Stringsters

The 42 'workshop' studies for technique owe much to the influence of the great American teacher Paul Rolland, and seek first and foremost to encourage a relaxed and uninhibited posture with both left and right arms moving freely and easily around the violin. Intonation is stressed, both through the early use of harmonics, and by the regular part-playing wich is a built-in feature of the scheme since the studies combine with a similar number of progressive 'melody-time' tunes. They first appeared in print in June 1982 as an appendix to my 1980-81 Associateship Report for London University's Institute of Education: "Aims and Methods in Group Instrumental Teaching with particular Reference to Strings, and its place within the General School Curriculum." *To these '42 Moments' were later added a range of complementary and at times highly original worksheets, (see also Images and Imagination) which include, interspersed thoughout the book:* * Creative Writing Sheets (3) * Rhythm-Swap Sheets (3) * Treble/Alto Switch Sheets (3) Pentatonic, Position and Chord Work, together with a supplementary series of 'Tail-Piece' melodies and scalework to complete each page-long block of work. Depending upon the circumstances these should take between two and four weeks to complete and as a guide to progress the date of introducing each new topic should be faithfully recorded on the back cover practice chart. Some of these topics are also covered in the Images and Imagination* pack; but in addition that also has pages headed, Spiccato-Tap (1), Slurs - the buoyant elbow (2) and Feeling the Harmony (2) - and something especially for cellists: a new pack of Bass / Tenor Switch Sheets (3) The Position Pack has four pages for violin and another four for viola. The scheme is conceived as a three to four-year course for children being taught in groups, starting at second year junior. It assumes that the various points of the lesson will always be introduced by the teacher, and includes a 'talking-point' section to reinforce what has been said in the class, and also to stress the need for revision of earlier material (sometimes with a new objective in mind) - another important aspect of the book. Children who elect to proceed further with their instrumental studies should find they have acquired secure foundations for that invaluable combination of sound technique and musical awareness; but it is at least as great a concern that those children for whom this course will represent the limit of their instrumental involvement will equally have gained a worthwhile and enriching experience, both musically and educationally. (This introduction dated June 1987)

<<view / downoad 42 Moments>>	<<view / download Viva Viola>>	<<view / download Images & Imagination>> <<ditto commentary>> Available now - "Riding the Bass / Tenor Switchback"	<<view / download Position Pack>>
There are over a hundred classroom and assembly pieces included in these four collections, which all include sound files, full performance and also melody lines with the appropriate accompanying violin parts. When they were first published, there were also accompanying cassette tapes! These, and some of the addresses listed, have obviously disappeared over the years!

<<view / download Sing & Play Along violin>> <ditto viola>> <<ditto cello>> <<ditto vocal>> <<ditto words & piano>> <<ditto percussion>> There is also a dedicated website for Sing and Play Along which has not only the pdf files listed above, but also melody parts for flute, clarinet, alto saxophone and trumpet as well as sound files for all 28 songs. visit the "Sing and Play Along" site. For some reason to do with missing codexes these sound files don't play using Microsoft Edge - other browsers are fine - as at October 2020	<< view / download String Hosanna violin>> <<ditto String Hosanna viola>> <<ditto String Hosanna percussion>> There is also a dedicated website for String and Percussion Hosanna! which has not only the pdf files listed above (10 pages of violin music, 10 pages for viola, and 13 for percussion) but also recordings of all 26 assembly favourites. There are also audio clips of individual parts. These are small midi files which my browser downloads when clicked. Click the downloaded file and it plays, and if media player is minimised the music can be read at the same time! visit the String & Percussion Hosanna! site. For some reason to do with missing codexes these sound files don't play using Microsoft Edge - other browsers are fine - as at October 2020	<<ditto Celebration String Hosanna Violin>> There is also a dedicated website for Celebration String Hosanna! There are recordings of 29 songs and carols - Spring, Pancake Day, Lent/Easter, Harvest/Autumn, Halloween/Guy Fawkes, Endings, Hindu and Jewish - for festival assemblies throught the year. There are also audio clips of individual parts. These are small midi files which my browser downloads when clicked. Click the downloaded file and it plays, and if media player is minimised the music can be read at the same time! The melody parts are suitable for recorder, violin, flute etc, while the accompanying line is specifically for young violinists. visit the Celebration String Hosanna! site. For some reason to do with missing codexes these sound files don't play using Microsoft Edge - other browsers are fine - as at October 2020
			<<view / download Carolling Along violin>> <<ditto viola>> <<ditto cello>> <<ditto piano>> <<ditto percussion>> There is also a dedicated website for Carolling Along As well as the above files, there are also parts for flute, clarinet, trumpet and E flat sax. A simple percussion score is also included, with short, memorable parts for a variety of tuned and untuned percussion, which can even be listened to individually, simply by clicking on an instrument's name. In response to many requests, a piano accompaniment book was also published, with new accompaniments by me to the 21 carols. visit the Carolling Along site. For some reason to do with missing codexes these sound files don't play using Microsoft Edge - other browsers are fine - as at October 2020
In 1995 I was asked to provide music for a large gathering of schools in Stafford, which I remember included Jonah-Man Jazz Cantata, I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside, Don't Dilly Dally and even audience participation for Pack Up Your Troubles / Tipperary! I think the Finale was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for which Stuart Johnson had done an arrangement. The seven pieces here are arrangements of Daisy Bell, The Keeper and Offenbach's Galop, and then in Island Trundle four folk songs, Ye Banks and Braes, My Aunt Jane, The Ash Grove and The Drunken Sailor.
The final arrangement here, the Donauwellen Waltz, was made for a rather different occasion. Staffordshire County Council music department at one glorious period had almost a hundred full-time peripatetic instrumental music teachers, who taught their instruments for four days each week, but who played in ensembles on Fridays, giving concerts each year to every school in the county, from small village schools up to the largest comprehensives. Sometimes these were small chamber ensembles, at other times full orchestras, while at other times we went out in larger ensembles such as string orchestras and it was always a joy when some of a school’s pupils could join in for some of the items. Josef Ivanovici’s Donauwellen Waltz was just one of a number of such works we would take into a school, with recorder and percussion parts having been sent on ahead earlier. It truly did mean that the instrumental service reached all the county’s pupils, and every year too. The Donauwellen Waltz was especially arranged in 1991 and happily performed in schools throughout the Stafford and Cannock areas during 1991 and 1992, the catchy melodies being passed around the orchestra from one section to another.			The photograph, which has just come to light after nearly 30 years, shows a very happy team, from a different world now, with our "Strings and Things" programme including the newly arranged Donauwellen Waltz.

