Flitting Pianos

 

Several well-known piano pieces capture the essence of butterflies. 

Schumann’s Papillons, Op. 2 was inspired by a masquerade ball and the dancing figures. It evokes the whimsical nature of butterflies with its light and joyful character.

Chopin’s Butterfly Etude” is characterized by its fast, light, and intricate melody, creating a sense of the butterfly's delicate movement. 

Grieg’s “Butterfly” is a short and beautiful piece that captures the essence of a butterfly's flight as it moves from flower to flower. 

Debussy’s” Les Papillons” was written to be sung by a soprano, inspired by Théophile Gautier's poem of the same name. 

Saariaho’s Sept Papillons, a set of seven short pieces, is a more contemporary take on the theme, with each piece representing a different butterfly and its unique characteristics. 

May your fingers and your heart flutter as you play these delightful piano pieces.

The Flowering Piano

It's summertime: the prime time to see flowers in gardens and fields. Piano composers have been inspired by flowers, as these examples demonstrate. 

• Debussy's "Bruyères":

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  This piece from Debussy's "Préludes, Book II" is a tone painting of the French word for heather, capturing the flower's delicate beauty and subtle fragrance, according to Interlude.hk.
• MacDowell's "To a Wild Rose":

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  A quintessential example of a piece inspired by a single flower, this work is cherished for its simple, elegant melody and its evocation of the wild rose's natural charm. 
• Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flowers":

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  Originally part of the ballet The Nutcracker, this piece is a grand and celebratory waltz, often arranged for piano and admired for its lively and joyous character. 
• Schumann's "Blumenstück":

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  This "Flower Piece" for piano is a collection of short, contrasting sections, each suggesting a different aspect or mood of flowers. 
• Rachmaninoff's "Lilacs":

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  Op. 21, No. 5, is a lyrical and expressive piece for piano, capturing the delicate beauty and romanticism associated with the flower. 
• Debussy's "Jardins sous la pluie" (Gardens under the rain):

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  This piece from the "Estampes" suite is a depiction of gardens buffeted by a downpour, showcasing Debussy's mastery of creating evocative soundscapes, according to Musicnotes.com. 

May the piano pedals make the musical petals to help your summer blossom!

Celebrate August's Composers' Birthdays

 

While August may seem shy in terms of holidays – except for Europeans who take a month-long holiday-like vacation – August celebrates several distinguished piano composers who were born that month.

Chronologically, one of the first to remember is Antonio Salieri, born on August 18, 1750, in Legnago, Italy. At this point in history, he is probably most associated (sadly) with Mozart. Unlike Mozart, he was considered an important teacher (including of one of Mozart’s sons!) Salieri mainly wrote operas and orchestral works, but he also wrote piano and organ concertos.

One of Tomoko’s favorite composers, Claude Debussy, was born on August 22, 1862, in Saint-Germaine-en-Laye, France. He wrote 24 piano preludes and 12 études, and he was called an early impressionist composer because of his focus on nature’s beauty, represented by nuanced musical color and texture.  He was influenced by Chopin and, in turn, influenced Bartok, another favorite composer of Tomoko.

George Enescu was born on August 19, 1881, in Liveni-Varnav, Romania. He is considered one of the great musicians in Romania. Tomoko thinks most child prodigies may be harmed by early exposure, Enescu might be an exception. He composed his first piece, for piano and violin, at age vie, and was the youngest student admitted to the Vienna Conservatory – at age seven. He was productive as a composer, conductor and teacher all his life.  Much of his music was influenced by Romanian folk music (Bartok’s appreciation of Romanian folk dances).

A more recent composer, Leonard Bernstein, was born on August 25, 1918, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Wildly popular for his musicals, he wrote in many genres, including piano pieces, and was an excellent pianist. Bernstein is also known for his teaching about classical music on television.

Any of their works can make your August special.

 

Musical Pranks

It's April Fools' Day.: a day of (hopefully harmless) pranks. Musicians and composers have been known to play pranks on the piano. Probably the most famous playful piano perforrmer was the Danish-American pianist and comic Victor Borge.

