Step to the Music

 

Late May and early June are the traditional times for graduation ceremonies. When Tomoko taught at San Domenico School, the girls graduated to classical music – often Vivaldi. Classical piano music is perfect for graduation ceremonies. Here is the ultimate graduation piano repertoire.

 

1. Processional Music (Walking to Seats)

This music should be steady, dignified, and elegant.

• "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" by J.S. Bach: A serene, uplifting chorale that brings a sense of grace and accomplishment.
• "Clair de Lune" by Claude Debussy: Smooth, dreamy, and atmospheric. Perfect if you want an ethereal, reflective background during the walk-in.
• "Gymnopédie No. 1" by Erik Satie: Minimalist and calm, ideal for a quiet, focused processional.

 

2. Interludes & Diploma Presentations

Music played softly while diplomas are handed out should be engaging without overwhelming the speakers.

• "Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 39, No. 15" by Johannes Brahms: A bright, buoyant, and joyful waltz.
• "Für Elise" by Ludwig van Beethoven: Highly recognizable and gentle, excellent for quieter moments.
• "Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 9, No. 2" by Frédéric Chopin: Luxurious and flowing, offering a warm, celebratory elegance.

 

3. Recessional Music (Exiting the Ceremony)

The final walk-out music should be triumphant, energetic, and grand.

• "Rondo alla Turca" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Fast-paced, bright, and sparkling with victorious energy.
• "Triumphal March" from Aida by Giuseppe Verdi: While originally an orchestral piece, stellar piano arrangements capture the exact triumphant, crowning-achievement.
• "War March of the Priests" by Felix Mendelssohn: A robust and commanding piece from Athalia that projects an undeniable sense of triumph and accomplishment.

 

 

Heralding Spring on the Piano

 While many famous "Spring" works are orchestral (like Vivaldi's Spring concerto or Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring), several classical composers wrote quintessential piano pieces that specifically herald the season through light, fluttering textures and bright melodies. 

Edvard Grieg’s lyric piece "To Spring" (Til Våren) is perhaps the most iconic piano miniature for the season. It features shimmering high-register arpeggios that mimic the sound of melting snow and rushing waterfalls in the Norwegian countryside.

Christian Sinding’s most famous work, "Rustle of Spring" (Frühlingsrauschen), was a staple of early 20th-century piano parlors. It is characterized by fast, sweeping arpeggios in the right hand that create a sense of restless anticipation and the "rustling" of new growth.

Felix Mendelssohn’s "Spring Song" (from Songs Without Words, Op. 62, No. 6) is celebrated for its cheerful, optimistic melody and playful rhythms, embodying the feeling of hope associated with new beginnings.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s piano cycle The Seasons, the months of March ("Song of the Lark") and April ("Snowdrop") directly herald the transition. While "March" retains a slight winter chill with an introspective birdcall melody, "April" is a delicate waltz evoking the first flowers breaking through the earth.

Nikolai Medtner, who was a friend of Rachmaninoff, wrote a charming piece titled "Primavera" as part of his Forgotten Melodies, Op. 39, which captures the season's vibrancy. 

Robert Schumann’s Scenes from Childhood and other piano works are often associated with the freshness of the season.

Claude Debussy’s piano music frequently employs "impressionist" colors, echoing the spirit of springtime renewal, pianistsmusings.com mentions.

 

Leaf Us with Composers

 

It’s the autumn season with leaves falling. When combining the idea of leaves and classical composers, two results are possible: piano pieces that have the word “leaves” in the title.

• Felix Mendelssohn  wrote "Album-leaf in E minor, Op. 117".
• Max Reger composed multiple pieces titled "Albumblatt," including one from his "Bunte Blätter for Piano".
• Camille Saint-Saëns wrote a "Feuillet d'album, Op. 169".
• Moritz Moszkowski wrote "Feuillet d'album No. 2" from his Op. 86.
• Modest Mussorgsky composed a piece titled "Méditation (feuillet d'album)"

 

And there is another possibility: composers who have arranged or been associated with the song “Autumn Leaves,” which is English lyrical adaption of the French song “Les Feuilles Mortes” (“Dead Leaves”) by Hungarian composer Joseph Kosma in 1945.

