This week marks the publication of my second volume highlighting the music of French late-Romantic composer Mélanie Bonis, or Mel-Bonis as she was often known. Book 1 was published in March and focuses on elementary pieces for children from the popular collection Album pour les tout-petits Op. 103, and you can find out more about it by clicking here. The second book is another selection intended for children: Scènes Enfantines Op. 92. This group of eight pieces is suitable for intermediate level pianists or approximately Grade 4 – 6 of the British examination board syllabus standards.

First published in 1912, these pieces are fresh, engaging, and full of imaginative touches, in keeping with Bonis’ unique style of writing for the instrument. In many respects Bonis had a tragic life, as I have already noted in my previous blog post, but she kept her love of writing music alive and was still composing up until her death.

These pieces contain descriptive titles as might be expected from Romantic programmatic music and they are listed as follows:

Each work introduces students to different technical or musical aspects necessary for good piano playing, making them a useful addition to a piano teacher’s studio. Bonis was keen to tell a story and several of the works are annotated with French text at various points in the score, explaining the story line as it progresses within the music, bringing it to life.

As this new volume is part of the Schott Student Edition series all the pieces have been carefully annotated with suggested metronome markings, fingerings, and pedalling. I’ve also written fairly detailed performance or teaching notes for every piece and the text within the volume has been written in both English and German.

You can purchase the score from all good online music stores as well as Amazon. Hear the whole collection by clicking the links below: