All this music is free. Click on Download and then left click on the one you want on the new page. Scroll down and click on Save linked content as...Alternatively you can print them straight off. The music sounds best with headphones These piece are written for 2 flutes, oboe, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 French horns, 3 trumpets, 3 tenor trombones, 1 bass trombone, harp (if not available an electric piano can be a substitute), tympani, 1 percussionist, violins 1, violins 2, violas, cellos and double basses - ie. the usual lineup for a symphony orchestra with 1 extra trumpet. Please read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - HERE. If you don't know your rights, you allow every authoritarian government to get rid of them. I believe that governments are the enemy of ordinary people, not the inhabitants of other countries or other ethnic groups and refugees. See this article about so-called democracy.
ARTICLE 19 - Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. ARTICLE 20 - Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. ARTICLES 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the ECHR) - Everyone has the right to protest and to organise protests.
As in the previous one, the brass represent the government and much of the media; the strings represent ordinary people.
ARTICLE 25 - Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted its general comment No. 15 - The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses. I have joined these two Rights together as it makes sense to do so. Withholding these rights thereby using starvation as a weapon of war as is happening in Gaza, is an abuse of human rights and a war crime.
ARTICLE 26 - Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
I have used music as a metaphor for learning anything and everything. This piece is in 12 sections which are variations on the tune, the keys rising a semitone each time. The contents are as follows:
1. a simple tune which could date from many centuries ago. No education needed.
2. as an Elizabethan courtly dance. Sorry no sackbuts or serpents but very reedy sound. The tune is harmonised with simple triads.
3. as a Baroque era string quartet in imitation fugue-style with each instrument having an independent line.
4. as a mid-Romantic era symphonic piece (had it been earlier, the counter-line used to lay down the rhythm would have been just arpeggios. Still triads and dominant sevenths plus diminished chords, so loved by classical composers...to excess.
5. as a Viennese waltz in the style of Johann Strauss - a bit more sophisticated in feel with more interchange of instruments. Actually, the middle eight has echos of folk dances from that part of the world.
6. as an impressionistic piece á la Debussy or Ravel. Some disregard for normal (up to then) chord changes and more extensive chords with modal elements and the whole-tone scale.
7. as a Dixieland piece. Debussy and Ravel would not have gained anything from the simple harmonies but might have enjoyed the improvised counterpoint by the clarinet and trombone and the variations on the tune by the trumpet lead. Getting an orchestra to swing is a problem so I resorted to 6/8 time with lots of accents.
8. as music to a film cartoon. The non-stop music would emphasise all the actions. The menacing chords at the beginning are extended diminished chords. I have used major seconds for comic effect and inserted a 12-tone row (also harmonised this way) near the end. Some composers actually did this.
9. Lush jazz harmonies used in this arrangement. The harp and first violins play the basic tune, over which I have placed a more ad-lib type of line from the woodwind and then the strings.
10. A more Middle Eastern/Indian treatment. I was thinking particularly of Afghan music. The introductory passage is in 7/8, which is typical, except I kept it in tempo (it could be played rubato). The major instrument of Afghan music is the rubarb, a stringed guitar/sitar-like instrument. Obviously there are no rubabs in Western orchestras so I used a pizzicato viola in unison with a cor anglais and then oboe. After the drums come in, the viola/oboe play a variation on the tune. I have singled out Afghanistan because the Taliban government has outlawed music in that country.
11. A nod towards early rock and roll, perhaps to begin with. On the repeat of the tune I used clusters in the harmony. The middle eight has a three-feel (waltz) although it is written in 6/8. I think there is a need for experimentation in music.
12. A bit of a minimalist approach after all the complex harmonies - just 2 chords, an Ab2 chord (Bb C Eb) and an Eb7. The end has a solo flute play for a couple of bars, reflecting the very beginning.