Venetian Variations

This set of variations on "The Carnival of Venice" is a piece I wrote for a string orchestra made mostly of children--some quite advanced, and some nearly beginners (they have a special, and sometimes important Violin 2b part, and I often refer to the group as "violinists to be"). You can find the score and parts as well as a recording on this page of the IMSLP.

Lilliburlero for Violin and Piano

This is a 2007 violin and piano version of a piece I wrote for violin and harp in 2005. A (free) PDF is available on this page of the IMSLP.

Sonata for Euphonium and Piano

December 2007

A PDF of the whole piece is available (with both a bass and treble clef euphonium part) this page of the IMSLP, where you can also hear a recording of a performance that Charley Brighton and Malcolm Stowell played on November 22, 2008 in England.

Serenade for Oboe and Strings

This Serenade works equally well as a piece for oboe and string quintet and as a piece for oboe and string orchestra. You can hear a performance with John Dee (the dedicatee of the piece) here.
A version of it for oboe and piano is available from Subito Music.

Duo for Oboe and Bassoon

This piece is now available from Amoris International in a version for oboe d'amore and bass oboe. You can go here for a PDF (the original setting for oboe and bassoon comes second in the PDF), and here to listen to a computer-generated recording. This piece also, I recently learned, works nicely for violin and cello!

More Greek Myths for Contrabassoon and Piano

I wrote this set of pieces for Susan Nigro and Mark Lindeblad. It is available from TrevCo-Varner Music through this link.

They included it on their 2008 recording, Original Tunes for the Big Bassoon, and you can listen to it on YouTube.

This set of pieces, a sequel to "Four Greek Myths," (also for contrabassoon and piano) is a progression from the Apollonian to the Dionysian.

Apollo, the god of the sun, represents the ideas of individuality, critical reason, the artistic possibilities of human beings, and the concept of perfection. He is the god of self-control.

Artemis, Apollo's twin sister, is next. She is called "the virgin huntress," so the 6/8 meter of the piece refers to the musical tradition of the hunt. The ascending arpeggios are like arrows flying through the air. The music is self-contained: Artemis is content living only with the animals on her island.

Heracles, the only mortal in the lot, inhabits the middle point in the set of pieces. While all the gods on either side get to bask in tonality (and Aphrodite is dressed here in rich 7th chords), Heracles labors with a tone row, made more difficult by irregular meters, dotted rhythms, and a relatively slow tempo.

Aphrodite, the goddess of love, follows Heracles. She represents everything that Artemis is not. Aphrodite, represented by the sexy voice of the contrabassoon, rises up from the "sea foam" of the piano's rhythmic ostinato.

Dionysus, who ends the set, is the god of wine. He is associated with intoxication, pleasure, loss of individuality and dissolution of boundaries. He is the god of excess, and is ruled by passion and instinct.

Music for Recorder and Four Drums

July 23, 2007

Like a lot of recorder music from the 17th and 18th centuries, it also lies very well on the violin! You can listen to a computer-generated recording here. It is available here from Subito Music.

Andantino for Oboe and Piano

This is a transcription of the second movement of my Piccolo Sonata. You can listen to a recording of it here. It is available here from Subito.

Piccolo Sonata

May 17, 2007

You can hear a performance of the first movement, the second movement, and the third movement here. The music is available here from Subito Music.

Prairie Snow

I would love to be able to write a "pop" song that would capture the essence of the winter season, but I guess I don't really have it in me to write a "pop" song. Perhaps I could add some words, or even some kind of syncopated rhythm section, but I think that it would compromise this little tonal picture for solo piano of winter out here on the prairie. You can listen to it and download a PDF here.




December 2007

Little Suite for Euphonium Solo

April 14, 2007

You can listen to the piece here. The music is available here from Subito Music.

The Teapot

This is a setting of Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Teapot" for soprano, tuba, and piano that I wrote for Tricia Marcus and her tuba-playing husband Steve. It is a story about a teapot that loses its handle and spout in a tea-table accident, becomes a flowerpot, and is later discarded, singing to us as an old piece of broken pottery who still has her memories.

You can listen to a computer-generated recording (with a synthetic oboe playing the part of the soprano) here. The music is available here from Subito Music.




December 2007