Duet for Soprano and Contralto, accompanied by Violin, Cello, and Contrabass (4 min. 14 sec.) Adapted and arranged by Peter Gore-Symes from Shakespeare's "As You Like It". 
Further detail and analysis is available at 
http://notes-about-music.blogspot.com/2014/03/blow-blow-thou-winter-wynde-for-female.html 
The recording was made with Sibelius 6.2 software, so the voices do not actually pronounce the lyrics but are in 'vocalise' style. However, the words may be followed easily enough on the free downloadable score, which will open on a new page at
http://www.scribd.com/doc/213657430/Blow-Blow-Thou-Winter-Wynde 
The score and recording are both deemed in the public domain, but naturally I request acknowledgement as the arranger in any performances or broadcasts.


Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wynde

Many things in Nature, such as cabbages, pine-cones, sunflowers and snail-shells all grow in spiral patterns controlled by the series of numbers known as the Fibonacci Series. The 12th century mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci discovered that exponential growth occurred if the last two numbers of any series were added together (eg, 1+1=2; 1+2=3; 2+3=5; 3+5=8; 5+8=13; 8+13=21, etc). As with Bartok, who always composed with a pine-cone on his desk, these numbers provided the very simple genesis for my short piece "Fibonacci's Rabbits".
More detail at http://notes-about-music.blogspot.com/2011/08/fibonaccis-rabbits-sound-of-one.html
The PDF score is available and downloadable at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/63490621/Fibonnacci-s-Rabbits-The-Sound-of-One-Mathematician-Thinking


Fibonacci's Rabbits - the sound of one mathematician thinking

Telephones are considerably more mobile they were in the Good Old Days... nowadays they have mutated into Machiavellian Devices specifically designed for interrupting classical concerts at crucial moments. Therefore I felt impelled to write a Woodwind Quartet (oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon) to immortalize the insistent penetration of the Nokia Corporation into the musical fabric of Western Culture. There is nothing especially novel or innovative about this - many mediaeval motets of the 13th century, too, had street-vendor jingles of the day woven into their fabric.

*View the free downloadable pdf score at
http://www.scribd.com/doc/21601458/Quartetus-Interruptus-the-Nokia-Quartet
A transposed score for performance is available at:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/21601257/Quartetus-Interruptus-the-Nokia-Quartet-transposing-score

I wanted 'Quartetus Interruptus'  to sound like a prim and proper little mainstrean chamber piece, the accessible melodic sort which might be preferred by normal "music lovers".  Therein, however, lies its vulnerability, its ultimate doom... as the audience relaxes and drifts along with the music, the most Unthinkable Horror can happen... even at a concert-hall NEAR YOU. 
Quartetus Interruptus could actually work viably just as a trio of oboe, clarinet and bassoon. In terms of conventional part-writing, it doesn't really need to be a quartet. BUT (unbeknown to the audience) the 'spare' fourth performer is a desperate Terrorist clutching a mobile phone which has been cleverly modified to appear like another clarinet, silently waiting to ambush the ensemble when s/he detects a suitable.moment. The devastating Nokia tune can then be cruelly detonated to inflict maximum casualties. The unfortunate fact that the audience is usually seated closer to the mobile phone than to the musicians means that the penetrating Nokia ringtone can sound relatively louder than the music itself. With this in mind, it would be okay/fun/alarming for the second clarinet to be placed next to, or for novelty's sake, even among, the audience ;-)

Surely this telephonic intrusion comprises nothing less than Musical Terrorism on a mind-numbingly pervasive international scale! The Mobile has mutated into Phonezilla, a deadly "Weapon of Muse Distraction".

Quartetus Interruptus (the ''Nokia'' Quartet)

The soprano aria "Pamina's Lament" from Mozart's 'The Magic Flute' (Die Zauberflote) just acquired a surprise second voice, an alto. Perhaps it's only Pamina's alto-ego, but at least she won't feel so alone out there on stage any more, weeping for the love she thinks she's just lost.
Everything is pretty much as per Mozart's original except for the alto line and a couple of tiny inconsequential tweaks to the instruments. Oh yes, and I transposed it all down from g-minor to f-minor to help Pamina cope with that rotten high B-flat. Now it's only A-flat. Yeah yeah, I know that laments are supposed to be in g-minor, and that f-minor is traditionally a nasty key normally reserved for heralding the imminent onstage appearance of witches and demons, not heroines like Pamina. But hey, we're forced to use Sibelius's default of equal temparament (even with voices!), so the conventional assumptions around the old mean-tone key-colour really don't apply here. It's 2015.
A pdf score is available for free reading or download at www.scribd.com at the URL: 
https://www.scribd.com/doc/282362814/Vivienne-and-Pamina-s-Lament 
and a blog with analysis and commentary is at 
http://notes-about-music.blogspot.com.au/2015/09/vivienne-and-paminas-lament.html
thanks,
Peter Gore-Symes, the world's leading rogue arranger.
PS I had a good time with 'Vivienne and Dido's Lament' as well.

