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 éléphants), in others they are piano reductions of orchestral scores
(like Fêtes 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
première 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 early intermediate piano arrangement of Dances With Wolves is evocative of the expansive landscape and strength of the characters in the film. It has a pianistic feel to the sweeping left hand while keeping the integrity of the original melody. As a slow majestic piece, it allows the pianist to focus on syncopation while adding pedal if desired.
Pianists can follow the dynamics, articulation marks and finger numbers while working on maintaining five finger hand positions, coordination and balance between hands.
This arrangement is suitable for children and adults of any age and can be used to help build technique, expand repertoire, perform in recitals or learn for fun.
The approximate duration of this piece is 1 minute 40.

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 Bourée.