There are many kinds of sheet music for the popular Chinese song Dan Yuan Ren Chang Jiu sung at Mid-Autumn Festival.
When I asked my mom to select songs made popular by the late Teresa Teng besides my favorite Ni Ze Me Shuo, she mentioned Dan Yuan Ren Chang Jiu. On the night of the super blood moon and lunar eclipse, I learned of its significance. The lyrics come from a famous poem by Su Shi, also known as Su Dong Po. The song is associated with the Mid Autumn Festival, which is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. For 2015, it’s Sunday September 27th.
Anne Ku arranged a piano solo version of Karl Jenkin’s Palladio – made popular by Escala.
Have you ever become so obsessed with a tune that the only remedy is to play it on your instrument? When I watched the following clip, I knew I had heard the music before — in London, but not for guitars. Continue reading “Palladio by Karl Jenkins arranged for piano”
A concert of music works with titles to do with the earth so as to raise awareness and respect the earth and all that’s around us —
In tandem with arranging music for the Earth Day Jam, a free one-hour piano workshop to get people to experience making music together, I decided to end the week with a tribute to the earth. As in previous two concerts this year, my most advanced students opened the concert for me, this time with more confidence and conviction than ever before.
The piano theme from Cloud Atlas is haunting and beautiful. While there are many versions arranged by piano fans, I have yet to find one for easy piano. Here is an attempt. Work in progress.
The melody of the movie Cloud Atlas (2012) is so haunting that it’s possible to loop it in a forever trance. It’s much slower than I had thought when I first sightread it. Not having seen the movie, I’m only guessing that the motif is the common thread throughout. Here’s a 30 minute version that can be used as background music or for meditation.
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:
Find the sheet music.
Sightread and decide how much time I have and want to devote to further study.
If sheet music not adequate, consider improvising or finding a better arrangement.
Shortlist.
Research.
Arrange them in order.
Try out the order – does it make sense? Does it tell a story? Does it vary in tempo and mood?
Put together the program.
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
Anne Ku hunts for interesting piano solo music to play at Christmas and discovers Christmas carols arranged by Sally DeFord and Jim Brickman as well as Hawaiian melodies by Daniel Ho.
I would like to end 2011 with a welcome to 2012 by touching upon piano solo music that is interesting to play.
A few years ago I arranged “Ding Dong Merrily On High” for piano, guitar, and violin. While it was an assignment at conservatory, I nevertheless enjoyed the experience and hoped to see such Christmas arrangements elsewhere. I never got the chance to fully research this.
This Christmas, I needed music. So I began my search.
Borsendorfer, Utrecht Conservatory, Netherlands Photo credit: Olaf Hornes 2007
In preparation for the 2 hour caroling session on the new (old) grand piano at Roselani Place, I looked for Christmas carol arrangements that were atypical of the traditional SATB but interesting and pleasant to play. A good improviser only needs the melody and the chords to produce something fitting of the occasion. Christmas carol from church hymnals are one source for improvisers but not for those who like to read and play something different.
I googled and found Sally DeFord who has made her arrangements freely downloadable from her website at http://www.defordmusic.com She specifically wrote “making copies for non-commercial use is permitted.”
From the university library, I found an album of piano solo arrangements by Jim Brickman. He wrote “The Gift,” which a soprano from the Maui College choir sang to my accompaniment at Roselani Place. I played it again on Christmas Day as a postlude. The congregation at the Christian Science Church where I substituted as pianist for 3 services gave wonderful feedback about my selection. It was Christmas with a new age feel. Certainly, I enjoyed playing carols with a twist.
Daniel Ho, George Kahumoku, Tia Carrere, 15 Dec 2011 Maui
On 15th December 2011 at the McCoy Theatre at the Maui Arts & Cultural Centre, I watched the multi-talented Daniel Ho play guitar, ukelele, piano, and sing. He improvised while accompanying Tia Carrere and George Kahumoku, Jr. Or had he memorised his own arrangements? I couldn’t wait to meet him in person during the intermission. I asked if his improvisations were written down arrangements or actual improvisations he performed. The answer came in the form of an e-mail with a zipped folder of his published works for piano solo, piano with other instruments, ukelele, and slack key guitar.
Now that the Christmas festivities are over, I look forward to studying the arrangements and compositions of Daniel Ho. His book “E Kahe Malie: Hawaiian Piano Instrumentals” contains piano versions of 11 songs spanning 42 pages. His “Colorful Sounds” book presents his own harmonic method he uses in his compositions, arrangements, and performances. It will be the beginning of my quest for arrangements of traditional melodies (in this case, Hawaiian) in different styles.
Anne Ku catalogues new piano solo works by living composers on Concertblog
As a sightreader, I am always looking for new challenges, that is, to play new music I have not seen before. Before I entered the world of composers, I would search for published music of dead composers.