One piece that Borge liked to perform was a version of Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody (especially the friska section), which is considered a musical comedic classic and has been featured in animated cartoons.

Mozart once wrote an aria for a soprano who tended raise her head for high notes and tuck in her chin for low notes. Mozart hated her, so the nicknamed piece, “The Chicken Dance” in Cosi fan Tutte, featured dramatic fluctuating low and high notes; Mozart took delight in watching the soprano bob her head repeatedly.

More recently, Leroy Anderson is known for his lighthearted compositions, such as The Syncopated Clock. His pieces sometimes featured unlikely instruments such as a typewriter.

Debussy's Carnival of Animals is charming, but how many people realize that his “Tortoises” is actually a very slow version of Offenbach's “Can-Can”?

P. D. Q. Bach is a comedic alias for contemporary composer Peter Schickele. He creates parodies of baroque and classical music, which often employ unusual instruments such as kazoo and slide whistles and even fictional instruments such as the left-handed sewer flute and pastaphone. His humor often draws from odd key changes and inserts of popular music into classical sections.

Violinist Fritz Kreisler played “lost” classical pieces, which she later admitted writing himself. Another violinist, Henri Gustave Casadesus, also wrote faked compositions, supposedly created by Handel and Boccherini.

Some musicians also played practical jokes. For instance, Brahms sketched a fake Beethoven manuscript, and had a street vendor wrap it around a sausage to sell to one of Brahms' friend, who thought he had discovered a lost composition.

Who says composers don't have a sense of humor?

Past into the Future: Video Games and Classical Music

 

Music has been associated with games for millennia with fighting songs and victory anthems. Music has also played a key role in video games. Particularly as technical advances have enabled video games to include whole symphonic music, classical pieces have been incorporated (and public domain status has also helped in terms of copyright and royalties). Especially as San Diego Comic-Con is happening, now is a good time to sample classical piano pieces that have been used in video games. Even Tomoko might be surprised at the ways that her favorite composers have been integrated into this recent game format.

Starting with the obvious, Eternal Sonata is an RPG (role-playing games) about a composer’s life, its premise being Chopin’s dying dream. Among the pieces featured in this game is a remixed version of Chopin’s “Revolutionary” etude, Opus 10, no. 12 in C minor, used in the game’s final battle scene.

Another natural use of classical music is experienced in the video game franchise Civilization. Ever since the first game in 1991, famous classical pieces have served as thematic ties for events and leaders. Pieces range from Gregorian chants to Romantic Age compositions by Brahms, Dvorak and Saint-Saens to underscore the historic period.

On the other hand, Debussy is probably not the first name that comes to mind, particularly for sinister games. Nevertheless, his Claire de Lune is featured in the game The Evil Within. The piece is used as a counter to horror, reassuring the player that safety is nearby.

Speaking of dark games, Schubert’s “Ave Maria” (aka “Ellen’s Third Song” from Seven Songs from Walter Scott’s The Lady of the Lake) starts the game Hitman: Blood Money. Its peaceful tone is almost an ironic counterpoint to this violent game.  

On a more positive note, Mozart and Bioshock? 2013’s Bioshock Infinite includes a visit to a Hall of Heroes memorial, which mood is accentuated with a section from Mozart’s Requiem in D minor.

Disney characters rule in the game Kingdom Hearts. It’s not surprising, then, that the game’s music would draw from Disney’s movie Fantasia, specifically Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain.

Speaking of kingdoms, in the game Earthworm Jim 2, the main character must save the princess from an archvillain.  Beethoven’s third movement rondo “Moonlight” from his Piano Sonata no. 14 in C# minor plays in the background. The sonata’s first movement underscores Jim’s floating through a creature’s intestine. This sonata may never feel the same after that experience.

The game Grand Theft Auto III uses a clever ploy: the car’s classical music radio state, complete with a parodied culture vulture DJ. The player drives around creating chaos, accompanied by background music from Le Nozze di Figaro, La Traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor, Rigoletto, and Don Giovanni.

