Miniatures
for Piano and Woodwind Quintet
Farewell Overture is the chamber version of a free-standing piece of the same name for concert band. This has its own page here.
Frühjahrsmüdigkeit [6']
I frequently write chamber versions first when composing pieces for large forces. In 2015, from January through August, I wrote for concert band. One piece was Popular Music of Planet X, and another was Tilting at Windmills. A Little Poem, from the first, and Sevillana, from the second, had chamber versions for woodwind quintet and piano. This is a very interesting ensemble which has had my attention for some years. After completing my Cello Concerto in late January, I felt it was time to write a third movement to make a complete composition for this chamber group. The new movement became the Farewell Overture, inspired in a way by Groucho Marx in Animal Crackers, and also by my uncertainty as to how much more music I will be able to write. This overture was arranged for concert band in August, 2016.
Frühjahrsmüdigkeit, the tempo marking for the first movement, is German for a sense of listlessness brought on by the coming of spring.
In September 2022 I made a new edition,
so that this score is now available both in letter-size and legal-size
scores.