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The Music of Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson began studying the piano and composition at age 36 and learned the penny whistle two years later. He played the flageolet, a version of the whistle equipped with keys, almost until the end of his life. His arrangements and compositions include more than 120 pieces. This site describes his complete works through facsimiles, transcriptions, recordings, quotations and commentary.

"An interesting chapter in his life will be written when all his scattered pieces are brought together, and the musical side of his character unexpectedly revealed to the vast public that knows him now only as the winsome versifier and the accomplished romancer."

Robert Murrell Stevenson in Robert Louis Stevenson's Musical Interests, 1957.

Facsimiles:

Transcription:

Recording:

Manuscript Locations:

The two piano arrangements and second and third flageolet parts are in:

Yale University Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Stevenson Library of E.L. Beinecke 6599

The first flageolet part is in:

Washington University in St. Louis Libraries

Box/folder 16/140

Sources:

His arrangement of Carnival of Venice is also for trio and rhythmically similar.

Chiapanecas comes readily to mind as a model:

Significant References in Works of R.L.S.:

None.

Comments:

Two piano versions of this work at Beinecke appear above. The upper one contains the melody part of the trio. The second version replaces the melody part with what appears here as the third part of the trio. Apparently the second version was used to accompany a solo flageolet.

Although this piece seems immediately very familiar, no other similar work has been found, and apparently it is original.