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Featured Piece: Meditation for Strings
Related Sites: Peter Carroll | Sepulveda Jazz Project

Michael L. Carroll -- composer/arranger/performer

Last Update: May 06, 2012
My name is Michael Carroll and I am a composer and arranger. Welcome to my musical blog!
This website contains samples of my work. This website serves as a portfolio of some of my compositions.


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.

One of my goals in life is to become the music director at a Catholic parish when I retire from my current “day job” as an engineer.

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

05/06/2012: Invention for Piano in Expanded C. Another semitonal, neo-baroque invention. Expanded C means the key of C major with f sharp and b flat thrown in, thus expanding both clockwise and counter clockwise on the circle of fifths. PDF


04/29/2012: Two new blogs up and running on blogspot: A religious one UniversalChristian, i.e., universalchristian.blogspot.com and a political one SomeRealSanityPlease!.


04/24/2012: Fugue in A minor for piano. More like a three-part invention than a fugue. But what is new is that I am trying once again to break out of the diatonic prison into what I would call semitonal music. It is not atonal, but it is not diatonic. Somewhere in between. Inspired by Sergei Prokofiev.
PDF


04/01/2012: Solo guitar piece on Lord Who Throughout These Forty Days, composed and played at Mass last Sunday, 3/25/12. PDF.


03/31/2012: Composed a trio for guitar, mandolin and soprano saxophone. Since my version of Finale doesn't have sampled instrumentation for mandolin and soprano sax, I used violin and clarinet. The mandolin can use tremolo on the long notes. Score
Soprano Sax
Mandolin
Guitar
String Bass (doubles the guitar)


03/14/2012: Opened up a Music Store on Amazon! Carroll's Music, specializing in music composition tools.


03/09/2012: Added a composer resource page. Here you'll find links to books on various aspects of compostion. I also shortened all the mp3 files on this page to samples 30 sec in length. The downloads were killing me on bandwidth. I'll make some of the full length mp3s available for sale somewhere on the net.


01/29/12: Completed audtion videos:


01/16/12: Working on some audition recordings for son Peter. Peter is trying to get a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music's Five-Week Program in this summer. He is working on three pieces. "Scrapple from the Apple", a Charlie Parker tune, "Do You Know What It Means (to miss New Orleans)", and "Take 5". We made our first recordings of these three yesterday with the Sepulveda Jazz Project. The MP3s are here:
Scrapple from the Apple
Do You Know What It Means
Take 5
Ultimately, we are going to marry the audio and video together and post them for Berklee to judge. Much thanks to Jen Lindsay and Doug Freyre for donating their time to help us with this project.


12/15/11: A revision to and recording of my arrangement of God Rest You Merry Gentlemen for solo guitar. I've modified the guitar music to make it slightly easier to play. This is now Rev. A.
Ogg(sounds better than MP3)
MP3 (Slightly more distorted than the OGG file. I use the lame encoder to generate MP3s from Audacity recordings and encoder sometimes lives up to its name.)
PDF


12/7/11: A jazz arrangement of "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen" for solo guitar. It's funny how these things come about. I was listening to Oscar Peterson's version of this tune and enjoyed the opening bass solo. So I wanted to something like that for Doug Freyre, our bassist in the Sepulveda Jazz Project, which I did this morning. I harmonized it with some jazz chords. Then I wanted to see what it would sound like as a guitar solo, so I transposed it up a couple of octaves, made a few minor adjustments and wrote a second part, a bass line to go under the jazz melody and voila, there it is: PDF
Enjoy! Here's slightly faster version: "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen" at 160 bpm.


12/2/11: Second two-part YABLI (yet another Bach-like invention) for two guitars (or solo guitar, although I haven't yet checked its playability). This one is in F major and 9/8 time.
Guitar Duet (Score)
Guitar 1
Guitar 2


11/26/11: Happy Thanksgiving! Here is a YABLI (yet another Bach-like invention) for two guitars (although it can also be played as guitar solo) in E minor. I've also arranged it for piano, transposing the upper voice up an octave.
Guitar Duet (Score)
Guitar 1
Guitar 2
Piano


10/16/11: Finale screen capture video on YouTube of "Fantasy in D for Three Guitars, Revision A,


