David W Solomons' Music Site
Home My Works Publishers News CDs Videos Personal Others YouTube Search Email Links
David W Solomons’
 Music Site
Four little songs by Hal Owen Performed by the dwsChorale

The oboe`s a wind made of wood

I would play you a tune if I could

But the reed is a pain

and the fingering`s insane

it`s an ill wind that no-one blows good

(mp3)



I know a young fellow named Hatch

Who was fond of the music of Batch

He said it`s not fussy

Like Brahms or Debussy

Sit down and I`ll play you a snatch

(mp3)



There was a young girl in the choir

Whose voice went up hoir and hoir

Till one Sunday night

It vanished from sight,

And turned up next day in the spoir.

(video)












Composer and music educator Hal Owen has written several
amusing pieces based on limericks and other short comic poem
 forms.
 With his approval, I have performed some of these, as follows:

Fuguing by Doing - a light-hearted and educational piece by Hal Owen

originally intended to be spoken in rhythm

but pitches were added to the rhythms later to make

the fugue into a more recognisable melodic form


Subject! Here`s the subject!

You`ll never have a fugue without a subject

And nothing fits it better than a countersubject

Now counterpoint.

We`ll fill in with some counterpoint

Syncopation at the cadence

And now that all have entered you can see how we come to the end of the exposition

And then the development comes with imitation and little motives from the SUBJECT

Let`s have another episode

Let`s have it

and now in stretto

some filler - some counterpoint

What the name of the game is...

This enticing device is

What we took from the book is

What we chose to compose is augmentation

And finally we give you

As a very last iteration

The subject!

The proper way to end is with the subject

(Pedal point will bring our fugue unto its ultimate conclusion)

Amen

(video)