William Baines. Coloured Leaves for piano

Not long ago, searching for new piano sheet music, I saw in the Internet the works by William Baines 'Coloured Leaves' unknown to me. This is a small piano cycle of three pieces: Prelude, Valse, and Still day. It is absolutely charming piano miniatures written in Romantic style. They attracted my attention, as if to take these three pieces separately, they can be played by middle class students (I’m a piano teacher at a music school), and the cycle as a whole suits for a high school program.
Usually, when I introduce the children to new pieces, we also acquaint ourselves with authors’ biographies. It upset me to learn that the life of William Baines was not so rosy and very short. A very young soul begot these compositions. And each of them is like a page of his life.

Here you may find the sheet music of Coloured Leaves

I thought that the pieces, written by their peer, will be very close to the children. The first piece Prelude sounds like a story. It’s expressed in a frequent meter change, emphasis change and even calm rhythm. The second piece is a light and graceful Valse, which firstly seems to be simple, but has many melodic details, and, well performed, can sound very impressive. But most of all I liked the final piece Still day. It’s full of sadness, calm and serenity.
In my opinion, the title 'Coloured Leaves' fits this cycle very well. Although all three pieces have the same romantic mood, they are very different in their genre and character. Therefore, I suggest you performing of the entire cycle. The piece won’t be arid, and, at the same time, it will allow the students to demonstrate their skills to embody different characters and moods.