Howard Skempton Arrangements

Larry Polansky

I find it a real pleasure to arrange other people's work. Besides the obvious fun of writing music without writing any notes, it's a nice way to learn a music I admire. When I arrived in London a few months ago, on the advice of my colleague Christian Wolff, I got a hold of a copy of Skempton's two piano book collections: Images and Collected Piano Pieces. I quickly fell in love with his elegance, economy, and way of embedding such deep ideas in so few notes. When it seemed like the Dartmouth foreign study group needed some ensemble pieces for their final program, I decided to arrange a couple of these piano pieces for the instruments at hand. I think I'll keep at it. To date, the existing arrangements are:

Trace (violin, flute, oboe); Tender Melody (oboe, 2 vlns., vla.); June '77 (guitar, horn, viola); Chorale (2 vln., fl., ob., hn., piano, perc.); Song 2 (guitar);Postlude (Fl., ob., vce. (w/ opt. doubled vib?), vln., vla., hn., guitar);Slow Waltz (guitar, viola).

LP (London, May, 1998)