The Red Sky Prairie songbook is the companion sheet music book for Sharon Fendrich’s debut album by the same name. All eleven pieces from the album are included, beautifully transcribed by Rebecca Oswald. The recording itself is an ensemble work that includes strings, vocals and flutes in addition to the piano, so the transcriptions were done to best reflect the pieces overall rather than offering the piano parts only.

All of the pieces are very melodic and played at a relaxed tempo, so I didn’t find any of them very difficult. Most of the timing is straight-forward (other than frequent meter changes in a few pieces), and I didn’t find any reaches of more than an octave. The music is beautiful and very expressive, reflecting a variety of moods and experiences. The scores are well-spaced and easy to read and include metronome settings, pedaling suggestions, phrasing, and ample dynamics and expression. Pianists at an upper-intermediate and early-advanced playing level should have little trouble with this music. Currently, the songbooks are available in PDF form only and can be purchased by contacting Sharon Fendrich on her website.

The song titles, the keys they are in and the number of pages are:

L’dor Vador - Key of F (1 flat)/ D (2 sharps)/ A minor (0 sharps or flats)/ A major (3 sharps) - 5 pages
A Secret’s Song - Key of C (0 sharps or flats)/ E minor (1 sharp) - 4 pages
Within Whispers - Key of F (1 flat)/ Bb (2 flats) - 3 1/2 pages
Red Sky Prairie - Key of D (2 sharps)/ F# minor (3 sharps)/ E (4 sharps) - 5 pages
Song of the Dove - Key of A minor (0)/ E (4 sharps)/ C (0) - 5 pages
Never Alone - Key of A (3 sharps)/ Gb (6 flats) - 5 pages
Moonswept - Key of Bb (2 flats) - 4 1/2 pages
Bittersweet Memory - Key of Bb (2 flats) - 4 pages
Last Tears - Key of Db (5 flats)/ C (0) - 4 pages
In Memoriam - Key of C (0)/ E (4 sharps) - 3 1/2 pages
That September Day - Key of C (0)/ C minor (3 flats) - 5 pages