Animal Music

 

               Tomoko appreciates the sound of animals: birds chirping at dawn in her garden and even donkeys braying in a Rumanian field. “He had a special way of braying,” Tomoko remembers. “I felt sorry for the little fellow because he was separated from his mother.”  

               Piano composers have also been inspired by animals as evidenced in the pieces they have written. Such allusions date back to the 18^th century with Luis-Claude Daquin’s 1735 harpsichord suite, which includes “The Cuckoo.”

               Several of Tomoko’s favorite composers captured the essence of animals in their compositions. For instance, Chopin’s famous “Minute Waltz” was originally titled “Waltz of the Little Dog,” a piece that aimed to musically describe George Sand’s dog.  

               Another Tomoko favorite, Edvard Grieg, musically painted an assortment of animals. Lyric Pieces, Book 3, Op. 43, No. 4 is “Little Bird.” In his collection 25 Norwegian Folksongs and Dances, Op. 17, Grieg features a cow, a pig, a snake, a fly, and a horsefly.

               Continuing in the 20^th century, Tomoko favorite Oliver Messiaen was not only a composer but also an ornithologist. Messiaen transformed 13 bird songs into his piano collection Catalog of the Birds, each piece reflecting each unique bird and the French region in which it lived.

               Francis Poulenc, another 20^th century composer favorite of Tomoko, wrote The History of Babar, the Little Elephant for piano and narrator.

               At the other end of the animal spectrum, at least in size, is Aaron Copland’s piano composition The Cat and the Mouse. Even though the piece is atonal, the overall sound reminds the listener of animated cartoons. Another 20^th century composer who featured cats in his piano works is Bohuslay Martinu’s composition “Procession of the Cats on Solstice Night.”

               All of these animal piano works enables the pianist to perform more eloquently than kittens on the keyboard.

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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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