This
piece was originally composed as a solo piece for violin and cello
with chamber orchestra. This was written for Susanne Herold
and Rueline Geishecker, faithful principal players in the Northern
Maine Chamber Orchestra, which I usually conduct. The
adaptation for quartet was done at their request.
The soloists have a stylistic opportunity to be vastly and
maturely expressive. The cross-rhythms are a challenge.
Name: Andante Description: Solo I Violin and Cello in string quartet
Technical difficulty:4 Length: 4:30 Price: $15.00
Blues Etude
The
bass and cello pizz. The violins & violas
play a blues tune in unison. The "Special Violin" is for just
one or two players and is like a "mixture" on an organ.
A great favorite with the bass player.
Name: Blues Etude Description: Violins & violas in unison, one "special"
violin, cello/bass
Technical difficulty:2 Length: 1:40 Price: $5.00
The swan - solo cello
The
original of this
familiar melody from Saint-Saens, "Carnival of the Animals" has
running sixteenth-notes in the accompaniment. In this
arrangement, that difficult background accompaniment figure, so
effective when played by professionals but so very difficult for
amateurs and students, has been eliminated. The cello solo is
the same as the original.
Name: The Swan - Solo Cello Description: Solo cello in string quartet. Solo part
as in the Saint-Saens original. Accompaniment has no 16th
notes. Viola has 8th notes, violins all quarters. In G
Major
Technical difficulty:5 for
solo, 3 for other parts Length: 1:45 Price: $7.00
The swan - solo violin
This
familiar melody from Saint-Saens, "Carnival of the Animals" was
originally for solo cello, in G Major. This arrangement is for
violin, in C Major, and the original sixteenth-note accompanying
figure is not used.
Name: The Swan - Solo Violin Description: The accompaniment has no 16th notes.
The solo Violin I is the same in Saint-Saens' original, transposed
to C Major.
Technical difficulty:4 for
solo, 3 for viola,
2 for violins Length: 1:45 Price: $7.00
the phantom down-beat
This
piece was started September 10, 2001 at the Portland String Quartet
Workshop at Newagen, Maine. I forgot about it until the
following January, when I discovered the first draft in my viola
case.
The piece presents a challenge to an ensemble, for the tonal
texture features no events of any sort on the down-beat. There
is one "mistake", in the viola, and I am leaving that in place to be
the exception which proves the rule.
Name: The Phantom Down-Beat Voicing: String Quartet Description: Most chamber ensembles have trouble "getting
going" without a down-beat in the musical texture. This piece
begins with, and is partly an exercise in, that challenge.
Someone who had just played it told me: "This proves you have Czech
ancestry".
Technical difficulty:4 Length: 13:10 Price: $10.00
Long-slur samba
The
unison violin/viola part has numerous well-marked shifts between I
and III positions.
Name: Long-Slur Samba Voicing: violin/viola, cello, bass, piano Description: This well-named piece calls for a long,
smooth bow-stroke and many fluid position shifts. In E minor
and G major
Technical difficulty:4 Length: 13:10 Price: $10.00
march for a brightening day
One
nearly rainy day I went out on my tractor to mow a big hilltop
field. As time passed the clouds thinned out, and as the day
grew brighter I thought of this tune.
Name: March for a Brightening Day Voicing: Violin I, II, Viola, Cello, optional keyboard Description: The keyboard plays the back-beats, the
strings are all melodic. A very cheerful piece, just like a
Sousa march, but without the "dogfight".
Technical difficulty:3 Length: 2:00 Price: $7.00
A First Symphony
This
piece is in Classical form and style. It is written so that
all of the parts "lie" well on the instruments, and the keys used
and bowings and fingerings marked were chosen for that purpose.
My intention is that this can be a young orchestra's first full
symphony. I hope that the piece is good music in itself, that the musical skills and
principles it teaches will lead young players on to the masterpieces
Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.
Name: A First Symphony Voicing: Full String Orchestra Description: A full four-movement symphony, in classical
style and form, and every element carefully crafted to inspire as
well as instruct the relatively inexperienced orchestral string
player. Nothing about it is harder than level 3, but it is long. The
1st page of the 8-page violin I part is shown. It was written for a
good junior high group, and is intended to be a string orchestra's
first real symphony. I have a tape of the piece played by a Russian
(professional) string orchestra, and boy is it good!