• Frédéric Chopin was mentioned as a composer whose style was used in arrangements of the song
• Franz Liszt was mentioned as a composer whose style was used in arrangements of the song.
• Sergei Rachmaninoff was mentioned as a composer whose style was used in arrangements of the song.
• Johann Strauss II was mentioned as a composer whose style was used in arrangements of the song. 
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was mentioned as a composer whose style was used in arrangements of the song.

For fun, you can hear a jazz arrangement of “Autumn Leaves” that is transformed into a homage to Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Strauss, Chopin, Brahms, and Rachmaninov at https://youtu.be/0zARLbNo480

Autumn Leaves of Notes

Autumn offers a subtle mix of weather and somberness. Here are some composers and their works related to autumn:

• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: 

  His "October, Autumn Song" is a programmatic piano piece from The Seasons, a set of twelve character pieces representing each month of the year. 
• Fanny Mendelssohn: 

  Her piano cycle Das Jahr ("The Year") features pieces for each month; "September," "October," and "November" specifically evoke autumnal moods. 
• Antonio Vivaldi: 

  While primarily for violin and orchestra, his famous "Autumn" from The Four Seasons (1723) is the quintessential programmatic piece capturing the season. 
• Joseph Haydn: 

  His oratorio The Seasons includes a section on "Autumn," reflecting the composer's musical portrayal of the season and its joys. 
• Jules Massenet: 

  He wrote songs, including the piece "Pensée d'automne" ("Thoughts in Autumn"), which conveys the passing of time and fading memories. 
• Edvard Grieg: 

  Composed an overture In Autumn, which features many elements found in his orchestral and piano works. 

Clowning Around on the Piano

Clowns have been a mainstay of entertainment – and sometimes insight – for centuries.  And those clowns might delight, amuse, or even sadden you.  Several piano pieces evoke the image of clowns. Here is a sampling, particularly of classical compositions.

Kabalevsky's "Clowns" is a lively and playful composition, capturing the lighthearted and sometimes mischievous nature of clowns. It's often used in educational settings due to its accessibility and engaging melody. 

Fučík's "Entry of the Gladiators" reflects a classic circus march, although it was not original written about clowns. Nevertheless, it is instantly recognizable and often used as a theme for clown acts. Its energetic and dramatic nature perfectly captures the excitement and spectacle of a circus performance. 

Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Clowns" appears in Act II of The Nutcracker. It features a lively and whimsical melody that is often interpreted as representing the playful and sometimes clumsy movements of clowns. 

Mendelssohn's "A Dance of Clowns" is part of his larger work for Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It is characterized by its playful and lighthearted melody, often used to represent the mischievous and energetic nature of the clowns in the play. 

Sondheim's "Send In the Clowns" is a ballad from Act II of his modern take on A Midsummer Night’s Dream. While the original context is a sad and introspective song, the piano arrangement can be interpreted in various ways, highlighting both the humor and pathos associated with clowns. It's a beautiful and expressive piece. 

Whether you are playing for laughs or performing a homage to classical clown interpretations, hopefully the music will bring a smile to the audience.

Classical Jewish Piano Composers

 

Now is the time for Passover, remembering when God redeemed the Jewish people who were enslaved by the Egyptians. For hundreds of years, Jewish people have been known for their rich culture and their creative efforts, including in composing for the piano. Here is a sampling of classical European piano composers.

One of the earlier known Jewish composers is Giacomo Meyerbeer (né Jakob Liebmann Mayer Beer), who was born in 1971 near Berlin and died in 1864. Although known mainly for his grand opera style, he also wrote pieces for the piano, mainly early in his career.

Probably the most famous of the group is Felix Mendelssohn, who was born in 1809 in Hamburg and died at the age of 38. Both a composer and performer, Mendelssohn is known, in terms of his early Romantic piano composition, for his collection Songs Without Words.

Parisian composer Charles-Valentin Alken was born in 1813 and died in 1888. He was friends with Chopin and Liszt, and like them, he was as virtuoso pianist as well as a keyboard composer. He is known as the first composer to incorporate Jewish melodies in art music.

British composer Frederick Hymen Cowen was born in 1852 in Jamaica, moved to England at age four, and died in 1935. His father was Her Majesty’s Opera treasurer. Cowen wrote his first piano piece at age six, and gave his first public piano recital at age thirteen. He won a Mendelssohn scholarship to study at the Leipzig Conservatorium. He wrote over 300 songs as well as piano works for piano solos, chamber music, choral music, cantatas and oratorios.

