(M.J.E. / Composer Listings / Baines)

William BAINES

Incomplete listing (within each category, given in order of publication where known)


William Baines: U.K., 1899 - 1922


PIANO WORKS

      4 Miniature Tone Pictures - London, Escott & Co., 1917
            [1.]
            [2.]
            [3.]
            [4.]

      Cherry Ripe [by Charles Edward Horn] - London, Escott & Co., 1917

      Paradise Gardens - London, Elkin & Co., 1919

      Seven Preludes - London, Elkin & Co., 1919
            [1.]
            [2.]
            [3.]
            [4.]
            [5.]
            [6.]
            [7.]

      Coloured Leaves. Four Pieces for Pianoforte - London, Augener, 1921
            [No. 1.] Prelude
            [No. 2.] Valse
            [No. 3.] Still Day
            [No. 4.] Purple Heights

      Four Poems for piano - London, Augener, 1921
            [No. 1.] Poem-Fragment
            [No. 2.] Elves
            [No. 3.] Poem-Nocturne
            [No. 4.] Appassionata

      Four Sketches - York, Banks & Son, 1921
            No. 1. The Chimes
            No. 2. Only a Few Wooden Soldiers
            No. 3. Dreaming
            No. 4. Little Imps

      Silverpoints. Four pieces - London, Elkin & Co., 1921
            1. Labyrinth (A Deep Sea Cave)
            2. Waterpearls
            3. The Burning Joss-stick
            4. Floralia

      Milestones. Three pieces for pianoforte - London, Elkin & Co., 1922
            1. Ave! Imperator
            2. Angelus
            3. Milestones

      Tides. Two Pieces for Pianoforte - London, Elkin & Co., 1922
            1. The Lone Wreck
            2. Goodnight to Flamboro'

      Three Concert Studies for the Pianoforte - London, Elkin & Co., 1923
            [No. 1.] Exaltation
            [No. 2.] The Naiad
            [No. 3.] Radiance

      Twilight Pieces for the Pianoforte - London, Elkin & Co., 1923
            1. Twilight Woods
            2. Quietude
            3. A Pause of Thought

      Pictures of Light. Three Pieces for Pianoforte - Edited by F. Dawson - London, Elkin & Co., 1927
            1. Drift-Light
            2. Bursting Flames
            3. Pool-Lights *

      A Last Sheaf. Four Pieces - Edited by F. Dawson - London, Elkin & Co., 1930
            [1.]
            [2.]
            [3.]
            [4.]

* According to editor Frederick Dawson, as noted in the score itself, this is the composer's very last composition.


ORCHESTRAL WORKS

      Symphony in C minor (1917) - unpublished *
      Poem, for Piano and Orchestra (later than the Symphony) - unpublished and unperformed

* First performed in 1991 by the Airedale Symphony Orchestra conducted by George Kennaway, at the Grassington Festival in North Yorkshire. Cassettes of this performance are available from the conductor, who can be contacted on his own web site at http://www.knwy.freeserve.co.uk/index.htm.



Thanks to George Kennaway and The British Library for much of this information.



Recordings

      There is the above-mentioned performance of the Symphony in C minor which, as I said, can be obtained directly from the conductor of that performance. But there is only one commercially available recording of Baines' music that I know of, and that is issued by the British record company Priory Records. They specialize in church and organ music, but do include some collections of piano music in their catalogue. These are mostly played by British pianist Eric Parkin, and consist largely of music by Billy Mayerl and other composers of light piano music; but also included is a record of some of Baines' piano music played by Parkin. This duplicates in entirety the contents of an earlier Lyrita recording by Parkin, although I don't know if the recordings are the exact same ones - and the Priory title includes several new pieces, too. I believe the Lyrita record was only an L.P., and has never been reissued as a C.D. - but the Priory record can be bought on the company's web site at http://www.priory.org.uk.
      I can't give a direct link to the appropriate page because all the web site pages seem to have the same U.R.L.: but follow the link just given, and click on "Catalogue", then select your country from the list, then "Piano Music Collections". The Baines record is about half-way down the longish page that will now show.
      The contents of this record are as follows:

The Chimes (1st of Four Sketches)
Paradise Gardens
Seven Preludes (7 pieces)
Coloured Leaves (4 pieces)
Silverpoints (4 pieces)
Idyll (Nocturne)
Tides (2 pieces)
The Naiad (2nd of Three Concert Studies for the Pianoforte)
Twilight Pieces (3 pieces)
Pool-Lights (3rd of Pictures of Light)
Étude in F sharp minor

      I haven't yet heard this record, but if the performances are the same as the Lyrita ones (which I have heard), I can recommend them highly. And even if they are new performances, they are by the same pianist, who obviously has a good feel for this subtle impressionistic music, so they are still very likely to be good.


Michael Edwards,
Victoria, Australia.

Wednesday, 2 August, 2000.

E-mail me about William Baines.


NOTE:
      Click here if you need an explanation for the strange appearance of the e-mail address which will appear when you click on the e-mail link, or if you don't know what you need to do to make the e-mail address work properly.



NOTE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THIS PAGE - Wednesday, 6 June, 2001:

      This page is incomplete, although this may not be immediately apparent; but there is further information I would like to add when I can organize it. Please go here for an explanation about the setback that is responsible for my not completing this page, and why it may never be completed, or why it may happen only very slowly. Not that this makes any real difference to someone who would like to see the page complete - but I feel I should at least explain the situation.
      I will leave this page here, incomplete as it is, in case the information already written is useful to some readers researching a topic they may have difficulty finding information about on the Internet.

      I don't really know how complete this catalogue is. I know of a few items that are possibly missing, although my memory of them is so vague that I can't with any confidence enter them. I believe there are a few orchestral works besides the Symphony, and I even have the ghost of a memory of a Piano Sonata in Eb minor, although I am far from sure of this; and I believe Baines also wrong songs and chamber music, none of which is listed above. The sources from which I have gathered the above information do not say they are complete listings, and this web page cannot claim to list anything more than those works I happen to have heard or read of, although I would venture to guess that the piano works listing is probably close to complete.
      I also hope to add a little more one day about recordings of Baines' music, and there are links to other Baines pages on the Internet I would like to include once I've organized the information, which is at present scattered round several different files on my hard disk.

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This page created on Friday, 12 May, 2000;
last modified on Wednesday, 6 June, 2001.