| Composer | Colleen Muriel |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | Very difficult |
| Format | full score and parts(download) |
| Publisher | El Flauto Records |
| Instruments | flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet and piano |
See a page from A Day In The Life of Squirrel - Squirrel Song
A fun but very hard to play piece for a small group of chamber instruments. The Scoring is -
(1 Flute, 1 Flute Head Joint (F.H.J.), 1 Oboe, 1 Oboe Reed (Ob Reed), 1 Bb Clarinet, 1 Bb Trumpet, 1 Trumpet Mouth Piece, 1 or 2 Pianos)
The Order of Movements which describes the music is -
Performing Notes
One or Two Pianos
When using only one piano it is advisable to have two players; one for the strings and one for the keyboard. In movements which utilize both pianos (if using only 1 piano) please use the pedal markings for piano 2.
Playing the Piano Strings
The piano glissandos on it's strings with fingers creating an ethereal quality.
Occassionally strings can be plucked and occassionally the glissandos can stop or pause.
A string can be blocked with one hand, while the other hand plays the same note on the piano keyboard, creating a Chinese bloc sound (a stopped sound)
The pianist can use any or all of the large open areas of strings in different sections of the piano. Even though the notated arrows in the score seem to indicate playing directly up or down the piano strings - this simply depicts the range to utilize. Please spend time in the middle range of the strings as well as playing frequently in a circular motion on the strings. Discretion of pianist.
There perhaps should be some fluctuations in the dynamics of the piano strings gissando to fit in with other simultaneous music. Generally speaking however the piano glissando shoud stay predominantly around an 'mp' dynamic.
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Flute, Oboe, Bb Trumpet Players
To facilitate some of the music
Oboe players may need an extra reed
Flute players may need an extra head joint
Trumpet players may need an additional mouth piece
Accidentals
Where there are no bar lines accidentals only apply to the note they directly precede.
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Tremoli are not necessarily meant to be clear. If they sound distorted that's GREAT. Remember this piece of music is about a Squirrel.
Footnotes in Parts
The footnotes in the instrumental parts match the footnotes in the full score. To be exact - the movement each footnote is from is put first followed by the number of the footnote within that specific movement.
For example 1:5 would mean the fifth footnote from the first movement. This is done consistenty throughout.
Movements as Individual Pieces
This composer thinks it would also be great fun to play individual movements as individual pieces.
She also believes it would be OK to perform 2 or 3 movements (musician's choice) rather than the whole of Squirrel Song (when needed).
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Squirrel and Cat