"Honey on English Muffins” from A Little Breakfast Music for oboe, clarinet and violins.

Hello —

Have you had your breakfast?

In 1976, not long out of Music School, I wrote a suite for four friends who played treble clef instruments — an oboist, a clarinetist and two violinists.  With no bass instrument, the content of the piece had to be light-weight.  Usually “light classical” is the term applied to comic operettas, but this is a chamber work, entitled A Little Breakfast Music.  Each of the five movements depicts an item we’d likely eat for breakfast.

You’re invited to join me for the last movement:  “Honey on English Muffins.”  Duration:  7 minutes, 22 seconds.

The movement opens in  4/4  with the sweetest, syrupy-est music I could conceive, a tune fashioned entirely from rising sixths.  That’s the “Honey” music.

Now for the English muffins.  At 1:55 the meter changes to 6/8 and the musical style turns English.  We hear a country jig in the manner of Ralph Vaughan Williams (a British composer whose work I admire).

The music jigs happily along, moving in and out of various keys, major and minor.

Then, at 6:30 the Honey music returns and is heard simultaneously with the English jig.  Both tunes ‘work’ together as the honey is poured onto the muffin.

Voila!  Enjoy!

I love this piece for its tunefulness and because it expresses the exuberance of a 26-year-old composer, free at last from the constraints of Academe, writing what he likes, with no professors or fellow composition students looking over his shoulder.  He has found his authentic voice and is having a blast, discovering what all he has to say.

To hear "Honey on English Muffins” from A Little Breakfast Music played by oboist Robert Franz,  clarinetist Phoenix Malek and violinists Brandon Christensen and Corinne Cook (recorded on my CD A Portrait at 50), click here:
http://www.sowash.com/recordings/mp3/honey_muffins.mp3

To see a PDF of the score, click here:
http://www.sowash.com/recordings/mp3/honey_muffins.pdf

I'd love to know what you think about this music; reply if you're inclined.  But please don't feel that you are expected to reply.  I'm just glad to share my work in this way.

As always, feel free to forward this message to friends who might enjoy it.

Anyone can be on my little list of recipients for these mpFrees (as I call these musical emails).  To sign up, people should email me at rick@sowash.com, sending just one word:  "Yes."   I'll know what it means.   To unsubscribe, reply “unsubscribe.”

Rick Sowash
Cincinnati, OH
Jan. 10, 2016