Piano Works

	Caribbean Nocturne (1953) Price $3.00 + (S/H) An early work of moderate difficulty. I was fascinated by Latin rhythms and had written two rumbas prior to this.
	Celestial Fantasy Suite (2004) Price $8.00 + (S/H) A three-movement work based on my imagination of what it would be like "out there" in space. The suite was commissioned by the Mississippi Music Teachers Association with the stipulation that the work be for “students.” Suspended In Space I can “see” a space ship moving slowly through space, perhaps lost or on an exploration mission. The crew members are alone with their thoughts as they gaze out the window into the vastness of space. Tertian non-functual harmonies. Breathless Beauty I imagine the incredible beauty that is out there. The meter is 7/8, but don’t worry; the left hand simply repeats a seven-note pattern of eighth-notes.. The middle section reflects some “playful” sights that must surely be in space. The main theme returns, and then somehow I “leave” the spaceship and watch as it disappears into the beyond. Significant use of pentatonicism. Star Bursts In the quiet darkness of outer space, I suddenly see bursts of “sparks” as clusters of stars spray their light to the heavens. This piece uses three staves; both hands play tertian chords in bass clef, and both hands share the “star burst” pattern in treble clef. One caution: You need to count, count, count.
	Daydream (1995) Price $7.00+ (S/H) I wrote this composition in three versions: one for large hands, one for average-sized hands, and one for small hands. Daydream uses the pentatonic scale for its melodic and harmonic basis, and after playing this, you should no longer be at all fearful of black notes! All three versions are included with your purchase.
	Fantasy (1953) Price $3.00+ (S/H) An early piece inspired by the sound and the view of the Atlantic Ocean when I was in boarding school in Florida. It is a romantic work whose left-hand broken-chord figurations make it a fairly difficult teaching piece. The introduction contains a chord structure that I thought I had “found.” It wasn’t too long before my piano teacher pointed out that it is just a diminished-seventh chord with an added sharped 9th! Oh, well --
	I’ll Be Home For Christmas, arr. (2005) (Kent/Gannon) Price $3.00 +(S/H) This originated as a work for the Ole Miss Concert Singers, but I soon made a piano arrangement as well. I didn’t notate it until recently when someone heard it and asked me for a copy of it!
	(Back Home Again In) Indiana, arr. (1972, 1978, 2007) (Hanley/MacDonald) Price $3.00 +(S/H) This was my daughter’s favorite as she was growing up. It’s not easy, especially when played at “barn-burning” speed, but it is lots of fun. For audiences who don’t know the song, I usually play the song in a simple version first, and then play the arrangement.
Entire Set Longing Remember and Be Sad This 'n That I Want You to Know Side One, Band Two Thirteen Stick Shift A Warm Fuzzy Dream	Jazz Preludess Price: $20.00 for the entire set +(S/H) All these pieces were originally compositions for the Ole Miss Jazz Ensemble. In the early years of my 30-year tenure there, I wrote a new “jazz” piece every year. Except for “Thirteen,” they all use tertian harmonies. In recent years, I have been rewriting them for piano. The titles marked with an asterisk are not yet in finished form, but my plan is to have them ready by the end of 2009! They will be available as single compositions or as a set. Single Compositions 1. Longing (1971, 2007) Price $3.00 +(S/H) This piece was inspired by the death in 1960 of my wonderful college piano teacher, Ernst von Dohnanyi. He was the first person close to me who had died, and I didn’t handle it very well. I was then assigned to a piano teacher who was bitter and cruel (in my opinion). Perhaps it was precisely his bitterness and cruelty that drove me to finish my master’s degree, a degree that allowed me to share music with some of the finest young people in this world for thirty years!. This work lay dormant for quite a few years before I set it for jazz ensemble. The sadness of that time is still within me, but my admiration and love for, and my gratitude to, Dr. Dohnanyi has allowed me to again work on this piece. 2. Remember And Be Sad (1970, 2006) Price $3.00 +(S/H) This was the first composition I wrote for the Ole Miss Jazz Ensemble, and maybe that is the reason it is so special to me. Regardless, it “haunts” me. It is musically demanding, but not technically difficult. Even though the mood is sad, see if you can find the “Woody, the Woodpecker” motif. 