Partita #5 - BSN/PN (PDF)

Partita #5 - PDF
for bassoon and piano
by Bill Douglas (b. 1944) - Canadian-born composer, pianist, and bassoonist 

This is the PDF download.

For a link to the YouTube of the premiere, click HERE.

ABOUT THE COMPOSER

Bill Douglas was born in London, Ontario, Canada on November 7, 1944. His father played trombone and sang in a big band, and his mother played organ in church.   He began piano lessons at four and taught himself ukulele and guitar when he was seven. At age eight, he started to write songs influenced by early rock musicians such as Little Richard, the Everly Brothers, and Elvis. With his two brothers he formed a band, which performed these tunes and other rock songs from the 50’s.

At thirteen Bill started to play bassoon, and became very interested in both classical music and jazz. His heroes in jazz were Bill Evans, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane, and he wrote his first jazz tunes at fourteen. Bill Douglas received an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto diploma in classical piano at age seventeen.

From 1962-66, he attended the University of Toronto and obtained a BA in music education. During this time, he became very interested in 20th century classical music, and started composing pieces influenced by Anton Webern, Elliott Carter, and Igor Stravinsky, as well as such contemporary jazz artists as Paul Bley and Gary Peacock. He played fourth bassoon in the Toronto Symphony and often played jazz piano gigs on weekends.

He was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship in 1966, and attended Yale University from 1966-69. There he met clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, and they have been touring and recording ever since. In 1967 Bill played three concerti with the Toronto Symphony; in 1968 he received a Master of Music degree majoring in bassoon; and in 1969 a Master of Musical Arts degree in composition.  At this time he was writing very avant-garde atonal music.  After Yale he received a Canada Council award to study composition in London, England for a year.

From 1970-77, Bill taught at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California, where he became very interested in African and Indian music.  He started writing a series of rhythm studies for his students called Rock Etudes (later, he changed the name to Vocal Rhythm Etudes). These were influenced by African, Indian, and Brazilian music, as well as contemporary classical music, jazz, and funk (particularly the 70’s funk of Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock).  They have been used in many schools around North America, and he performs at least one of them in all his concerts. He also started to write short tonal and modal lyrical pieces for his students. These eventually became part of his concert repertoire, and many have been recorded.  In 1976 he recorded three RCA albums of classical chamber music with pianist Peter Serkin and Tashi.

In 1977, he moved to Boulder, Colorado to teach at the Naropa Institute. Some of his bassoon students from Cal Arts also moved to Boulder and together they formed the Boulder Bassoon Band, which played together for twenty years.

Bill has recorded numerous albums of his music for the Hearts of Space label.  The last of these have featured the Ars Nova Singers conducted by Thomas Morgan. In 1998, RCA released an album entitled "Open Sky: Richard Stoltzman plays the Music of Bill Douglas." In March, 1999, his "Concerto for African Percussion Ensemble and Orchestra" was premiered by Nexus and the Rochester Philharmonic.

Among the many musicians who have inspired and influenced him are J.S. Bach, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Josquin Desprez, William Byrd, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Ralph Vaughn Williams, and Ali Akbar Khan.

For additional information, please visit Bill’s website at www.billdouglas.cc.