Compositions For Flute

Compositions For Flute includes, as its centerpiece, six solo pieces that are intended to be performed as a group in the order that they appear in the book. The folio also includes two duets and two trios that offer an interesting variance of styles. Steve Fowler's most recent CD, "Drifting on Intricate Currents", features Steve performing the solo pieces and trios and was reviewed, along with the book, in the September 2000 issue of Pan Magazine in the following manner:

REVIEW FROM PAN MAGAZINE (reprinted with permission)

Publication date: September 1, 2000

Flute Solos, Duets and Trios, CD
Steven C. Fowler Compositions for Flute (CD: Drifting on Intricate Currents)
Fowler Music Enterprises, Fossil Records, Prices Unknown

I derive a certain amount of perverse satisfaction from pretending to be from
another star system, and getting my pupils to try to explain what music is,
and what it is for. They hate me for it, and rightly so, for I am asking the
impossible. The nearest I have been able to get to an explanation so far
incorporates the idea that music is a direct means of communication from
heart to heart, from intellect to intellect, which dispenses with the
unreliability of words. Listen to any composer's musical offering, and one
is accepted into, and trusts oneself in, his or her world.

I have just been spending some time in Steve Fowler's world, and what a
fascinating place it is. Steve Fowler has been for many years an active
flautist in the Los Angeles area, performing as a freelance player in the
competitive West Coast music business, and giving recitals and concerts with
a unique personal style.

This Collection of his writings for flute shows, if such distinctions are
relevant, a sophisticated style influenced at times by strands of modern
jazz, but otherwise refreshingly individual. The Six Pieces for solo flute at
first seems impenetrably part of another's thought processes. The music seems
so intimate and personal that the instinct at first is to withdraw in
confusion, as if having disturbed someone at prayer, but listening to the
same pieces performed by Fowler on the CD is reassuring, and one soon feels
at home in his mental landscape.

The word `intricate' from the CD title is the clue to the ensemble pieces,
all of them being constructed like a Swiss watch, and all very different in
style. Confusingly, the Trio No 1 on the CD is trio No 2 in the collection
of sheet music, and has a definite jazz feel, while Trio No 2 on the CD (Trio
I in the music) seems inspired by stark intricacy of Mediaeval three-part
chanson. The CD also includes a variety of straight jazz; some played with
Bruce Fowler, trombone, and Ed Fowler, bass. These encompass several styles,
including Contemporary and Latin, and two movements from L'Histoire du Tango
by Astor Piazzola. The whole CD ends with a lovely upbeat version of "I'm Old
Fashioned" by Jerome Kern. More information can be found at
www.emdbd.com/stevefowler, or by emailing him directly at cottano25@aol.com

Normally I would have no hesitation in recommending the reader to find and
enjoy more of Steve Fowler's music, but in this case unfortunately I cannot.
The moving poem on the CD cover gives a clue. Tragically, Steve Fowler was
diagnosed in 1997 with Lou Gehrig's Disease and can no longer play the flute.
Leslie Sheills

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