Piano Solo - Level 3 - Digital Download SKU: A0.862536 Composed by Michael Bomier. Contemporary,Instructional,Standards. Score. 8 pages. Michael Butkus-Bomier #2033821. Published by Michael Butkus-Bomier (A0.862536). The second of the three Minimalist tributes to French composers takes some of Ravel's favorite chords, the minor 6/9 chord, the augmented major 7th, and a fascinating hybrid chord at the outer reaches of tonality that he used in the Valses Noble et Sentimentales, a minor/major 7th chord, but with an augmented fifth, spelled here as C-D# Ab-B, even though a more proper spelling should be C-Eb-G#-B. The chord has been divided into two 6ths, and is clearer to read and play in this spelling. My apologies to Lucien Garban, Ravel's editor, who would not have let him make this concession to convenience! So, arpeggiated figures in the treble accompany deep octaves in the bass in the opening and closing sections. This minor-major/augmented chord is used in the middle section, with a diminished chord slowly played out in octaves: a nod to Ravel's oft-used octotonic or diminished scale writing. Approx running time is just under 5 mins. Pedaling is clearly indicated throughout. Hand-crossing only at the finale. MBB.

Piano Solo - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.525271 By James Michael Stevens. By James Michael Stevens. Arranged by James Michael Stevens. 20th Century,Classical,Contemporary,Instructional,New Age. Score. 4 pages. James M Stevens Music ASCAP #135807. Published by James M Stevens Music ASCAP (A0.525271). Written January 9, 2022, this is a an original piano composition in the mode of B Locrian. Locrian is a rarely used mode because unlike all the other modes its tonic (first chord) is not major or minor, but diminished. Also, it is different in that it does not have a solid dominant because the distance to the 5th is a tritone or what in Medieval times was considered the “devil in music� and avoided it at all cost. So at times it can be a little unsettling, but I’ve blended this in with a somewhat impressionist feel with lots of colors in the harmony while all staying within the Locrian. James Michael Stevens is a prolific composer residing in Nashville, TN.

Piano Solo - Level 3 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1408607 Composed by Michael Sorg. Arranged by Michael Sorg. 20th Century,Blues,Children,Instructional,Jazz. Score. 2 pages. Sorg Music - Michael E. Sorg #990687. Published by Sorg Music - Michael E. Sorg (A0.1408607). This is a blues with a twist - there is no fourth scale degree! As such, it uses a seven-note scale I call the Embellished Dominant Lydian Scale, which (for jazz buffs) could be called a subset of the Diminished Octatonic Scale.

Piano Solo - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.862537 Composed by Michael Bomier. Contemporary,Instructional,Standards. Score. 5 pages. Michael Butkus-Bomier #2033827. Published by Michael Butkus-Bomier (A0.862537). Darius Milhaud was NOT a member of the insider's group of Old Guard French composers, epitomized by Debussy and Ravel. Ravel had usupred Debussy's place as the pre-eminent modernist, and he rightly understood it was the duty of the next generation to rebel against his own work, and find their own ways and voices. Hence, Les Six was formed to accomplish this, just as Ravel's Les Apaches, ( not a Native American meaning, but a general reference to being musical warriors) had, by turns, admired, undermined, and then surpassed Debussy. The music here uses Milhaud's best-known contribution to modernity, bi-tonality. It takes the form of arpeggiated augmented major 7th chords played against each other: as the relationship between the chords comes to the tritone, each iteration slows down, but only to De-Emphasize the stark contrast, rather than bring it out. A second section uses mirrored, symmetrical patterns in each hand. The finale concludes with plain triads juxtaposed in a bi-tonal fashion, with the same contrary motion towards the tritone using a ritard and diminuendo. Approx. running time is 4 mins 30 secs. Easy to play, easy to read, not as easy to hear! Pedaling is fully indicated throughout. Debussy never used bi-tonality, and Ravel hinted at it a few times, but it was Milhaud's stock-in-trade. We'll see you on the Roof, with the Cows! Thanks for listening to ( and buying, and playing?! )these three updated French bon-bons. MBB.