In my musical journey, I discover that the new music (of living composers) is just as interesting if not more. These days, if I come across music of a composer I like, whether it’s ensemble music or piano guitar duo, I’d ask if he or she had written anything for piano solo or piano duet. Similarly — vice versa.
Below is a catalogue of the piano solo works I have reviewed and introduced on Concertblog. I will continue to add to this list, arranged alphabetically by the composer’s last name.
Anne Ku met composer John Carollo in Cortona, Italy in 2006 and in Honolulu in 2011. Carollo’s Waltz written in 1986 evokes Satie and Debussy. Listen to a recording from the Netherlands.
John Carollo, composer, and Anne Ku, blogger, Honolulu, 3 April 2011
On Sunday 3rd April 2011, while sightreading 81 short piano pieces entitled “80th Birthday Jingles” by the Honolulu-based composer John Carollo, I came across an old work of his from 1986. John, whom I first met in Cortona, Italy in July 2006, walked out of his kitchen and came towards me.
“I haven’t heard that in awhile.” He seemed caught off guard. Later, I learned that he had forgotten about this piece.
It was tonal music from his pre-serial days.
“Play it again,” he mused.
John had written this Satie-like waltz for his friend Bill whose surprise birthday party I had attended two nights earlier in a million dollar home in Hanepepe Loop. On Sunday in a penthouse in central Honolulu, we were just eating the leftovers from that executive chef-catered dinner when my playing of his Waltz evoked even earlier memories of his journey as a composer.
I liked it so much that I took it to Utrecht, Netherlands and recorded it on my grand piano on 4th August 2011.
Just yesterday afternoon I found the three of John’s CDs: the award-winning Ampersand, Starry Night for String Orchestra, and Transcendence in the Age of War. Now that I have time in Maui, I will listen to his works, although I have already heard one performed in my house on 1st July 2011. Pianist Nathanael May played his Prelude as the last piece of a set of five by the composers Antheil, Chopin, Gershwin, and Debussy as the opening to a house concert. (Programme 2-page PDF) It was well chosen before John Cage’s dream-like “In a Landscape.”
Immediately after I left Honolulu, John began composing a 9-movement work for my piano guitar duo. While we have not yet had time to rehearse the piece, I have already requested John to extend the second movement which is so addictive!
Born in Torino, Italy, John Carollo was brought to the U.S. by his adoptive parents. John took piano lessons and began composing his first piano works while at San Diego State University where he graduated with a Masters Degree in Psychology. Shortly thereafter, John moved to Honolulu, began a full-time mental health career for the State of Hawaii and started private composition lessons with Dr. Robert Wehrman. So great was his passion for composing that he quit his day job to compose full-time. Since then his works have been performed in Italy, Netherlands, and elsewhere. Website: http://www.johncarollocomposer.com
Heleen Verleur’s Prelude and Fugue in D minor for solo piano brought back memories of Anne Ku’s first concert in Bussum, Netherlands. More than 10 years later, she records it on her Steinway in Utrecht, Netherlands while remembering it in Maui.
Before I left the Netherlands, I recorded a CD of three piano duets with Carol Ruiz Gandia for my Call for Scores project followed by several solo pieces that were easy to sightread. Three of the solos came from my collection of music by the Amsterdam-based composer Heleen Verleur.
What a joy it was to find Verleur’s Prelude and Fugue in D minor on my bookshelf! Sightreading the set brought back memories of my first concert in Bussum, Netherlands in March 2002. Back then, I was still working full-time as an energy magazine editor, shuffling between London where I was based to the New York head office and various conference locations. Music was a pastime, a favourite hobby, and an insatiable passion.
If you visit our Bekkers Piano Guitar Duo website, you’ll see that the very first concert is listed in 2002, a year after I met Dutch guitarist Robert Bekkers. That “afternoon of diversity” concert in a Lutheran church in the town of Bussum (east of Amsterdam) featured the music of Heleen Verleur for piano solo and piano and violin as well as that of Astor Piazzolla. In preparing for that concert, I wrote of my expectations of that event where the guest of honour was my childhood friend Leslie from Seattle.
More than 10 years after I met Robert Bekkers and Heleen Verleur in Amsterdam, I would like to share my interpretation of the prelude and fugue, recorded on 4th August 2011 on my 1909 New York Steinway in Utrecht, Netherlands.
When I searched for “Verleur” on my e-mail programme, I discovered several e-mails of mp3 and concert announcements from Heleen. Now that I have more time in Hawaii, I hope to listen to this backlog of gifts of music, including CDs I received from various composers and performers. You could say that forthcoming entries in this Concertblog will introduce the music I have been collecting during the last 10 years of concertizing and arts management in the Netherlands.
Concert Blog 