Duration: 10:00
Scoring: Bassoon
The Mad Raker was commissioned by Karen Pierson in 1996. In 2020 I decided to revise it slightly, tighten up a few phrases and lines and add the text.
When Karen commissioned the piece, I lived in an apartment in Houston. We had a ‘private’ grassy area outside our front door next to a fence that separated the apartments from some homes. The backyards of those homes were along the fence line.
On the other side of the fence lived (I’m assuming) an older gentleman. He raked his leaves ALL THE TIME. All I could see of him was the top of his head…all white hair. We began calling him ‘the mad raker’ not in a mean way, just being silly. People have enjoyed this story when playing the piece so I decided to include some fun text about the way I remember him and all those leaves.
I did the best I could with page turns! Good luck–