Two Places in Illinois

[August 14, 2020]

You can listen to an excellent performance by Kara Huber given in March of 2022 in Paris, Illinois:

Evening in Paris
Coles County August

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

Quo Vadis for Euphonium and Woodwind Quintet

May 17, 2020

I wrote these pieces for Travis Scott during the first few months of 2020. Each movement is a musical portrait of royal person from history who was either a musician or a patron.

I. Nero
II. Gesualdo
III. Ludwig II of Bavaria (known as "Mad King Ludwig)

You can find the score and parts on this page of the IMSLP

Many thanks to Ben Leddy for the cover art!

"My House, I Say" for Tenor and Piano

My setting of Robert Louis Stevenson's poem "My House, I Say" is included in volume two of the collection of songs for Tenor and Piano in Modern Music for New Singers: 21st Century American Art Songs, a new anthology of music for young singers published by North Star Music.

Transcription: Haydn Fugue Hob. XIX: 16 for String Orchestra

The score and parts are available on this page of the IMSLP.

I'm very pleased with the way that our Charleston Summer Strings orchestra played it.

The Gift of the Condor

This is a new orchestral piece for an audience of children (of all ages) that uses one-on-a-part winds and brass (all with solos), percussion, strings, and a narrator. The protagonist in the story is a solo child violinist (of any age). The voices of the animal characters, some that have rhythmic notation, can come from within the ensemble.

The total performance time is 22 minutes.

The score, parts, and script are available on this page of the IMSLP.

Robin and I were inspired to write this because the animals in "Peter and the Wolf" and the "Carnival of the Animals," pieces that we have played at children's concerts for half a century do not resonate as well with twenty-first-century children as they did with children of previous centuries. We felt that the menagerie needed a twenty-first-century update.

Here is the list of animals represented, along with the instruments and instrumental combinations that represent them:

Bunny (featuring the xylophone)
Condor (featuring the bass clarinet, the viola, and the timpani)
Dog (featuring the trumpet)
Dragon (featuring a brass quartet)
Raccoon (featuring a woodwind trio)
Squirrels (featuring the strings)
Crocodile (featuring the snare drum and the trombone)
Snakes (featuring strings, trumpet, and woodwinds)
Unicorn (featuring the French Horn, of course)
Camel (featuring the flute and the English Horn)
Whale (featuring the tuba)
Teddy Bear (featuring the strings)

Olivia/Oliver, the solo child violinist, engages in musical dialogue with all of these animals. The technical demands of the Olivia/Oliver part are minimal: the part could be played by a confident young violinist who has been playing for two or three years and likes to do a little acting. The story includes riddles, and can involve the work of a "quick drawing" visual artist as well as imaginative drawings by kids in the audience. There are many possibilities for engaging and interactive performances.

The themes involved are curiosity, imagination, and engagement. You can listen to a midi recording here.

Also, for people interested in putting together a socially-distanced video production, I have "minus one" files (computer-generated files minus one part) for all of the instruments of the orchestra. Please contact me if you are interested (elainefine @ gmail), and I can send you a link to the place online that they reside.

A Tunes: Capricious Pieces for Beginner Violinists

[From the back cover]

Incorporating skills taught in many popular violin methods, these tuneful solo pieces offer a fresh alternative for teachers who would like a stimulating supplement to their usual method. These entertaining and whimsical compositions reinforce and develop violin skills through repetition disguised as lyrical musical phrases. They strengthen the left hand, exercise the fourth finger, and use rests in musically compelling ways that keep the student attentive.

They also present mixed meter and double-stops, and offer a practical introduction to musical form and phrase structure. Slurs and dynamics are incorporated immediately, along with right-hand pizzicato on stopped strings and left-hand pizzicato on all open strings. These pieces are written specifically to encourage interpretive creativity, even at the most elementary levels. As twenty-first-century pieces for solo violin, they are meant to be performed as well as studied.

I wrote these pieces to isolate and address specific right-hand and left-hand difficulties that my students have encountered while working through the first three Suzuki books. The progress my students have made while working on these pieces has suprised even me. Up until this point only a few of my friends have enjoyed using them in their teaching, and now that it is being released by Mel Bay "A Tunes" can be used by everyone. The book can be ordered (it's very reasonably priced at $12.99) via the Mel Bay Website.