10/08/11: Fantasy in D for Three Guitars, Revision A, dedicated to Jan Schijvenaars, guitar afficionado and owner of OnlySixStrings.com. This revision includes a statement of the theme alone at the beginning in the lower register, corrected slurs (and more of them), some grace notes, some improvements in modulation, and cautionary accidentals.
PDF Score
PDF Guitar 1 PDF Guitar 2 PDF Guitar 3


9/29/11: Fantasy in D for Three Guitars, dedicated to Jan Schijvenaars, guitar afficionado and owner of OnlySixStrings.com.
PDF Score
PDF Guitar 1 PDF Guitar 2 PDF Guitar 3


9/28/11: Divertimento for Wind Quartet in C
PDF Score


9/12/11: Some of my guitar compositions have been featured at OnlySixStrings.com, a site dedicated to modern composers for the classical guitar.


8/3/11: Sepulveda Jazz Project is playing Friday Aug 5th at It's a Grind Coffee House, 4245 Atlantic Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90807 as part of the Bixby Knolls First Friday Art Walk and Expo. The band starts at 6 pm.


6/29/11: Sepulveda Jazz Project is playing Friday July 1st at Elise's Tea Room, 3924 Atlantic Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90807 as part of the Bixby Knolls First Friday Art Walk and Expo. The band starts at 6 pm.


5/29/11: Happy Memorial Day, especially to all you veterans! Thank you for your service to our country. May our citizens behave in a manor that is worthy of this great blessing! Here's some fun stuff: Some pickin' and grinnin' in the Kitchen at the Concord Hotel with my guitarist friend Jay Dover (I'm playing the mandolin.)
Chattanooga Choo Choo
Sweet Georgia Brown
Cattle in the Cane
Billy in the Lowground
Flop-Eared Mule.


4/22/11: Good Friday. In commemoration of our Lord's Passion and Death for the salvation of the world, I've written a piece for string orchestra: Meditation for Strings. You'll note that this is WMA file. I am just having much better luck with WMA files than with MP3 files. But here's MP3, just in case.
PDF Score | OGG


4/1/11: Happy Feast of Fools! "For the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men." 1 Corinthians 1:25.
Here's a Wind Trio in G Major for Flute, Oboe and Bassoon. This is more or less a study of canon phrases and contrapuntal texture in the three parts. Seems to have an almost rennaissance feel but with more modern harmonies.
PDF: Score | Flute | Oboe | Bassoon
Ogg


3/23/11: YABLI (Yet Another Bach-like Invention) in C major. The theme was built on a canon idea which is not heard until the end. For keyboard.

OGG MP3 PDF


3/21/11: Johann Sebastian Bach's birthday: To honor him I've written a little invention on his name B-A-C-H which in German music translates into Bb-A-C-B natural. This motif is presented in several different ways with counterpoint. Happy Birthday, Sebastian!

OGG MP3 PDF



3/16/11: Happy Birthday Felix Raul Stone, born this day to my daughter Josephine Stone and her husband Yoshi Stone. Congratulations! Here is a little musical offering for the newborn: An arrangement of the Charlie Parker / Dizzy Gillespie tune “Anthropology”. This is only two parts, although I've included the transpositions here for various other melody instruments.

MP3 OGG PDF Score

Flute Clarinet/Soprano Sax Alto Sax Violin Guitar String Bass


2/26/11: Fantasy for Wind Quartet in E flat. For flute, oboe, clarinet, and basoon.

MP3 OGG PDF

Flute Oboe Clarinet Basoon


2/10/11: Nocturne in A Flat for Piano. It was dark outside when I composed it (sometimes early morning, sometimes at night), so I called it a nocturne. I apologize for the length. Like Pascal said, if I had more time I'd make it shorter.

MP3 OGG PDF


1/20/11: Invention in A Major for Two Guitars. This is an attempt to escape the diatonic straightjacket and explore wider tonalities. It still needs some polishing, some dynamics (so that the simulated human playback on the computer will interprets things better – otherwise, I generally don't like to intrude on human performers' prerogatives in this area), and to be analyzed for playability.

MP3 OGG PDF

Guitar1 PDF | Guitar 2 PDF


1/17/11: I'm experimenting with canon forms. Here's a YABLI that is actually a two-part canon. It is not entirely strict, it allows the voices to be free at the ends of phrases. It's a two-part canonic invention for piano in G major.

MP3 OGG PDF


1/2/11: Happy New Year! Yet another Bach-like invention (YABLI) to start off the new year. This is in D major, in 9/8 time. The audio files are playing at 120 bpm. Although it starts out and develop like a Bach invention, this one finishes in a very classical vein with Haydn-like coda.

