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


I used to give away the full score 
 on this page, along with a request 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 (the MIDI version)
and the full score downloaded 
 40 times, and yet no one has said a word. 
 Surely SOMEONE has performed it? 
 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!


       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.




 Featured on my 2nd dedicated CD: 
RONALD HANNAH

 Music for Piano and Organ 
Label: PGMaudio 2201-2


This album is not yet
available for streaming
but may be obtained from the
Canadian Music Centre.

       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
Kei Endo, a friend and wonderful pianist, has recorded it for me and it has at last appeared on my second CD! Kei's recording is listed on my Performances page, which also includes the several times that I have played it, for instance at my own 70th birthday concert in Vienna.

       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 (and before my daughter was born). 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 read more about - and stream - 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. In 2013 I wrote Dances for Camille, a suite for two pianos which is also recorded on this album. All is now right with the world!


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