OCD Etudes for Two Pianos

Bach Contrapunctus, and Fugues 12 and 15, and the Six Partitas for a Party

Music for a ballet composed by Bill LePage based on the illustrated novel, "Good-bye, Chunky Rice."

Instrumentation: Clarinet, Harp, Piano, Orchestral Bells, Sleigh Bells, Tam-tam, Triangle, and Trombone.

“Good-bye, Chunky Rice” is the story of a small turtle, Chunky Rice, who leaves his home and his mouse friend, Dandel, and sets out on a sea voyage with an assortment of odd, lonely characters.  Meanwhile, Dandel spends her time collecting empty bottles and filling them with letters written in crayon she hopes will reach her friend at sea.

The story has been called an “alternative-comics answer to Saint-Exupéry’s ‘The Little Prince’.”  The music for the ballet was cited as "being as haunting and heartbreaking as the story it’s based on... [and] that fits the tone of the book perfectly."

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Good-bye, Chunky Rice

Obsessive Compulsive Variations

Idées Fixes, No. 2 (on a theme by Prokofiev, Piano Sonata No. 7, "Precipitato")

Idées Fixes, No. 3, Dance

Fugue 15, G Major for Piano.

Fugue 12, F minor for Harpsichord.

Contrapunctus I

Partita 1 II. Allemande

Partita 1 I. Prelude

4'33" John Cage: Questions and Answers

Fixed Ideas

Fixed Ideas - "Danse de Don Pedre"

Motorhome

Normandic Horses Of Finland

Fixed Ideas - Irrational Obsession

Fixed Ideas - Crash

Fixed Ideas - Overture

Fixed Ideas - Irrational Redemption

Fixed Ideas - Curtains

Fixed Ideas - Lady Macbeth

Fixed Ideas - Recurring Theme

Fixed Ideas - Fixed Idea

A student work inspired by the music of Charles Ives (b. 1874)

A Stroll Through Downtown Danbury 1874

CPE Bach - Sonata in A minor "Wurttemberg Sonata" No. 1, Wq. 49, III. Allegro assai

Sinfonia No. 5 in B Minor

Hello There!

Idées Fixes, No. 1 (on a theme by Prokofiev, Symphony No. 4)

This is the music for a ballet based on the graphic (illustrated) novel, Good-bye Chunky Rice.

Good-bye, Chunky Rice Sc. 2  Dandel Alone

Good-bye, Chunky Rice Sc. 3 Dandel sits by the ocean

Good-bye, Chunky Rice Sc. 4 "A letter in a Bottle for you..."

Goodbye, Chunky Rice Sc. 1 Dandel & Chunky

Overture to Good-bye, Chunky Rice

"Zippy Opera" was performed in the concert hall of the Boston University School of Music, 855 Commonwealth Avenue, on the evening of April 18, 1989.  Chris Kale, Tenor, John Tusch, Baritone, Kate Buchanan, Soprano, and Larry Bull, narrator, all performed Zippy.  The rest of the ensemble included Ted Atkatz, radio, television, tape, Don Hagar, toy piano, Heather Sweeting, toy trumpet and flutophone, Jonathan Fox, toy saxophone, Gary Wallen, percussion, Leanna Hanson, David Nicastro, Violin, Donna Reddy, Viola, Damien Kramer, Cello, and the composer playing the piano.  Stage design was by Dennis Vermeullen, and Steve Bova did the lighting, with Michael DeGreef as the spotlight operator.

The work is a “comic opera” and was originally entitled "Pindemonium ARE KING PIN."  It eventually got shortened to “Pindemonium."  Those who witnessed its first performance in 1989 have always called it the “Zippy Opera”. 

The material, based on the comic strip Zippy the Pinhead (the lovable microcephalic hero created by Bill Griffith), had been introduced to me by my roommates the year before.  My percussionist friends encouraged me in the process.  If it had not been for these freshmen percussionists at Boston University, Ted Atkatz (former Principal Timpanist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) and Jonathan Fox (Principal Timpanist and Percussionist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra), this opera would probably never have been written.  

At the time I was composing "Zippy Opera," John Cage was delivering the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures in Poetry, which I attended, across the river at Harvard University.  I was also first coming into contact with the ideas and art of Marcel Duchamp, and much of the musical material for The Zippy Opera was written inspired by John Cage’s and Marcel Duchamp’s ideas.

In a review at the time by Michael Bloom in Boston Rock, the work was described, “This ‘comic opera’ (get it?) was a student production, but it was easily the equal of a lot of allegedly top flight New York stuff, not to mention a lot more fun."

This is the second act.

Zippy Opera

Zippy Opera (Akt II)

Snowtime

Music for Four Pianos No. 1

Orchestral version of the finale to the ballet "Chunky Rice," music composed by Bill LePage.  The work is based on the illustrated novel, "Good-Bye, Chunky Rice."

There is No Good-Bye, Chunky Rice (Orchestral Version)

Bill LePage

Pinned to spotlight

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