Colin Decio Composer & Pianist
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Piano Works

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Piano Sonatas I - X

I began writing my first four movement Piano Sonata No.1 in 1986 as a student of the Birmingham School of Music, UK (now Royal Birmingham Conservatoire). This was the Sonata that John Ogdon was later to perform and that led to my first piano concerto Piano Concerto No. 1 
​being 
dedicated - 'in memoriam John Ogdon'.
​
​Piano Sonata No.1 - duration 12:41

I - Presto
II - Lament
III - Lento e sostenuto
IV - Waltz
Wonderful Sonata! Wonderful Sonata!”
John Ogdon 
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​Sonata No.2 (Spirits of Our Age II) - duration 20:00 in four movements was inspired by the Hieronimus Bosch painting 'Christ Carrying the Cross'. Characters within the painting are described musically in the piece. This sonata introduces the percussive effect of striking the piano beneath the keyboard with the sustain pedal held to create a 'sonic boom'.
Sonata No.3 - duration 16:30 is also in four movements and is based on the play between major/minor tonalities.
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Sonata No.4 - duration 11:00 is in one, through-composed movement, and nods the head to Liszt, Prokofiev and Ravel. (Video on YouTube)

Sonata No.5 - duration 16:15 is in three movements and has 'jazzy' elements in the first; even though jazz is not a particular interest of mine (see - Now That's What I Call Jazz!). It also makes use of arpeggiated chords.

Sonata No.6 - duration 12:30 begins in martial fashion with cluster chords played using both forearms. The second and third movements are short.

Sonata No.7 - duration 7:17 is a light work that makes much use of repeated ostinati.
​In three movements.


Sonata No.8 (Enceladus) in three movements, is so subtitled as there are many internal stresses and strains just like Saturn's moon after which it is named.

Sonata No.9 is in four movements and begins with a very strong first subject based on the interval of the tritone. The sonata ends with variations on the hymn known as Old Hundredth. 
Piano Sonata No.1 Decio

Christ Carrying the CrossChrist Carrying the Cross - Hieronimus Bosch, Piano Sonata No.2

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Piano Sonata No.4 - complete work (premiere performance)
​Colin Decio - piano

Sonata No. 10 - 'In A Black Wind The Cloister Bell Rings'    
duration 18:00
​in 5 movements


Having completed nine piano sonatas I was feeling that it would take something for me to write another – and then along came the pandemic and the New Zealand government’s overreach. This was enough to inspire a new sonata – Sonata No.10. 
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Ragged Time
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​Four Rags for piano solo composed in deference to Scott Joplin
From DVD 1 Piano & Poetry
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  1. A Birthday Rag​ - (A Birthday Rag was also transcribed for silver band - see Brass.)
  2. Changeable Weather
  3. A Jammy Rag
  4. Bright and Breezy​​
Scott Joplin's wonderful Rags have been with me since childhood. So he was first to mind when I began writing my own rags. Joplin himself had a very tough life though uncharacteristically he was published by a white American, something quite outrageous for the day.

Ragged Time features on DVD 1 Piano & Poetry

19 Suites -
Haflidi's Pictures
Haflidi's Pictures CD
 Mark Tanner - ​piano solo

Contains the premiere recording of
The Musical Box Suite 
The Musical Box Suite
  1. The Musical Box
  2. The Little Ballerina Dances
  3. The Singing Wood
  4. The Many-Layered Russian Doll
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"Film-like simplicity."
Colin MacIntyre (The Scotsman)

ex cathedra  - duration 4:51 
​to be performed in cathedrals with a large echo
​dedicated to Wellington Cathedral of St. Paul​
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ex cathedra for piano solo

​The Jews of Old Prague - duration 6:30 
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​The Jews of Old Prague is recorded on Cotswold Songs CD

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Noel! Noel! 
A seasonal fun piece for four pianists and one piano​
(approx. Grade 3 standard)
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Endless Counterpoint - duration 7:45
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As a student I felt that counterpoint was rammed down my throat – no consecutive fifths or octaves! Counterpoint was held with the highest regard and much aspired to by the ‘academics’. It was so pushed that I became totally disinterested in it, that is until I starting exploring the possibilities in this piano work. Nonetheless I wanted to express something of this archaic ‘attitude’ in the music and that came from the ‘endlessness’ of using contrapuntal techniques – even JS Bach was out of fashion in his own lifetime.

​Intervallischen Suite​
Etudes 1-7 - duration 14:00
Five Gentle Studies for Right Hand Alone - duration 9:00
​​​Now that's what I call jazz! - my shortest work to date to be performed tongue-in-cheek for a - very short encore!
​​Piano Sonatinas I - XIV

Prelude for Anne Frank - duration 3:00
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Prelude for Anne Frank features on DVD 2 Piano & Poetry

PictureSakura
Preludes Book 1
Preludes Book 2

​Sakura - 'Cherry Blossoms' - duration 2:45
Inner Reflection No.1  - duration 4:30
​Two Estampes - duration 11:00


An Awkward Dance No.1 - duration 3:00 
First Prize in the 
TAVAC Composition Competition 2022
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  • ​Awkward Dances
  • ​Beginners Piano Exercises
  • ​Seven Little Piano Studies
  • Progressive Studies
  • Cloud-Hopping
  • Chromanic Suite
  • Fripperies Suite
  • Neo-Classical Suite
  • BAG of Suites
  • Winter Moods Suite
  • Hansel and Gretel Suite
  • Three Fantasies
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Hansel and Gretel Suite

from DVD2 'Piano & Poetry'

Colin Decio - piano
​Ingrid Prosser - poet
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YouTube video contains a selection of piano miniatures from - Movements in Time 
(​17 short pieces for the beginner pianist - 
approx.
Grade 1-5 standard) 
interspersed with poetry* read by​:
Ingrid Prosser

  • The Grandfather Clock Winds Down Gracefully 
*     ‘To see a world in a grain of sand’
        William Blake
  • A Little Jewish Dance 
​​​*     ‘Where the bee sucks’ 
​        (from The Tempest)  ​by Shakespeare
  • Lyric Piece 
*     ‘Aedh wishes for the cloths of heaven’ 
        WB Yeats
  • A Little March 
*     ‘White Bird’ (haiku triptych)
        Ingrid Prosser
  • The Dragon
Movements in Time Decio
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Hall of Mirrors

Ten little piano duets for the beginner pianist
​Frustrated with the lack of music to assist in my piano teaching work I set about to compose some simple pieces that beginner pianists, Grade 1, could enjoy with their teacher. All of the pieces are in a five-finger position. Both primo and secondo parts are the same standard. So far they have proved very successful and have become essential teaching material. 
​Suitable for children Grade 1 (ABRSM). 
(Special thanks to Vivien Jowet, Al Hannam and Robbie McElroy for help with the names)
​I. Distorted Faces
II. Bent and Misshapen
III. Playground Reflections
IV. An Unexpected Turn
V. Irregularities
VI. Mirage
VII. Dancing Lights
VIII. Short and Wide
IX. French Polished
X. Chinese Lanterns*
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© 2024 Colin Decio  All rights reserved.
  • Home
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