String Quartet 4. Allegro

Composing since the late 1970s! Quirky movie-score style pieces and songs.

Bio:

Arthur Breur started seriously studying piano after his grandmother, Jocelyn— his grandfather’s second wife—passed away when he was eight.  They had been very close, and his weekend stays at her home inevitably included him asking her to play piano for him.  

At ten he started taking lessons, having already taught himself a variety of music, including various movie score themes and ragtime pieces—but he gradually discovered that he enjoyed composing and playing his own music more than playing what was assigned to him by his piano teacher.

From the start, his compositions were very affected by the music in movies and on television.  It is not in jest that he points to the music performed on such television shows as “Sesame Street”, “The Electric Company”, and “The Muppet Show”—not to mention the superb songs of “School House Rock”—as sources of inspiration.  Further, many excellent scores for movies of that time, such as Escape to Witch Mountain, Close Encounters, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Trek, and others, fascinated him and formed his ideas on how music should “work”—with accessible, easily remembered themes that can be associated with specific things, people, or feelings.  His music was also heavily influenced an excellent music program at church.

He studied piano performance and composition and got his bachelor’s degree from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. By that time he had been studying piano for eight years, had composed more than a dozen pieces, and had previously lied about his age to get into a college-level music theory course.  His college piano instructor worked with his desire to compose by assigning him works by composers that inspired him.  Prokofiev and Ravel in particular influenced his compositional tone and style considerably.  Around this time, Danny Elfman’s film music also came to Arthur’s attention and provided yet another dimension of sound to pursue.

In the early 1990s, Arthur collaborated with lyricist, comedian, and singer, Cristopher Blake.  Between them they wrote more than twenty songs, many of which they performed live in various Los Angeles venues.

Over the more than 36 years he has been composing, he has written more than 140 individual pieces, including works for five weddings, two Christmas revues, numerous videos, and one short film.

Maine-raised, Boston and Baltimore (Peabody) educated, New York City honed, Chicago softened, and now back in New England.  Besides composing, I play piano and tuba (and tuba variants), and sing bass and countertenor.

String Quartet 4. Allegro

Jack Parton, composer