Another renown composer is Gustav Mahler, an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, born in 1860 and died in 1911. Tol get is job as the director of the Vienna Court Opera, he had to convert to Catholicism; yet he still experienced significant anti-Semitism. Most of his works were written for large orchestras, but he did compose for the piano early in his career.

Arnold Schoenberg is also associated with Vienna, where he was born in 1874. One of the early modernists, he is known for his transformation of harmony and twelve-tone technique. Some of his best piano works were written during his final period and showcase both twelve-tone and tonal approaches.

Ernest Bloch, born in 1880 in Geneva and died in 1959 in Portland (Oregon), is celebrated as one of Switzerland’s greatest composers. Several of his compositions draw upon his Jewish heritage. He was also a noted music professor.

Another 19^th century German composer is Otto Klemperer, born in 1885 and died in 1973. At age five he started piano lessons with his mother. He was a student of Mahler, and started conducting for the opera when he was 22 years old. As a composer, Klemperer wrote almost a hundred songs for the piano and for orchestras.

Ukrainian composer Leo Ornstein was born in 1985 and died in 2002. His father was a Jewish cantor. Leo was a protégé piano performer, but stopped performing at age 40 to focus on his experimental composing, mainly for the piano.

Excellent Jewish piano composers continue to exist in modern society, many of whom are Americans, such as George and Ira Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Irvin Berlin, Jerry Goldstein, and Philip Glass.

These examples reveal that the world has greatly benefitted from Jewish piano composers.

Here Comes the Bridal Piano

 

In the US, June has been the traditional month for weddings. Music is also a traditional part of weddings, and piano piece figure largely. Here is a sampling, all written by composers whom Tomoko admires.

The traditional standard wedding piece is Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Opus 61: IX. Wedding March.  It is often performed in the movies (perhaps because it is in the public domain). A less known wedding choice composed by Mendelssohn, but very endearing, is his “On Wings of Song.”

Tomoko’s favorite piano composer, Mozart, wrote “Serenade, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, K 525: II. Romanza-Andante.“ Its stately, measured pace give the wedding ceremony sweet gravitas. To set a more lively yet majestic tone, the wedding couple might choose Mozart’s overture to The Marriage of Figaro. Or if the couple wants to exult, they can always choose Mozart’s “Alleluja” from Exsultate, Jubilate, K 165.

Planning an elegant and sophisticated wedding? Then Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Arioso” would set the tone. Tomoko appreciates his timeless structure and use of chords.

Beethoven’s love letter in music, “Fur Elise,” resonates even today, and couples can affirm their own requited love. Tomoko knows that this famous piano piece may serve as a rite of passage for aspiring piano players.

“Claire de lune” from Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque is another favorite (as is Debussy for Tomoko). Its dreamy soft theme creates a lovely background for weddings.

Another romantic choice is Saint-Saens’ “The Swan” from his Carnival of the Animals. Its almost melancholy tone that resolves into a major key reflects the transition from singlehood to couplehood.

Another favorite composer of Tomoko, Edvard Grieg, is known for his “Wedding Day at Troldhauen, Opus 65, No. 6.” It bears a surprising resemblance to The King and I’s “March of the Siamese Children.”

For the bride’s entrance, Strauss’s Radetzky March” Opus 228 makes a bold statement. Strauss’s “Blue Danube” evokes the spirit of Vienna. And while waltzes are not the usual fare at wedding receptions, imagine how lovely the bride and groom would look if this were their first dance.

Tomoko also enjoys the dance music of Brahms. His piece “Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G Minor” strikes a special chord for Tomoko as she married a Hungarian.

Animated Piano

Tomoko enjoys films, and appreciates the music that is incorporated into them. 

One specialized type of film is animated films, which started almost as early as “real life” films. As examples,, Gertie the Dinosaur in 1914 and the first feature-length animated film el Apostol in 1917 greatly attracted audiences. These silent films were often accompanied by piano and organ music, and classical pieces were sometimes used because of their familiarity. Even modern animated films, especially cartoons, continue to incorporate classical pieces. Here is a sampling.

One of most well known cartoons that used classical music was Bugs Bunny’s What’s Opera Doc?, which featured Wagner’s Tannhӓuser chorus. Wagner is less well known for his piano compositions. For instance, his Wesendonck Lieder for piano and voice were studies for Tristan and Isolde.

