When it's time to move on

February 19, 2024

You can listen to a computer-generated file here, and find the music here. The music is also available on this page of the IMSLP.

I wrote this piece in memory of the pianist Eric Larsen (1952-2024), who was a dear friend and chamber music partner of my very dear friend Daniel Morganstern. The poem, written by Danny's mother Milly (1913-2000), is one that he shared with me only recently, and a poem that was at the very front of both his mind and my mind during Eric's last days.

We are single threads
intertwined
in the fabric
of each other’s lives

We are words
in each other’s stories

We are notes
in each other’s songs

When it’s time to move on

We step
over the edge
into a new space
where we are transformed
as color
in the thread
as meaning
in the word
as overtone
in the note

We continue
intertwined
through life, death
and transformation

On our journey

--Milly Morganstern

Four Songs from Sunset Gun

You can find the music as well as computer-generated audio file on this page of the IMSLP

Unbeschwerte Amore for two violas d'amore

[November 18, 2023]

You can find the score and parts for this piece (written for the Duo Aliquot) on this page of the IMSLP.

Salomé's Dance for Violin, Viola, and Cello




You can hear this music accompanying some of the final scenes of the 1922/23 silent film (one hundred years ago!) of Salomé that was produced, directed, choreographed, acted, and danced by Alla Nazimova through this link. The score and parts on this page of the IMSLP.

The piece, which is ten minutes long, can be played with or without the film.

Advanced Viola Scale Studies

You can find the music on this page of the Mel Bay website.

Nathan Groot is in the process of recording them all. You can watch and listen here.

Salomé Dance Scene for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano


You can find the music on this on this page of the IMSLP, and you can watch the film clip from the 1918 Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton film The Cook (with this music) here. You are welcome to use this film segment for a performance (you can set it on mute while you play).

Transcription: Massenet's Méditation from Thaïs for viola and piano

I think that the best known musical meditation is the one from Jules Massenet's 1894 Opera Thaïs. The action that accompanies this piece happens offstage, when Thäis leaves her life as a pleasure-seeking courtesan, and enters religious life. After the Méditation, the monk Athanaël, who had persuaded Thäis to convert, realizes that he is in love with her.

The Méditation is set for solo violin, two harps, winds, and a chorus of closed-mouth singers. For my transcription for viola and piano I transposed the piece into G major (a fifth lower), and rewrote the piano part to better reflect the colors, pitches, and motion of the original score.

Martin Pierre Marsik's piano reduction of the Méditation was published by Heugel in 1894, and I imagine it was approved by Massenet. But Marsik's piano reduction doesn't sound very good transposed a fifth lower, and a need for a setting of the piece for viola and piano wasn't on anybody's radar during Massenet's lifetime.

Just for a lark, after making my viola and piano edition, I made a personal copy transposed back into the original key, and when I played it on the violin with a pianist friend, it felt better to play with than the Marsik piano reduction. But I guess I am a bit biased.

My edition is now available from the International Music Company (and will be among the new issues on this page soon), and I am very grateful that they respected my choice to rewrite the piano part.

Transcription: Telemann Tafelmusik Sonata à 4 for String Orchestra

I have loved this piece since I first played it as a flutist nearly fifty years ago. I think that it is one of Telemann's best pieces, and I am very proud to share it as a string piece (a fifth lower than the two flute and recorder original). You can listen to a recording here.

And you can find the music on this page of the IMSLP.

Nocturne for String Quartet or Viola Quartet

[May 29, 2023]
[May 30, 2023]

You can listen to the string quartet version here, and the viola quartet version here. And you can find the score and parts for both versions on this page of the IMSLP.

Made in Hungary

Marjorie Hanft and I collaborated on this poetry-with-interludes project in 1996. I recently found the music, and made an updated and revised score.

The music is available on this page of the IMSLP.

I wrote this as a set of interludes to be played between poems, but was pleased to find that it also works quite well to read the poetry yourself while listening to the music.

Two Little Night Pieces for Three Violas d'amore

[May 7, 2023]

I. The Moon is a Cracked Dinner Plate
II. Toys in the Attic

You can listen to it here, and find the music on this page of the IMSLP.

The Year, a New Year's Greeting for 2023



You can find the music for medium voice here (there's also a version for high voice). You can listen to the medium voice version here, and you can find the music for both on this page of the IMSLP.