You never know where classical music will pop up; it’s that popular.

Musical Masques

 

While we hear lots about masks these days, masques were very popular in the16th and 17^th century Europe (especially England). Masques were courtly entertainments that included music, dancing, singing and acting; they were associated with masked balls. Performers wore costumes and the setting could be quite elaborate. The story line typically presented classical fables or allegories. At that time, instruments for masques consisted of stringed and wind instruments. Unfortunately, no early scores from those times survived.

Interestingly, masque music for piano appeared centuries later.

For example, Claude Debussy's piano solo Masques L. 105 was composed in 1904. While brisk in pace (almost frantic at times), Debussy's piece expressed his sense of tragedy, reflecting his sad separation from his first wife.

Karol Szymanowski's Masques for piano, opus 34, consists of three pieces: Scheherazade, Tantris the Fool, and a Don Juan serenade. The miniature pieces parodied Western mythic characters; for instance, Tantris was a variation of Tristan and Iseult in which Tantris/Tristan masquerades as a fool in order to meet his love. Written during World War I in his Ukraine home town, the composition was inspired by his travels in the Mediterranean and by Debussy's impressionistic style.

Vincent Persichetti was an American composer and teacher. His students included, among others, Philip Glass and Peter Schickele, Masques for violin and piano, opus 99, was written in 1965. It consists of ten short movements, and was commissioned for the Preparatory Division of the Juilliard School of Music where he taught.

Most recently, Philippe Saisse is a current French composer. His 1995 album Masques includes eleven smooth jazz piano pieces, a long way from the Renaissance and Baroque masques.

The Music of Rain

 

Tomoko appreciates nature, and can hear its music in the wind and rain. Many composers whom Tomoko enjoys have also been inspired by the rain, as the following classical works demonstrate.

Chopin was supposedly moved by a dream in which he was drowning – or by rain falling on his roof – to write his Prelude Opus 20 No. 15: “Raindrop Prelude.”

Debussy leveraged new advances in the piano in his work Estampes: “Gardens in the Rain” as he employed new types of finger to capture the rapidity and frenetic sound of spring showers.

Schubert’s Winterreise: “Flood” is based on Wilhelm Muller’s poems of loneliness journeying across a stormy landscape. The piece combines piano and voice to set the desolate tone.

Also employing piano and voice, Grieg’s Six Songs: “Spring Rain” shows how falling chords can imitate cascading raindrops.

Britten’s Canticle III: “Still Falls the Rain” uses piano, horn and tenor to express the stormy horrors of London’s Blitz war. More well known is Britten’s opera for children Noye’s Fludde, which includes sound effects for rain.

We all need a little rain to appreciate the sunshine. And we can enjoy the rain more with these piano pieces.

Summery Piano

 

Piano playing knows no season. However, any season has more flavor when savored by playing a seasonal piano piece. Here are ten evocative summery pieces to enjoy.

Benjamin Britten: Holiday Diary. An evocative seaside holiday

Claude Debussy. “Voiles” from Preludes Book 1. A sensory musical expression of breezy sails

Gabriel Fauré. Three Songs, Opus 18 No. 1 “Nell.”: an art song with the sun as a recurring symbol

Edvard Grieg. Lyric Pieces, Book 10 Opus 71, No. 2 “Summer Evening”: A quick sketch of a tranquil Norwegian summer evening

Ernest Moeran. Summer Valley: A pastoral sense of Britain and Ireland

Francis Poulenc. Napoli: A three-movement suite that captures the spirit of an Italian summer evening

Ned Rorem. End of Summer: A chamber piece for piano, clarinet and violin that expresses the sensitivity of summer’s end

William Grant Still. “Summerland”: an almost mesmerizing summer day on the plains

Joseph Suk. A Summer’s Tale, Opus 29: a tone poem of a moody summer day

Pyotr Tchaikovsky. “June,” Barcarolle from The Seasons: sixth of a 12-movement piano piece;it depicts a gondola ride

Falling For The Piano

 

Musicians are often inspired by nature. For instance, Tomoko likes to garden, and she sees the garden as a metaphor for musicians; both take much work and much patience. “Labor is labor,” says Tomoko. Both require connections, and both offer ways for self-expression. The rewards can be immediate, as when planting or weeding – such as working through a particular section of a composition – and sometimes it takes years to see the results.  Autumn is one example of inspiration for composers.