Several other classical piano pieces have become tropes for cartoons because of their vivid connotations:

·         Rachmaninov’s Prelude in C# Minor

·         Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody

·         Mendelssohn’s “Spring Song” from Leider ohne Worter

·         Rimsky’ Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumble Bee

Probably the first full-length animated movie that comes to mind when linked to classical music is Disney’s 1940 Fantasia. Piano composers who were featured in that movie included:

·         Johann Sebastian Bach with his organ music Toccata and Fugue in D minor

·         Tchaikovsky with his Nutcracker Suite; Percy Grainger arranged the Flower Waltz for piano, and Mikhail Pletnev adapted seven segments of the Nutcracker into a concert suite for piano

·         Paul Dukas with his Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which he also transcribed for two pianos

·         Stravinski with his Rite of Spring, which was also composed as a two-hand and four-hand arrangement

·         Mussorgsky with his Night on Bald Mountain, for which he had written a version for piano and orchestra

·         Franz Schubert with his Ave Maria, for which Franz Liszt arranged in three versions for piano.

 Animated films have helped to popularize classical piano, including exposing children at an early age, to animate their interest. Tomoko would approve.

Compose a Museum

 In her travels, Tomoko has visited several museums: Tokyo museums, the Palais Museum in Paris, a Medici house museum in Florence, and Mozart's birthplace in Salzburg, to name a few. She has even performed in museums such as the De Young Museum in San Francisco. Of special note for her are museums about composers. In fact, when she travels she takes opportunities to play on historic pianos for herself, such as performing Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude on his piano within the Chopin Museum in Majorca, Spain. 

Here are some fascinating museums of piano composers whom Tomoko likes.

The Composers Quarter in Hamburg consists of six museums, each of which features one or more classical composers who lived in the areas. Each museum is housed in a restored historical building, and each museum contains a multimedia collection of the composer's works and life. See the list and details of each museum at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composers_Quarter_Hamburg

The Museum of the Johann Strauss Dynasty in Vienna has collected artifacts of Strauss gnerations, from the “Biedermeier” era to the 1880s. The museum includes fourteen themed areas, which are accompanied by related audio music. See more at http://www.strauss-museum.at

Speaking of musical families, the Bach Museum in Leipzig honors this family of musicians. Bach's organ and a violin from his orchestra are seen here – as well as many other family artifacts. The museum is interactive and offers summer concerts. See details at https://www.bachmuseumleipzig.de/en/bach-museum

Also located ins Leipzig is Schumann-Haus: the restored home of Clara and Robert in their first years of marriage. Visitors can experience how the couple lived and entertained, and the museum's sound garden provides interactive fun. See more at https://schumannhaus.rahn.network/en/museum/

A third composer's museum in Leipzig is Felix Mendelssohn's home. Visitors can see illustrated letters and music sheets as well as Mendelssohn's own watercolor efforts. The museum also includes a salon where morning concerts are held. See details at https://www.mendelssohn-stiftung.de/de/

The Beethoven House in Bonn features his life and work, and is located in Beethoven's birthplace. It includes a research center and a chamber music hall, and its garden showcases several busts of Beethoven. The museum was opened for the first time in 1893 during the second chamber music festival in the area. Now it includes digital collections for visitors to examine. See details at https://www.beethoven.de/

Handel's childhood home in London now holds exhibits about him. It even contains a miniature baroque theater stage that shows a virtual Handel performing “live.” See information about the museum, which also houses Hendrix, at https://handelhendrix.org/

Preserving the works and artifacts of classical piano composers keeps them alive and enables generations to experience them almost first hand. 

Christmas on the Piano

 

Some of Tomoko’s favorite composers wrote Christmas music for the piano.

Liszt, for example, composed a suite of twelve pieces: Weihnachsbaum (Christmas tree). Several of the pieces are based on traditional Christmas carols. He dedicated this work to his first grandchild Daniela von Bülow, who was born on Christmas Eve. This suite was first performed on Christmas Day, 1881, in Daniela’s hotel room in Rome.

Another composer who was inspired was Bartok, who heard regional traditional Romanian carols, called colinde, and transformed them into two series of piano pieces totaling 30 works.

