Le Tombeau de Couperin (Ravel)

Scoring: Wind decet plus optional double bass

Date: 2025

Two movements from Ravel's sparkling suite "Le Tombeau de Couperin" arranged for wind decet: "Menuet" and "Rigaudon". 

Menuet:

The original tempo of this gorgeous minuet by Maurice Ravel, taken from his suite of pieces for piano (and subsequently arranged for orchestra), is marked Allegro moderato. However, no one performs it as an Allegro, neither pianists nor orchestras, as it is the most laid-back of melodies, reminiscent of lazy summer afternoons on a lake. I have therefore marked the arrangement Allegretto moderato, aiming to retain its lightness and motion without sounding rushed. In this wind decet version I have otherwise followed Ravel's markings and instrumentation wherever possible. The oboe takes the lead throughout most of the piece, except in the middle section, which is much more mysterious and where there are repeated waves of instrumental colours. After the recapitulation the piece concludes in a lovely downward sweep from the piccolo to the bassoons, followed by an almost jazzy double trill on the clarinets.

Links: pdf (score) - pdf (parts) - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

Rigaudon:

A rustic French dance, the Rigaudon is lively, exuberant and fast (marked Assez vif.) The second flute has his or her work cut out in a couple of sections, as in Ravel's original orchestration, but otherwise it is all quite playable and mostly "sits under the fingers" for the decet players. The middle section suddenly slows down and the oboe takes the lead in a sensuous dance accompanied by a gentle rhythmical feature, until the first theme breaks through once again. The ending is subtely different from the first section, however, leading to the different key of F major, only to be replaced - satisifyingly - in the final two bars by the original key of C major.

Links: pdf (score) - pdf (parts) - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

Blumen-Walzer

Scoring: 2 flutes + string quintet

Date: 2025

Ernesto Köhler's Blumen-Walzer/Valse des Fleurs/Flower Waltz, originally for 2 flutes and piano, with the piano part here arranged for string quintet - attractive and fun, just as you would expect for a Viennese waltz!

Links: pdf (score) - pdf (parts) - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

Romeo and Juliet Mini-Suite

Scoring: Wind sextet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bass clarinet and bassoon)

Date: 2025

An arrangement of four movements from Prokofiev's colourful "Romeo and Juliet" ballet music, forming a "mini-suite" for wind sextet. The whole suite lasts just over 16 minutes:

1. Montagues and Capulets

2. Dance

3. Friar Laurence

4. Farewell

Links: pdf (score) - pdf (parts) - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

The movements are also available separately below:

Montagues and Capulets

Links: pdf (score) - pdf (parts) - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

Dance

Links: pdf (score) - pdf (parts) - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

Friar Laurence

Links: pdf (score) - pdf (parts) - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

Farewell

Links: pdf (score) - pdf (parts) - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

Tortoises and the Elephant (Saint-Saens)

Scoring: Contrabassoon and string quintet

Date: 2025

An unusual arrangement of "Tortoises" and "The Elephant" from Camille Saint-Saens' "Carnival of the Animals"!

Links: pdf (score) - pdf (parts) - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

Mother Goose Suite

Scoring: Wind decet plus double bass

Date: 2024

Ma mère l'Oye (Mother Goose Suite)  by Maurice Ravelis a wonderful 15-minute orchestral composition full of magic and colour, which he originally wrote for piano duet. Here I have arranged it for wind ensemble, keeping as closely as possible to Ravel's orchestration, as this remains so well-known and well-loved.

Its five movements have the following exotic titles:

1. Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant (Pavane of Sleeping Beauty)

2. Petit Poucet (Little Tom Thumb)

3. Laideronnette, impératrice des pagodes (Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas)

4. Les entretiens de la belle et de la bête (Conversation of Beauty and the Beast)

5. Le jardin féerique (The Fairy Garden)

Instrumentation:

2 flutes (1 doubling piccolo)

2 oboes (1 doubling cor anglais)

2 clarinets in Bb

2 horns in F

2 bassoons (1 doubling contrabassoon)

1 double bass

Links: pdf (score) - pdf (parts) - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

O Lord, you have searched me out

Version 1

Scoring: SATB a cappella

Date: 2024

Here is a setting of Psalm 139, in two versions, which begins "O Lord, you have searched me out and known me." The psalm is a deeply personal reflection by the psalmist on the "wonder of my being" and on the inescapability of God's love, wherever we might try to hide, and whatever we might do ourselves or might experience - even death. This gentle setting uses the full range of all four/three choral voices, with just a few divisi passages near the end of the composition in the lower parts. The pslam should be sung meditatively, without too much drama, even in the fortissimo passages, aiming for a sense of wonder and inner peace.

Links: pdf - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

YouTube video scores for practice:
Full version
Soprano
Alto

Tenor

Bass

Version 2

Scoring: SABar and piano

Date: 2024

Here is a setting of Psalm 139, which begins "O Lord, you have searched me out and known me." The psalm is a deeply personal reflection by the psalmist on the "wonder of my being" and on the inescapability of God's love, wherever we might try to hide, and whatever we might do ourselves or might experience - even death. This gentle setting uses the full range of all four choral voices, with just one divisi passage at the end of the composition in the tenor and bass parts. The piece should be sung meditatively, without too much drama, even in the fortissimo passages, aiming for a sense of wonder and inner peace.

Links: pdf - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

YouTube video scores for practice:
Full version
Soprano
Alto

Baritone

Psalm 139

O Lord, you have searched me out and known me;

you know all my sitting down and rising;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

You mark all journeys and my resting place

and are acquanited with all my ways.

For not a word is on my tongue

but, Lord, you know it altogether.

You encompass me, behind and before me,

you lay you hand upon me.

O where can I go from your spirit?

Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I climb up to heaven you are there;

you are there if the grave is where I lie.

If I take the wings of the morning,

or dwell in the depths of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

your right hand hold me fast.

You created my innermost parts;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I thank you for the wonder of my being,

I marvel at all your works.

Amen.

A British Tar (Gilbert & Sullivan)

Scoring: TTBB barbershop quartet

Date: 2024

"A British Tar" is one of the most popular songs from Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta "HMS Pinafore", and it deserves to be sung more widely. Here it is arranged for unaccompanied barbershop quartet from the original trio plus orchestra/piano. In the operetta the song is supposedly composed by Sir Joseph Porter, First Lord of the Admiralty, "to encourage independence of thought and action in the lower branches of the service [the Navy], and to teach the principle that a British sailor is any man's equal." It should be sung with as much mock pomp as can be mustered, and I suggest that in bars 10 to 16 and again bars 42 to 48 the first bass singer(s) should (especially when singing to a foreign audience) clearly indicate which part of the sailor's body is being referred to!

Links: pdf - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6