Piano Solo - Level 3 - Digital Download SKU: A0.996275 Composed by Michael Bufalini. Concert,Contemporary. Score. 4 pages. Michael Bufalini #5017315. Published by Michael Bufalini (A0.996275). The Northwind blows with the call of a wolf as it's long howel throughout the night intensifies, a glowing ambiance of an interglacial light appears to diminish the blackness of night's edge. .

Piano Solo - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.862538 Composed by Michael Bomier. Contemporary,Instructional,Standards. Score. 8 pages. Michael Butkus-Bomier #2034191. Published by Michael Butkus-Bomier (A0.862538). Here is the first in the sequence of dual-interval selections. The half-step and the whole-step, close cousins, but, Do They Get Along? Sure! The traditional musical element that uses both these intervals is the octotonic or diminished scale. So, this material figures prominently in the first section, accompanied by alternating major and minor sevenths. The piece uses mirrored and symmetrical passages in 7ths next, followed by the opposite smaller intervals. Rolled mirrored clusters, symmetrical open chords, every possibility is explored here, each aspect showing its own identity. The intervallic unity gives the piece, and ALL the pieces in this series, a continuity that binds the disparate pianistic applications together into unified and identifiable musics. Running time is approx. 3 mins 30 secs. at suggested tempo. Any piece in this series can go slower, if the player needs the time, or faster, if the player feels like gunning it! MBB.

Piano Solo - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.862667 Composed by Edward MacDowell. Arranged by Michael Bomier. Concert,Halloween,Romantic Period,Standards. Score. 8 pages. Michael Butkus-Bomier #3630325. Published by Michael Butkus-Bomier (A0.862667). Hexantanze of Edward MacDowell is a fine example of American program music, much in the vein of The Sorcerer's Apprentice of Paul Dukas. Augmented chords, chromatic scales, and a lively double-triple meter dance section in the middle. Not all of the piece sounds minor, as there is a major section that uses a half-diminished chord to morph its way back to the minor. Key of B minor. Mostly original notes, some L/R re-assignment, and a few truncated chords and leaps. Our tempo is conservative, but this piece can really fly, no broomstick pun intended... oh, well, ya got me, I DID mean that! Marta Argerich can really launch herself into this one. MBB .

Piano Solo - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.862535 Composed by Michael Bomier. Contemporary,Instructional,Standards. Score. 6 pages. Michael Butkus-Bomier #2033351. Published by Michael Butkus-Bomier (A0.862535). Etude 3.0, the last of the single-interval material. tritones are rather easier to mirror, and otherwise make symmetrical than other intervals. Thus this piece is 100% mirrored, symmetrical, and topographically identical hand-to-hand. There are many structures which are also inversions, played simultaneously. Diminished 7ths, Dom7 b5 chords, even fifths with the tritone sandwiched in between the two halves of the fifths, are in evidence here. There are rhythmic syncopations and shifting accents. All in all a real showpiece of perpetuum mobile dissonance which makes sense even to the listener or player accustomed to Romantic literature. It's a gallop! Approx running time is 4 mins 20 secs. Two-interval pieces are next in line. MBB.

Piano Solo - Level 3 - Digital Download SKU: A0.862686 Arranged by Michael Bomier. 20th Century,Concert,Holiday,Love,Romantic Period,Standards. Score. 4 pages. Michael Butkus-Bomier #3692927. Published by Michael Butkus-Bomier (A0.862686). Gateway Editions has many popular but still difficult resettings of the Classical and Romantic literature for piano. We also have many genuinely simplified settings. Here is one such item. IF you know augmented and diminished chords, if you know duplets in a triple meter, and if you know how to play dissonances, you will not find this setting at all intimidating. If NOT, there is no finer music to learn them from, as SR used these backwards common-tone chord progressions throughout his music. Spellings have been used to make the identification of these elements as clear as possible. The dynamics indicate the Point of the piece, a key element in both SR's playing and his compositional approach. All here is Very accessible music. original key, not full-length. LH greatly reduced. Melody intact but limited in range. Harmony from the original, but in reduced voicings. MBB

