My Music

Welcome to “My Music,” where I share some of my compositions. I employ a range of compositional styles, sometimes purely, sometimes in combinations. Most of my music is instrumental, and much of it is for piano and organ, although I have been steadily expanding my body of music for chamber winds and strings during the past two years. Several examples are available on this page, as well as in my post, My Chamber Recital from April 2016. You can also find additional pieces on my YouTube channel.

It’s been a while since I added a track to this page. Please enjoy the fourth movement from my new , Baroque-inspired “Chamber Concerto” for oboe, bassoon, and strings. I composed the movements of this concerto during the last week of December 2017 and the first week of January 2018. The fourth movement combines two Baroque forms: a gigue (fast dance) in binary form, followed by a short ritornello movement using a second gigue theme, followed by a reprise of the binary-form gigue. Stan Pelkey, composer.  [posted on January 3, 2018]

A sample of the new cues I am preparing for the next group of my podcasts, using my upgrades to Finale and Garage Band! Enjoy! (Stan Pelkey, December 6, 2016)

A little post-minimalism for the weekend. I composed this for one of my recent podcasts.  (Stan Pelkey, November 4, 2016)

Friends, you may have noticed that my podcast and audio novel are now consuming my musical time and attention! Ah well–One must follow one’s muse! In any case, the following is a track I composed on Friday evening, September 9, 2016. It is inspired by a scene from chapter 1 of my audio novel, though it is not an actual cue for / from my podcasts. The title is “Voices in the Dark.”

This past summer, I revisited some of my older piano arrangements.

Here is “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen,” an arrangement I wrote in 2006, during our time in Michigan. I recorded it during the summer after playing it at church. Stan Pelkey, composer and pianist.

“We Give Thee But Thine Own” is another of my older arrangements from our time in Michigan. Although I had not played this piece for several years, it remains one of my favorite hymn arrangements. Stan Pelkey, composer and pianist.

The summer-time musical experimenting continues. I wrote this melody (heard in the flute in the recording below) in 1987 (!) for a song I was trying to write back when I was 15. I never finished the song, but when I looked at the melody again a few days ago, I thought it had some promise. Here it is with a completely different accompaniment (guitar and piano) and a very different approach to the overall mood. “Song for Flute, Guitar, and Piano,” Stan Pelkey, composer.

During this past summer, I began composing electronic music inspired by mid-twentieth-century electronic compositions, something I had been wanting to do for a number of years. You can hear one of my resulting essays in the underscore for an audio recording of part of one of my fiction works here. Two more examples are below. If you prefer acoustic music, scroll further down for some of my piano, organ, and chamber music.

ENJOY!

“A Study in Knocking” (July 4, 2016)

This piece was inspired by my teaching of world music to high schoolers during June and July 2016 as part of the  FSU Summer Music Camps at the College of Music. It is another essay in electronic music (see more below under “Bird Song Study No. 3”). I created all of the original sound materials today, then modified them, and then shaped them into the final form. There’s a certain fireworks-kind of quality to the piece, appropriate for the day. (This sounds best with headphones because of some of the very lowest notes I have used.) Stan Pelkey, composer.

“Bird Song Study No. 3” (June 2016)

This selection is among my first four experiments in electronic music using pre-existing, recorded materials. Everything you hear in this piece originated in actual bird songs, which I then altered to create unique musical building blocks. Underlying the composition is a set of three musical building blocks (one of which is quite long); together, they are repeated seven times, with variations over the top constructed from contrasting, shorter sound gestures. My “Bird Songs Studies” are collectively composed in honor of Tristram Cary, whose Steam Music (1978) has become one of my favorite pieces of twentieth-century music. Stan Pelkey, composer.

“Minuet” from Antique Dances, Set No. 6 (June 2016)

This selection is a little minuet for keyboard that I composed several days ago. It is not profound music, but perhaps it will brighten your day and make you smile. It is in a quasi-eighteenth-century style. Stan Pelkey, composer and organist. {I recorded the two renditions that follow on June 21, 2016, on the “unforgiving” Juget-Sinclair, Op. 43, mechanical-action chamber organ at the College of Music at Florida State University, pictured below.}

Samples from a new Trio for Flute, Cello, and Piano. I composed the first movement on June 11, 2016. The second movement followed a few days later. I wrapped up work on the third movement a few days after that. Stan Pelkey, composer. {The renditions below are via Finale.}

Trio for Flute, Cello, and Piano, mov. 1:

“Simple Prelude” (June 10, 2016); Stan Pelkey, composer and pianist. {This is the first of several short and simple pieces I have been composing this summer. I recorded this at home on June 10, 2016.}

“Fugue” from Prelude, Adagio, and Fugue for Piano (2016); Stan Pelkey, composer. {I have been working on this three-movement composition since one of my good friends in Rochester, Thomas Cleveland, passed away on April 17, 2016. So far, I have completed the “Adagio” and the “Fugue,” plus the opening pages of the “Prelude.” The composition will be dedicated to Tom, and I hope to premiere it in the fall. The Fugue is in A-flat minor, a key in which I have never composed before. Aspects of its form and style reflect my renewed study of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier this spring, as well as my growing appreciation for Schumann’s Seven Piano Pieces in Fughetta Form, Op. 126. The Fugue’s pace and solemn character are meant to capture my vivid memory of Tom processing with the massive wooden cross down the center aisle at the Church of the Epiphany in Rochester on Good Friday. Tom also appreciated whenever I played fugues on the organ for the postlude at church. I just completed the Fugue on May 27, 2016, and have not yet had the chance to practice and perform it. The rendition below is via Finale.}

“Fugue” from my Suite for Winds (2009); recorded live at the First Presbyterian Church, Thomasville, Georgia, April 17, 2016. Stan Pelkey, composer.

Variations on “Child of Blessing” (2005); recorded live at the First United Methodist Church, Kalamazoo, Michigan, March 2006. Stan Pelkey, composer and organist.

In the sanctuary at First United Methodist Church, Kalamazoo, Michigan (2008), where this piece was recorded. I composed the “Meditation on ‘Spirit of God'” for the 175th Anniversary of First UMC Kalamazoo (photo below).

“Rondo on Two Sacred Songs” (2006); recorded live at the First Presbyterian Church, Battle Creek, Michigan, April 23, 2006. Stan Pelkey, composer and organist.

The Dobson pipe organ at First Presbyterian Church, Battle Creek, Michigan, on which this piece was recorded.

You can also visit my YouTube channel, which I launched in summer 2016.