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A composer in hiding.
A selection of Peter Schmedding's shorter compositions, part one.

Please note: These MP3s take a lot of memory.
It depends on your connection how long it takes to download.

Let us start with this short sample.

Peter and Friends

This was the theme for my weekly radio program for children on a local radio station in the early 1980s. This one is short, just 300KB.

Paraphrase on a theme by a 10 year old boy

Years ago I had a student, then ten years old. Often he would sit at the piano and just improvise whatever came into his head. Sometimes he recorded his musical ideas on a sound tape. So I found this particular descending theme which I used to compose the "Paraphrase on a theme by a ten year old boy". This abbreviated version is also one of the pieces used in my "Musical Sleeping Pills" program. This one takes 3.7MB to download.

Twilight Fantasy

This improvised composition is taking us into different directions rather than dealing with one only theme. The Twilight Fantasy allows us to contemplate, maybe, on the loss of a loved one, or the memory of a sunset, the secret triumph we are unable to share with any other person, or the memory of a lonely night. Toward the end, in a major key we are lead back to reality and the world around us.
CAUTION: With over nine minutes in duration it takes over 13 MB to download. Click for Twilight Fantasy.

Etude in C

This is one of my collection of really short pieces. It takes only one MB to download.

Memory of a Wooden Stop

Winter 1945. I was a radio operator at the Eastern front. During a lull in operations one my comrades came rushing in: There is a church with a real organ inside. Surprise, it worked. After I had improvised for a while the shooting started again and, on the way back, I noticed the church now engulfed in flames. This piece is in memory of a lovely wooden stop - music to my ears before it became fuel for the fire. Two and a half minutes, 3.5 MB.

Mosquito Serenade

This is a saga put to music. A mosquito prevents him from sleeping. He finally rushes out of bed, wields the fly swat around, then goes confidently back to bed. The only problem, instead of one mosquito, now there are - two. This is 1.7 magabytes. Click here for Mosquito Serenade.

Fantasie in F

It is a wonderful feeling to sit at the console of a grand organ and be in charge of all the dynamics from the tiniest and sweetest solo pipe to the whole power of all the stops. This piece, the Fantasie in F goes back to a series of pieces for grand organ composed in the late 1950s. It takes even more memory, 4.7 Mbyts, and its duration is eight minutes.

Trumpet Theme

This melody became the background music behind a narration in an educational sound project on Child Development. 800 KB to download.

Tears

In many years as a telephone counsellor, one of the saddest calls from a client inspired me to write this piece. I simply called it Tears. This one is over 5 minutes long and takes 3.2 Mbytes to download.

The music is composed and played by Peter H. Schmedding, Canberra, Australia.
All Rights reserved © 2004 Peter Schmedding

For the second part of this series please click here.

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