Piano Solo - Level 5 - Digital Download SKU: A0.938757 Composed by Michael A Yenny. 20th Century,Concert,Contemporary,Standards. Score. 7 pages. Michael A Yenny #41375. Published by Michael A Yenny (A0.938757). Scary, suspenseful, icy music. Features tremolos, chromatic scales, rapid repeated notes, extreme registers, and tritone/augmented/diminished harmonies. Duration: 3 minutes. Copyright 2015. Contact: myenny@angelo.edu.

Piano Solo - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.862540 Composed by Michael Bomier. Contemporary,Instructional,Standards. Score. 6 pages. Michael Butkus-Bomier #2034273. Published by Michael Butkus-Bomier (A0.862540). The minor third offers lots of opportunities for mirroring, in contrary motion. The half-step in this piece is treated not so much as a component interval as the distance between the two minor thirds being used at any one time. Lots of crunchies that you would not expect to have much euphony have a pleasant snap, like a fresh salad or a crisp! Diminished chords and minor seventh chords are turned upside down, and combined in unusual ways throughout. There is even a major-minor section in the middle. Half-steps often take the form of major sevenths, even sometimes displaced by two octaves. Approx running time is 2 mins 30 secs, less a a slightly slower pace. Worth doing at less than the suggested tempo, as the colors still come through. MBB.

Piano Solo - Digital Download SKU: A0.1012132 Composed by Michael Staff. Contemporary. Score. 11 pages. Michael Staff #3587487. Published by Michael Staff (A0.1012132). Originally intended to be the first movement of a sonata (the chromatic argument being the second movement), the main thematic material for this work was composed entirely during sleep. Music 'written' during sleep was then penned in a notebook immediately after waking up each morning. Collecting six years-worth of these ideas formed the main thematic elements. After constructing the primary and subordinate themes, the exposition was treated as a parent function would be in mathematics. Using the concept of graph transformations, the original idea was then stretched, diminished, shifted, rotated, and reflected, resulting in unique musical transformations.

Piano Solo - Level 3 - Digital Download SKU: A0.573349 Composed by James Michael Stevens. Arranged by James Michael Stevens. 20th Century,Contemporary,Easter,New Age. Score. 4 pages. James M Stevens Music ASCAP #5317955. Published by James M Stevens Music ASCAP (A0.573349). Written March 20, 2020, this is an original piano composition in the ancient Greek mode of D Phrygian. It is in a darkly reflective style. Some of the sounds in the melody and harmony you hear might not sound quite right because it is in neither major or minor. This particular mode is not used as much as some of the others because of the minor 2nd in the scale and because there is not a true dominant feeling chord because the V chord does not have a perfect fifth and is naturally a diminished chord. Sometimes I like to write a piece that is just an exercise in 20th century music theory utilizing the ancient modes. James Michael Stevens is a prolific composer residing in Nashville, TN and serves as the Music Department Chairman of Welch College.

Piano Solo - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1077068 By Michael Swedberg. By Terrence Niska. 20th Century,Classical,Contemporary. Score. 4 pages. Niska Music Publishing #681210. Published by Niska Music Publishing (A0.1077068). We begin this stroll through the forest with our hearts filled with joy and delight, enjoying the rustling of the leaves and the sunlight-dappled earth beneath our feet. There is a shift in mood as the trees become thicker and the light from above is diminished lending a more disquieting feel to the surroundings. It is not dangerous, nor evil, like the woods of some fabled land with witches and goblins, but there is a sense of unease rising within us. Our pace quickens with the beating of our hearts, but the path is clearly marked and we continue on to eventually find our way back to the sunlit world where birds can once again be heard and our momentary concerns are forgotten. We are at peace.