Music 207-221: A fourth little suite in fifteen sketches

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Hi Everyone

I decided to once again post all 15 piano sketches in a block. Last time I posted them individually and I found it tiresome – as many probably did! This way if you want to listen to as little or as many as you like, you can. Besides, I think of all 15 pieces as belonging together somehow.

Click on a title in the first list to listen, and click on a title in the second list to download the written music if wanted.

So here is the Fourth Little Suite in Fifteen Sketches. Thanks

Click on a title to listen
1. Off to town
2. After the train has gone
3. Aspiring ballerina
4. Dingle Dell
5. Bungling juggler
6. Orange grove
7. Skipping ropes
8. Spiders
9. Pussycat chases a leaf
10. Quite frankly, Nora was in no mood to dance the foxtrot with Herbert
11. Melting ice cream in a cone
12. When the cowboy rides into town to woo Mary-Lou
13. The music box
14. Summer flowers
15. Thank God it’s Friday

Click on a title to download the written music
1. Off to town
2. After the train has gone
3. Aspiring ballerina
4. Dingle Dell
5. Bungling juggler
6. Orange grove
7. Skipping ropes
8. Spiders
9. Pussycat chases a leaf
10. Quite frankly, Nora was in no mood to dance the foxtrot with Herbert
11. Melting ice cream in a cone
12. When the cowboy rides into town to woo Mary-Lou
13. The music box
14. Summer flowers
15. Thank God it’s Friday

23 thoughts on “Music 207-221: A fourth little suite in fifteen sketches”

  4. Doug

    5. Bungling juggler
    I noticed how the dissonant elements subside as the juggler gets better, but even towards the end there are a few dissonant notes that indicate that the juggler is still not perfect.

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  5. Doug

    7. Skipping Ropes
    Seems like ballet spins and forward motion across a stage in the clouds. I guess the rope handlers would have to fly the ropes forward with them.
    9. Pussycat chases a leaf
        I see it as Pussycat pursues a place to call home. Wouldn’t a chase be more zig-zag and playful? I think it’s too mournful to be “chase a mouse” because they have fun doing that.
        May I ask what inspired this?

    I think the juggler should learn the foxtrot and try juggling again, and I think that Herbert should forget Nora and learn to juggle.

    15. Thank God it’s Friday
    A touch of Ragtime at the beginning, routine work through the week. Right in the middle feels like Wednesday, then a little slump and a revival and celebration at Friday.
        OK, I guess 1. is more syncopated than here on this one.

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    1. Bruce Goodman Post author

      Thanks again, Doug, for listening and commenting. To answer your question about the cat: back in 1964 I learnt a piano piece (for an exam) written by William Lloyd Webber (the father of Andrew Lloyd Webber). The piece was called “Presto for Perseus”. Perseus was the Lloyd Webber family cat. My cat is inspirationally called “Pussycat” – and originally I set out to write a piano piece called “Largo for Pussycat”. It turned into something else so I changed the name of the piece.

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    1. Bruce Goodman Post author

      Thanks, Inese. I enjoyed (of course I should leave a comment on your wonderful blog!) your Springtime excursion! I feel a bit jealous as I now wrap up and wonder where to get enough firewood from to last the winter…

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  7. Andrea Stephenson

    I’m a little late to this one Bruce. I love After the train has gone, which has the melancholy of missed chances but also seems to suggest the rhythm of a chugging train. I don’t know what happened in the Orange Grove, but it seems to me it was something passionate and perhaps forbidden. Spiders seems to capture the joy of being my favourite insect, with so many legs to scuttle around on! When I listen to Pussycat, I can hear the dance of autumn leaves falling. And I love the way you capture the winding down of the spring in Music Box.

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    1. Bruce Goodman Post author

      Thanks so much for taking the time to listen and comment, Andrea. It’s greatly appreciated. I agree with you intuitive comment about Orange Grove. It was the only one that I didn’t know what to call! And thought “Orange Grove” was pretty and generic enough to cover most things in peoples imaginations! I too like the melancholy of the “After the train” – if I ever wrote a symphony it would be as morbid and melancholic as possible!!

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