Instrumental Music | Choral Music
Featured Piece: Symphony Nr. 1 in B Flat -- First Movement
Related Sites: Peter Carroll | Brian Carlson

Michael L. Carroll -- composer/arranger/performer

Last Update: Feb 21, 2010
My name is Michael Carroll and I am a composer, songwriter and musical arranger for hire. Welcome to my website! If you'd like a custom song or a string quartet written for someone special in your life, you've come to the right place.
This website contains samples of my work.


Bach is my favorite composer. There are some excellent recordings of his lute suites for guitar. Click on the arrow below to hear some samples of guitarists John Williams and Andres Segovia (which you can also purchase as MP3 downloads by clicking on the "Buy" link.)



I was born in 1951 and studied music and mathematics at the Georg August Universität in Göttingen, Germany, finishing up my mathematics studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1979. I studied and taught classical guitar in Germany and attended master guitar classes under Karl Scheit. The primary influences on my compositional style are Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Tschaikovsky, and Hindemith. It is one of my goals to work 20th century American popular jazz idioms into works featuring classical structure such as the sonata form, rondo form, fugue, canon, etc.

I also play mandolin and classical guitar.

If you would like to engage me as a composer/arranger or performer for any occasion, please contact me via email: mcarroll_91786@yahoo.com

The following links will take you to samples of my music:

Instrumental Music
Choral Music


Recent Postings


02/14/10: Happy Valentine's Day. I made this arrangement of Richard Rodgers “My Funny Valentine” for my wife Leandra.

MP3
Score (PDF) | Flute (PDF)
Violin (PDF) | Alto Sax (PDF)
Guitar (PDF) | Bass (PDF)


12/31/09: Happy New Year! Here is a little simple two-part arrangement of "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen". The main melody is in the lower register while the flute plays a descant line.
MP3 | OGG
PDF: Piano
PDF: Alto Sax 1
PDF: Alto Sax 2
PDF: Clarinet in Bb 1
PDF: Clarinet in Bb 2
PDF: Flute
PDF: Guitar
PDF: Violin


11/29/09: A jazz piece for violin and guitar in AABABA form called "Two Minutes to Five". MP3
Guitar part | Violin part


11/28/09: Some variations on the famous Folias de Espana theme. For string quartet in D minor. These are "loose" variations in that I allowed myself to modulate to other keys and to insert a parallel major version of the Folias chord progression. I was inspired to write this after seeing the marvelous website at www.folia.tk dedicated to the folias theme.

WMA
OGG

MP3
PDF Score


11/08/09: Here's an arrangement of a Chopin Mazurka for two guitars and mandolin. I did this for a Dutch trio with mandolinist Sebastiaan de Grebber, guitarist Tom Edskes and guitarist Saskia Spinder. Here's a link to Sebastian playing solo mandolin. For the Chopin Mazurka here are the PDF files:
Guitar 1
Guitar 2
Mandolin
Score


09/19/09: I'd like to call attention to the release of a CD of a friend of mine: Jennifer Lindsay, a fantastically talented violinist, singer, composer. She played violin with the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. Her CD debut can be found at Sinfonia Records. Jen and I are working on a duo of traditional jazz tunes to play at Michael's Ristorante in Long Beach. Stay tuned for announcements.


08/03/09: Study in D for Guitar. This is the second of a series of studies for the guitar.
PDF Score


07/28/09: Study in C for Guitar. This is the first of a series of studies for the guitar that I'm working on. As typical for me, I am leaving the fingering and the dynamics up to the performer. I leave the dynamics up to the performer because I believe that dynamics should be up to the performer and should be pulled out of the inner energy of a piece. As far as the fingering is concerned, I am simply too lazy to go look up in the Finale manual how you do fingering for guitar music. I'd rather spend the time composing than fingering. Sorry!
PDF Score


05/14/09: Wind Quintet in A for my oldest son, who is 28 today. Happy Birthday, Chris!
PDF Score


05/12/09: Song for Denis, dedicated to the memory of Denis Bonin, the brother of a friend of mine. This is a song without words for clarinet and piano.
Clarinet Part
Piano Part


03/12/09: Didactic Variations on a Song by Cole Porter: "What Is This Thing Called Love?". A set of variations written primarily for my budding saxophonist son Peter Carroll. They are only meant as exercises to teach the art of improviation. Included are versions for alto sax, soprano sax (or clarinet) and violin (or mandolin). This is still a work in progress. I have yet to convert the .wav files to .mp3 files and upload to the site. But that should happen real soon now!


02/22/09: Introduction to Counterpoint This is the beginning of a small book I am writing to teach my son Peter Carroll the art of counterpoint. This is just the very beginning, there are no examples of melodies or counterpoint phrases in this book as yet. But I'll keep updating the website as the book grows in content.


02/03/09:  Symphony Nr. 1 in B Flat -- All Four Movments.


02/02/09: Symphony in B Flat: First Movement. The symphony in B flat is now complete with the addition of this first movement. This movement is dedicated to Dennis Prager, a man whose intellect and values I admire very much.
This first movement has two main themes. The first is slightly homophonic while the second is decidedly contrapuntal and is presented in a fugal manner. The meter 6/8.
PDF Score I will set up a separate web page in the coming days to feature all the movements of this symphony together.


