anthony st. pierre's compositions

Anthony St. Pierre, M. Mus. (b. 1956, Schenectady, NY) earned a B.Mus. in composition from the Ohio State University and a M.Mus. from Washington University in historical performance practices. In 1980, he came to Toronto to play oboe with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. He has composed for organ, piano, voice, chamber winds, percussion and band, as well as electronic media.

Visitors to this website may download scores of a few of his numerous recorder compositions and will require the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to download the files. Please visit the site again. From time to time, new compositions will appear on it.

Unaccompanied soprano recorder

The Phrygian Impromptu features eight iterations of a two-bar symmetrical pattern, plus a coda. The pattern consists of a duple division of the first beat of the bar of three, a triple division of the second beat, and a quadruple of the third, followed by the mirror image of this scheme in the complementary bar. The first phrase is on a tonic of e. Each subsequent phrase is a perfect fifth beyond the preceding. After four phrases, the series of transpositions reverses itself. The last phrase is a repetition of the first. Thus the impromptu has both a rhythmic and tonal symmetry.
Level: intermediate

Phrygian Impromptu.pdf

Recorder Duets

Quartal Gigue is one of a series of dances for soprano and alto recorder in which the interval of a perfect fourth is a dominant melodic characteristic.
Level: intermediate

Quartal Gigue.pdf

Cadence City is a set of continuous variations for two soprano recorders. Each variation is based on a melodic series of re-doh and ti-doh pairs derived from consecutive keys on the circle of fifths.
Level: advanced

Cadence City.pdf

Recorder Trios

Fantasy on Frère Jacques, for soprano, alto, and tenor recorders, features the usual canonic treatment of this familiar tune; however, in diverse combinations, the tune is presented in various modal scales (Dorian, Phrygian, etc.).
Level: intermediate

Fantasy on Frère Jacques.pdf

Westminster Variations, based on the familiar Big Ben chimes tune, is for soprano, alto, and tenor recorders.
Level: advanced

Westminster Variations.pdf

Recorder Quartet

Variation on Handel's 'Pifa' (Pastoral Symphony from Messiah) is for two soprano and two tenor recorders. The piece may also be played to good effect with an organ flute stop substituting for the tenor recorders.
Level: intermediate

Variation on Handel's 'Pifa'.pdf

Anthony St. Pierre
Toronto, Ontario
CANADA

astpierre@ca.inter.net