This is a string transcription of my piano piece, Parody of Eric Satie’s Gymnopedie #1 (in this case, “Parody of” means “Homage to”). I thought this might work well for string ensemble.
Tag: parody
Sea Chant-y
This is a bit of whimsy: a 16th century counterpoint (chant) setting of three contemporary songs: “I’m Popeye the Sailor Man”, “Oh the Sailor’s Life is the Life for Me”, and “Many Brave Hearts are Asleep in the Deep”. It is also an experiment with a synthetic voice generator (“Alter/Ego” by Plogue Art et Technologie, Inc., Montreal, Canada) that will “sing” words and music.
“I’m Popeye the Sailor Man” was written by Sammy Lerner, and published in “The Popeye Song Folio” by Popular Melodies (New York CIty, New York) in 1936, and served as the theme song for all of Paramount’s “Popeye” cartoons from 1933 to 1957.
The “Sailor’s Hornpipe” (also known as “College Hornpipe” or “Jack’s the Lad”) is a traditional hornpipe (sailor’s dance) melody dating from at least the 18th century.
“Asleep in the Deep” (“Many Brave Hearts are Asleep in the Deep”) was written by Arthur J. Lamb and Henry W. Petrie in 1897.
A Day’s Messing (rescore)
Scored for: studio orchestra and synthesizers
I found a terrific short film on Vimeo by Jeff Seal, and completely rewrote the soundtrack. This comic film follows a busy day in the life of a bicycle messenger in New York City, in the boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-finds-girl genre, but with a side helping of voodoo and a tribute to the classic Buster Keaton comedies. You’ve got to see it to understand.
Note that the video is the property of Bike Pathe and Jeff Seal, and is used for purposes of illustrating my film scoring. No copyright infringement is intended. The music is Copyright © 2016 Steven K. Sanford.
Please do not republish this film clip elsewhere on the internet or use without permission.
Jeff’s original film, with a film score by Mitchell Yoshida, is here.
Ode to Joy Variations
This was a quick project to write a few piano variations on the “Ode to Joy” theme from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. It consists of 4 sections:
- “Ode to Joy” Theme
- Variation in the Style of Mozart
- Variation in the Style of Bach
- Variation in the Style of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata
(revised 06 October 2017)
In The Garden Patch
This is a woodwind trio (oboe, clarinet, bassoon) depicting a whimsical walk through a vegetable garden, where every patch has a story, and every story is in a different musical mode:
- “Walking in the Ionian Garden”
- “Ominous Aeolian Mushrooms”
- “Gossiping Lydian Peas”
- “Mixolydian Radishes Tango”
- “Procession of the Phrygian Asparagus”
- “Locrian Garlic Waltz”
- “Maudlin Dorian Onions”
- “Walking in the Aeolian Garden (Reprise)”
(recording updated 19 September 2017)
Parody of Satie’s Gymnopedie #1
What if Satie was writing music a decade or two later? He might have gone into more avante garde dissonance and perhaps even atonality, which was all the rage in art-music circles.
(remastered 2017-10-11)
Steven K Sanford 