Here?s a great way to explore some of the most popular European dance music of the early seventeenth century. This book contains easy piano arrangements of several dances from dance collection entitled Terpsichore published by Michael Praetorius in 1612. At the time he was one of the most famous musicians in Germany and the publication consisted of over three hundred dances in four, five and six parts. The name is pronounced ?terp-SI-cory? and rhymes with the word ?hickory?. Although the dances were probably conceived for string ensemble Praetorius was well aware that in practice, they would be played by any instruments that happened to be available. The five dances in this set actually include eight different numbers. These arrangements are based on the original 1612 publication, which did not include dynamics, phrasing or articulations. Any shown in these arrangements are the suggestion of the arranger. The keyboard parts have been fully fingered though fingering is omitted from repeated sections to encourage the player to memorize them. If the music is being played on a digital piano, the harpsichord sound (if available) might sound more authentic. The music is printed in fairly large easy-to-read notation and this collection would be ideal for the elementary keyboard player. The audio sample contains (1) Volta (2) Two Courantes and (3) La Bour�e.

I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the celebrated pianist Nicolas Horvath for enthusiastically
bringing my Debussy works to public attention in their solo piano formats, both through his recent
recitals across France and through this Naxos Grand Piano release (GP822). In some cases these are
true piano pieces (like Toomai des �l�phants), in others they are piano reductions of orchestral scores
(like F�tes galantes), while in others they are piano solos in their own right that also exist in orchestral
versions (as in the incidental music for Le Roi Lear). Needless to say, most of these tracks are world
premi�re recordings, and this is certainly true of A Night in the House of Usher and its companion piece Un Jour affreux avec Le Diable dans le beffroi (?A Dreadful Day with the Devil in the Belfry?) which I arranged specially for Nicolas in November 2018 as a virtuosic, almost Lisztian paraphrase-fantasy. To remind us of the plot as the dramatic scenes unfold, Un Jour affreux avec le Diable dans le beffroi, like the start of No-ja-li) has a narrator (spoken in French by Florient Azoulay on the Grand Piano recording):

[After an overture rising from the underworld, with a polka and a citation of a chldren?s folksong Savez vous plantez les choux?, a carillon rings out]: Hearing it, the Dutch villagers start to count, with the bells of the belfry / 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 8, 9, 11, and 12 / Perfect! / 13!?!/ The bell rang 13 times / 13! / The Devil is here where the clock should be! / Damn! / The bells are cracked. / The Devil laughs fit to burst / He pulls from the pocket of his coat, a small dancing master?s violin / ?My God!? says the devil ? and he tunes his violin slowly / The Devil leads the villagers in a fantastic and relentless jig [making jokes at the expense of concertos by Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky] / The Devil directs the villagers towards the canal ? where he jumps to the other side, laughing all the time / The villagers try to imitate him, but they fall into the water. / [In Part 2] the villagers are transported to a hedonistic and lively Italian village. They are similarly transformed: the men have crooked hats ? the women have wide open bodices! They dance a mad Tarantella / 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 13 / shouting ?Hey there! (Hola?) / Jean, the young hero, makes a fervent prayer to God against the Devil / The prayer is answered and the bell again rings normally! / The expression of the Devil changes: he shudders! / Everything goes black / The devil disappears in a brief red glow ? / And the carillon and the bells chime as usual / 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 / Perfect! / But the Devil?s grinning face ap-
pears once again where the clock should be ? briefly

This arrangement is not in the original key to make it easier to play. A version in the original key is available here: S0.373007.



The Czech composer Anton�n Dvoand#345;�k became the director of theNational Conservatory of Music in New York City in 1892 (a post he helduntil 1895). Whilst in North America, he became fascinated by Native Americanmusic and the African-American spirituals that he heard. After a commission in1893 from the New York Philharmonic, he wrote the Symphony No. 9 in E minor,"From the New World", also known as the ?New World? Symphony ? not onlyhis most famous symphony but one of the most popular symphonies of all time.



The second movement (Largo) features the famous cor anglaissolo, arranged here for solo piano. It was famously used in a British advert for the bread-brandHovis and was adapted into the spiritual-like song ?Goin? Home? by one ofDvoand#345;�k's pupils in 1922.



Dvoand#345;�k explained the Native-American influences in the symphonyin an article published by the New York Herald: ?I have not actually used anyof the [Native American] melodies. I have simply written original themesembodying the peculiarities of the Indian music, and, using these themes assubjects, have developed them with all the resources of modern rhythms,counterpoint, and orchestral colour.?



A recording of the ?New World? Symphony was taken along on theApollo 11 mission by Neil Armstrong in 1969.