, and who currently teaches Portuguese at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., for transferring the notes and lyrics to sheet music.

I hope you enjoy hearing and/or playing “Waltzing Sweet Georgia.” By the way, Georgia’s surgery on August 13, 2021, exceeded our most hopeful expectations and she remains with us in an improving condition at the time of this writing. The song has been a tender mercy to her and to me. I hope you enjoy playing, singing, or hearing it. I cheerfully admit that I deserve no personal credit for it. My Heavenly Father and his daughter Dianne hold the most authentic copyright.

Return to Top