Who is Pennuto? By T.L. Hubeart Jr.

Pennuto on CD (Privately issued discs done with home equipment and distributed to selected friends and acquaintances) J.G. Pennuto: Flute Concertos and Other Works (CD, 2000; Remastered, 2001) Overture to I sperati cavalieri, FWC VII:1 Concerto in a for Flute, Strings, & Continuo, FWC V:4 Symphony in D, FWC III:3 Concerto in Eb for Piano & Orchestra, FWC V:2 Divertimento in F for Two Oboes, Two Horns, & Two Bassoons, FWC IIc:1 Concerto in C for Piano & Orchestra, FWC V:5 (first movement only) TT: 71’04” J.G. Pennuto: Sonatas for Pianoforte (CD, 2001) Sonata in G for Two Pianos, FWC Ib:1 Sonata in Bb for Piano, FWC Ib:2 Sonata in G for Piano, FWC Ib:3 Sonata in D for Piano, FWC Ib:4 TT: 46’53” J.G. Pennuto: Serenade and Other Works (CD, 2004)  Sonatina in g for Piano, FWC Ib:6 Concertino for Organ and Strings in d, FWC V:1 Sonata in Eb for Piano, FWC Ib:5 (“Drummer”) Fugue in c, FWC IX/1:1 Minuet, FWC IIc:2 Minuet, FWC Ia:3 March and Serenade in D, FWC IV:1 & 3 TT: 58’10” J.G. Pennuto: The Cat and Other Works for Piano (CD, 2006)  Sonatina in G for Piano, FWC Ib:7 “Die Katze,” FWC Ia:2 Suite in g, FWC IX:1/3 Various other miscellaneous piano works (FWC Ia:4-13 and FWC IX:1/2) TT: 64’20” J.G. Pennuto: “The Miser” Overture and Other Works (CD, 2010)  Two Marches, FWC IV:7 Three Contradanses, FWC IV:5 Three Minuets, FWC IV:4 Two German Dances, FWC IV:6 Rondo for piano in D, FWC Ia:16 Piano Sonatas, FWC Ib:8 & 9 Trio in D, FWC IIa:2 Overture to Molière's play “The Miser,” FWC IV:8 TT: 72’16” Catalog of Pennuto’s Music To e-mail me: Return home.

The composer and his legend J.G. Pennuto is a minor Viennese classical composer whose currently known works include three concerti, two symphonies, six keyboard sonatas, a serenade, and several other pieces. He is also a complete fiction, the product of my imagination. The project of composing works by "Pennuto" has been occupying me, off and on, since the beginning of 1994. I have also created a “backstory” to orient this world of sound in the 18th century. At the center of this is the “rediscovered" composer, Pennuto, unjustly neglected in his own day, and his champion, Prof. Larry Da Ponte, who is struggling against underfunding by an indifferent university to bring Pennuto's works back to light. (There is even a catalog to provide a framework for the music, authored by Brutus Fleabag, a part-canine, part human musicologist.) The reason for the music If you think that the "backstory" to Pennuto is something less than serious (with perhaps a hint of Peter Schickele's influence?), you are absolutely right. But the music I have prepared is completely straightforward and meant to be taken on its own merits. Currently I have over three hours of "Pennuto’s" music prepared in the form of MIDI files (please see the catalog for a list). Initially I recorded these on cassettes for friends and acquaintances, but in 2000 I began compiling these works on CD, as shown at left. At first, these CDs were essentially just digital conversions of the files I recorded on analog cassette tape, but with my 2006 disc The Cat and Other Works for Piano, my recordings went fully digital. The style of the music is often akin to Mozart's, although some works are written in an earlier fashion--for example, the flute concerto in A minor, or the fugue in C minor. I have been reluctant to put sound files of this music online, being concerned about the safety of my copyrighted materials from would-be pirates. At some future point I may place MP3 files on this page. Previously, space limitations on my prior ISP’s server were the main barrier to this. I’d rather not put up files with a low bit-rate just to keep the file size small and end up giving you, the listener, excerpts that are not pleasurable to hear. But recently I put a sampler of sound clips up as a YouTube file and embedded that in my home page. I plan on putting some additional materials on this site in the future. The future I also prepared some of the Pennuto works in score form with the help of a program called Personal Composer. The program with which I started creating them in 1994 did not allow printout of a notation-correct score, as Personal Composer did. I have therefore had to preserve the pieces as MIDI files which I subsequently imported into Personal Composer, "cleaning up" note values and adding dynamics, tempo indications, and phrasing. It has been a time-consuming process, but I hope that eventually all the Pennuto music will be set up in full score format. More recently, I have been using programs from the Finale family of software to compose new music, and my CD The Cat and Other Works for Piano was completed using the full version of Finale (Finale 2006). This CD involved a quantum leap, I think, in my technical quality as far as the recorded sound goes. That disc had only solo piano works, but my most recent disc, “The Miser” Overture and Other Works, includes fully orchestral pieces as well as a trio for flute, cello, and piano. Even though I've gotten a lot of feedback already, I am always eager to hear from people who are new to the Pennuto project, especially those who are hearing my CDs for the first time. I have received very positive reactions from listeners to the CDs so far, and perhaps something will happen that will allow me to spread this music even beyond my immediate circle. © 1995, 1999, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2010 by T.L. Hubeart Jr. Last updated: 2 May 2010