Dawnlight (for tenor banjo, 2023) SCORE | VIDEO

Homage to Hindemith (for mandolin/guitar, 2023) SCORE

Passacaglia (for mandolin/guitar, 2023) SCORE

Viper Thoughts (for guitar, 2023) SCORE | VIDEO

Waves (for banjo, 2023) SCORE

Three Dances (for ukulele, 2023, rev. Giovanni Albini) SCORE

Tombeau for Julian Bream (for guitar, 2023) SCORE | RECORDING

A Wandering Prelude (for banjo, 2023) SCORE | TAB

Four Comic Portraits (for solo cello, 2023) SCORE

Prelude No. 3 (for any instrument, 2023) SCORE

Nightfall (for banjo, 2023) SCORE | VIDEO

Sunday Lunch in Moment Form (for a miscellany of objects, instruments, and players, 2023) RECORDING

Ad Infinitum (for guitar, 2023) SCORE | VIDEO

Squirrels (for any suitable keyboard instrument, 2023) SCORE

Prelude and Fantasy (for guitar, 2023) SCORE | RECORDING

Winter in the Woods (for marimba/violin/cello or violin/viola/cello, 2022) SCORE

Two Canticles (for guitar, 2022) SCORE | RECORDING

Passacaglia on Happy Birthday (for guitar, 2022) SCORE | RECORDING

Prelude No. 2 (for any instrument, 2022) SCORE | VIDEO

Homage to Takemitsu (for guitar, 2022) SCORE | RECORDING

Fantasy (for organ, 2021) SCORE

Chorale (for string trio or solo guitar, 2021) SCORE

Prelude No. 1 (for any instrument, 2021) SCORE | VIDEO

Dekalog Postludes (for guitar, 2021) SCORE | RECORDING

Prelude and Fugue in A Major (for organ, 2020) SCORE

Prelude and Fugue in G Major (for guitar, 2020) SCORE

Passacaglia and Fugue (for string quartet, 2020) SCORE

I watched a blackbird (for soprano/piano, 2020) SCORE

Homage to Sir Walter Scott (for guitar, 2020) SCORE | RECORDING

Night Music (for trumpet/guitar, 2020) SCORE | RECORDING

Fantasy on a Theme by King Henry VIII (for guitar, 2019) SCORE | RECORDING

Come, heavy sleep (for voice/lute, 2018) SCORE

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Caligula (c. 2012, an extreme metal album; juvenilia) RECORDING

Renaissance Guitar Music for the Ukulele

This book presents 37 pieces of Renaissance guitar music transcribed for solo fingerstyle ukulele together with the author’s recordings of every transcription. Moreover, a generous introduction provides a brief history of the Renaissance guitar, tips on period ornamentation and musicianship, recommended recordings, and invaluable resources for further research of your own.

Throughout Europe, the Renaissance guitar was a popular instrument in the middle of the sixteenth century. Its composers left us a treasure-trove of music, from rustic dances to chansons and elaborate fantasias. Five-hundred years later, this music fits beautifully on the Renaissance guitar’s musical descendant, the ukulele.

The Renaissance guitar and the ukulele share an almost identical tuning. As the transcriptions in this book are written in standard notation and tablature, any type of ukulele, from soprano to baritone—as well as the top four strings of the guitar— can be used to play them.

Available as a physical book or eBook from Mel Bay, Amazon, and various other shops.

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The Lute Music of Robert Johnson

Robert Johnson (c. 1583 – 1633) was the last of the great English lutenists; he served Prince Henry and was later a prominent figure in the court of Charles I. He wrote music for many plays and masques of the time, including several by Shakespeare. Decades after Johnson’s death, in a “Dialogue between the Author and His Lute” within Musick’s Monument and the persona of the Lute, writer and lutenist Thomas Mace described John Dowland and Robert Johnson as “Two famous men; Great Masters in My Art”. 

Despite such high praise and the fact that much of Johnson’s music is well-suited to the guitar, few guitarists play it. This comprehensive collection of solo lute works, transcribed for guitar in standard notation, is an attempt to remedy this shortcoming. It includes music for the beginner as well as the advanced player. The book’s 23 pieces range from Johnson’s delightful almains, galliards, masques and a single coranto to the somber intensity of the pavans and a fantasie.  Dropped-D and lowered third-string tuning (F#) are frequently used to better approximate the tuning and range of the 9 or 10-course Renaissance lute.

Available as a physical book or an eBook from Mel Bay, Amazon, and various other shops.

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Free Scores

Bakfark, Valentin – Fantasia IX (guitar transcription) SCORE

Biber, Heinrich Ignaz Franz – Passacaglia, from the Rosary Sonatas (guitar transcription) SCORE

Desprez, Josquin – Kyrie, from Missa D’ung aultre amer (lute transcription) SCORE

Liszt, Franz – Abschied, S.251 (guitar transcription) SCORE

Liszt, Franz – Angelus (No. 1 from Années de pèlerinage III, S.163; guitar transcription) SCORE

Llobet, Miguel – La Nit de Nadal (ukulele transcription) SCORE

Malats, Joaquín – Serenata (guitar transcription) SCORE

When Mahler Found Ives (Interlude.hk)

Frederic Mompou and his Musica Callada (Interlude.hk)

Mendelssohn and His Place in History (Interlude.hk)

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I write concert reviews for the quarterly magazine Musical Opinion (subscribe here) and album reviews for MusicWeb International

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A two-part guest post on the composer Tōru Takemitsu for the blog The Music Salon:

Part 1

Part 2

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There are also some longer writings on my blog, such as:

Charles Ives – Autumn

Some thoughts regarding Fernando Sor’s Fantaisie elegiaque op. 59

Erich Korngold – The Dead City