As Composer
Pete Ford
has composed serious pieces for piano, saxophone quartet, full chorus, string quartet, and other ensembles.
Musical Resources is his primary music publisher.
His latest publication through Musical Resources is a large collection of saxophone quartet music entitled “Jazz-Infected Fugues for Saxophone Quartet.” This suite of fugues (both jazz/baroque and straight baroque styles, as well as a Middle-Eastern sounding piece in 5/4) is a compendium of interesting literature for the saxophone quartet. The pieces have been recorded by Sax 4th Avenue, but as of yet the recordings are not available in downloadable or CD form.
The 114-page score of sixteen pieces plus individual part booklets can be ordered below. (To preview, I have included low-fidelity recordings on this page below the Musical Resources order form link).
Pete Ford is always delighted to hear of live performances of his music! Please contact him if you plan to include any of his works on a performance.
(Ford’s current informal project, for his own self-discipline and amusement, is to compose his own Two-Part Inventions in a traditional 18th-century baroque style
. So far he has several completed. More news on this project will be forthcoming)
Pete Ford is currently accepting limited requests for commissions. Photo credit: Katie Hamann
This link is a recording with flute and guitar of his piece “Echoes of Empathy,” a piece written for ANY two instruments with an echo/timelag of two beats. Former student Katie Hamann performed on flute, and Pete Ford on guitar. The guitar part was recorded as a monophonic part once, then copied and pasted two beats following. Katie doubled the initial guitar part, and Peter Bishop of “Above Pete’s Garage” studio in Adrian MI did the engineering. Enjoy. Echoes of Empathy
Here is a link to a 2018 a cappella performance of his piece “The Night Sky at Christmas Time” as performed in concert by the Toledo Choral Society. This piece is available through Musical Resources, as the first movement of his choral suite “On This Starry Night" https://youtu.be/4rBrSUJDaNE
Published Compositions
Jazz-Infected Fugues for Saxophone Quartet.
His latest publication through Musical Resources is a large collection of saxophone quartet music entitled
“Jazz-Infected Fugues for Saxophone Quartet.” With 114 pages of score for sixteen separate pieces, and individual booklets for each instrument in the package, the investment is well worth it. This collection can be found at the following link:
Ulterior Motives for Saxophone Quartet.
“Ulterior Motives” is a popular saxophone quartet contest piece in many states. It can be ordered through Ludwig Masters here:
Four Pieces from Two Millennia for Piano.
His piano suite
“Four Pieces from Two Millennia for Piano” is available here:
Two of these pieces were composed before “Y2K” and two following. In aggregate, they loosely follow a larger sonata form.
Recordings can be heard further down on this page.
On This Starry Night for Chorus.
His five-movement Choral Suite
“On This Starry Night” is available here:
Reference Recordings for Selected Published Works
Four Pieces from Two Millennia for Piano recordings (available through Musical Resources at the links above)
I. Sonatina
II. (wordless) Hymn for Peace and Healing
III. Lydian Terrorists
IV. Hemiolae
For Saxophone Quartet
Reference recordings for “Jazz-Infected Fugues” that are available for purchase (see above) from Musical Resources:
If you like these, PLEASE purchase the booklet so that your saxophone quartet can play these pieces!
YouTube (low-fidelity) recordings with scores for each tune of the collection may be viewed at the following links:
Prelude to Fughettaboutit
Fughettaboutit
The Fugue, the Proud
Family Fugue
Centrifugal Force
A Fugue, Good Men
Bach Atcha Later, Dude
Fugalicious
Fugato Scratch Fever
The Refinery
Postcard from Antarctica
Fugue
If Fughettanother Chance
The Fughettive
If Fughetta Chance
Fughetta in G minor (If Fughetta Third Chance)
Pete Ford’s Fifteen “Two-Part Inventions” for Piano (in the Style of J.S. Bach)
(completed summer 2021; awaiting publication)
Below are basic reference computer-playback recordings with score of Pete Ford's Fifteen Two-Part Inventions, based on the compositional style of J.S. Bach, in the keys in which Bach presented his own original fifteen Two-Part Inventions.
While no new compositional ground is broken in any of these short pieces, it has been a personal journey, a kind of self-assigned compositional etude, to complete these fifteen pieces in Bach's keys and base my work primarily on his compositional style.
