FEATURED COMPOSITION: SUITE PASTORALE (Solo Piano) I didn’t set out to emulate Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony (#6 in F major) with this composition. Few composers--in their right mind at least--would invite comparison to one of the great masterpieces of symphonic literature with a little 8½ minute piano suite! Suite Pastorale dates from 1971, when I was a graduate composition major at Florida State studying with Carlisle Floyd, and I had no images in mind other than pure musical creation and development. It was just a set of 5 short pieces for solo piano with no program, but for reasons I cannot now remember, I gave it that descriptive title. A few months later, it was played on a Campus Composers Concert by another student who was a piano major, and that is the performance recorded in the link below. After that, it quickly descended into obscurity. Decades later, I pulled it out and tried to make something sensible out of the title. I rearranged the order of the movements and came up with countryside-descriptive names for them that roughly match the mood of the music. Although the title and program are reminiscent of the Beethoven work, the scope and style have nothing in common with it, so hopefully no comparisons will be drawn! Here is the website description: Grade 4+ Duration 8:30 Publisher: Dacker Music Price: $6.50 Style is contemporary. Suite in five movements loosely evocative of a day in the country, complete with a storm...but thats where the nod to Beethoven ends. The movements are titled: 1. Golden Morning 2. Deer at Play 3. Forest Shadows 4. Afternoon Downpour 5. Evening Reflections (The last movement is not at all reflective in mood. It just contains allusions, mostly subtle, to the preceding movements, like recalling--or reflecting on--the day.) Order from J.W. Pepper (and/or preview entire score): jwpepper/Suite-Pastorale/10343552.item#.UmrvlRBdAoM MP3 Recording (via my website): 1972 recording is a little fuzzy in quality, but not too bad for its age. dackermusic/uploads/3/1/8/0/3180170/suitepastorale.mp3
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 11:49:19 +0000
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