MP3 OGG PDF


12/26/10: Merry Christmas! Here's a little piece I started last night and just finished this morning. I had to drink a Coke late last night to be awake enough to drive the family home from Grandma's. Being fully awake from the Coke when I got home, I decided to write some music. Here's the result: A Pastorale wind quartet in C major. Instruments are flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon. PDF Score. OGG.


12/18/10: SATB arrangement of “On Jordan's Bank”. Different key than the fantasy below, since I needed to fit the ranges of the human voices. Key is E-flat. SATB + piano accompaniment.

PDF, OGG.


12/17/10: Fantasy on "On Jordan's Bank". A little Advent offering. "On Jordan's Bank" is a traditional Advent hymn. Here I took the melody and expanded the duration of each note by a factor of 2. Since the hymn is originally in half notes, this expansion yielded a series of whole notes. I then harmonized it as whole notes, adding a bass line. From there I varied both lines using typical diminution techniques and then tweaked it until both lines sounded melodically acceptable. PDF. OGG.


11/27/10: Waltz in G Minor. A Chopinesque waltz. Originally intended to write an exercise for myself to practice the key of G minor, but it turned into a decent enough piece to share. PDF. OGG.


11/10/10: You guessed it! Yet another … oh well. Invention in D. (Ogg version) PDF


11/09/10: YAYABLI (Yet Another YABLI). Maybe there is a 12-step program for this disease of inventionitis that I seem to have this week. This one's in B-flat. (Ogg version). PDF. Dedicated to my first grandson. My daughter Josi is expecting a boy. Just found out today. Hurray!


11/08/10: YABLI (Yet Another Bach-like Invention MP3) for piano. (Ogg version) PDF

What can I say! I love composing these Bach-like things! It is so much fun!


10/04/10: String Quartet in G Major: Fourth movement: Allegro (Ogg file). This is played at 120 bpm. This final movement of the String Quartet in G is in 6/8 time. Very contrapuntal and baroque. Help, I'm a baroque composer stuck in a 21st century body! Here are PDFs of the

Score, Violin1, Violin2, Viola, Cello.

I am starting to upload Ogg Vorbis files now because the sound quality seems better than that of the MP3s produced by Audacity's lame plug-in. Here's the lousy (lossy) MP3 for comparison.


08/29/10: String Quartet in G Major: Third movement, Largo. This piece has a haunting, recitative-like theme in the first violin with ostinato bass. The ostinato and the theme serve as Canti Firmi for the remainder of the piece, with the exception of the Coda, in which the voices modulate to a climax ending with the D7, the dominant seventh chord of G major, in preparation for the finale to be written in the original key of G major. The ostinato duties are shared by the cello and viola and sometimes the second violin. PDF Score.

Parts of Third Movement: Violin1, Violin2, Viola, Cello.


08/27/10: String Quartet in G Major: First and second movements. First movement is Allegro Moderato and second is a minuet. A third movement will be produced next week. PDF of first movement. PDF of second movement.

Parts of First Movement: Violin1, Violin2, Viola, Cello.

Parts of Second Movement: Violin1, Violin2, Viola, Cello.


08/10/10: Study in C. A two-part, contrapuntal study. Just exploring wider tonalities. PDF.


08/02/10: Fugue in E Major for 3 Guitars. This is an arrangement for three guitars of the 3-part fugue below (originally in C for piano). This was inspired by hearing the San Francisco Guitar Quartet over the weekend in San Francisco and by talking to Mason Fish who is currently playing with the SFGQ. Mason plays a 7-string guitar, the extra string being a lower A string. I allowed the lower notes of the fugue to hit that string and I transposed everything to the key of E major to brighten it up, since the guitar can have an otherwise dark sonority. Although the piece is in E major, it sounds more like E minor when it kicks off. But it is certainly centered on E major. Here's the PDF score and the individual parts: Guitar 1, Guitar 2, Guitar 3.



08/01/10: 3-part Fugue in C for piano.

PDF file


07/29/10: A 2-part study for piano. I call my pieces “studies” when I don't know what else to call it. This is sort of like an invention. It is very contrapuntal. PDF.


03/11/10: A Cosmic Lullaby. Lyrics by Ellen Driesbaugh and music by yours truly.
PDF Score.

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.