Music by Alex Murray

This page contains scores, parts and MIDI files of some of my compositions.   I'm always glad to get my music performed, so please download the files and take a look or listen to the MIDI files.    If you play something, I'd be glad to get your impressions and comments, and if possible a tape, CD, or MP3 file of a good reading or performance.    Please contact me at alexm@kktb.net (except remove the first 'k' after the '@') with comments or electronic music files of your performance, or to make arrangements to send a tape.

In this page I have compositions for piano, chorus, various woodwind combinations, and music for French Horn.   I'm also usually willing to write something for a player - it can't hurt to ask anyway.  I'm always adding new pieces to this page, so stop back now and then.

Music for Woodwinds

• Little Suite for Oboe and Violin (2001) - in five short movements, this piece is suitable for intermediate players or even near-beginners. MIDI file, score.

• Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (2000-2001) - in three movements, this piece has been performed at PCC and people really liked it.  Moderately difficult.   Score, all 3 mvmts.,  Clarinet part, all 3 mvmts.,  MIDI file, 1st mvmt.,  MIDI file, 2nd mvmt.,  MIDI file, 3rd mvmt.

• Study for Woodwind Quintet (1996) - a short piece, in which I was trying to expand my contrapuntal/harmonic vocabulary, it was played at Pasadena City College with big success. Moderately difficult.  MIDI file, score;  Parts: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn.

• Dectet for Woodwinds (1995-96) - scored for sax quartet, 2 flutes, to oboes, and 2 clarinets (Bb), this three-movement piece, in a neoclassical style with Jazz harmonic influences, was played at Oberlin and at Pasadena City College (with me on second oboe), where it was a hit.  Easy to moderate difficulty.  MIDI file, mvmt. 1,  score, mvmt. 1, MIDI file, mvmt. 2,  score, mvmt. 2, MIDI file, mvmt. 3,  score, mvmt. 3; Parts: Mvmt. 1:  fl. 1, fl. 2,  ob 1, ob. 2,  cl. 1, cl. 2,  sop. sax, alto sax, ten. sax, bar. sax;   Mvmt. 2: fl. 1, fl. 2, ob 1, ob. 2, cl. 1, cl. 2, sop. sax, alto sax, ten. sax, bar. sax; Mvmt. 3:  fl. 1, fl. 2,  ob 1, ob. 2,  cl. 1, cl. 2,  sop. sax, alto sax, ten. sax, bar. sax;

Music for Brass

• Sonata for Horn and Piano (1999) - This piece is also in three movements, neo-classical in style, with lots of idiomatic horn writing.  1st mvmt. very difficult, the others moderatly difficult.   Score, all 3 mvmts.; Mvmts. 1 & 2 MIDI file; Mvmt 3:  MIDI file,   horn part for all 3 movements: Horn part.

Choral Music

Most of my choral music is published by Yelton Rhodes Music so I can't put the scores up on line.  But I can put MIDI files here.

• In Time of Daffodils(Who Know  (1999) - SATB and piano, on a whimsical and celebratory poem by e. e. cummings.  You can hear a sample of the piece, and get the score from the publisher, Yelton Rhodes Musc.  Duration: about 4'15".  Moderately difficult.

• Season of Love (1997) - SATB and piano, this secular piece celebrates the spirit of the holiday season. Hear it, get the score from Yelton Rhodes.  Duration: about 4'15".   Moderately easy (except for the piano part, which is hard).

• Pride Springing Up (1996) - SATB, TTBB, or SSAA and piano, this piece celebrates the courage of a few people trying to form a a gay rights organization in just post-Soviet Rumania in spite of police beatings. You can hear the SATB version, or get the score from Yelton Rhodes.  Duration: about 4'15".   Rather difficult.

• Native Moments (1995) - TTBB and piano on a baudy and exuberant poem by Walt Whitman.  Hear the MIDI file, get the score from YRM.

• The Family of Things (1994) - in five movements for SATB (with divisi) on poems by various authors with a central theme of the place of human beings in nature.  The texts include a Gary Snyder poem based on a Mohawk prayer of gratitude, Wild Geese by Mary Oliver, and an Eskimo text.  The movements are: The Great Sea (MIDI file), I Walked Out...( hear it), Wild Geese (hear it), Change (hear it) and Prayer for the Great Family (MIDI file it).   Duration: about 12'.   From fairly easy to rather difficult. Publisher:  Yelton Rhodes Musc.

Piano Music

These piano pieces sort of make a collection.  They're kind of 'pop' sounding, harmonically a little Jazzy, easy to listen to, not always so easy to play.  There are others in this group for which I don't have on-line scores, so ask me if you like them and would like to see the others.

 

• Distant Lights -  MIDI file, score.
• Journey -  MIDI file, score.
• Rocking - MIDI file,  score.
• Spruce Mountain -  MIDI file, score.