Compositions by William Ashworth

Compositions by William Ashworth

William Ashworth holds both bachelor's and master's degrees in music theory and composition (Whitman College, 1965; Washington State University, 1967), and has continued to compose throughout his life. His music has been performed by the Philadelphia String Quartet, the Washington State University Concert Choir, cellists Ed Dixon (with pianist Eleanor Elkins James) and Lisa Truelove (with pianist Stephen Truelove), and the Oregon chamber ensemble SyZyGy.

Midi Files

Here are links to MIDI realizations of some of William Ashworth's works (due to the limitations of MIDI files, these pieces may sound quite different on different computers):

Piano pieces:

Rain (.mid file, 7K)
Ballade (.mid file, 16K)

Chamber music:

String Quartet No. 2:

Allegro (.mid file, 34K)
Andante Cantabile (.mid file, 15K)
Scherzo (.mid file, 20K)
Allegro Moderato (.mid file, 17K)

The Island of Woods (.mid file, 10K)

Rain is a dodecaphonic composition from the mid-seventies, pointillistic and rather Webernesque. The score is headed by a line from e. e. cummings: nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands. Ballade is the last movement of a Suite for Piano which also includes a Fanfare, a Romanza, an Intermezzo, and a Waltz. The music, which is neoromantic in character, was written in 2001. String Quartet No. 2 was written between June 2005 and April 2006. It is based on a twelve-tone row but is grounded in traditional forms and sounds, and its overall effect, like that of the Ballade, is neoromantic. Its four movements take between twenty and twenty-five minutes to perform. The Island of Woods - also a twelve-tone/neoromantic work - is a short piece for cello ensemble, written for Ed Dixon and the Whitman College Cello Choir and completed in January, 2007.

Live Performance Recording

William Ashworth's Sonata for Violoncello and Piano is dedicated to Lisa and Stephen Truelove of Southern Oregon University and was premiered by its dedicatees, with Lisa on the cello and Stephen on the piano, on April 30, 2006, in Ashland, Oregon. The sonata is in three movements, titled Moderato, Scherzo, and Introduction and Dance; movements two and three are played without pause. The link below leads to a recording of the third movement, made at a performance of the sonata by cellist Ed Dixon (Whitman College) and pianist Eleanor Elkins James (Walla Walla College) in Walla Walla, Washington on October 5, 2006. (Warning: large file!)

Introduction and Dance (.mp3 file, 5.68Mb)

Other recent works include an orchestral song on Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" and song cycles on poems by A. E. Houseman (A Shropshire Lad) and William Butler Yeats (The Celtic Twilight).