Bass Recorder

Bass Recorder Solos

free music scores for BASS RECORDER in PDF and MIDI format

Introduction

To play a little early music amongst a friendly group is always a pleasure. Notwithstanding, there is always a need for solitary practice as well... and also pleasures to be found in this discipline. Over the years, like many players, I have accumulated a good number of unaccompanied solo pieces which have provided useful and enjoyable practice material. The two principal sources for these solos are folksongs and dances of the British Isles, and melodies of the Baroque and Rococo periods. Most of the songs and dances I have extended with the addition of variations-cum-divisions while many of the Baroque/Rococo melodies are arrangements of pieces written for instruments other than the recorder. Although collected for playing on a Bass Recorder, some of the solos are available in treble clef for recorders in C and F (as well of course, bass clef). Few articulation marks and ornaments are shown in the scores as individual tastes, technique and instruments are so various... so, for the most part, I leave these choices to the player. The sets of variations can be played as coherent pieces or each variation treated as an individual exercise: As often an increasing degree of dexterity is required by succeeding variations. The initial solos are grouped into units of approximately ten pages within which there is a range of material from moderately easy to moderately difficult. Later pieces are somewhat more varied in character and range, some with keyboard accompaniment (ideally spinet) and computer generated MIDI file characterizations which might also serve as auto-accompaniments.

I wish you well and hope you find something both useful and enjoyable in the archive below.

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Part 1 - Solos, Melodies by J.S.Bach, arranged from pieces written for Anna Magdelena and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, and other pupils.

• Five Minuets, a March and Musette
• Six Preludes
• Three Inventions
• Part 1 for Treble/Alto Recorder rs1a1_pdf
• Part 1 for Tenor/Descant/Soprano Recorder rs1t1_pdf

Part 2 - Traditional Melodies of the British Isles, with Variations

• Bowman's Country Dance
• The Ash Grove
• All in the Garden Green
• Portsmouth
• Early One Morning
• The Curly Headed Ploughboy
• Blow Away the Morning Dew
• The Pleasures of the Town
• Part 2 for Treble/Alto Recorder rs1a2_pdf
• Part 2 for Tenor/Descant/Soprano Recorder rs1t2_pdf

Part 3 - Unaccompanied Dance Movements from the Solo Cello Suites by J.S.Bach

• Allemande (Suite No.4)
• Courante (Suite No.3)
• Courante (Suite No.5)
• Bourrée 1 & 2 (Suite No.3)
• Gavotte 1 & 2 (Suite No.5)
• Gigue (Suite No.5)
• Gigue (Suite No.4)

Part 4 - Unaccompanied Dance Movements from the Solo Cello Suites by J.S.Bach

• Courante (Suite No.6)
• Courante (Suite No.1)
• Courante (Suite No.2)
• Sarabande (Suite No.5)
• Courante (Suite No.4)
• Sarabande (Suite No.3)
• Minuet 1 & 2 (Suite No.1)
• Gavotte 1 & 2 (Suite No.4)
• Gigue (Suite No.1)

Part 5 - Traditional Melodies of the British Isles, with Variations

• The Miller of the Dee
• Fred Pigeon's Polka (Var.II amended)
• The Farmer's Boy
• Father O'Flynn
• Ward's Brae
• A Melody by Henry Carey
• The Lass of Richmond Hill
• Linnen Hall
• Part 5 for Treble/Alto Recorder

Part 6 - Traditional Melodies of the British Isles, with Variations

• A Starry Night for a Ramble
• The Pilgrim
• Parson's Farewell
• Astley's Ride
• The Angler's Song
• The Broken Panel
• Lulu's Polka
• St.Paul's Wharf
• Part 6 for Treble/Alto Recorder

Part 7 - Traditional Melodies of the British Isles, with Variations

• La Boulanger
• Bobbing Around
• The Dusky Night
• Foot's Minuet
• The Morning Star
• Buttered Peas
• Heel and Toe Polka
• Black Nag
• Part 7 for Treble/Alto Recorder

