Another solo piano performance, this time from jazz pianist Emmet Cohen. Recognized as a prodigy, the 29-year old Cohen has been hailed by Downbeat magazine for his “nimble touch, measured stride and warm harmonic vocabulary.” He has performed with Ron Carter, Kurt Elling, and Christian McBride, among others, and composes as well. Key change at 1:54. Thanks to MotD contributor Paul Steckler for this find.
Tag: instrumental
Henry Lewers | Silent Night/Still, Still, Still
Breaking new ground today by featuring a performance by yours truly for the first time on the page. This mash-up of two beautiful carols, “Silent Night” and “Still, Still, Still,” was arranged by Sally DeFord (the sheet music is available here.) Starting in D Major, the music shifts to Bb with the entrance of the second tune at 1:25, and then to G at 3:05 with the return of “Silent Night.”
Waving Through a Window (from “Dear Evan Hansen”)
Broadway music director and pianist Greg Anthony Rassen (Bandstand, Bullets Over Broadway, An American in Paris) has written a stunning piano quartet arrangement of “Waving Through a Window,” from the hit 2015 musical Dear Evan Hansen, as a tribute to all of the Broadway musicians and other music staff who have been out of work since their shows went dark in March. “I did this arrangement with all of you in my heart,” Greg said in a Facebook post sharing the video. “Never stop making music.” Key changes at 2:10 and 3:01.
Camille Saint-Saëns | Mazurka #1, Op. 21 (Geoffrey Burleson)
From Naxos’ liner notes for its release Camille Saint-Saëns Complete Piano Music 4: Dances and Souvenirs:
“There is a long history of composers writing instrumental dances that were and are intended as ‘concert’ works, initially flourishing in the Baroque era. By the late 18th century, the allemandes, courantes and gigues that were once all the rage were all but outmoded, save for the minuet, which appears copiously in works of Haydn, Mozart and in Beethoven’s early period. By the mid-19th century the fast triple metre of the waltz prevailed, along with the wealth of musical variety and contrast composers brought to its manifestations. Chopin codified the waltz as a stand-alone solo piano genre, as well as the much more vernacular, and resolutely Polish mazurkas and polonaises.
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) inhabited all of these eras as a composer of concert music in dance genres, even though his first works didn’t see the light of day until the mid-19th century. Among his many formidable musical feats was as a pioneering editor and advocate for French Baroque music, especially works of Lully and Rameau, spearheading the revival of this music in the late 19th century. More famously to the 19th century public, Saint-Saëns was one of the greatest keyboard prodigies of the past 200 years. When he made his piano recital debut at the age of 10 … he announced to the audience that he would be pleased to perform any of Beethoven’s 32 sonatas as an encore. A good deal later, Liszt referred to him as the greatest organist on earth.”
1892’s Mazurka No. 1, Op. 21 starts in G minor. The “B” section (first heard here at 1:02) is in the parallel major. The French composer’s trademark chromaticism softens the lines between these two primary keys throughout. The pianist featured on this recording is Geoffrey Burleson.
Tommy Emmanuel | I Have Always Thought of You
Australian solo acoustic fingerstyle guitarist Tommy Emmanuel has made a global career for himself over the years, covering melody, bassline, and accompaniment alike. The readers of Guitar Player magazine have twice voted him “Best Acoustic Guitarist” (2008 and 2010).
The Las Vegas Review/Journal quotes Emmanuel as saying “Chet Atkins actually said something in an interview about me that struck a chord with me. He said, ‘This guy’s the most fearless musician I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen another player who can go jam with a jazz band and then play Django (Reinhardt) tunes and then play Spanish music and then play all of my stuff.’ I don’t know whether it’s my ignorance or my innocence, but I’ve always felt that if I understood anything at all (about a certain style of music), I’d be ready to jump in and you can throw me a solo and I’ll have a go at it.”
According to Emmanuel’s website, the respect was mutual from the moment Emmanuel, at age six, heard Atkins playing on the radio. “…Like Dylan, who made a pilgrimage from the Midwest to New York to meet his idol, Woody Guthrie, Tommy always knew he had to get to Chet. To let Chet hear his music, which had been so shaped by his years listening, and absorbing, Chet’s genius. When he finally made that trek around the globe to meet the man himself, in Nashville, their bond was immediate, and like their music, existed beyond words. Chet picked up his guitar, and the two men jammed joyously for hours. It started a lifelong friendship which shaped Tommy’s music forever.”
2000’s “I Have Always Thought of You” starts in D major but modulates to C# minor from 1:22 – 1:44 and again from 2:17 – 2:38.