One of the most known compositions is Vivaldi’s Four Seasons’ “Autumn,” which has been arranged for piano.

Tchaikovsky’s composition The Seasons is comprised of 12 movements, one for each month. Autumn months paint musical scenes of a harvest and a hunt, and his October movement “Autumn Song” reflects a mournful fall.

While Felix Mendelssohn is very famous, his sister Fanny is not as celebrated. Indeed, some of her compositions were written under her brother’s name. Her excursions into nature inspired her cycle of piano pieces titled Das Jahr (The Year), which include autumn months.

Born soon after Fanny died, Cecile Chaminade was a French composer and pianist – and the first female composer to be award the prestigious Legion of Honor. Her most famous piano composition is Automne, Etudes de Concert, Opus 35, which contrasts seasonal peace and melancholy with a dramatic storm scene.

In his second book of preludes for piano, Debussy’s piece Brouillards (Fog/Mist) leverages the black keys to create a hazy sound, more pronounced than the faint left hand chords.

A more upbeat impression of fall is captured in Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag.“

An even more recent piece is American composer Joseph Schwantner’s piano miniature “Veiled Autumn,” which mirrors the changeability of fall weather.

So if autumn feels like the darkening end of the year, music lovers can feel uplifted by this autumn-inspired piano works.

 

Bringing in Summer on a Tune

 

Summer is a great time to travel, and Tomoko has enjoyed traveling since she was a young woman. Now with the pandemic, it is harder to travel, but Tomoko can enjoy summer travel through the piano pieces she enjoys performing. Many composers of those pieces were inspired by their own travels and sense of place. Here is a sampling to explore.

Probably one of the first thematic piano pieces that might come to mind is George Gershwin’s “Summertime,” which was written for his opera Porgy and Bess. Its tone and pacing reflect a lazy, jazzy afternoon in the South.

Benjamin Britten’s four-part suite of piano pieces, “Ravel’s “Mirrors” (Op. 5), reflects his boyhood pre-war memories of the British seaside where he lived. The lively melody captures summer holiday life with a celebratory movement, stormy sailing, and nighttime peacefulness.  

Claude Debussy’s prelude “Voiles (Veils or Sails)” reminds one of summer breezes, either on land or sea. Its tonality ranges from veiled mystery to bright open sails.

Franz Liszt’s  three-suite set “Années de Pelerinage (Pilgrimage Years)” was inspired by his visits to the Swiss Alps. The piece paints a Romantic picture of flora and fauna as well as still and running water.

Ernest Moeran’s pastoral “Summer Valley” refers to British and Irish landscapes. While he himself lived a creative and lively existence at that time, this composition reflects a more peaceful mood.

Maurice Ravel’s “Mirrors” evokes the impressionistic sound of the ocean, especially movement #3 “A boat on the Ocean.” It is considered one of his three water-themed masterpieces.

Francis Poulenc’s three-movement suite “Napoli” was written during his visit to Italy. The piece certainly plays an homage to Italian barcarolle and caprice. The music’s color mirrors summer streets and shores of Naples.

Whatever the summer mood, there's likely to be a summer piano piece to celebrate summer, no matter where one is. 

Piano Music for Gardening

 

The adage “April showers bring May flowers” signals the time for gardening, a favorite pastime of Tomoko. She considers it as a way to wake up, to recharge her psychic batteries. “It’s a fresh feeling.”

Refresh yourself with these ten piano pieces inspired by gardens, with a little information about each piece.

In the 1930s Hungarian Bela Bartok wrote a collection of 85 short pieces entitled For Children. One of those compositions is "Rose Garden." These pieces attest to his belief in the importance to educating youngsters in contemporary musical styles.

