Concert of roses and other flowers

In preparation for an upcoming afternoon tea concert of roses and flowers, I started looking for music with rose in the title.

On the bookshelf of the music classroom were loose sheet music and a Reader’s Digest Family Songbook Album. Here I found the following oldies:

• My Wild Irish Rose
• Days of Wine and Roses
• I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
• Yellow Rose of Texas
• La Vie En Rose
• Red Roses for a Blue Lady

But will these “rose” songs fill an hour of performance?

What about pop songs? Immediately I thought of the following favorites:

• The Rose (Bette Midler)
• Kissed by a Rose (Seal)
• Cracklin’ Rosie (Neal Diamond)
• Bed of Roses (Bon Jovi)

How about other kinds of flowers? Here again, I wracked my brain.

• Tiptoe Through the Tulips
• Tulips in Amsterdam
• Jasmine Flower
• Mei Hua (plum flower)

Searching on the Internet, I found a webpage of parlor songs about rose, which is a symbol of love.

There’s even a webpage of songs with different kinds of flowers in the title! And another of pop songs!

Extending this further, I could play familiar piano solos such as

• Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker Suite (Tchaikovsky)
• Jardins Sous la Puie (Debussy)
• Flower Duet from Lakme (Delibes)
• Flower Song from Carmen (Bizet)

I am sure there are more works inspired by roses and other flowers. Fortunately, others have done the research for me already — see Classic FM’s 25 selections.

Next steps:

1. Find the sheet music.
2. Sightread and decide how much time I have and want to devote to further study.
3. If sheet music not adequate, consider improvising or finding a better arrangement.
4. Shortlist.
5. Research.
6. Arrange them in order.
7. Try out the order – does it make sense? Does it tell a story? Does it vary in tempo and mood?
8. Put together the program.
9. Practice!

Note: June is national rose month. Maui’s official flower is heavenly rose, or “lokelani” in Hawaiian. Roselani is the Americanization of “lokelani”

FREE CONCERT:
Friday 14 June 2013
3 to 4 pm
Roselani Place
Papa Avenue, Kahului
Maui, Hawaii