Part 8 - Traditional Melodies of the British Isles, with Variations

• Blue Eyed Stranger
• Young Collins
• Lovely Nancy
• La Nouvelle Provence
• Miss Elenora Robertson
• Petronella
• The Steamboat Hornpipe
• The Lochmabem Hornpipe
• Part 8 for Treble/Alto Recorder

Part 9 - Melodies from the Piano Sonatas of Josef Haydn

• Finale - Rondo (Sonata No.38, Hob.XVI/23)
• Finale - Theme and Variations (Sonata No.42, Hob.XVI/27)
• Finale - Rondo (Sonata No.50, Hob.XVI/37)
• Rondo (Sonata No.35, Hob.XVI/43)

Part 10 - Melodies of the British Isles, with Variations

• Northdown Waltz
• Christina
• Lady Susan Hamilton

Part 11 - Elizabethan Duets - Sop & Alto Voices/Tenor & Bass Recorders

• The Lowest Trees Have Tops - John Dowland
• Sweet was the Song the Virgin Sung - William Ballet
• What is Beauty but a Breath - Thomas Ford
• To His Sweet Lute - Thomas Campian
• Jacke and Jone - Thomas Campian
• Leave Now Mine Eyes Lamenting - Thomas Morley
• In Nets of Golden Wyers - Thomas Morley
• There is a Ladie Sweet and Kind - Thomas Ford
• O Thou That Art So Cruell - Thomas Morley
• I Should for Griefe - Thomas Morley
• Bass Recorder Part

Part 12 - Melodies of the British Isles, with Variations

• Lady Hammond's Alman I & II
• Lady Harriet Cavendish's fancy

Part 13 - Melodies of the British Isles, with Variations

• Ladies' Pleasure I & II
• Mallow Flowers and Horsetails

Part 14 - Melodies of the British Isles, with Variations

• The Way to Norwich
• Afton Water
• Tom Tolley's Hornpipe
• Madame Buonaparte's Waltz

Part 15 - Melodies of the British Isles, with Variations

• St. George's, Windsor
• Rosamond's Bower
• The Duke of Kent's Waltz
• The Labyrinth

Part 16 - Melodies of the British Isles, with Variations

• Miss Thompson's Hornpipe
• Shrewsbury Lasses

Part 17 - Melodies of the British Isles, with Variations

• The West End
• Irby

Part 18 - Melodies of the British Isles, with Variations

• The Shepherd's Wife
• Surrey
• Lord Guilford's Whim

Part 19 - Melodies of the British Isles, with Variations

• Twin Sisters
• Major Spicer
• Michael Turner's Waltz
• Miss Mary's Frolick

Part 20 - Originaltänze - Franz Schubert

• Melodies from the Dances for Piano, Opus 9, No.1 - No.12

Part 21 - Melodies of the British Isles, with Variations

• The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue
• Tom Jones' Waltz
• All Around My Hat
• Mansfield Park
• Marchioness of Tavistock's Waltz

Part 25 - Trio Sonata in F Major by C.P.E. Bach (Score)

• Transcribed for two bass recorders with Spinet/Harpsichord/Keyboard accompaniment, 21 pages, PDF 240Kb.
• Bass Recorder I, 5 pages, PDF 84Kb.
• Bass Recorder II, 5 pages, PDF 74Kb.
• Available on request by email, subject to conditions.

Rosebay Appendices
A computational model of music built upon an ‘open’ position-value number system (mutable base numbers) that is imbued with qualities that encapsulate the transformations of harmony and meter found in western tonal music. 3MB zip archive.

• Table of Contents & Preface
• Appendix I, Music by Mutable Numbers
• Appendix II, Polonaise from Notebook for W.A. Mozart, 1762
• Appendix III, The Mathematics of Tonal Music and Mutable Base Numbers
• Appendix IV, The Math of Exchange
• Appendix V, Bach's Calculation
• Appendix VI, Chopin: Prelude 20
• Appendix VII, Just Intonation in the MBN model
• Appendix VIII, Piano Prelude No.1 by Claude Debussy
• Appendix IX, the Tristan Chord
• Appendix X, Spiral (of fifths)
• Appendix XI, The Divisors of 72
• Appendix XII, Tonal Computation in Western Music