The “Children’s Songs” are the first collection of music I’ve written specifically for solo keyboard. I wrote the first song in 1971 to convey simplicity as beauty as represented in the spirit of a child. Song 1 through 15 were composed for the Fender Rhodes and 16 through 20 for the acoustic piano, although any of the songs can be played on either instrument. Songs 17 through 20 were composed during a one month period in 1980, completing the series. The songs lend themselves nicely to various forms of expansion with orchestration. Chick Corea

Arranger’s Note: I first encountered this wonderful collection of pieces in the late 1980’s, and was immediately drawn to them, and intrigued by the last line of the preface above. I extracted a set of movements that I felt worked most successfully for solo saxophone and piano, and have performed these in concerts ever since. I was delighted in 1996 when Chick Corea gave me his blessing to record my arrangements of three of these on my CD “Towards The Light” Quartz 2020, and even more delighted when he also granted me his blessing to publish this set of arrangements, in the hope that this will introduce his wonderful music to an even wider audience.

I have included the additional introduction and coda sections that I scored for the three movement suite on my recording, and these are marked as optional in the score. Each performer should find his or her own combination of movements to suit their needs, although I have assembled them in this book in an order that offers the most contrast and structure when played as a suite of music. In the original compositions, Chick Corea leaves all dynamics and articulations to the performer’s discretion - I have included some as a guide, but performers should feel free to honour the freedom that Chick Corea originally intended. I have also published my arrangements of these and several other Children’s Songs for Saxophone Quartet I sincerely hope you will enjoy them as much as I have over the last 25 years. Rob Buckland