12/27/08: Symphony in B Flat: Allegro. This will be the fourth and last movement of the symphony I've been working on this year (see other links below). As of now I have three movements more or less completed.
PDF Score


12/27/08: Holy God, We Praise Your Name. The lyrics of this hymn are familiar to most Catholics (except that I changed the 'Thee' and 'Thy' to 'You' and 'Your'). The music is new. It is sort of a morning meditation for me. As St. Augustine says, "He who sings well, prays twice." The score setting is SATB plus piano.


11/05/08: Over the Rainbow, an arrangement for wind quartet of the famous Harold Arlen tune.
PDF Score
Flute
Oboe
Clarinet
Bassoon.


10/27/2008: Blues in the Day. This is a little experiment in a minor blues for guitar and sax. The following MP3 file features the sax playing only against a single guitar playing block chords. This may give you a clearer picture of the harmony:
Blues in the Day with Guitar Block Chords.
Guitar PDF
Guitar2 PDF
Alto Sax PDF


07/26/2008: Symphony in B flat -- Minuet. This is the third movement of the Symphony in B flat and is dedicated to my wife on our wedding anniversary, which is today! The main theme of this minuet is taken from the familiar Gaelic song "Morning Has Broken" of which a version was recorded by Cat Stevens in the 60s. It is also sung as a hymn in many Catholic churches in the English speaking world. Also included is a second theme built as a trio performed mainly by flute, oboe and basoon and used as a modulation device; a trumpet variation of the main theme; an oboe version of the theme in a minor key (which I think works quite well); a cello and contrabass statement of the theme with temolo string accompaniment; a trumpet call for the ending using the intervals of a fourth reminiscent somewhat of the Andante movement (see below); and then a restatement of the "Morning Has Broken" theme before fading out.
PDF Score


07/05/2008: Symphony in B flat -- Andante. This was written as a wedding present for Josi Carroll and Yoshi Stone who were married on July 3, 2008. Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Stone!
This piece is planned to be the second and main movement of a symphony in B flat that will have three additional movements. The instrumentation (11 instruments) was chosen to be identical to that of Mozart's Jupiter symphony. Speaking of planets, I would dub this one as a Mars and Venus symphony (not intending, mind you, to presumptiously place myself in the same exalted league as Wolfgang Amadeus -- but if the instrumentation setting was good enough for Wolfi it's certainly good enough for me), because of the two main themes, one dramatic and male in nature in a minor mode, while the other theme is more light-hearted and femaile in nature in a a major key. I reconcile them and combine them towards the end and add some additional, syncopated counter subjects, with obvious matrimonial symbolism. More on the symphony and Yoshi and Josi on the Intrumental page.
PDF Score


07/05/2008: Wer Nur Den Lieben Gott Laesst Walten. This is J.S. Bach's harmonization of a chorale melody. Here I have arranged this for flute, violin, bassoon and cello in G minor.
PDF.
07/05/2008: Were You There. An arrangement for guitar of the traditional Good Friday piece "Were You There".
PDF.
02/25/2008: "Let Us Go to the House of the Lord", a very simple gathering song that can be used at the beginning of a liturgical service. Dedicated to the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, Missouri.
Violin / Vocal / Chords
Guitar Accompaniment.


02/19/2008: Santa Ana Conditions, updated with Alto Sax part and an intro + coda suggested by my friend, guitarist Ruth Parry. This is a wave file, since my mp3 converter was turning out inferior quality files.
Guitar PDF and Sax PDF.
BTW, Ruth plays with a group called Sound Anatomy.


02/18/2008: Russian Sailor's Dance. This is an arrangement of a popular Russian tune. The arrangement here is for flute, clarinet, violin, alto saxophone, guitar and string bass. The band Bridge plays this with an accordion as well and the mandolin in place of the violin. BTW, Bridge is playing next Sunday evening (2/24/08) as the "featured band" on open mic night at the Claremont Folk Music Center. We will be playing the Russian Sailor Dance.
PDF


02/10/2008: Santa Ana Conditions, a guitar piece in AABA form, using jazz chord progressions, but otherwise fairly classical. In Southern California we often get warm, dry windy weather we call Santa Ana conditions. We had such conditions this weekend, so I named this piece accordingly.
PDF


02/08/2008: A Fugue for Piano in C Major
PDF


01/12/2008: Fugue in D major for solo guitar. Has a Bach-like feel to it. For Dr. Andy Podolsky.
Here's an mp3 file that combines both the prelude and the fugue so that you can hear the two together in succession. Both prelude an d fugue require the 6th string to be tuned down to D.
PDF


12/29/07: Prelude in D Minor for solo guitar. For Dr. Andy Podolsky. This is the prelude to the fugue above in D major.
PDF


12/24/07: Mi Hijo y Yo -- A Guitar Duet (MP3)
PDF See the Instrumental page for extraced parts.


12/16/07: The Guadalupe Quintet MP3
PDF


This is a quintet for three strings (violin, viola, cello) and two woodwinds (oboe and bassoon). I call it the Guadalupe Quintet because I began writing it last week on December 12, 2007, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.