"Betsy's Yachts" (What Do You Do With A Wealthy Sailor" by Wes Flinn

Wes Flinn

Betsy’s Yachts (What Do You Do With A Wealthy Sailor?)

solo piano

Duration: c. 1’10”

for Nicholas Phillips (part of the #45Miniatures project)

Betsy’s Yachts was written in…well, honor doesn’t seem to be right word here…of the 11th Secretary of Education of the United States, a woman both born into and married into incredible wealth. She has ties to both mercenaries (her brother is the CEO of a private army, which generates a musical quote) and pyramid schemes (she married into the family that founded Amway), and she has made it her life’s mission to destroy public education. The piece gets its title from the fact that her family has ten yachts.

The piece uses the shanty “What Do We Do With A Drunken Sailor?” along with a motive derived from the Secretary’s name (B-flat, E, E-flat, D, E, E-flat for BEtSy DEvoS), a quote from a Doobie Brothers song (in honor of the former name of her brother’s mercenary outfit), and finally an oscillation between a B chord and an A chord, because she probably thinks what she is doing merits a B or an A. The last note gives her actual grade.

for Nicholas Phillips

Betsy's Yachts (What Do You Do With A Wealthy Sailor?)

         

   





5



 

  l.v.               



10

   

3









14



3

Freely

 l.v.                 

 

Freely



 





3

Wes Flinn (b. 1973)

3

         



 

                      









 



             

                                                                         





       

    







     

 

Copyright © 2019 Wes Flinn. All rights reserved.

         

    

2

Betsy's Yachts

                                                                       

17

                                                                



                 

20

24



  

  

 

 

                         











 

longa

 

 

(a niente)