SKU: HL.49015502
ISBN 9783795751937.
This collection of piano duets in popular styles aims to add variety to piano lessons by providing attractive pieces in a pop idiom. The part for the first player (Primo) is kept simpler than the accompaniment, so that various combinations of players are possible: student (melody) and teacher (accompaniment) or two students of different playing standards. In this way the young keyboard 'champions' become acquainted with ensemble playing, keeping the tempo, listening to each other, the conventions of modern rhythms and syncopation, as well as being at ease with pop harmonies.
SKU: HL.14041529
ISBN 9781849388214.
Lord Berners (1883-1950) was one of the most idiosyncratic and fascinating personalities in British music. He became a pioneer in the avant-garde when he wrote his first music whilst living in Rome as adiplomat during World War 1; Balanchine choreographed his first two ballets and Ashton the next three; in 1931 he had the first exhibition of his paintings; in 1934 he published the first volume of his autobiography, FirstChildhood, and two years later his first novel, The Camel -- and three more novels came out in 1941. On top of all this during the 1930s, known as 'the versatile peer', he increasingly gained a reputation as an eccentric,which he realised was good for publicity.A wry humour pervades everything, as in these three sets of piano duets. Berners' songs and piano music, too, are as full of whimsical references as those of Erik Satie -- he hasbeen called the English Satie and the Ronald Firbank of music. Berners was not prolific but whatever he did was stamped with his own fastidious accomplishment. He may not have been the last eccentric but his music, writingand painting combine to make him one of the most rewarding.
SKU: HL.49047113
ISBN 9781705189269. UPC: 842819117520. 0.096 inches.
The final movement of the Sonata in A major K. 331 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the Rondo Alla Turca, is one of the most famous pianopieces of all. Once reserved for all music connoisseurs, later played by every piano student, its opening melody, alienated like a sine tone, is now omnipresent even as a mobile phone ringtone. The arrangement by Fazil Say, created as an effective encore, builds on this popularity. Mounted on the still recognizable classic basic level, typical jazz elements such as syncopation of the top tones and embellishment with chromatic blue notes, embedded in sometimes frenzied chains of sixteenth notes, are found - after the first eight bars have been presented originally. In accordance with the improvisational character, Say himself likes to perform his Alla Turca Jazz in other combinations, for example with the accompaniment of jazz singers or with an orchestra. Perhaps it is surprising that Fazil Say, who was born in Turkey and lives there when not on tour, does not trace Mozart's adaptation of genuinely Turkish music closer to its origins, since many of his compositions such as Black Earth or the Violin Sonata are characterized by a subtle touch Combination of classic-romantic tradition, Turkish folk music and jazz elements. In another Mozart arrangement, the ballet music Patara, which premiered in Vienna in 2006, but now composed on the rococo-esque (and almost equally popular) theme from the first movement of the same A major sonata, Say still has the connection denied to the Alla Turca, albeit inthe opposite direction. In distinctive chamber music instrumentation, the piano stands for Western culture, the ney flute for that of the Orient, atmospherically conveyed by sparse percussion and vocalises by a soprano.
SKU: HL.49044757
ISBN 9790001202961. UPC: 841886024885. 9.0x12.0x0.066 inches.
Everybody knows it, and for many a player it was perhaps the first tentative attempt to coax sounds out of the piano: Chopsticks. The origin of this popular piano piece, like that of most folksongs, cannot be ultimately settled today. Legend has it that it was written by Ferdinand Loh and that the designation of the work 'F. Loh: Walzer' eventually turned into 'Flohwalzer'. But no matter who actually wrote the waltz: It is, without doubt, one of the most famous piano pieces and known all over the world. In France, it is called 'Cotelettes' [Chops], in Great Britain 'Chopsticks', and in Mexico 'Los Changuitos' (Little Monkeys). Technically speaking, however, it is not even a waltz. It is composed in 2/4 time and, with regard to style, rather is a polka or a galop. Eric Mayr transcribed the 16-bar original into a concert version for piano duet.
SKU: BR.EB-8034
ISBN 9790004174371. 9 x 12 inches.
This series of easy piano music for teaching purposes presents pupils in the lower and lower middle grades with a carefully chosen selection of well-known and lesser-known compositions by important masters. The volumes are deliberately kept small in extent, since it is more stimulating for children to change the teaching material frequently. Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) composed three series of piano duets: opus 3, opus 10 and opus 60. The piano pieces opus 3, which he wrote at the age of 15, are, despite the modest demands made on playing technique, among the most inventive and melodically sensitive works for four hands of the post-classical period. Together with the four pieces from opus 3, an andante from opus 10 has been included in this folio. These five pieces have been arranged in a sequence such that in their entirety, the result is a balanced suite - in a formal sense - for four hands. (The scherzo opus 3. No. 3 has therefore been transposed into C major.) Heinz Walter, Salzburg, Autumn 1979.