Dirty Loops | Old Armando Had a Farm
Swedish funk/pop phenoms Dirty Loops have been doing their best to stay sane and keep their skills sharp during the gig-less period known as COVID-19 with their Songs for Lovers series. With “Old Armando Had a Farm,” Henrik Linder (bass) and Aron Mellergard (drums) cook up a country/funk/bluegrass concoction without their frontman, vocalist and keyboardist Jonah Nilsson.
In the spirit of the band’s typical humor, the supporting cast (from steel guitar to hand claps to hair colorist!) are all mentioned in the end credits. The tune modulates multiple times, starting at 0:43.
The Dregs | Bloodsucking Leeches
“One of the top jazz-rock fusion ensembles ever, the Dixie Dregs combined virtuoso technique with eclecticism and a sense of humor and spirit too frequently lacking in similar project,” reports AllMusic. From Music Aficionado’s profile on the band: “During the Georgia-based Dregs’ heyday in the late 70s and early 80s, their output consisted of longish instrumental workouts that mixed elements of southern rock, bluegrass, prog, metal, classical, jazz and fusion, among other styles, all of it shot through with ridiculously complex technical acrobatics,” The band’s name was initially The Dixie Dregs, but the group dropped “Dixie” from the name towards the end of its run. The group was led by guitarist Steve Morse (also known for his work with Deep Purple).
Founding bassist Andy West says of “Bloodsucking Leeches” (1982), via Music Aficionado: “This song is our statement on the music industry at the time, which is where the title comes from. The feel of this one, to me, it’s not quite metal, but it’s definitely rock. If you trace it back, it’s like a Led Zeppelin kind of thing, if Led Zeppelin had kept on going.” Maybe — if Zeppelin had “kept on going” right off the edge of the planet and into its own unique universe of southern-fried funk/rock!
Starting in E major, 0:38 shifts to a focus on the closely-related key of A major, a much bigger jump to G major at 1:25, back to A at 1:53, and a return to E at 2:13. The shifts continue until the tune settles back into E major in its final seconds (3:54).
Samuel Barber | Summer Music for Woodwind Quintet, Op. 31
In its program notes for a 2004 performance, Chicago Chamber Musicians wrote: “Barber was often described during his lifetime as hopelessly old-fashioned; audiences approved of his music more than critics did. Over time, though, his individuality and depth of emotional expressiveness have won universal admiration and given him a pre-eminent place in the history of American music. With his tendency toward romantic melodiousness, combined with a classicist’s fondness for traditional structures, Barber has sometimes been compared to Brahms, who was also accused of being out of step with his times, but whose works seem to have survived nonetheless. Barber himself commented on the work’s pastoral mood: ‘It’s supposed to be evocative of summer — summer meaning languid, not killing mosquitoes.'” American Music reports that the 1956 piece, Barber’s only chamber composition for wind instruments, has become a staple of the wind-quintet repertory.
The performance here is from the 2013 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition; the ensemble is from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Starting with a more disjointed mood, the piece is initially built on a series of luxurious features/solos for each of the quintet’s instruments — although no one instrument takes the lead for long. The tonality shifts several times, generally staying in the minor realm. At 2:07, the mood shifts suddenly; the ensemble begins to speak mostly as one as the lines grow more percussive. At 2:44, there’s a shift towards an uncomplicated major tonality as the quintet sprints to the finish line.
Fred Hersch | And So It Goes
“And So It Goes” first appeared on Billy Joel’s 1989 studio album Storm Front. The tune has since been covered by countless artists, ranging from former Yankees centerfielder Bernie Williams to American bagpiper Jori Chisholm on his debut album Bagpipe Revolution. Here, jazz pianist Fred Hersch performs his rendition, which was featured on his solo 2017 album Open Book. Beginning in C major, Hersch hints at Eb Major around the 4:00 mark, and then settles in Ab at 4:51 and stays there through the end.
Frédéric Chopin | Prelude for Piano #25 in C-sharp minor (Op. 45)
Towards the end of his life, Frédéric Chopin wrote a series of preludes; while there were 26 in all, the piece known as #25 (1841), although published earlier, was actually the final installment of the series to be written.
According the AllMusic, “This last prelude begins with a gentle, melancholy theme, whose mostly ascending accompaniment Chopin deftly works into the gloomy melodic fabric. That is nothing new for him, but here the obsessive and seemingly simple manner of the harmony never becomes tiring, always remains profoundly atmospheric, largely because of the composer’s manipulation of his thematic material, at times allowing sunlight to break in, as when the theme is played for the second time and blossoms into hopeful joy…It is hardly surprising that this masterpiece is one of Chopin’s more popular and widely-played compositions.”
Although we can see from this sheet music-centric video that the key signature never formally shifts, modulations and passing keys-of-the-moment are more the rule than the exception in this piece, calling legions of accidentals into service. AllMusic goes as far as to suggest that “the success of this whole piece rests on the composer’s deft handling of what is essentially threadbare thematic material — there is no middle section here.”
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