« Instantané » of and by Franck Douvin
Composed only by handwriting from Wednesday, October 19, 2022 to Sunday, August 7, 2022 in my home studio in front of the Savoy's mountains.
Score available.
My recording in my home studio on Monday, November 6, 2023
According to the the six notes : « DO MI SI LA DO RÉ »
Franck Douvin © 2023 Contemporary Chamber Music
Thanks for listening & sharing
I hope you'll enjoy!

« Instantané » of and by Franck Douvin

Concerto per pianoforte n. 2 - Il grande illusionista
per pianoforte e grande orchestra
   I - ...si svogle un dramma
   II - ...un'elegia assurda
   III - ...una cadenza surreale
   IV - ...un gran finale: introduzione - una passacaglia imperiosa

This piano concerto derived from a commission for piano and toy piano.  I intended to write that piece first and then use elements for a larger scale work.  I drafted some sketches, but then fantasy took hold, and I imagined a sort of conjuror of surreal images and situations, a character of dreams that could create the extraordinary.  I suppose this all harks back to the surreal paintings my mother painted, and the sort of visual imagery I have always loved.  There is no story, and there is no intention to create specific images.  Rather the music alludes to fantasy.  But it is steeped in tradition too.  The first movement is in a sort of sonata form; the second 'elegy' is a theme and variations; the cadenza uses material from what has come and what will come and the final movement is a passacaglia.  Certain piano concertos helped inspire specific moments: Beethoven's Emperor, Tchaikovsky's 1st, Ravel's G major, Prokofiev's 2nd and Bartok's 3rd.

Now the task is to compose the original commission...

© Paul Max Edlin 2024

The image is by Salvador Dalí (Creative Commons)

Concerto per pianoforte n. 2 - Il grande illusionista

Dedicated to all the brave men and women of our United States Armed Forces.


  Donum quod das 
  (The gift you give)

  Vita pro libero
  (Life for the free)

  Impleta promissio tueri
  (A fullfilled promise to protect)

  Quieti in aeternum
  (Rest forever)


100% of all streaming revenue for all versions of "Uncommon Man" is donated to charities providing services to our homeless veterans.

-----

A huge Thank You goes out to the team at DreamTonics. 

Without your amazing software there would not have been a realization of this iteration of "Uncommon Man"

Certainly not all AI is inhumane.

UNCOMMON MAN (Quieti in Aeternum)

New Horizons - Concerto for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra (2022)
Dedicated to John Wallace CBE with the hugest gratitude and admiration and warmest affection
Bede Williams (solo Trumpet [Trumpet in C, Piccolo Trumpet & Flugelhorn])
St Andrews Chamber Orchestra
Michael Downes (conductor)
Recording of World Premiere, 12 March 2025, Laidlaw Music Centre, University of St Andrews, Scotland
Recording made by Fife College
Film of complete concert available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uCzykyfmH4&t=7s

I was about to move country, to new horizons, and this work grew out of a shorter earlier work as a result. The short piece I wrote for Alison Balsom and the London Chamber Orchestra in celebration of the LCO’s 100th birthday had much further to go. It does so in this concerto. Cast in a single movement but in an almost symmetrical form of seven sections, complete with a cadenza, the work was composed between England and Italy, as I was travelling backwards and forwards from country to country. It strikes a new path in its style, and is, dare I say it, more ‘open’ in its musical language. I have no doubt that the openness of the Italian people and the landscape I knew I would be moving to had an impact on the music’s overall impression. And, of course, being a trumpeter, I wanted to write a solo concerto that responded to the instrument I know most of all, and reflect many of the works and styles I have worked with as a trumpeter. The soloist plays three different trumpets, a standard trumpet in Bb or C, a piccolo trumpet and flugelhorn, which has the most mellow and beguiling of sonorities. 
This work and this performance are dedicated to John Wallace, who was mentor and guide to Bede Williams and to me, and who has done so much to improve the lives of so many through his immense gifts and incredible generosity of spirit. 
© Paul Max Edlin 2025

New Horizons (2022) - live premiere

In collaboration with Francess Harris. She played the piano composition and I did the composition of the orchestral arrangement. Thank you for listening and enjoy. Any comment is appreciated always.

Collaboration Timothy McGuire / Francess Harris

The Magic Forest

The Magic Forest (feat. Fr. Harris)

Piano Sonata No. 10

IMAGES is a numbered series of original piano pieces inspired by the music impressionists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries... Ravel, Debussy and Faure. I love the impressionist painters. As a composer, I hear colors, the painter sees. And, I hear movement, shape and expression with sounds of melody, rhythm and emotion.

I hope you enjoy this collection. I would love your thoughts about how the music makes you feel, the story you imagine and the images you see when you listen. :)

Music Dreams Productions
Jennifer L. Jones
Music Dreams
Composer | Pianist | Producer
May 2025

Images for Piano No.3

Images for Piano No3

Aporia is an ongoing Internet collab project based around the piano/bass duo 'Kirby/Ward'. Occasionally we capture something at rehearsal that we send to dummer Dane Renshaw (Japan) and guitarist Bruce Musser (U.S.A) to add their respective talents too. Its usually pretty spacious and dreamy : ) For this track we added the talents of Dylan Banks playing the Intonarumori as it seemed the least likely instrument ( and therefore most fun)  to suit this pseudo jazz jam extraction. As always Aporia may or may not record more music

Aporia #4

Cello with string accompaniment (For your Love )

Kintsugi is an art form that embodies the philosophy of wabi-sabi which values the beauty of imperfection and transience. Kintsugi also serves as a metaphor for embracing our flaws and imperfections in life seeing them as a source of strength and beauty and finding resilience in the face of adversity. 

Variations on 'Reverie' by Debussy

Paul Maurice Roche, Composer