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Classical Composed Live Performances Arranged Electro Accoustic

Those file marked with are MP3 files, the rest are midi files. These are files that make use the synthesizer capabilities of the sound card in your computer. the wide variety of cards on the market it is impossible to predict how these will sound on any given system.

 

A Albeniz Alkan Anonymous
B Bach J.S Bach C.P.E Bartok
  Beethoven    
D Debussy    
F Falla    
G Grieg    
H Haydn Heller Herold
M Mendelssohn Mozart Mussorgsky
P Prokofiev Purcell  
R Rachmaninov Rubinstein  
S Saint-Saens Satie Schubert
  Schumann Shostakovich Sindig
  Smith (Sydney) Sullivan  
W Warlock Widor  
 
Albeniz Top of Page
Suite Espanola (Spanish Suite) Op.47
  1. Asturias (Leyanda (Legend))
Usually heard on Guitar, however this is original Piano Version. He was Spanish, (1860, 1909), that's all I know about him.... sorry.
Alkan Top of Page
Esquisses (Excerpts) Op.63
  1. La Staccatissimo
Piano Solo Who is Alkan?. To summarise he was a contemporary of Chopin (next door neighbours). A phenomenal pianist with an imaginative compositional style.
Anonymous Top of Page
Greensleeves Flute, Oboe, Tambourine, Lute and Hurdy Gurdy. An arrangement (yes... by me) of this well known tune to sound a bit like a band of roving minstrels. A school of thought believes that Henry the VIII'th originally wrote it.
J.S. Bach Top of Page
Fantasia and Fugue BWV542 Piano arrangement by Franz Liszt I haven't done the Fantasia yet. This is just the Fugue.
Toccata & Fugue in D minor BWV565 Busoni's Piano arrangement. Originally for Pipe Organ, but this is a good Piano Version
Prelude in C BWV846a Piano Solo The popular one most pianist can play.
Double Violin Concerto BWV1043 2 Violins + Piano Reduction  
Brandenburg Concerto No.4 BWV1049
  1. Allegro
Solo Violin, 2 Flutes, Strings and Harpsichord This is one of the most delightful, happiest movements he ever wrote. Toe tapping stuff. Wonderful!
C.P.E. Bach Top of Page
Solfeggietto Piano Solo A Popular "Runny" Piece
Bartok Top of Page
Ten Easy Piano Pieces

Introduction. Dedication

  1. Peasant's Song
  2. Painful Wrestling
  3. Slovak Peasant's Dance
  4. Sostenuto
  5. Evening in the Village
  6. Hungarian Folksong
  7. Aurora
  8. Hungarian Folksong
  9. Finger Exercise
  10. Bear Dance
Piano Solo Imaginative music based around Hungarian folk music.
Rumanian Dance No.1 Op.8a Piano Solo Fast and Frenzied
Beethoven Top of Page
Moonlight Sonata (Score) Orchestral Realisation Slightly more than just and orchestration. The fact of having more than two hands available was taken advantage of when I arranged it.
Bagatelles Op.119 Piano Solo Short and sweet
Choral Fantasia Op.80 Piano, Orchestra and Choir.

The more astute of you will realise that the main tune sounds rather similar to the "Ode to Joy" theme. Many consider this to be a a try out for the Choral Symphony. Why waste a good tune..?

 This is the Maestro showing off a bit. A long very difficult piano solo, giving way to a piano concerto type movement, with lots of showy piano passages, culminating with the choir entering around 2 or 3 minutes from the end. A great work designed to be a crowd pleaser!.
Debussy Top of Page
Children's Corner
  1. The Little Shepherd

 

 Piano Solo One of a set of short pieces (No.6 is the Gollywogs Cakewalk). It isn't sure whether it was written for children to play, or whether it was about children.
Falla Top of Page
Ritual Fire Dance Piano Reduction  
Grieg Top of Page
Lyric Pieces Op.12 (Score) String Quartet/Orchestra An arrangement as made by me.
In the Hall of the Mountain King Piano Reduction As made by Grieg himself
Puck Piano Solo  
Haydn Top of Page
Gypsy Rondo Piano arrangement of a String Quartet movement Fast and lively
Sonata No.2 in E minor Piano Solo A slightly romantic interpretation
Heller Top of Page
Studies Op.46 Melodic Piano Studies Not as banal as finger exercises and a lot easier to perform than concert studies. All in all quiet fun to play.
Herold Top of Page
Overture to Zampa Piano Reduction  
Mendelssohn Top of Page
Midsummer Night's Dream
  1. Scherzo
Full Orchestra A light, bouncy, witty piece with echoes of Bottom
Mozart Top of Page
A Musical Joke (K.522).
(The Village Musicians or Divertimento in F)
  1. Allegro
  2. Minuet
  3. Adagio Cantabile
  4. Presto (Horse of the Year Show Theme)
String Orchestra and Two Horns

This piece's main claim to fame and British public awareness, is that the Presto (pepped up a bit) was used as the theme to "The Horse of the Year Show".

 This is Mozart taking the mick. The banal harmonies, the wrong notes, the bad horn writing, the totally unnecessary (and of questionable quality) cadenza plus an ending Stravinsky would have been proud of. The only problem is, because he was such a genius, even when he tries to sound bad, it still sounds absolutely brilliant.
Mussorgsky Top of Page
Night on a Bare Mountain

or, if you are American..

