The 13th Tale from the North

Tales from the North is a series of compositions for two pianists and pianos. I published the first set of 12 — Book I — as sheet music in July 2024.

I completed this 13th Tale the day before my birthday in late October 2024, in time for Halloween. This 130-bar story is indeed dark, one of horror, but also of something more. That something made me decide to share this sheet music on Valentine’s Day 2025. It will also be included in one of my future books.

As with my other Tales from the North, there are no markings for dynamics. I believe the music itself suggests appropriate choices.

The piece is in two sections, separated by a section break: a long slow burn, or maybe descent or deterioration, then the main events.

I can imagine this piece working equally well, for different reasons, if played either with or without the first section, so that possible performance or recording choice has my blessing for all future performers.

Like many of my other pieces, I created this to be ultimately performed by others, but if you want to hear my own intentionally mechanical and harsh demonstration rendition — not an actual performance — it’s on the album The 13th Tale.

NOTE: Despite this piece now being available for free viewing and download, I retain full ownership and copyright. This sheet music may under no circumstances be uploaded or shared by anyone else anywhere. And naturally any performance or recording would require paying the appropriate fees. I am a member of Teosto, the Finnish copyright organisation for music creators, composers, and publishers, and also of Gramex, the copyright society of recorded music in Finland.

An Iceland Symphony, Op. 1: A Theatrical Symphony for All Ages, published in May 2021 as sheet music, was my first large-scale composition. (See the Music pages for more.) It consists of 21 sections, 20 concise ones and one much longer one: section 20, entitled “Love”, lasting nearly 10 minutes.

This culminating piece for full string orchestra (two violin sections, viola section, cello section, and double bass section) would be ideal for any concert of string music. It’s also the piece that, out of all my musical creations so far, I’d most wish to hear in concert or as a recording by living musicians — and ultimately live long after my own time.

To that end, on Midsummer 2023 — in Finland, the great festival of summer light and summer nights and hopes and dreams of love and happiness — I decided to make the full sheet music available here for free viewing and download. I hope this may help prospective performers, musical organisations and orchestras, discover this piece, hopefully one day leading to the Midsummer dream described in the previous paragraph becoming true.

The sheet music book containing the full work is available on Amazon as a hardcover, a paperback, and an ebook.

NOTE: Despite this piece now being available for free viewing and download, I retain full ownership and copyright. This sheet music may under no circumstances be uploaded or shared by anyone else anywhere. And naturally any performance or recording would require paying the appropriate fees. I am a member of Teosto, the Finnish copyright organisation for music creators, composers, and publishers, and also of Gramex, the copyright society of recorded music in Finland.

Below you can find the full sheet music for Tales 1 and 2 from the set of 12 piano duets called Tales from the North, Book I.

All 12 pieces were published as a book of sheet music in July 2024 and before that as an intentionally crude, mechanical demonstration album in June 2023.

As I explain in the introduction to the book, the true world premiere of any of these pieces or the full set will happen only when living pianists perform or record them.

NOTE: Despite these pieces now being available for free viewing and download, I retain full ownership and copyright. This sheet music may under no circumstances be uploaded or shared by anyone else anywhere. And naturally any performance or recording would require paying the appropriate fees. I am a member of Teosto, the Finnish copyright organisation for music creators, composers, and publishers, and also of Gramex, the copyright society of recorded music in Finland.