Music 346: For oboe and piano

Last year (2019) for a New Year resolution I thought I’d write (after a many years’ hiatus) some pieces to play on the piano. It ended up being 181 piano pieces!

This year I thought I’d try to write some pieces for other instruments – but since I don’t play anything other than keyboard the audios are composed on what I have on my computer (which is what came with it when it was purchased over ten years ago – yes I know Windows 7 is obsolete).

Many years back I used to arrange and compose a lot of music for orchestra. I knew the strengths and restraints of most instruments. It’s now almost 40 years since I last wrote for orchestral instruments, so things have become a little rusty. However, the orchestrating tomes are still on the shelf and are coming in handy.

For today’s piece of music, which is for oboe and piano, I hope it is oboe friendly! One of the things about an oboe is that it doesn’t use up much air, so unlike most other instruments you blow into, an allowance has to be made for the player not just to breathe in but to breathe out first! If any of you are oboe players I’ll try to humbly accept criticism of fingering, phrasing, etc. I’m in awe of any oboist’s breath control!

The last thing I composed for orchestra that was performed was for a circus! They wanted an entire circus performance not to be just a series of acts, but to tell a story. It was quite successful. After that, a university lecturer (since deceased) invited me to compose a piece for a youth orchestra. He furnished a list of instrumentalists. I was excited! I handed him the score, and the next day he said that the strings didn’t have phrasing and many articulation markings. (Don’t string players have any nous and pencils?) I added the markings, and the next thing was that he said there were too many double bass parts. I concluded from that he didn’t like the piece. I gave up and have since done other things. But here I am back again!

I am extremely reticent about foistering such compositions as these on the public. I feel some trustworthy readers might feel loyalty-bound to listen. But what else can I do with the jolly things?!

Thanks
Bruce

Click below to hear the piece:

Click here to download a printable copy of the music

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

Music 329-332: Four dances for piano

Hi Everyone

Here are Four dances for piano – not for the piano to dance to, Silly, but four dances to be played on the piano.

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
Dance 1
Dance 2
Dance 3
Dance 4

Click on a title to download the written music
Dance 1
Dance 2
Dance 3
Dance 4

Music 314-328: An Eleventh Little Suite in Fifteen Sketches

Hi Everyone

This Eleventh Little Suite in Fifteen Sketches – both audio and printable – for the piano, concludes the series of Little Suites begun this year. Note that sketches 2, 3 & 4 of this suite form a Sonata that was posted on this blog earlier this year.

Although each suite is in 15 sketches, the first and last of each suite are the same. So 14 pieces multiplied by 11 comes to 154! I wanted it to be 153 because that is how many pieces there are in Bartok’s Mikrokosmos, however I overran!

The idea of 15 sketches in a “little suite” came from the French composer, Jacques Ibert, who wrote such a collection.

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. Prelude
2. First Movement Sonata 2
3. Second Movement Sonata 2
4. Third Movement Sonata 2
5. A little toccata
6. Sleeping Beauty
7. White horses
8. Blackbird on the lawn
9. Doe and fawn
10. Little romance
11. A trinket
12. Jurjina
13. Clowns
14. Tarantella
15. Finale

Click on a title to download the written music
1. Prelude
2. First Movement Sonata 2
3. Second Movement Sonata 2
4. Third Movement Sonata 2
5. A little toccata
6. Sleeping Beauty
7. White horses
8. Blackbird on the lawn
9. Doe and fawn
10. Little romance
11. A trinket
12. Jurjina
13. Clowns
14. Tarantella
15. Finale

Music 299-313: A Tenth Little Suite in Fifteen Sketches

Hi Everyone

Here is the Tenth Little Suite in Fifteen Sketches – both audio and printable – for the pianoforte. There are to be eleven suites in total. In this Suite, sketches 2, 3 & 4 form a Sonata that was posted on this blog earlier this year. As for all suites, Numbers 1 and 15 are the same – except for their titles.

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. Teardrops
2. First Movement Sonata 1
3. Second Movement Sonata 1
4. Third Movement Sonata 1
5. Washing in the wind
6. Mice in the cupboard
7. Oblivious to all else
8. Dancing on stilts
9. Ghost house
10. Night sky
11. The happy wanderer gets caught in a cloudburst
12. Hurry-scurry
13. Twirling in the wind
14. Cavort in six eight
15. Grief

Click on a title to download the written music
1. Teardrops
2. First Movement Sonata 1
3. Second Movement Sonata 1
4. Third Movement Sonata 1
5. Washing in the wind
6. Mice in the cupboard
7. Oblivious to all else
8. Dancing on stilts
9. Ghost house
10. Night sky
11. The happy wanderer gets caught in a cloudburst
12. Hurry-scurry
13. Twirling in the wind
14. Cavort in six eight
15. Grief

Music 269-283: An Eighth Little Suite in Fifteen Sketches

Hi Everyone

Here is the Eighth Little Suite in Fifteen Sketches – both audio and printable – for the pianoforte. There are 11 little suites in total.