Vivienne And Pamina's Lament

I have represented the Fibonacci numbers in music, combining the elements of pitch, time and form. For more detail see my blog at 
http://notes-about-music.blogspot.com.au/2016/02/fibonaccis-private-fantasy-in-c-major.html


Fibonacci's Private Fantasy In C Major

One of the smash hits of the later 14th-century. For high voice, with two accompanying string or wind parts, plus optional lute/guitar part.  Performance would still be authentic with voice plus lute/guitar. Audiences in Florence who originally heard this piece reportedly had their hearts bursting out of their chests with emotion.

Questa Fanciulla Amor, by Francesco Landini

This is a 4-part (SATB divisi) setting of a short poem by John Burnside. It proposes that if only people sang together more, the human race might expand its cohesiveness and potential. About 3 minutes 42".

Choir

I took the trouble to render this forgotten old British Library score into sound mainly because it was written by my great-great grand-uncle John Keene TESTAR (late 19th century). John grew up under the influence of Catholic church music in the regular concerts at the Portuguese Chapel near his childhood home at South Audley St, Mayfair, London. Because the music is computer-generated, the words are not pronounced but sung in 'vocalise'. They begin by describing personal anguish, then supplication to God, and finish by expressing joyous belief that there had actually been a divine hearing:
"Lord, Lord, rebuke me not in thy indignation
Neither chasten me in thy displeasure"... [etc].
All the words and full score are available on my ancestry.com.au webpage at https://www.ancestry.com.au/family-tree/person/tree/26943757/person/1954431806/facts

Domine in Furore ('Rebuke Me Not') by John Keene Testar

'War and Love' represents the more secular side of John Keene TESTAR's repertoire, but nevertheless takes the form of a cautionary tale with moral overtones. Its exhortations to beware the (ironically) similar pitfalls of both War and Love are entertainingly comic in a didactically tongue-in-cheek manner. This was period entertainment for the Parlour or Music Hall, written in a recognizably mannerist style which is at its best when over-exaggerated. In this idiom, the singer ought to be theatrically histrionic, striving to overcome the piano's potentially overbearing weight. The pianist should humbly acquiesce to the voice and retire a little, following the singer's lead. I think the pianist should feel free to respect the singer's integrity by judiciously eliminating unnecessary notes which double the vocal pitches (as I mostly elected to do in this recording).  Details at my ancestry.com webpage at https://www.ancestry.com.au/family-tree/person/tree/26943757/person/1954431806/facts

War and Love (by John Keene Testar)

Performer - Noreen STOKES. This is a virtuoso concert study by Franz Liszt requiring a light, lyrical, nimble and understated touch.  This performance was recorded at an evening recital for the Australian Society of Keyboard Music on 16th May 1990 at Edmund Wright House, Adelaide, on an occasion when Noreen was invited to perform to herald the arrival of the Society’s Grotrian-Steinweg grand piano.  She was 73 years of age. Read more about her musical career, for which she was awarded an OAM (Order of Australia Medal)on her profile page at ancestry.com https://www.ancestry.com.au/family-tree/person/tree/26943757/person/1954431252/facts

"La Leggierezza" (Franz Liszt)

Performer - Noreen STOKES. This is one of Chopin's great concert blockbusters, a gigantic pianistic crescendo which emerges out of its shy initial notes. This was a studio recording by ABC Australia for radio broadcast in 1970. Noreen (my mother) gave me permission to use it. Read more about her musical career, for which she was awarded an OAM (Order of Australia Medal)on her profile page at ancestry.com https://www.ancestry.com.au/family-tree/person/tree/26943757/person/1954431252/facts

Ballade No.1 for piano (Frederic Chopin)

This music memorializes my grandmother Vivienne Agnes Stokes (nee Vivienne Agnes Bennett) who I never knew because she committed suicide in 1928 in Bulawayo, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Her death recalled to me that of the heroine Dido in Henry Purcell's opera 'Dido and Aeneas', so I felt that Vivienne ought to be allowed to sing her grief alongside Dido in a duet. My sincerest apologies to Mr Purcell.
Further details, and a recording, are available at
http://notes-about-music.blogspot.com/2012/04/vivienne-and-didos-lament-tribute-to.html


Vivienne and Dido's Lament

Being as much a "Musical Idea Researcher" as a Composer/Arranger<i>per se</i>, I'm constantly on the lookout out for new musical ideas to pursue. Why write something if someone's already done it, I often ask. Sure, this is no doubt the perfect way to write oneself into obscurity and poverty. I'll never develop a niche or identifiable style: every piece is quite different. For me, it's more about process than product. Yeah, maybe I'll decide to be the Charles Ives of Chiangmai...



Peter Gore-Symes

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