<<view / download junior pack score & parts>>	<<view/download Island Trundle score/parts>>	<<hear the Donauwellen Waltz arrangment>>	<<view / download donauwellen score and parts>>
	One other piece worth mentioning at this point is a horn trio - horn, violin and piano - written with my grandchildren in mind, called Footsteps. It is about grade 7 technically, and not too daunting musically either, and makes a good introduction to the world of chamber music. Based on a song I wrote in 1997 telling of one young woman's feelings after the death of her partner following depression its haunting memories vie with a sense of despair and desolation. Again the music can be downloaded for free and the violin part also has an alternative flute version. As at June 2020 because of the coronavirus Lockdown I have not seen the grandchildren to record the piece; but you can get a good idea of the work from this computer-generated recording: <<<Listen to Footsteps>>>. And here are the parts: <<< Download the Footsteps parts>>> And Stop Press on 14 July 2020 - a version of *Footsteps* for piano trio - hear it now <<Footsteps piano trio>> <<Download the parts>> Brahms of course was very much against his horn trio being arranged with cello; but was happier with the viola, and so I have also included a viola part!
	In similar fashion, December 2020, I have now re-scored Gaetano Braga's famous Serenata for Horn trio as well as re-type-set my original piano trio version from 1928! Gaetano Braga, born 1829, died 1907 in Milan, was an Italian composer and cellist whose work includes two cello concertos, a quartet, a quintet and various cello/piano compositions, and no less that eight operas. He is perhaps most famous now for La Serenata, a dialogue (a bit like that in Erlk�nig) between an anxious mother and her daughter who hears an angel calling her. And in the end the girl does follow the angel’s voice. Originally, the narrator took the part of the mother and her daughter, with the angel’s voice represented by a violin or cello, who was instructed to play “off-stage” from the singer to give a more ephereal effect. Sometimes actually called the “Angel’s Serenade” the piece has been recorded in English by tenor John McCormack and Fritz Kreisler and also by Jan Peerce and Mischa Elman, not to mention recordings in Italian and in German (Richard Tauber). (Information courtesy of Wikipedia, Dec. 2020) My old copy of this music is dated 1928, no. 89 in Banks’ Sixpenny Edition, arranged as a piano solo with violin and cello ad lib parts. In May 1989 Stafford Music Centre celebrated Staffordshire County Council’s centenary with “Two Grand Vocal and Instrumental Concerts” at Stafford’s splendid Stychfields Hall (now long gone). Supper was served between the concerts and a “Supper Tape” was recorded to be played during the meal, produced by a number of music centre colleagues, including the two who recorded the Braga Serenata with me, Roger Siddall, cello and Caroline Robertson, pianoforte. It is this arrangement, by Louis Finch, that is retype-set here and which was used for our 1989 recording. And having recently arranged my own A Rapture Suite horn trio for piano trio, it occured to me that I might here reverse the situation and set the “Angel Serenade” as a horn trio, which I could then perform with my talented grandchildren. So here it is, in this format dedicated to my dear wife Patricia as she too prepares to follow her angel. Kerry Milan, Stafford, December 2020.		<<play the 1989 "Supper Tape" piano trio>> << play the new horn trio scoring>> <<download the piano trio parts>> <<download the horn trio parts>>
VIOLIN VERSON Both parts sounding There are three movements, Vivace, Adagio andAllegro. The first movement comes with a choice of two tempi, either crotchet = 130, or 138. The Adagio is quaver = 66 The Allegro is crotchet = 104 <<play Vivace=130>> <<play Vivace=138>> <<play Adagio>> <<play Allegro>>	Telemann Canon Sonata no. 1 in G major for two violins or two violas. <<Download parts here>> - and remember, it also works for violin and viola!		VIOLA VERSON Both parts sounding There are three movements, Vivace, Adagio andAllegro. The Vivace is crotchet = 130 The Adagio is quaver = 66 The Allegro is crotchet = 104 <<play Vivace=130>> <<play Adagio>> <<play Allegro>>
*Just the first part sounding* <<play Vivace=130>> <<play Vivace=138>> <<play Adagio>> <<play Allegro>>			*Just the first part sounding* <<play Vivace=130>> <<play Adagio>> <<play Allegro>>

Finally, a very brief mention of some of my music for professional stringsters!