As a introduction, here's a video of Linnaea Brophy playing "The Big Dipper."

You can find videos of Linnaea playing all twenty pieces on this playlist.

Arrangements: A Silent Night's Journey (solo) and Silent Night for String Orchestra

For solo violin or solo viola:

For string orchestra (2024):

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

Arrangement: Shchedryk (Ukrainian bell carol) for solo violin, solo viola, or solo cello

"Shchedryk" is Ukrainian for "Bountiful Evening." This traditional New Year's Eve song is about a sparrow who flies into a household and brings news of a good year to follow.

The Wikipedia article about Shchedryk has a lot of interesting information.

You can find these arrangements of Mykola Leontovych's continuation of the opening four-note motive of the traditional melody set for solo violin, solo viola, or solo cello here now, or later on this page of the IMSLP.

Hindsight for Clarinet and String Quartet (A New Year's Greeting for 2021)

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

And now there is a transcription for clarinet and four violas on the same page of the IMSLP.

[October 5, 2021]
You can also find it here.

Dreidel Fantasy for solo cello or solo viola

You can listen to a cello performance here, and find a PDF file (along with a version for solo violin) on this page of the IMSLP.

Pierrot spends a little while in the twilight

You can listen to a computer-generated recording with computer-generated baritone here, and download a PDF from this page of the IMSLP.

You can hear a virtual performance of it about 41 minutes into this video. UPDATE: I made a transcription for soprano or tenor with violin, and one for soprano and clarinet that you will find on the same page of the IMSLP.

I'm Staying Home for Christmas

I came across this photograph the other day. The tune is obviously not "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and the syllables don't even match the rhythms. However, if you ignore the left-hand harmony, the tune sounds like a second theme of a song I may have heard before.

It started bothering me. The tune fragment kept running through my head with the words, "I'm staying home this Christmas," so I had to use it in a brand-new Christmas song addressing the stamp issue and the current Christmas season. You will find the tune on the stamp at the half-way point of the song. The "original" is in F major, and this song is a whole-step lower, in the key of E-flat major.

You can find a PDF on this page of the IMSLP.

Here's recording by Susan Nelson!



(Thank you, Susan.)

Fanfare for Orchestra

This orchestration of Introit a 4 is scored for full orchestra with two sets of timpani. You can listen to a computer-generated recording of it here. The music is available here (from Subito).

Transcription: The Swing and Foreign Lands from "A Cellist's Garden of Verses" for solo oboe or solo flute

UPDATE: The flute version has been expanded to five pieces, with some of them for alto flute and bass flute. You can find PDF files on this page of the IMSLP, where you will find the original set for cello, as well as versions for for violin, for viola, and for double bass.

She Calls it a Fairy Tree for Mezzo-soprano, oboe, bassoon, viola, and double bass

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

The Months of the Year

You can listen to a computer-generated recording here.

You can find a PDF on this page of the IMSLP.

All of the things that belong to the day for low voice and piano

You can find the music here and listen to a computer-generated audio file here. It is also avaiable on this page of the IMSLP.

Listen to Susan Nelson's beautiful recording of "The Moon."

A Cellist's (or Violinist's or Violist's or Bass player's) Garden of Verses

This is a set of solo pieces that lie mostly in the first position. You can find the music on this page of the IMSLP. There are also versions of this set of pieces there for solo violin, for solo viola, and for solo double bass.


Here's a great performance of the whole set by cellist Diane Chaplin:


I love this recording of the set put together by Sam Araya and his students at Sam's Cello Studio in Urbana, Illinois. It has Stevenson's poems, artwork by kids, and excellent, thoughtful, heartfelt performances by his students.



2026 UPDATE: The Schoen Duo (flutes, violin/viola) have put together a series of video recordings that incoporate text, stage performances, readings, images, and "field" video. You can find their project here.

Ferdinand II for Solo Cello or Solo Euphonium

You can find the music on this page of the IMSLP

Ferdinand for solo cello or solo viola

The music is available on this page of the IMSLP.