3. This 'n That (1977, 2008) Price $3.00 +(S/H) This Jazz Prelude is rather difficult. The meter alternates between 3/4 and alla breve. I hope you have large hands, but even if you don’t, you can enjoy this piece -- and when have I ever lied to you? 4. I Want You To Know You’re What I’m Lookin’ For* (1976, 2008) Price $3.00 +(S/H) This is my first, and so far my only, jazz waltz. 5. Side One, Band Two* (1973, 2008) Price $3.00 +(S/H) When the Ole Miss music department grew large enough to have a second jazz ensemble, I started composing this piece for it. It has a “rock” feel and uses the 12-bar blues progression. 6. Thirteen* (1975. 2008) Price $3.00 +(S/H) This piece was originally entitled “2 - 4 - 7 - Blues” because I chose those intervals to present the melodies of the A, B, and C sections. This is clearly a very dissonant work, quite different from anything else I have written in a jazz idiom. It pretty much “sucked” in my ensemble version, but I blame my orchestration skills, or lack thereof, not the music. I think this prelude is worthy of a look. 7. Stick Shift* (1974, 2008) Price $3.00 +(S/H) This prelude was written as a “duel of drummers.” My teen-age drummer son played short patterns of his own creation, and the drummer of the jazz ensemble imitated them. Those “rhythm chases” exist only in my memory now, but the thematic material is presented here. It is short and very difficult -- more rhythmically than technically. 8. A Warm, Fuzzy Dream* (1972, 2008) Price $3.00 +(S/H) Just a lovely piece to be played in a relaxed manner with a smile on your face. Not difficult. * Item not yet available. If my old Mac IIci holds out, they should be ready before 2009 is over.
	Moonlight Serenade, arr. (1996) (Miller/Parish) Price $3.00 +(S/H) For reasons forgotten, a graduate student asked me if I would write this arrangement for him to learn and play. I think he wanted to impress his girl friend.
	New York Fantasy Suite (1996) Price $12.00 +(S/H) I had “discovered” Gershwin when I was a teenager, and my life was never the same after that. His harmonies and melodies were “to die for,” and they have influenced my composition ever since. This suite is to say, “Thank You, Mr. Gershwin.” It has five movements using Gershwin-esque harmonies. The inspiration for this suite is every movie, TV show, or book about the Big Apple that I have ever seen or read. The second movement is my teen-age compositional tribute to Gershwin after some “editing.” The third movement is the easiest from a technical standpoint, and the fourth is the most difficult. Any movement may be extracted for performance. In addition, I have a Piano Duet version available for sale. I doubt that I will ever release the version for Piano and Orchestra that was premiered with the Tupelo (MS) Symphony in 1988. 1. Morning In Manhattan As the mist of early morning is being burnt off by the rising sun, the City begins to awaken. Shop owners bring yesterday’s trash out into the alley as they prepare for today’s business. The quiet streets of the early morning gradually become jammed with traffic as the energy of the Big Apple grows to full capacity. New York City has come to life! 2. Memories Of A Broadway Past I wrote this piece when I was fifteen and completely under the spell of Gershwin’s music. In my imagination, I see the Broadway crowds, the limousines, the glamorous ladies and gentlemen being photographed as they leave their limos to enter the theater -- all the glitter and magic of old Broadway. 3. Central Park In The Rain From a rain-soaked window in a less-than-posh hotel overlooking Central Park, I see a lonely person walking slowly in the rain and I wonder what he is doing, what he is thinking about, why he is even there on this gray day. He appears to be just barely moving. 4. On The Town I am walking around town with a big grin on my face, drinking in every sight in this great city. This movement is by far the most technically difficult piece in the suite. It also contains a written-out “improvisatory” section. 5. 3 AM In The City It is past the end of yesterday. The city is quiet. As I look out my hotel window, across the street I notice a light in one window of an otherwise dark apartment building, and I wonder who is awake, what they are doing, what they may be thinking about. The night is almost over, and in a few hours there will be another “Morning in Manhattan.”