It is not surprising that Cesar Franck composed four Christmas piano pieces. He was a major French Romantic composer and music teacher. In his thirties he became the organist for the Basilica of Sty. Clotilde in Paris, a position he held until he died in 1890. One of his most famous compositions was the communion anthem “Panis Angelicus,”  but he also wrote a set of four piano pieces specifically for Christmas, again based on traditional carols: “Christmas Carol from Anjou,” “Now Tell Us, Gentle Mary,” “Old Christmas Carol,” and “Whence Comes This Rush of Wings?”

Christmas traditions also inspired composers, such as Berlioz. In 1844 he composed “Rustic Serenade to the Virgin on the Theme of the Roman Pifferari” for the melodium organ, which was invented by an organ builder friend of his. The inspiration came from his time in Rome. While he did not enjoy Rome itself or think much of the music from there, he was impressed with the traditional oboe called a pifferi. The pifferari were rural wandering musicians who performed devout concerts before images of the Virgin Mary.

Another Christmas tradition moved Schumann. His miniature piano composition “Knecht Ruprecht” refers to St. Nicholas’s attendant. This character was a wild country foundling whom St. Nicholas raised, and helps give out presents – or punishments to naughty children. Schumann’s piece is part of his Album for the Young collection, written in 1848.

Mendelssohn also wrote piano works for children. His Opus 72, 6 Kinderstücke (Children’s Pieces), was original not tied to the holiday, but the 1847 English edition of the work was named Six Christmas Pieces.  He wrote this opus specifically for children and adapted his style to children’s musical development (e.g., using fewer accidentals and more familiar time signatures). At the time of this composition, Mendelssohn and his wife lived with a relative who had seven children.

Especially as Tomoko enjoys her grandson Kai, she may well be playing some of these Christmas pieces for him.

 

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.

 

Tomoko's Movie Life

When Tomoko was a teenager she went to the movies every week – for free – because of her father’s business connections. Tomoko continues to enjoy movies for several musical reasons.

Tomoko’s own history has impacted her movie watching. For instance, Tomoko was a child during World War II, which was a very hard time for her and her family. So she was very reluctant to see the 2002 movie “The Pianist,” even though her friends said the piano music was worth the watch. The final piece that the main character played was one of Tomoko’s favorite: Chopin’s Grande Polonaise brillante. That piece redeemed the movie experience, although Tomoko also thought that the movie plot itself was also moving.

The 1990 movie “Green Card” also hit home for Tomoko because it addressed issues of immigration, which Tomoko experienced coming to the U.S. from Japan.  However, Tomoko did not need a marriage to stay in America; her professional experience tipped the scales and speeded up her naturalization. However, the movie did feature the music of another favorite composer of Tomoko: Mozart. Mentioning a more contemporary composer for the film, Tomoko remarks: “Enya's scores for that movie captured the essence of a river, waterfall, and storms. Music can imitate the sound of nature."

Another time, Tomoko saw a movie about Chopin: “A Song to Remember.” Having read about Chopin, and visited the Chopin Museum in Warsaw, Tomoko saw several errors in the film biography. For instance, his home was shown near the ocean; “That wasn’t real,” she asserts. Next door to his place was a monastery, instead, because of his asthma, which was not mentioned in the film. But you can still enjoy the music.” On the other hand, Tomoko says, “When you see the countess in the movie, well-dressed and peaceful, she will remind you of Chopin’s etude 25 #1 melody.” As a side note, Tomoko played Chopin’s raindrop prelude on the museum’s piano.

“Movie makers can interpret a scene so eloquently with music. Take the movie Madame Sousatska with Shirley MacLaine.” Tomoko has a strong connection with this film because it centers on piano teaching and learning, and includes almost twenty classical selections. Tomoko names a couple of her favorites: the Spinning Song of Mendelssohn and Scriabian’s Etude in D sharp minor no. 12. “Rubinstein performed that etude in Russian,” Tomoko says. “Their choice of music for the specific scene is amazing, such as Beethoven’s last movement from his Sonata in C major when the piano student arrives. Schubert’s Fantasy in F minor is played during the funeral, and the movie ends with Chopin, which is most fitting.”

Movie music fascination has been handed down to Tomoko’s daughter Beata. She recalls: “I obsessed about the movie ‘Amadeus.’ It was my secret life.  I listened to Mozart every night under cover.”  As a teenager, Beata didn’t want to be known as liking classical music. However, as an ice dancer, Beata shines when she performs to classical pieces.