Joseph Gething – Pieces For Piccolo (Piccolo & Piano)

The Mandarin Dance is either a Chinese mandarin dancing in the square, or a James Bond type of car chase, or even music to a Keystone Cops type of silent film. Novelty Night represents an end of season musicians party with everyone doing a little sketch. Dance of a Clown is a circus clown showing off various dances, and Tyrolienne Capers reflects a group of Austrian country folks dancing.

Review: "A welcome addition to the piccolo repertoire, this book contains four short pieces for piccolo and piano of varying styles and tempos: Mandarin Dance, Novelty Night, Dance of a Clown and Tyrolienne Capers. Fun titles and the writing is very well suited to the piccolo, all with a lively feel and using mostly the middle and top octaves of the instrument. Nice use of grace notes and scalic passages to make them sound virtuosic. Piano accompaniments are straight forward and shouldn't pose problems for the average accompanist. Accessible and enjoyable tunes to make a good contrast in a recital programme or for the advanced student looking for some piccolo repertoire to develop their playing." – Dr. Rachel Smith DMA, MA, BMus (Hons), FTCL – July 2014

Review: "There are four short items included in Joseph Gethings Pieces for Piccolo. Mandarin Dance, at first glance looks easy but the metronome speed for the opening is crochet = 200! However it is mostly in quaver arpeggios and there are no fingering problems, though you do have to be able to play a secure top A. A Novelty Night is a good piece for teaching accuracy of rhythm, Dance of a Clown uses simple rhythmic phrases. Tyrolienne Capers is not only fast, it has running passages in groups of five followed by fours and it calls for flutter-tonguing and glissandi. In all four works the role of the piano is supportive only." – Ann Cherry in Music Teacher, September 2006

Biography

Gething, Joseph

Joseph Gething began piano lessons at the age of 16 while serving an apprenticeship at a school of building. Under the excellent teaching of Raymond Skinner, who later became a Dr. of Music, he passed his Grade 8 exam in the Theory of Music and Grade 6 in Piano. He was then offered a partnership with Raymond Skinner, playing in some of his concerts. However, Joseph gave up piano lessons turning instead to composition. Several musician friends urged him to seek publication of his works, but he became a clerk of works instead. Many years later his second wife Marilyn contacted Broadbent & Dunn about music scores he had laying about in his music room at home. Prompted by the acceptance of many of his works he once more turned his hand to composition. He passed away in March 2014.