Amy Beach was the first major American female composer of large-scale art music. Her 1922 Opus 97, Grandmother’s Garden, consists of five parts, each capturing a different flower.

Aaron Copland’s Down a Country Lane was commissioned by Life magazine to be featured in a 1962 issue, which includes photographs and an article explaining that this piano piece was one of the few compositions written express for young students by a major composer.

Claude Debussy’s “Jardins sur la pluie” (Gardens in the rain) is part of his 1903 composition Estampes (Prints). It captures the round of raindrops that storm a French garden. 

As a gift to his mother, Australian Percy Aldridge Grainger arranged an English folk tune into the 1918 piano piece “Country Gardens.” The piece was his greatest success financially, selling over 40,000 copies yearly in the United States. However, Grainger came to resent having to perform it constantly.

A visit to a monastic garden inspired English composer Albert Ketelbey to write “In a Monastery Garde.” In 1915. Ketelbey was known for light orchestral music, and wrote music for silent films.

Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu’s 1938 suite Window on the Garden consists of four lyrical movements. The piece reflects his short stay in Paris just before escaping from the forthcoming Nazi invasion.

Edward McDowell was America’s best known composer at the beginning of the 20^th century. His 1902 piano New England Idyls combines classical European harmonic elements and American textual imagery, as exemplified in the piece "An Old Garden."

Rachmaninoff became known for his lyrical inspiration, where the piano captures the sentiments of the text. Lilacs, Op 21, No. 5 “Lilacs, along with Daisies” was composed in 1902 as a song with accompaniment, but was later transcribed as a sensitive piano solo miniature.

In 1893 Tchaikowsky wrote his last solo piano work, 18 Pieces, one a day. Value-bluette, No. 11, was dedicated to the daughter of his lawyer and friend Nikolay Kondratyev.

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Bravo for Bartók

One of Tomoko’s favorite composers to perform is Bela Bartók. In her CD “Touria” (available from Amazon), Bartók is the featured composers, showcasing six Rumanian folk dances frp, 1915, seventeen Hungarian and Slovak folk melodies, and “Allegro Barbaro” (1911).

Like Tomoko’s husband Desi, Bartók was born in Hungary (although Bartók’s town came under Romanian rule later on).  And like Desi, Bartók fled his country for America during war times. In Bartók’s case, his anti-Nazi sentiments endangered him. Nevertheless, Bartók always maintained a Hungarian spirit and sense of nationalism.

Bartók showed early musical talent, and gave his first public piano recital at age 11 in 1892 with his own composition, written two years earlier. Among his teachers was a pupil of Hungarian Franz Liszt. Later he was influenced by Richard Strauss and French composer Claude Debussy. In turn, Bartók taught Lili Kraus, one of Tomoko’s professional friends. 

Bartók’s compositions often built on folk music, particularly Rumanian folk dances. Bartók was not only a composer but also an ethnomusicologist, collecting and researching traditional Magyar folk melodies just as nationalism was blooming. Tomoko points out, “The folk inspiration fostered music that came from the heart, and yet how the composers built upon that folk music helped them express their own individuality.”

Bartók played “Allegro Barbaro” privately ten years before the published version of this short dance-like piece was performed publicly in 1921. Each of his pre-published performance was unique, changing speed as well as accents and dynamics. The piece’s title translates into “brisk barbarian”, which was an ironic reference to critics’ labelling of Bartók and his colleagues as young barbarians. Interestingly, the piece was based on Ravel’s “Scarbo.” The final rendition offers a unique counterbalancing of French and Hungarian folk melodies. The tonal pitch is constant, but the major, major and modal relations around it change. “Allegro Barbaro” has two themes, alternating between F# and F. The cadences are surprising, jagged, irregular but they still have chromatic motion. Even this this piece was written relatively early in his career, his compositional style was already mature.

It is no wonder that Tomoko appreciates Bartók: he brings cultural understanding to create an original compelling sound.  And Tomoko brings her own performance gifts to provide a unique experience for her own listeners.