Earlier this year, two of my piano students, both aged 10, wanted to enter an ensemble class in their Prep School's annual music competition. Whilst there were a number of piano duets which we could possibly have used, in the end I decided to write a short piece for the two of them which they would, hopefully, enjoy rehearsing, and the audience would enjoy listening to, as well as exactly matching their particular strengths - enter The Palarishca Polka, a straightforward little pastiche. Isaac, who played secondo, is on a higher grade, so was very able to keep things going at the bass end. Ralph, on the other hand, appreciated the fact that his primopart was often in octaves. I am pleased to say that they won the competition!
Oh, - the title of the piece? The boys' names are Ralph and Isaac, so the rest was just anagram and alliteration!