Technical difficulty:4 Length: 13:30 Price: $25.00
1st Movement
2nd Movement
3rd Movement
4th Movement
Walking Tune
This
piece was inspired by a walk on a lovely fall day. The basic
tune is very simple and instructive, requiring steadiness in the
quarter-notes (in the "second" part) and accuracy in the
dotted-quarter-eighth rhythm of the melody. The middle section
of the piece is a whirl of leaves and gusts of wind; calm descends
at the end. Many possible combinations of instrumentation are
listed in the score - any two string instruments can play the piece.
Name: Walking Tune Voicing: String Quartet Description: This piece is mostly two-part music, with
the melody and harmony parts doubled in the viola and cello.
Technical difficulty:3 Length: 2:40 Price: $7.00
Concerto In Echo
This
piece is almost entirely made up of echoed phrases. In
performance the TUTTI play each phrase first, and a solo quartet is
the echo.
A useful rehearsal procedure will be to have the soloists play
first and the TUTTI play the "echo" with them while the phrase is
fresh in their ears.
The dynamic markings are mostly for a decent computer playback.
You may wish to use the concerto style with TUTTI playing full
volume all the time, and let the numbers playing create the echo
effect.
Name: Concerto In Echo Voicing: Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Cello/Bass tutti with a
solo quartet consisting of the principal players Description: The whole piece is echoed phrases, with the
first chair players forming the solo "echo" quartet. If you
have a large group, the soloists coul probably play full volume,
with lots of expression, and still get the echo effect. This
piece is in baroque style, and is to play, play, play.
Technical difficulty:3 Length: 11:00 Price: $20.00
1st Movement
2nd Movement
3rd Movement
Peppermint Stick
Name: Peppermint Stick Voicing: Violin I, II; Viola, Cello Description: Like Polka Dot and Fiddle Iddle, this piece
has a II violin part that is more difficult than I violin and is for
your most advanced violinists, who have already mastered the I part
and are getting bored. It is quite a bit more of a challenge,
as you will see in the score.
Technical difficulty:3 Length: 1:15 Price: $7.00
Polka Dot
Name: Polka Dot Voicing: String Quartet Description: Written as a preparatory piece for
Peppermint stick, this is pretty good by itself. As in Fiddle Iddle and Peppermint Stick
the director should have all the violinists learn the I
violin part first; then the fastest learners can occupy themselves
with the details of II violin, which is much harder than I violin
Technical difficulty:3 Length: 1:30 Price: $7.00
Fiddle Iddle
Name: Fiddle Iddle Voicing: String Quartet Description: This piece was written for "middle of Book
I" students who were just beginning to read notes. They ate it
up.
Viola I is almost the same as the violin I; viola II is exactly
the same as violin II. Have everybody learn I violin (or
viola) first, then let the fastest learners go on to the more
difficult II part. Not only are there more string crossings,
but harmony (I believe) is more musically difficult than melody;
also harmonizers cannot do well until they have a good solid melody
to relate to.
Technical difficulty:2 Length: 0:45 Price: $5.00
Dorian March
Name: Dorian March Voicing: Violin I (viola), violin II (viola), cello Description: This is a 3-part piece, and violas double
with both violin parts. The bowing of "Humoresque" is used a
lot for its march-like quality. It is in the Dorian mode, of
course, and is a short, gutsy piece.
Technical difficulty:3 Length: 1:30 Price: $5.00
Another Waltz, Extended
Name: Another Waltz, Extended Voicing: Full strings with keyboard Description: Based on my Gentle Rag. The keyboard
plays the "um-cha-um-cha" and the strings are melodic throughout.
The many specifics of bowing are a part of the piece.
Technical difficulty:3 Length: 1:30 Price: $10.00
Fiddlers' Carols
Name: Fiddler's Carols Voicing: String duet or trio Description: Fourteen familiar and traditional carols
arranged in the violin’s easiest key, for duet or trio. Silent
Night, We Three Kings, Away in a Manger, Jingle Bells, The First
Noel, etc. in duet or trio arrangement which may be played with or
without cello. I Violin (I Viola); II Violin (II Viola) in
harmony, and optional Cello in trio harmony. Cello is in viola
range. The harmonies differ a bit from the hymnbook standard – and
are more playable
Technical difficulty:1 Length: 6:00 Price: $12.00
