Eileen Pakenham compositions

[Mark Levesque]

Does anyone know of a source for the sheet music for 'Musette" and "Lark's Song" by Eileen Pakenham?

Thanks,
Mark

[margora]

They are almost certainly out of print. I am pretty sure I have a copy of "Lark's Song" somewhere; I am not sure about "Musette" but I will look.

[Bob A]

Neil Gladd lists it as one he has played in concert. He might have a source for it.

[Jim Garber]

Try eBay seller Summernight/Best Music Source. At one point she had many pieces by Pakenham. She sold off the Norman Levine/Plucked String catalog.

[Viv W]

Hi all

A search resulted in this thread as I'm also looking for Eileen Pakenham music. I know her compositions are out of print, but as the last post was two years ago, does anyone know anywhere else where they can be found at the moment? Any info appreciated!

Cheers

Viv

[Jim Garber]

There are 4 compositions of Pakenheim which I downloaded from the now-defunct Nakano site. I will try to post them here but I am working on my computer remotely and it may not work.

This one is Caprice -- a rather unclear scan tho.

[Jim Garber]

Fantasy in Five Time -- that one looks interesting.

[Jim Garber]

Kithara

[Jim Garber]

Rondo.

I guess these are mostly handwritten scores for various ensembles.

[Viv W]

Oh that's great! Thanks very much

[Jim Garber]

Perhaps Chris Acquavella will chime in here. He has played a few of Ms. Pakenham's pieces and has included one on his recent recording.

[Jim Garber]

I was just looking thru my music files and did come across the simple and beautiful Musette.

[jacky]

A project is just getting underway in the UK to collate all Eileen's compositions of which there are many. It may take a little while but it will be very worthwhile.

[Viv W]

Brilliant! Thanks again Jim, thanks Jacky x

[ian s]

could anyone give me some history on this lady please ? her work seems to be in demand, so it must be good
thanks

ian

[Henry Girvan]

Hello,

All I have to hand is an obituary about Eileen Pakenham written by Janet Ambrose which was published in the Summer 2009 edition of the British BMG Federation Newsletter, which I will try and attach to this comment.

[ian s]

thats good of henry , cheers

[haggis]

A project is just getting underway in the UK to collate all Eileen's compositions of which there are many. It may take a little while but it will be very worthwhile.

Sounds like a great project to undertake Jacky. Are there any plans to make the full set of Eileen's compositions generally available?

[MMDavis]

Mark,
I have a large collection of Eileen Packenham's compositions, including Larks Song (but not Musette), which I inherited from the estate of Hibbard Perry the Rhode Island teacher and director of the PMO back when I first joined the group. Come over some time and we can look through them.
Mark

[jacky]

Sounds like a great project to undertake Jacky. Are there any plans to make the full set of Eileen's compositions generally available?

Yes - we are in the early stages of this project but, if possible, the aim is to make Eileen's compositions much more easily available. I have had an e-mail from someone who had met Eileen who told me that the composer took great pleasure from giving her work to players and orchestras so I'm pretty sure this would have been her wish.
Janet Ambrose is an authority on her work as she made it a special study for her music degree.

[mandoisland]

I have made a new video with the Musette by Eileen Pakenham:



I have played it 3 times, the second time I have played it with my thumb to get a very soft sound.

[Andy Boden]

Michael, I rather like the lute-like sound of the thumb.

Last year (2013) I set about sequencing Eileen's mandolin compositions, mainly from handwritten scores. Subsequently I managed to complete all (I hope) of them, including pieces for mandolin and piano, mandolin solo, duet, trio, quartet and for mandolin orchestra. The sequenced results are all available to listen to as a set on my Souncloud stream

https://soundcloud.com/andabouk/sets/eileen-pakenham

Though they are not live performances they hopefully give a good idea of the range, variety and sound of Eileen's work.

This was done in agreement with the BMG Association (UK) and mp3 files along with typeset scores and sets of parts for all the music are available. If you are interested in any of the scores etc. please contact them.

Their website is

http://www.banjomandolinguitar.org/

and the main person to contact is Sandra Woodruff at

bmgfederation@gmail.com

Andy

[mandoisland]

Thanks, Andy - I have followed your Eileen Pakenham project and have already listened to some of the music at soundcloud. I have been asked about the Musette by a friend and therefore made this video - I'll also teach this tune to my student - I think he'll like this and hope that he'll also be happy about the video.