Suite for Elan
for Piano Solo (1980)
by Ron Hannah

Home
  1. Asleep
  2. At Play
  3. Lonely Princess
  4. Sparkling Laughter
  5. Swinging
  6. Chasing Butterflies

Duration: about 7 minutes

       This charming suite was begun within a few days of the birth of my first daughter in 1980, and movements




have been added from time to time since. It is a collection of short, descriptive essays on a father's perceptions of a new daughter, each one limited to not more than two pages in length. I am very pleased to say that a professional recording of this work has finally been made. Kei Endo, a friend and wonderful pianist, recorded it for me in 2022 and it is soon to appear on my second CD! Kei's recording is listed on my Performances page, which also includes the several times I have played it, for instance at my own 70th birthday concert in Vienna. A computer-generated Logic Pro sound file is available for listening, however, by clicking on the button at left. You'll have to wait for the CD to hear it really well done!

       I used to give away the full score on this page, along with a request on every page of this extensive site that anyone who decides to perform my music let me know so that I can keep the site up-to-date. Thus far, as of April, 2017, Suite for Elan has been listened to 118 times and the full score downloaded 40 times, and no one has said a word. Surely SOMEONE has performed it? Thus, sadly, I now limit the download to the first page only. If you would like the full score, please visit the Canadian Music Centre, or send me an email (below), along with your promise to tell me of any performances!

       In keeping with time-honoured tradition, I have stolen from myself in the course of this work, and in others as well. In fact I have re-used the "Lonely Princess" theme (3rd movement of this suite) not once, not twice, but thrice (and I may not yet be finished). That section originally appeared in my children's ballet, Aladdin, a year before this suite was begun. The Princess' theme from the ballet so charmed me that I inserted it into my suite and arranged it later for flute and guitar (in which form it eventually became the processional for my wedding to Andrea Mellis many years further on). You can hear that version if you click here. Most recently it has been re-cast for recorder quartet and harpsichord, and in this form it was premièred in Colchester, England in 2016. It can be heard at the Colchester New Music site (along with another pieces of mine called "5-Part re-Invention").

       I felt guilty after my second daughter was born for not writing something for her also. But all parents know that the second, and later, children get the short end of the stick. At last however, I have corrected that lapse and have (in 2013) written Dances for Camille, a suite for two pianos. All is now right with the world!

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