SKU: A0.818181

Seven traditional and one original Christmas carols arranged for bassoon duet by Philip Le Bas for beginning bassoonists of grades 1-3 standard. This collection contains carol arrangements of varying degrees of difficulty and in various keys. They can of course be played fast or slow. The arranger's aim is to provide material that is fun to play, recognizably familiar, yet with a high standard of musical integrity and encouraging some independence of the two parts. 
1. Away in a manger
2. God rest you merry, gentlemen
3. Hark, the herald angels sing
4. Jingle bells
5. O come, all ye faithful
6. Silent night
7. Watt's cradle carol
8. While shepherds watched.

SKU: A0.1126324

Pyotr Tchaikovsky wrote a set of twelve wonderful piano pieces entitled The Seasons, one for each month. Perhaps the most well-known is June: Barcarolle, and here it is arranged for bassoon and piano by Philip Le Bas. It perhaps depicts a lazy boat journey on a calm lake in the height of summer, with a slightly faster (choppier?) section in the middle.

SKU: A0.1463474

A short, attractive fugue for wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon) by Philip Le Bas, inspired by and based on Hubert Parry's much-loved hymn Dear Lord and Father, whose melody is entitled Repton. The fugue's structure results from a fascinating online Fugue Writing course run by CityLit, London, which the composer attended in the first half of 2024. The course presents and explains the eighteenth-century ideas of a fully developed fugue, which culminated in J.S. Bach's extraordinary achievement, the Well Tempered Clavier, and which has been used in various forms by composers ever since. The fugal rules are here treated rather as guidelines in order to create a fugue more immediately appealing to 21st century listeners, but the piece attempts to maintain the general structure found in classic fugues. The initial subject is quirky and tuneful (in fact a bit of an ear-worm), but it immediately goes on to include counter-subjects, tonal answers, codettas, episodes, middle entries, inverted subjects, strettos, a pedal and a final entry, plus a relatively long coda in which Parry's original melody is celebrated exuberantly. These different sections and techniques are all labeled in the score to add an educational dimension to the composition. Those who know the composer's Repton Variations for wind sextet will recognise the opening and ending, at least in outline, but they will soon find the rest to be more technically developed, if rather less serious, from the very beginning! The piece lasts just under three minutes.

SKU: A0.1127840

An arrangement by Philip Le Bas of a very early wind quintet written by Edward Elgar while still based in Worcester in 1878-9, entitled Harmony Music No.1, after the German Harmoniemusik, meaning music for wind instruments. His quintet group (in which he played the bassoon) consisted of two flutes, an oboe, a clarinet and a bassoon, which by modern standards is rather unusual (omitting the usual French horn). He agreed to write a quintet for the group once a week, and he claimed to have written most of them during the 25-minute sermons at St. George's R.C. Church, where he had taken over the organ-playing from his father (and where the arranger ministered for three years in the 1990s!) It is a wonderful, cheerful, tuneful short piece (4-5 minutes long), but the original version is rarely performed, perhaps because of its difficulty on several fronts. First it is very fast, challenging performers' ability to tongue rapidly. Secondly, it repeatedly leaves no time to breathe, especially for the flautists (meaning that it has to be performed even faster, in order to get through it.) Thirdly, Elgar's oboist must have been extremely versatile, as its part is very low indeed in places (several low B's played pp at speed.) Finally, published copies seem to have rather a lot of editorial errors... This arrangement was therefore created in the hope that the piece might become more accessible and be more frequently performed. Although the bassoon part remains Elgar's, the other four players are used imaginatively to overcome many of the difficulties of the original. For example, the original low oboe parts are here played by one of the clarinets instead, and the severe breathing problems are solved by sharing repeated quavers between the four higher instruments.

SKU: A0.818162

Faure’s piano duet entitled Dolly Suite is here arranged by Philip Le Bas for a wind sextet, consisting of a standard wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon) plus bass clarinet. The bass clarinet gives the music more sonority and it allows the arranger more opportunity to bring out Faure’s sumptuous harmonies. Dolly was the nickname of the baby daughter of Emma Bardac, with whom Faure had a long-running affair, and each of the pieces has a slightly different association with childhood.

1)   The Berceuse (lullaby) is best remembered as the theme tune to the BBC’s Listen with Mother, and its tune is indelibly marked into the memories of generations of radio listeners between 1950 and 1982. It was written for Dolly’s first birthday. (An alternative part for clarinet in A is available for this movement, to avoid the otherwise slightly tricky key signature of F sharp major!)

2)   Mi-a-ou has nothing to do with cats, but is a version of Dolly’s first attempts to pronounce the name of her brother Raoul. Written for her second birthday, it is a delicate and playful scherzo with lots of cross-rhythms for the instruments.

3)   Le Jardin de Dolly is regarded by some as the best piece in the collection, with its gorgeous tune and unexpected harmonies, creating an impressionistic picture of a beautiful, peaceful French garden.

4)   Kitty-Valse again has nothing to do with cats but with the family dog Ketty, who whirls round and round, in unrelenting cheerfulness.

5)   In Tendresse Faure introduces more chromatic harmonies, used in his later works. As its name and its key of D flat suggests, the music here seems to express deep and shifting emotions associated with intimate relationships, while retaining a sense of calm and comfort throughout.

6)   The last piece, Le Pas Espagnole is a thrilling journey across the border into the exotic Spanish world of dance. There is much in common with Chabrier’s Espana, and here the wind players can enjoy playing at full tilt in an exciting and tuneful end to the suite.

SKU: A0.1126331

Manuel De Falla’s two suites of dances from the ballet “The Three-Cornered Hat� (El sombrero de tres picos) contain the most quintessentially Spanish of all orchestral dances ever written, demanding a large orchestra (and singer.) Philip Le Bas has here arranged a short “mini-suite� of four movements for wind sextet: flute, oboe/cor anglais. clarinet, bass clarinet, french horn, and bassoon. All the major characters of the ballet are represented in the movements chosen, including the pompous, disreputable, and rather tipsy town mayor (played by the bassoon briefly in the third movement), the neighbours (who ultimately see justice done, tossing the mayor up and down on a blanket), and of course the dashing Miller and his electrifying wife! 1. Neighbours' Dance (Seguidillas) 2. Miller’s Dance (Farruca) 3. Afternoon (La Tarde) 4. Dance of the Miller’s Wife (Fandango).

SKU: A0.818164

De Falla's orchestral Spanish Dance no.1 is here arranged by Philip Le Bas for a wind sextet (flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, horn and bassoon). Originally forming part of de Falla's opera La Vida Breve (Life is short), it is fully of colour and excitement from the opening four bars, through the archetypically Spanish rhythms and tunes of the main dance, climaxing in the central fortissimo section which is stamped out by the invisible singers, and returning with even more colour to the original theme.

SKU: A0.1226177

An arrangement for double wind quintet (decet) and double bass by Philip Le Bas of five movements from Tchaikovsky's ever-popular Nutcracker ballet : 1. March,  2. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, 3. Russian Dance: Trepak, 4. Chinese Dance, 5. Waltz of the Flowers.

SKU: A0.1127457

An arrangement by Philip Le Bas of Mozart's most famous work for horn, the 3rd movement (Rondo) of his 4th Horn Concerto. The original orchestral accompaniment is here arranged for flute, oboe, two B flat clarinets and bassoon.