Music Compositions 2021

Hello Everyone. I’m still getting things on this blog (and in life) organized for 2021 (11 January). I’ve decided (at least for a while) to add postings of music compositions to this page as they get created (rather than lumber people by posting new pages with new music compositions all the time). The angst wrought by having UNposted (and possibly valueless) compositions lying around is debilitating (I find (and you will possibly find too once you hit a certain age)).

So this page will act like an index (and anyone interested will simply now and again have a peek to see if there’s anything new).

To be honest, I don’t like having any composition UNposted. (What if I dropped dead and a masterpiece was left undiscovered (permanently)?). I would be relegated to the stature of a Rimsky-Korsakov rather than that of a Stravinsky!

So this “index” will give date, title, musical instrument, duration, and link to both audio and (usually) written music. Even though there’s a copyright notice on the page I long for the day when something of mine was considered worthy of pinching.

The picture has nothing to do with anything. The tree is the “China Doll Tree” in my garden and New Zealand doesn’t have hummingbirds.

Music Compositions 2021

1. 11 January – Whimsy 1 – for piano (1’24”) – audio HERE and the pdf HERE.
2. 11 January – Whimsy 2 – for piano (1’24”) – audio HERE and the pdf HERE.
3. 13 February – The annoying kingfisher outside my window – for piano – audio HERE and the pdf HERE.
4. 2 March – Three short pieces based on the same 12-tone row:

Music 364: Piano Sonata 4

Here is a sonata (3 movements) for the piano.

If you wish to contact me about performing it at Carnegie, or the NY Met, or the Royal Albert, or anywhere important then I can be contacted at bbgoodman@hotmail.com because contact@stagebarn.com seems to be dastardly erratic.

The picture is of a weta – they are the largest insects in the world apparently and are a type of cricket. They have nothing to do with this sonata, except there was one waiting to greet me at my front door when I ventured out this morning.

Click on a Movement title to listen to each:

1st Movement

2nd Movement

3rd Movement

Click on a Movement title to download the written music of each:

1st Movement

2nd Movement

3rd Movement

Smoko!

“Smoko” is the New Zealand-Australian term for taking a coffee/tea break at work (mid-morning, mid-afternoon). I’m taking a Smoko Break from posting daily on this blog for a while. There’s still plenty to read if you click on the Index Link at the top of the page!

I shall be pottering around. In the meantime, I wish everyone Season’s Greetings for which ever season you happen to be passing through!

Music 363: A Hitherto Missing Variation on a Haydn Minuet

Hi Everyone

I posted a piano sonata the other day and said it would probably be the last bit of music for the year. Not so! With this blog winding up in a couple of days (at least this stage of it) I’m having a tidy-up. So this little piano piece should be the last of the music. It really is me just being a bit silly.

The Haydn Minuet is from the second movement of a Haydn Piano Sonata in E minor (I’ve changed the key in this arrangement). And the variation uses a scale by the 20^th century German/American composer Arnold Schoenberg. Some enterprising teacher might use it to illustrate some of the differences between music of the Classical era, and music of the mid-20^th century.

It is quite short. Thanks.

Click HERE to listen to the music.

Click HERE to download the written music.

Music 362: Piano Sonata No. 3 in E minor

Hi Everyone

Here is a sonata (3 movements) for the piano. It will probably be the last bit of music for the year. The computer is playing them as my mic is broken – and besides, bits of the sonata are getting beyond my ability to play them.

I’m not expecting everyone to sit down for quarter of an hour to listen as they’re a bit arty-farty in places, but if you’re interested here it is! (Note: my autocorrect keeps changing “arty-farty” to “arty-party”.) It is called “Piano Sonata in E minor”; it starts in E minor but I quickly got distracted!

Thanks

Click on a title to listen to each of the three Movements:

1st Movement
2nd Movement
3rd Movement

Click on a title to download the written music of each of the three Movements:

1st Movement
2nd Movement
3rd Movement

Music 356-361: Six Dances from the Afterlife

Hi Everyone

Here are some dances for the piano called Six Dances from the Afterlife in honour of Halloween! (The computer is playing them as my mic is broken – so even though the electronic piano sounds a bit tinny it’s probably better than my piano playing these days!)

I had set out inspired by Bach’s various suites, but by the time there was a sort of Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and Minuet completed, the Air and Gig got thrown out the window in favour of a kind of Two-step for Two and one called Kick Off Your Shoes.

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

Thanks

Click on a title to listen:

• 1. Allemande
• 2. Courante
• 3. Sarabande
• 4. Two Step for Two
• 5. Minuet in Boots
• 6. Kick Off Your Shoes

Click on a title to download the written music:

• 1. Allemande
• 2. Courante
• 3. Sarabande
• 4. Two Step for Two
• 5. Minuet in Boots
• 6. Kick Off Your Shoes

Music 353-355: Three Strange Little Pieces for the Piano

Hi Everyone

Here are possibly the only and the last of the piano pieces for 2020. The set is called Three Strange Little Pieces for Piano. They’re partly a tribute to 2020. They’re not much, but I had to get rid of them out of my head. Please note that “wrong” notes are (usually) intentional. (The computer is playing them as my mic is broken, and… well… aren’t we all sick of 2020?)

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

Thanks

Click on a title to listen
1. Piano Piece I
2. Piano Piece II
3. Piano Piece III

Click on a title to download the written music
1. Piano Piece I
2. Piano Piece II
3. Piano Piece III

Music 339-345: Six pieces and a minuet

Hi Everyone

Here are the last of the piano pieces for 2019. The set is called Six Pieces and a Minuet – because I occasionally border on the eccentric. My New Year’s Resolution for 2019 was to compose some pieces for the piano and it’s been achieved – 181 times! A big thanks to those who listened and apologies to those I bored! For good reason, Fame has eluded me over the years. There’s a poem HERE (it opens on a new page) that tries to explain why!

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

Thanks

Click on a title to listen
1. The question
2. Hoopla
3. Yipee
4. Oh no!
5. Fairground train ride
6. Detective Inspector
(aka “Something to play over and over if you want to annoy your parents”)
7. A minuet to end the year

Click on a title to download the written music
1. The question
2. Hoopla
3. Yipee
4. Oh no!
5. Fairground train ride
6. Detective Inspector
7. A minuet to end the year

Music 338: C.P.E. Bach meets Schoenberg

In this piece of music I have taken the rhythm of a C.P.E. Bach (1714-1788) sonata movement, and applied the type of serial scale that Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) could have used. The result is… interesting! There are snippets of the Bach unchanged. The piece ends with the playing of the Schoenberg-like serial scale employed in the piece and C.P.E. Bach’s scale of C minor which he used.

Click here to download a copy of the piano music

Music 333-336: Four Stolen Basses

Hi Everyone

Here are Four stolen basses – for the piano. These four pieces began by pinching a bass line from compositions by Scarlatti and Chopin and putting a different top to them! They’ve now undergone so many changes that I don’t know who wrote what, and what the original bass lines were from. Incidentally (for the purists out there!) the wrong notes are intended. Also, my microphone has gone wobbly, so I’ve “cheated” and loaded these into the computer to be played by machine. Sorry about that.

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

Thanks

Click on a title to listen
1. A night on the town
2. Water droplets
3. On a blustery day
4. In a maze

Click on a title to download the written music
1. A night on the town
2. Water droplets
3. On a blustery day
4. In a maze