The Hungry Ghost

Sadie Harrison's Hantu for Double Bass and Piano. Composed 2013 and published 2016. Duration: 8 minutes.Hantu was written especially for Nick Lum as part of the first prize awarded for his performance in the Wells Double Bass Recital Competition in 2013. The title means ‘ghost’ in Malaysian (Lum is from Kuala Lumpar) with the piece taking its inspiration from the country’s annual Festival of the Hungry Ghosts. The Piano is transformed into a westernised gamelan orchestra with ‘gongs’ ‘kendang drums’ and ‘bamboo flutes’. The music ishighly repetitive with rhythm and pitch cycles used to imitate the structure of much gamelan music.The piece is divided into three main sections. The first and last are dark and menacing  marked ‘a slow procession of spirits’. The central section entitled ‘The ghost’s dance’ is a quirky virtuosic interplay between pizz and arco building to a wild crescendo before a return to the procession which gradually disappears into the night.The Double Bass is often used in its highest lyrical register singing out fragments from a Malaysian melody entitled Anak Indung. This tune is heard over the top of the procession music an attempt to dispel the evil spirits through the beauty of song.The piece was kindly commissioned by The Friends of Music at Wells Cathedral School and given its first performance by Nick Lum and Gemma Beeson at Wells Cathedral School on 23 June 2013.

Au fil des ans, Alfred Music Publishing et Myklas Musique Presse ont publié des solos pour la saison d'Halloween qui sont devenus les favoris de deux élèves et les enseignants. Les pièces incluses dans cette série représentent les solos les plus populaires et efficaces issus des catalogues des deux sociétés. Divisé en quatre collections gradués, des oeuvres marquantes sont inclus par Sharon Aaronson, Dennis Alexander, Christine H. Barden, Melody Bober, Anne Shannon Demarest, WT Skye Garcia, Marie Hauber, Bernadine Johnson, David Karp, Mier Martha, Juin Montgomery, Joyce Schatz Pease, Ruth Perdew, John Robert Poe, Catherine Rollin, Mary K. Salé, George Peter Tingley, Robert D. Vandall, et Kim Williams. Livre 2 comprend des pièces appropriées pour l'élémentaire à la fin les élèves du primaire. Distance de lecture comprend des notes ci-dessus et ci-dessous le personnel à queue, et la mobilité autour du clavier est nécessaire. D'autres défis comprennent l'utilisation de la pédale de façon simple, en jouant en mètre composé, et la lecture des notes pointées, ainsi que faciles croches passages. / Piano