Next up in my study of Cubase, i took a movement from one of my favorite Beethoven sonatas—Opus 28, “Pastorale”—that i love playing, and arranged it into a piece for woodwind quartet—flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon.

It’s only an “excerpt” from the movement because i’m trying to learn how to do various styles and instruments. In the time it would take me to finish it, i could probably do 1-2 more etudes of different styles. Someday i might finish it; especially if there was a wind quartet that would actually like to play it. It’s such a great piece of music from 1801.

i chose this piece because i felt that i could “spread out” the melody to all the players and make an interesting piece. And while i do play flute, clarinet and oboe “fluently”, i never did brave learning the bassoon…so i’m not sure if that is a difficult part or not; from a fingering perspective.

The other three parts are all within the range of their respective instrument and not hard at all. The flute part is a little low for a young student but not un-playable. i also think the clarinet part is a little boring so far but if i ever finish the movement, there’s a bunch of juicy stuff at the end that could make it more interesting. Nothing is particularly hard. i think high school students could easily play this and college students might be a little bored. 😀

Along with the previous pieces i composed in Cubase, i’m calling these “etudes” because that’s what they are for me; exercises to help me learn and get better at using the software. i’m also learning to use Sibelius, because i could never figure out Finale, but that’s a story for another day.

Let me know what you think in the comments?