Greetings Everyone,

Knowing my limitations vs. the musical greats I admire, I proceed with humility and am open to all manner of observation, commentary and criticism on these works.

I apologize for these being high-resolution scans of handwritten scores - struggling with Finale isn't for me, I gave it a best effort once and it seemed like way too much time was being used which is needed for more composing or piano practice.

If one right clicks and then saves as, followed by opening from the computer instead of in a browser, the pdf should be readable.

for adults:

http://michaelsayers.com/compositionpdfs/ARISTOCRAT_OF_THE_SLUMS_final.pdf

http://michaelsayers.com/compositionpdfs/ETUDE_HOMAGE_TO_LISZT_corrected_ii.pdf

http://michaelsayers.com/compositionpdfs/FOR_SARAH_corrected.pdf

http://michaelsayers.com/compositionpdfs...our_company.pdf

http://michaelsayers.com/compositionpdfs/RESAN_TILL_SVERIGE_final_corrected.pdf

for adults - this is a work in progress with the mvt. IV needing to be composed, the first two movements are attempts to push myself as a composer and borrow some traits from Debussy (but not imitating his style or use of piano technique) and perhaps Busoni had an unconscious influence also in the non-major/minor scale based harmonies - the mvt. 3 is a purely 19th century type tempo di valse that seems emotionally needed in the sequence:

http://michaelsayers.com/compositionpdfs/HOMAGE_TO_DEBUSSY_Introduzione.pdf

http://michaelsayers.com/compositionpdfs/HOMAGE_TO_DEBUSSY_tema_e_variazioni.pdf

http://michaelsayers.com/compositionpdfs/HOMAGE_TO_DEBUSSY_Waldemarsudde_pa_Natten.pdf

for children - some of these are quite short:

http://michaelsayers.com/compositionpdfs/ABBE_LISZT.pdf

http://michaelsayers.com/compositionpdfs/ABBE_LISZT_version_for_reduced_hand_span.pdf

http://michaelsayers.com/compositionpdfs/J_S_BACH_PARTITA_GIGUE_based_on_Homage_to_Bach.pdf

http://michaelsayers.com/compositionpdfs/SINGLE_HAND_STUDY_for_children.pdf

http://michaelsayers.com/compositionpdfs/PRELIMINARY_EXERCISES_set_one.pdf

http://michaelsayers.com/compositionpdfs...y_001_FINAL.pdf

http://michaelsayers.com/compositionpdfs...ed_last_bar.pdf

the Homage to Bach, a childhood composition of mine on which the "Abbe Liszt" and "J.S.Bach Partita: Gigue" style compositions for children are based:

http://michaelsayers.com/compositionpdfs/HOMAGE_TO_BACH_891124_r121114.pdf

A recording of "Woman of the Sea" (Preparatory Exercise for Blind Octaves No. 2) for thumbs only:

http://michaelsayers.com/mp3/Michael_Sayers_A_Woman_of_the_Sea_Vasterhaninge_Kyrka_Dec_02_2012.mp3

And one recording each for Homage to Bach, Aristocrat of the Slums, and For Sarah - but the last two (from 2008) don't reflect last year's revisions to the compositions and for those two the piano was heavily dampened to protect the peace of mind of neighbors! :

http://michaelsayers.com/mp3/MICHAEL_SAYERS_HOMAGE_TO_BACH_121202.mp3

http://michaelsayers.com/mp3/Michael_Sayers_original_work_Aristocrat_of_the_Slums.mp3

http://michaelsayers.com/mp3/Michael_Sayers_original_work_For_Sarah.mp3

I realize this is a lot. One can just pick something that intuitively seems interesting or inviting . . .


Mvh,
Michael

Michael,

That's frankly too much, which is probably why no one's responded. Your post also highlights something that was discussed here recently, whether scores or recordings are preferred. You left plenty of links to scores and a few for recordings, no one's commented on either. Frankly, I feel both together make the best case.

I listened to the three recordings. The Bach Homage is obviously an early piece. The Aristocrat of the Slums starts with a loud chord progression and ends up quiet and it has some drama, but there's no melody. If you're working in 19th century style you need melody in there as well to highlight the harmonic progression and also stand apart from it. For Sarah is the most interesting piece of the three, but the recording and the dampening of the piano make it impossible to really feel the dynamics of the piece and the melody often gets lost in the chord progression.

Hi Steve,

You are right about all of this. Re. recording the music it would be good to have more but I would rather use that time and energy to focus on music of living composers other than myself and on the music of Ervin Nyiregyhazi.

If I were to choose just one work for a response it would be the final variation of mvt. 2 of Homage to Debussy which is titled "Guds Sinne Reser med Månljus Genom Eter".

The reason for suggesting the variation is that it was composed in one moment with the type of experience described in Arthur Abell's book (one second to compose but ages to write out!) and I am curious how others view it.

The pdfs are high res scans for printing and aren't optimized for web browsers, but if one right clicks on the link and left clicks on save as, then it should be able to be opened from the computer and be readable/printable without distortion:

http://michaelsayers.com/compositionpdfs/HOMAGE_TO_DEBUSSY_tema_e_variazioni.pdf

The variation starts on page ten.

Thanks for listening Steve!


Mvh,
Michael