Chamber Music with Piano
 | Two Pieces for Flute and PianoRobert Russell Bennett (composer) | A particularly fruitful period in Paris in 1928 included two pieces for flute and piano, the Nocturne and Dance, which Bennett later referred to together as Two Pieces. The “Nocturne” and “Dance” were written sequentially, but apparently as two separate pieces, during the fruitful summer of 1928, while Bennett was living in Paris (Fontainebleau) with his wife Louise and daughter Jean, continuing his private studies with Boulanger. Bennett and flutist Quinto Maganini together gave a private premiere for friends soon thereafter, quite likely at Boulanger’s house. | $32.00 | Click Here For More Details Or To Purchase. |
 | Five Improvisations on Exotic Scales | Composed for the Sagul Trio, which premiered music by several mid-20th century composers. It was played by them on 14 February 1947 at Town Hall, New York City, as part of radio station WNYC’s American Music Festival. The use of non-diatonic scales was probably rooted in Bennett’s study of the Greek modes with Nadia Boulanger twenty years earlier. Each movement is preceded by an intonation or statement of its “exotic” scale. | $44.00 | Click Here For More Details Or To Purchase. |
 | Seven Postcards to Old Friends | Bennett writes little thank-you notes to the best and brightest of the Broadway musical scene — Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, Vincent Youmans, Cole Porter, Noel Coward, and George Gershwin. Each composer's music he had orchestrated, and something of each's style peeks through in Bennett's impressions. | $35.50 | Click Here For More Details Or To Purchase. |
 | Six Souvenirs | For the flute talents of John Wummer and Mildred Hunt Wummer, Bennett composed a set of six descriptive movements, each an homage to friends integral to the American flute scene of the day. Certainly, the names George Barrére, William Kincaid, and Verne Powell are well-known, but to Bennett they were richly colorful friends. | $44.00 | Click Here For More Details Or To Purchase. |
 | Three Chaucer Songs | For the music director of His Majesty's Theatre in London, Bennett chose to set the three poems of Merciless Beauty, ascribed to Geoffrey Chaucer, of Canterbury Tales fame. Bennett intended the work "for women's voice or voices" with string quartet. Bennett concurrently prepared a voice and piano version. | $35.00 | Click Here For More Details Or To Purchase. |
 | Flute SonataPaul Mack Somers (composer) | A 70th birthday present for his wife Janet, Somers' Flute Sonata is a three-movement work in A-B-A fashion. The second movement, originally scored for bass flute, was recast for C flute to retain cohesion of the Sonata as a whole. (The middle movement has also been extracted as a solo for bass flute and piano, Dark Lake - 494-03140.) The finale ("allegro energetico") is a dynamic and punchy romp to a satisfying conclusion. It was premiered by Janet and pianist Michiko Otaki at a party celebrating Jan's and Paul's 70th birthdays. | $30.00 | Click Here For More Details Or To Purchase. |
 | Dark Lake | A 70th birthday present for his wife Janet, Somers' Flute Sonata is a three-movement work in A-B-A fashion. The second movement, originally scored for bass flute, was recast for C flute to retain cohesion of the Sonata as a whole. (The middle movement has also been extracted as a solo for bass flute and piano, Dark Lake - 494-03140.) The finale ("allegro energetico") is a dynamic and punchy romp to a satisfying conclusion. It was premiered by Janet and pianist Michiko Otaki at a party celebrating Jan's and Paul's 70th birthdays. | Click Here For More Details Or To Purchase. | $30.00 |
 | New Jersey Campmeeting: A Bloomfield Sabbath | Somers has crafted this work with inspiration from two composers with New Jersey connections. Fragments of familiar hymn tunes of William Bradbury, often sung at camp meetings, can be heard above a “sound wash” not unlike that used by Charles Ives. Bradbury is buried in Bloomfield, while Ives was an organist in Bloomfield Presbyterian Church. The work was written for and premiered by the composer's wife, Janet. | Click Here For More Details Or To Purchase. | $26.00 |
 | Sonata for B♭ Clarinet and PianoPaul Mack Somers (composer) | The harmony uses doubly inflected thirds, which come off like blue notes. At the time of its composition I was both a traditional jazz pianist and a non-jazz composer, so I suppose it should be no surprise that the two worlds crossed paths in this piece. However, I find far more F. J. Haydn than W. C. Handy in the music. | $30.00 | Click Here For More Details Or To Purchase. |
 | Three Pieces for Viola and Piano.Paul Mack Somers (composer) | "Song", "Pastorale", "Prelude, Meditation, and Fugue" The prominent violist Brett Deubner, asked me for some short program fillers for an upcoming recital in 2010. Otherwise engaged at the time, I quickly arranged two earlier pieces. About a year after doing the arrangements, Brett requested a more substantial original piece. I hadn't composed a fugue in years, so decided to conclude the new piece with one. | $43.50 | Click Here For More Details Or To Purchase. |
 | Sonata for Violoncello and PianoPaul Mack Somers (composer) | Commissioned by Ellen Zoe Hassman in 2008. I had long known that her long soaring lines were rightly her pride and joy, so I made sure to give her passages where she could show off that special attribute. Other ’cellists have since taken up the piece, one even excerpting the lyric slow movement as a standalone solo. | $45.00 | Click Here For More Details Or To Purchase. |
 | An Arch of Miniatures | The first and fifth movements use the same melodic material using very different speeds and rhythms. The second and fourth movements also use their own set of like material, first appearing as a horizontal two part invention like a conversation for the woodwinds, and then stacked in vertical harmonies as a piano solo. In the third movement, the keystone of the arch, the challenge was to compose a single-line work with no harmony stated, only perhaps implied. Thus the variety is gained by changing the colorations and registers within a single long line. The motivic material is drawn from within the other movements. | $43.50 | Click Here For More Details Or To Purchase. |
 | Meditation on Jacob Wrestling | The Clarinet, March 2020, p. 6: "Grounded in tonality, Somers achieves stunning harmonic effects by horizontal layering, but also by willingness to employ vertical sonorities that are chosen for being the desired sound at that moment, without regard for others’ established rules. This is a singular work of both rhythmic and expressive vitality. Highly recommended." – Gregory Barrett | $33.00 | Click Here For More Details Or To Purchase. |