Earlier this year, two of my piano students, both aged 10, wanted to enter an ensemble class in their Prep School's annual music competition. Whilst there were a number of piano duets which we could possibly have used, in the end I decided to write a short piece for the two of them which they would, hopefully, enjoy rehearsing, and the audience would enjoy listening to, as well as exactly matching their particular strengths - enter The Palarishca Polka, a straightforward little past... (more)

Earlier this year, two of my piano students, both aged 10, wanted to enter an ensemble class in their Prep School's annual music competition. Whilst there were a number of piano duets which we could possibly have used, in the end I decided to write a short piece for the two of them which they would, hopefully, enjoy rehearsing, and the audience would enjoy listening to, as well as exactly matching their particular strengths - enter The Palarishca Polka, a straightforward little pastiche. Isaac, who played secondo, is on a higher grade, so was very able to keep things going at the bass end. Ralph, on the other hand, appreciated the fact that his primopart was often in octaves. I am pleased to say that they won the competition!

Oh, - the title of the piece? The boys' names are Ralph and Isaac, so the rest was just anagram and alliteration!

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Lots of fun
I love this piece - a lot of your music has such a degree of wit to it which displays what can only be a genuine love of music. I have only recently begun to explore the concept of using wit in musical composition and it really does bring about a new level of satisfaction in one's work.. I think you should be very satisfied with this one.

Michael Gillett