	New York Fantasy Suite Duet Version (1998, 2008) Includes two copies Price $22.00 +(S/H) Since it was unlikely that another conductor would so graciously “loan” me his orchestra as Eric Knight had, I decided to rescore the suite for Piano Duet. It is in this version that the suite has had its most numerous performances. The Secondo is featured in Central Park In The Rain.
	Poquito Mosquito* Duet (1997) Includes two copies Price $15.00+(S/H) In a music store in 1988, I was “auditioning” a new synthesizer, the Roland D-50, and I improvised something using each patch. When I used “Breathy Chiffer,” I played the main idea of what was to become Poquito. I liked it very much, and when I brought my new synthesizer home, I continued to play and expand it. I made a 4-track cassette recording of “Breathy Chiffer,” and it remained just a recording until 1997 when I notated it to be used as an encore for a piano duet concert that a friend and I were performing. I intended for the Primo and Secondo to exchange seats midway through the piece, so that each of us would get to play both parts,but it didn’t happen. Maybe someday --- . Anyway, Poquito Mosquito is “island music,” uses functional harmony, has some rhythmic difficulties, is “happy,” and is fun to play!
	Regret (1979) Price $3.00 +(S/H) A reflection on things in my life that were undone or badly done --- "I coulda, woulda, shoulda, --- but I didn't." Mildly dissonant.
	Rumba (ca. 1949) Price $3.00 +(S/H) An early pre-teen composition using traditional harmonies. Another Rumba followed this piece, and then my Caribbean Nocturne. My piano teacher made a remark to my mother about my interest in Latin rhythms, and I, not fully understanding about the birds and the bees, blurted out, “Maybe I have some Spanish blood in me.” Mom must have been so pleased to hear that, because both of my parents were born and raised in Germany!
	Suite In Y (1978, 1990) Price $12.00 +(S/H) A four-movement suite written at the request of one of my students . She, like many of us, did not like too much “dissonance,”so I decided to use mostly quartal harmonies while maintaining a tonal center, to try to show her that non-tertian, non-functional harmonies could also sound “good.” Each of the movements has a name ending in “Y,” hence the name of the suite: The movements are: Lethargy, Fidgety, Elegy, and Energy. Any movement may be extracted for performance. "Energy" has become the most popular movement of the suite, probably because of the jazz rhythms and "licks" and the "walking bass" left hand sections.
	Tea For Two, arr. for the left hand (1979, 2007) (Youmans/Caesar) Price $4.00 +(S/H) Throughout the world, I am known as either “Raymond WHO?” or “He’s the guy who plays Tea For Two with his left hand!” Seriously, this arrangement is not easy, but I have had so much fun with it. I can easily recommend this to you as a novelty number or as an encore -- well, maybe not in Carnegie Hall -- .
	Twelfth Street Rag (1970, 2008) (Uday Bowman) Price $2.00 +(S/H) This short arrangement was also one of my daughter’s favorites. It is not terribly hard unless you choose too fast a tempo.
	Two Elegies and Amen (1998) Price $8.00 +(S/H) This three-piece set is dedicated to the memory of my parents. The first Elegy is taken from my Suite in Y. That elegy dwells on the horror of death. One of my dear friends’ son, a teenager, was dying of cancer. His tragic struggle for life was the inspiration for that Elegy. The piece is dissonant and has quotes from “Victimae Paschali Laudes” and “The Church’s One Foundation.” As my life continued, I came to see death in a different light. One of Brahms’ songs, “Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht” made a lasting impression on me, and when one of my piano students asked me to compose something for his senior recital, I felt moved to write another Elegy, this one much more optimistic than the first. After presenting both Elegies, I wanted to wish Mom and Dad a final “God Love and Keep You.” The Amen is the result of that wish.

This is a 'list-in-progress.' Items marked with an “*” are not yet available. If my old Mac IIci holds out, they should be ready before 2009 is over.

Other works will be added later. Please check back or e-mail us for more information.