I called these “sketches” because that is what I intended them to be. About two years ago or so I was taking a music class of 14 year olds (male and female). They were being introduced to all sorts of music. I played them “The Moldau” by Smetena because it tells a story of a river: a spring, rapids, a hunting party, a wedding, deep still water, the ocean, etc. They looked at me puzzled. How does it sound like river rapids? Why would that be a wedding party? and so on. They had little inkling of music on its own. Music was to be accompanied by a film/video/dancing… I thought that these 154 sketches might help teachers to paint pictures without pictures!

Also some piano teachers might find some of the sketches handy to help develop different pianistic techniques in their pupils… And on that note – I must admit, even though it might not sound like it, that one of today’s sketches A little two step with Scott (Joplin) I found the hardest to play out of all the 154 pieces!!

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. Sibling squabbles
2. Late afternoon
3. Frolicking Scarlatti
4. Horse riding
5. A little two step with Scott
6. The magician
7. Joviality
8. Military Parade
9. Waves on rocks
10. Picking flowers
11. Skiing
12. Skimming stones
13. Grandpa’s old clock
14. View from the hill
15. Still squabbling

Click on a title to download the written music
1. Sibling squabbles
2. Late afternoon
3. Frolicking Scarlatti
4. Horse riding
5. A little two step with Scott
6. The magician
7. Joviality
8. Military Parade
9. Waves on rocks
10. Picking flowers
11. Skiing
12. Skimming stones
13. Grandpa’s old clock
14. View from the hill
15. Still squabbling

Music 254-268: A Seventh Little Suite in Fifteen Sketches

Hi Everyone

Here is the Seventh Little Suite in Fifteen Sketches – both audio and printable – for the pianoforte. (There will be 11 Little Suites altogether. Note, as in all 11 suites, that Sketches 1 and 15 are almost the same).

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. Hopscotch
2. Snakes and ladders
3. Humpty-Dumpty
4. Just being silly
5. Hide and seek
6. Tippy toe
7. Babbling brook
8. Bobbling boats
9. Blowing bubbles
10. Playground taunts
11. Playing ball
12. Marbles
13. School’s out!
14. The bully
15. For the kids who never got to play

Click on a title to download the written music
1. Hopscotch
2. Snakes and ladders
3. Humpty-Dumpty
4. Just being silly
5. Hide and seek
6. Tippy toe
7. Babbling brook
8. Bobbling boats
9. Blowing bubbles
10. Playground taunts
11. Playing ball
12. Marbles
13. School’s out!
14. The bully
15. For the kids who never got to play

Music 239-253: A Sixth Little Suite in Fifteen Sketches

Hi Everyone

Here is the Sixth Little Suite in Fifteen Sketches – both audio and printable – for the pianoforte.

Click on a title in the first list to listen, and click on a title in the second list to download the written music. As for all the eleven Little Suites (which I’ve finished) the first and last sketches are identical.

Thanks

Click on a title to listen
1. Dull rainy day
2. Cartwheels
3. The old car
4. Skipping along
5. Park slide
6. Journeyman cooper
7. Spinning jenny
8. Bird on a branch
9. Bedtime story
10. Getting the kids ready for school
11. Harvest festival
12. It looks like rain
13. The iron gate
14. The fop
15. Clear skies

Click on a title to download the written music
1. Dull rainy day
2. Cartwheels
3. The old car
4. Skipping along
5. Park slide
6. Journeyman cooper
7. Spinning jenny
8. Bird on a branch
9. Bedtime story
10. Getting the kids ready for school
11. Harvest festival
12. It looks like rain
13. The iron gate
14. The fop
15. Clear skies

Music 224-238: A fifth little suite in fifteen sketches

Hi Everyone

Here is the Fifth Little Suite in Fifteen Sketches – both audio and printable – for the pianoforte.

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. Welcome to the fete!
2. Stilts wade in the estuary
3. Coloured ribbons
4. Gone fishing!
5. Bullfight parade
6. The villagers dance
7. Teddy bear lost
8. Teddy bear found!
9. Rain on the window
10. Dad embarrasses his kids by taking over the dance floor
11. Faverolles (French chickens)
12. Cat and mouse
13. Last dance before leaving for war
14. The inebriated gentleman attempts to thread a needle
15. After the parade

Click on a title to download the written music
1. Welcome to the fete!
2. Stilts wade in the estuary
3. Coloured ribbons
4. Gone fishing
5. Bullfight parade
6. The villagers dance
7. Teddy bear lost
8. Teddy bear found!
9. Rain on the window
10. Dad embarrasses his kids by taking over the dance floor
11. Faverolles (French chickens)
12. Cat and mouse
13. Last dance before leaving for war
14. The inebriated gentleman attempts to thread a needle
15. After the parade