Featured Products

January 1, 2023, marks the 10th year of Sleepy Puppy Press and we are going to have some very special new publications released this month. Come back every Sunday, starting January 1, for a new week's reveal!

REVEAL #4 JANUARY 29,2023

ALYSSA MORRIS
Sleepy Puppy Suite for violin and piano

Available now in both print and digital versions!

The gang's all here-- Shivani, Rascal, Bentley, and Albert! Composer Alyssa Morris wrote musical character sketches for each of these furry friends, photographed waiting to be picked up from doggie day care. The movements are:

Rascal (Presto): an energetic and busy, busy Schnauzer
Bentley (Shuffle Waltz): a Beagle, Chihuahua, Cairn Terrier mix who thinks he's a hunting dog Shivani (Mysterioso): The sleepy puppy herself, an exotic and neurotic mini-Labradoodle Albert (Big and Heavy): a Great Dane mix with a big, beefy bark

Commissioned in celebration of Sleepy Puppy Press's 10th anniversary, Alyssa Morris was the perfect choice for the composition. Fanfare magazine declared "Alyssa Morris…brings something that we don’t always hear in the music of our time—wit. Add to this a true melodic gift, an ability to evoke a range of moods, and a strong imagination, and the result is a composer whose music is gratifying even on repeated hearings.”
A brilliant oboist and composer, Dr. Morris is an Assistant Professor of Music at Kansas State University. Her chamber music is performed extensively around the world, and has been presented at five IDRS Conventions, the National Flute Association Convention, and the Society of Composers Inc. National Convention. Dr. Morris has been commissioned to write music for the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, the Arizona State University faculty wind quartet, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music double reed trio, Brigham Young University’s Sundance Trio, Ohio University’s Athenia Chamber Ensemble, and Carolyn Hove (principal English horn of the L.A. Philharmonic), to name a few. Dr. Morris’s music has been recorded on the Equilibrium, Centaur and MSR Classics labels, and her compositions are published by TrevCo Music Publishing.

Below is the beautiful "Shivani" movement. More recordings coming!

REVEAL #3 JANUARY 15,2023

HANNAH BARTEL GROENING
Harmony Violin part for Kansas Memories Suite

Available now!

Hannah Bartel Groening (b. 1985) grew up in a musical family and started writing pieces to play with her four sisters when she was in high school. She went on to major in music composition at Kansas State University, with violin as her primary instrument. Since graduating, she has written pieces for commission and taught private lessons. Hannah is active teaching homeschoolers and enjoys cultivating a love for learning in her own five children. Hannah lives in western Kansas, where she grew up. Her piece, the Kansas Memories Suite, was commissioned for the first volume of the “Violin Music by Women” anthology in 2008 and has become a great favorite of violin students and as well as their teachers. In it, she painted vivid pictures of childhood life in the plains while addressing various pedagogical issues common for beginning violin students.

Now, with the addition of a harmony violin part, these wonderful movements can be ensemble experiences for solo or group class performances!

Click on the picture to go to the product page, where you can hear performances of all four movements by Drs. Maureen Yuen and Cora Cooper, violins, and pianist Amanda Arrington.

REVEAL #2 JANUARY 8, 2023

JOSEPHINE TROTT
Jean Kay in Paris

Available now!

Josephine Trott is really the person that piqued my curiosity about women composers. She couldn't have been the only one in her time, and sure enough, she wasn't! In addition to being a violinist, teacher, and composer, Trott was a fine writer in both English and French, and also worked as a journalist.

This short novel was conceived during a two-year trip to France, where she brought her adopted daughter to study violin with her former teacher. Trott's keen observations of the pitfalls of Americans wrestling with French language and customs found a home in the character of Jean Kay, a young American woman fleeing a break-up with her boyfriend. Her hopeless use of French leads to mishap after mishap, which she solves by dint of cluelessness and confidence. Charming and hilarious, the book is full of descriptions like "She was a shabby little school-marm person from New England apparently, just full of awe and prunes and things like that, if you get the idea." It's a whole new vision of Josephine Trott, composer of études!

Click on the picture to go to the product page, or find in the "New" and "Books" categories!

REVEAL #1 JANUARY 1, 2023

REBECCA CLARKE
Sonata in D major for Violin and Piano
Sonata in G major for Violin and Piano

Pre-order for late January/early February delivery

These two works date from Clarke's student days at the Royal College of Music in London, around 1909. They are more touched with Romanticism than her later works, but already show her unique voice.

These works have never before been published complete. These authorized editions have been prepared with direct access to Clarke's manuscripts and autograph performance-materials. A 2003 recording by Lorraine McAslan, violin, and Ian Jones, piano, includes both pieces and can be found on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/5rmzyc7mORxZSVhYzf9kPN

Click on the pictures to go to the product page, or find them in the "New" and "Solo instrument/Solo Instrument and Piano" categories!

The D major sonata is a full three-movement work. The beautiful slow movement (which is included in volume 4 of Violin Music by Women) caused her teacher, Sir Charles Stanford, to leave the room without a word to go show it to the violin professor—his highest accolade. The work already shows signs of her unique mature voice, combined with a Romantic sensibility. Nearly 25 minutes in performance length, it would make a substantial centerpiece of a recital.

While Clarke finished only the first movement of this sonata, it stands on it's own as an eleven-minute concert piece. The work is strong, somewhat Brahmsian, with recurring solo violin passages in chords and double stops. It was written (like the D major full sonata) when Clarke was a student at the Royal College of Music, sometime between 1907-1909. Passages of open strings and harmonics foreshadow the timbre of her unique mature style.

SNEAK PREVIEW PUBLICATION!

The Violin Music by Women COMPOSER COLORING BOOK!
Now available!

Featuring coloring pages for all the composers in volumes 1 and 2 of the Violin Music by Women anthology-- and a couple surprises.

Find it in the "New", "Books", "Pedagogical" or "Violin Music by Women" categories on the left menu above!