Film Noir for Piano Trio

[December 3, 2022]
You can find the score and parts on this page of the IMSLP. You can listen to a computer-generated recording here.

Arrangement: Ika Peyron Gavotte et Chansonette, Opus 1

The Swedish composer Ika (Fredrika) Peyron (1845-1922) began her musical life as a pianist. In 1865 she married a merchant who became a Member of Parliament, and lived in Stockholm with him and their three sons. She studied piano, harmony, and counterpoint, and wanted to compose, but found little encouragement because she was a woman. During the 1870s attitudes towards music written by women had changed (as evidenced by the carer of Amanda Maier), and Ika Peyron devoted her time to writing and performing her music in the Stockholm salons.

She wrote songs, music for violin, and mostly music for piano. Altogether we know of forty pieces.

This charming Gavotte et Chansonette, her Opus 1, works very nicely for strings. A PDF of this arrangement (as well as the piano original) is available on this page of the IMSLP. You can also find the music here.

You can listen to a computer-generated recording here.

Arrangement: Irving Berlin's "All by Myself"

You can find the score and parts on this page of the IMSLP, and you can listen to a recording (from a Summer Strings outdoor concert) here.

Arrangement: Dvorak Humoresque for 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, and strings


This is an arragement I made for a friend in Columbia earlier this year. You can find it on this page of the IMSLP under the transcription tab, and you can hear a performance at the 43:00 mark of this video.

Hope and I

June 25, 2022

You can find the music on this page of the IMSLP, and you can listen to a computer-generated recording here.

This is Susan Coolidge's complete poem. You can find out more about her here. It had been sitting on my computer for a year or so, and had been sitting on my desk for several months. It helped me a great deal to make my way emotionally through yesterday and today to work on it. And it helps to be able to share it right away.

Adventures with Alice

[April 11, 2021]

I. How doth the little crocodile
II. Beautiful Soup
III. I sing this song for your delight

You can find the music on this page of the IMSLP.

Advanced Violin Scale Studies

This is the second volume of Scale Tales (seen below). This description comes from the Mel Bay website:
Although the practice of scales is essential to building and maintaining strength, technique, tone, and agility—it is very easy to slip into the habit of playing them automatically, without paying attention to how they sound or even being aware of what scale we are playing. The 29 single-page studies in this book are designed to combat that tendency as they are musically, intellectually, and rhythmically challenging. The first 24 studies proceeded through the circle of fifths and address all minor and relative major keys; the last 5 pieces were individually conceived, i.e., apart from the circle of fifths. Occasional fingerings or position guides are suggested but these are largely left to the student or their teachers. No metronome indications are given so that the etudes can be played at individually comfortable tempos—with or without a metronome, or freely as concert etudes. It is the stepwise motion and octave leaps of the etudes that makes the intervals between pitches easy to hear, even in keys with numerous flats or sharps. Just as in Elaine Fine’s more basic scale etude book, Violin Scale Tales, the names of the etudes herein refer to various animals that have scales, including insects, fish, birds, reptiles, a few species of squirrels with scales on their tails, and the solitary pangolin, the only known mammal whose entire body is covered with scales. Again, the author hopes that in addition to experiencing more enjoyable scale practice, students will be inspired to learn more about these amazing creatures, or even write scale studies of their own.
It is available here, as an e-book as well as a print book.

Violin Scale Tales


From the Mel Bay Website:
The etudes in this book offer students a musically and intellectually satisfying means of practicing scales in all major and minor keys, even while remaining in first position. Although presented in the traditional order of the circle of fifths, this is where similarities to other violin scale-oriented books end. Of course, the etudes can be played using a mixture of positions by more advanced students. The studies also resonate very well on the viola if played at pitch. These are instructive etudes and can be played as appealing solo pieces. The stepwise motion in the etudes makes intervals between pitches easy to hear, even in keys with many flats or sharps. Both the book and etude titles refer to names of animals that have scales, so you will see natural and harmonic minor scales named after various moths, and major scales named for unusual reptiles, birds, and mammals throughout. The author hopes that in addition to experiencing more enjoyable scale practice, students will be inspired to learn more about these amazing animals or even write scale studies of their own.

It is available as an e-book as well as a print book.
You can find both on this page of the Mel Bay website.

Here's a link to a YouTube playlist that has the first ten pieces.