Night on Bald Mountain

 Full Orchestra

Depicting a wild night of demonic dancing, ultimately dispelled by first rays of dawn.

 Actually, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote this piece after Mussorgsky had tried four times to do it. To R-K's ears, however, it was too rough and ready so he decided to do it himself. This version we all know and love departs from Mussorgsky's original ideas after around 2 minutes or so.
Prokofiev Top of Page
Toccata Op.11 Piano Solo  
Piano Sonata No.3 Op.28 Piano Solo  
Piano Concerto No.2 Op.16
  1. Scherzo
Piano and Orchestra A brilliant but difficult work. This is just over 2 minutes of pianistic hell.
Purcell Top of Page
Hornpipe in E minor

Hornpipe in E minor (Shipboard Version)

 Harpsichord

Flutes, Violin, Percussion and a Hurdy Gurdy

 The Hornpipe is a dance, so I thought what instrumentation would the sailors danced to on the high seas. Hence the slightly bawdy Shipboard Version.
Rachmaninov Top of Page
Preludes Op.23 Piano Solo The preludes aren't that well known, which is a shame, because they contain some brilliant music.
Preludes Op.32 Piano Solo  
Rubinstein Top of Page
Hallali Piano Solo A little known work. Hasn't even got an opus number.
Saint-Saens Top of Page
The Carnival of Animals
  1. Introduction and Royal March of the Lion
  2. Hens and Cockerels
  3. Wild Asses
  4. Tortoises
  5. The Elephant
  6. Kangaroos
  7. Aquarium
  8. Long-eared Persons
  9. The Cuckoo in the Forest Depths
  10. Aviary
  11. Pianists (very strange animals)
  12. Fossils
  13. The Swan
  14. Finale
Two Pianos, Flute, Clarinet, Xylophone, Glass Harmonica and strings. This, popular work was written 1886 but was not published until he died in 1921. Apparently he wished to be seen as  a "serious" composer and did not wish to appear "shallow" at this blatantly good humoured work.
Danse Macabre Op.40 Full Orchestra

This is based upon a poem by Henri Cazalis, depicting an old French superstition.

It starts like so...

Zig, zig, zig, Death in cadence,
Striking a tomb with his heel,
Death at midnight plays a dance-tune.....,

 

 When first premiered, it didn’t go down well. Audiences were quite unsettled by its disturbing, yet innovative, sound, It  gained popularity when Franz Liszt made an over the top arrangement for Piano. Since then it has gone from strength to strength to strength, being used as background music for many films and for course "Jonathan Creek"
Satie Top of Page
Vexations (1893) Piano Solo The abridged version. It's only played through twice, rather than the 840 Mr. Satie advised.
Dried Up Embryoes (1913)
Embryons desséchés
  1. Of the Holothurian
  2. Of the Edriophthalma
  3. Of the Podophthalma
Piano Solo No..... I haven't a clue what he was going through his head either.

Can *you* spot the chopped up Chopin ?
Schubert Top of Page
Unfinished Symphony (No.8 in B minor)
  1. Allegro Moderato
  2. Still under construction
Orchestral

I've always felt others take this work too slowly and dreamily.  He'd just found out he was very ill and there is a sense of anguish about this piece.

 Nobody really knows why he never finished this masterpiece. Theory's range from "He did, but a friend lost the score", to "He didn't, because he felt it was perfect the way it was"
Schumann Top of Page
Knight Rupert Piano Solo A short children's piece. Not sure where it's from.
Shostakovich Top of Page
Symphony No.1 Op.10
  1. Scherzo
Full Orchestra Written "in the classroom" when still a student. This scherzo is full of the biting wit that so pervades his music.

Aphorisms Op.13 (1927)

  1. Recitative

  2. Serenade

  3. Nocturne

  4. Elegy

  5. Funeral March

  6. Etude

  7. Dance of Death

  8. Canon

  9. Legend

  10. Lullaby

Piano Solo When Shostakovich first played these to his former tutor, he just couldn't make head or tail of it. Not surprisingly Shostakovich didn't call again. The Soviet authorities regard these pieces as the start of him going off the rails.

Keep an open mind, for he doesn't do anything you might expect from the titles. A work of true genius, apparently written in a couple of days.
Sindig Top of Page
Rustle of Spring Piano Solo  
Smith Top of Page
Tarantella Brilliante in E minor Op.8 Piano Solo A wonderful piece of Popular Parlour Piano.
Sullivan Top of Page
Overture to the Mikado Vocal Score Piano Duet I was brought up on G&S. A great tunesmith.
Pirates of Penzance Overture Vocal Score Piano Arrangement Another tuneful masterpiece
Warlock Top of Page
Capriol Piano Duet

The Peter Warlock Society

 His most famous work. Originally for string orchestra This arrangement was made by the composer.
Widor Top of Page
Toccata from the Organ Symphony No.5 in Fminor Pipe Organ His most famous work. Used once as the exit music to a royal wedding and requested by sadistic happy couples ever since :-)
 

 

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Last modified: 10-Jun-2009