Pete Ford’s Two-Part Invention No. 1 in C
Pete Ford’s Two-Part Invention No. 2 in Cm
Pete Ford’s Two-Part Invention No. 3 in D
Pete Ford’s Two-Part Invention No. 4 in Dm
Pete Ford’s Two-Part Invention No. 5 in E-flat
Pete Ford’s Two-Part Invention No. 6 in E
Pete Ford’s Two-Part Invention No. 7 in Em
Pete Ford’s Two-Part Invention No. 8 in F
Pete Ford’s Two-Part Invention No. 9 in Fm
Pete Ford’s Two-Part Invention No. 10 in G
Pete Ford’s Two-Part Invention No. 11 in Gm
Pete Ford’s Two-Part Invention No. 12 in A
Pete Ford’s Two-Part Invention No. 13 in Am
Pete Ford’s Two-Part Invention No. 14 in Bb
Pete Ford’s Two-Part Invention No. 15 in Bm
Recordings for Selected Unpublished Pieces:
For Strings
Blustery Skies Over Michigan (Performed by the Scandia String Quartet with special guest Aaron Keaster, bass)
Elegy for String Quartet (Performed by the Scandia String Quartet)
Fugue for String Quartet (Performed by the Scandia String Quartet)
For Flute and Piano:
Circular Logic for Flute and Piano (2007, for flutist Kelly Hill-Kretzer) (unpublished)
I. Prelude
II. Pastor Al (“…even before he finished seminary, they put him out to pastor”)
III. Bailey’s Bounce
For Solo Double Bass
An original Gigue for Solo Double Bass, composed in a strict Baroque Binary Form style, as expertly read by Toledo Symphony bassist Aaron Keaster:
For Big Band
St. Maarten (my response to Sonny Rollins’ “St. Thomas.”)
Heard here in a fall 2016 read-through by the Adrian College Jazz Band: https://youtu.be/ctHkVCliCz4
Miscellany
This piece, “Echoes of Empathy,” began a self-imposed compositional etude to see how long a melodic idea can go, and harmonize itself EXACTLY as an imitative echo (allowing for differences in octave of the echo). The piece was conceived in August 2021.
While musicians often work minimalistic motivic patterns into classical and popular settings, I was looking for something more organic. My goal was to experiment with lyrical and engaging melodic ideas (more than simple accompanimental-styled motifs) that would communicate a meditative mood with long, evolving and poignant phrases, with the echo connecting each new bar with the previous.
Once the “A” section was completed and after I found that it could complete a satisfying phrase and work as an infinite repeat of itself, I expanded the concept by adding an additional contrasting section (“B”), before returning to the first idea for a simple tripartite form. Subsequently more sections have been added and it’s turned into (as of this writing) an AABACADAEEAA Rondo form that takes about four and a half minutes to complete. I hope to continue adding additional sections—I suppose this could go on and on with new material; the modular form of the Rondo allows for such extensions.
The piece is intended to be played by ANY two instruments, either in the same octaves or different octaves, with the second echoing the first. Or it could even be played as a solo instrument with digital delay (better yet, a real echo). The possibilities are endless. If you are interested in performing this composition in recital or for recording, please contact me. I would be delighted to see what others can do to enhance my piece.
A keyboard recording which follows the score can be heard here; I hope you enjoy it:
“News Themes” composed during the mid 1990’s:
Drawing from my experience composing and recording for corporate entities at Bennett Music in the late 1980’s (see my “Jingle” page), these themes were composed by me in the mid 1990’s but subsequently were never used on air. Specific timings of :59 and :29 are strictly adhered to, and “doughnuts” (as we called them in the production studio) of less musical activity are included for voice-overs. If you would like to use them (or any other of my compositions or recordings) for broadcasting or podcasting, please contact me and let’s talk so that I can give you permission.
Pete Ford’s musical background is unusually eclectic, with influences that include gigging on electric bass and keyboards since high school, touring with a working band before college, earning undergraduate and master’s degrees in music from Indiana State University, and writing music for commercials and industrial video film scores in Indianapolis.
Ford is an internationally-recognized scholar on the music of Keith Emerson, a professor of Music Theory, and still out there gigging in a wide range of musical situations (except during the Covid-19 pandemic).
In the past thirty years he moved to the Toledo Ohio region, where he began studying jazz with Gene Parker and Mark Kieswetter.
His “serious” compositions to date have been written primarily for saxophone quartet, chorus, string ensemble, and solo piano. His compositions often manifest a predilection for quartal melodic and harmonic aspects, yet he insists that tonality is not a bad thing. To illustrate, if you are able, play the first phrase of the SATB piece at the top of this page—it’s from “The Night Sky at Christmas Time.” Beauty can be found within shimmering dissonances. The phrase ends with a sus2 quartal sonority.
The ultimate purpose of his music is to engage and communicate beyond spoken language through interesting sound combinations that resonate with both the audience and performer.
“As the universal language, music—especially instrumental music— eloquently communicates to our soul where words alone fall short.”
—Pete Ford
Most Prominent Gig as Composer
His piece “Nahamasa (A Choral Fanfare for Asa Mahan)” with saxophone and clarinet obbligato was premiered May 10, 2010 at Carnegie Hall, with Ford himself at the piano accompanying the Adrian College Choir. While unpublished, this was a memorable moment in Ford’s career.