.
Serenade
 for Piano or Harp

Click  on the link below to access a PDF booklet file
FMPSerenadeHarpPiano

and for a 52 MB .wav file (Finale harp sound font)
FMPSerenadeHarpPiano.wav

        Serenade for Piano or Harp is a gentle venture into the Romantic tradition, presenting a plaintive melody in the soprano line. This thematic presentation gives way in turn to a light and fancifully contrasted middle section. Where Serenade’s first theme is set in the courtly meter of a sarabande, the second theme is marked by dancing triplet rhythms and elusive episodic development. The strains of the opening sarabande are recapitulated, but the return is altered with an elusive transformation from minor to major mode, and further enhanced by the reintroduction of triplet accompanimental patterns. Serenade ends with a briefly sweet cadential reference to the fanciful escapades of the middle section.

        Serenade was originally written for performance on the harp, but it has been revised and edited for piano performance. It was composed during a brief sojourn in Seattle (1981), with the assistance of a lovely classic Baldwin concert grand piano (ca. 1940s) that was available on the campus of the University of Washington's music department practice rooms.