One of my musical preoccupations in July was a set of eleven duets for tenor recorder and viola (or other suitable instruments). Each is 33 measures long; here’s the first one.

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This story recounts the romance between Princess Ada and her suitor, Prince Gabe. She’s rather GAGA, and he, frankly, is A BEEF-FACED FEEB. But music is the food of love!  

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Some piano music, all in the upper register.

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The slide whistle and the trombone seem made for each other. This duet shows off both of them, in four movements of 33 measures each.

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This spirited duet pairs the garklein recorder, the smallest member of the recorder family, with the tuba. The two contrasting sonorities are combined in unison, in harmony, in antiphony, and in canon, mostly in C major, before ending their tenuous alliance.  

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This little number was an occasional part of “Doug and Mike’s Adult Entertainment,” the puppet show I did for years with Michael Smith. Here I had to sing, operate a toilet puppet with my right hand, and play a small organ with my left hand.

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We have here a rousing song about humanity’s fundamental perversity. I often sang this back in the ’90s, with Carol Benner playing a vigorous obbligato on the viola.

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“We All Work So Hard” is a song taking umbrage at the work ethic. It can be found in The Doug Skinner Songbook, so you can sing it yourself.

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A piano piece from my student days. These are some of the savory dissonances I was stirring up when I was 18.

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These verses about Amerigo Vespucci and Queen Isabella were originally published in Bedside Nonsense, from Black Scat Books. Here they are set to music, which I recently recorded with a Venezuelan cuatro. Note that for the sake of the meter “Amerigo” is pronounced in Americanese, as I was taught it in school, with the accent […]

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