Piano (Piano Solo)

SKU: HL.49047037

Piano Solo. Composed by Vijay Iyer. Piano Solo. Classical. Softcover. 11 pages. Duration 600 seconds. Schott Music #ED30416. Published by Schott Music (HL.49047037).

ISBN 9781705182024. UPC: 842819116998. 9.0x12.0x0.123 inches.

My father, Y. “Raghu” Raghunathan, came from India to the U.S. in 1963, followed soon after by my mother Sita. Dad enjoyed a substantial career as a pharmaceutical chemist, but he drew satisfaction from a simple life among family and friends, never allowing professional demands to overshadow his devotion to loved ones. Modest, compassionate, and ardently egalitarian, he was careful not to take anything too seriously, especially himself. He embraced his own ordinariness because it connected him to everyone else; it made him no better or worse than his neighbor, no more or less deserving of friendship or kindness than any of his fellow human beings. He showed us how to live with dignity, compassion, grace, and boundless love. His last piece of advice to me: “Go slow.” Several weeks after his passing, I happened upon a recording of Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues, opus 87. I couldn’t understand why at the time, but the sixteenth prelude and fugue took hold of me and would not let go. I completely immersed myself in that piece for ten days, until it became a mystical conduit for something else: in this semi-trance state I produced a prelude and fugue of my own, in prayer (orison) and in praise (upastuti). It shadows Shostakovich’s form, but it somehow expresses my father’s unhurried, loving spirit. I’ve come to believe that he sent me this piece as a blessing. I hope you feel his presence in it as I do. Vijay Iyer.

Piano. Composed by Nikolai Kapustin. This edition: Saddle stitching. Sheet music. Edition Schott. Jazz, Classical, Modern. Softcover. Composed 2015. Op. 160. 8 pages. Duration 3'. Schott Music #ED22827. Published by Schott Music (HL.49045656).

Piano

SKU: FG.55011-456-2

Composed by Esa Pietila. Fennica Gehrman #55011-456-2. Published by Fennica Gehrman (FG.55011-456-2).

ISBN 9790550114562.

Thre e Strides of Light is inspired by the light and its behaviour in different circumstances, appearances and surroundings. The work is in three movements, but they are played together attacca.

The first movement starts off with a headstrong theme on the left hand. This motif has persistent momentum, like a train, and one could think of it as the rays of a setting sun. The beams are straight and relentlessly penetrate our eyes. The seven-bar repetition on the left hand supports this mental image, until the repetition ends and a new thematically central motive starts to emerge, bringing new kind of texture for the last rays and dance of the setting sun. At the end, the light vanishes into the night.

Second movemement, slow rubato, depicts the first rays of the rising sun, they drop behind a morning cloud into the day, growing, developing and becoming yet faster. Eventually the day opens up in all of it sunny glory. The music leads us towards the third movement, in which one bathes in the rays of the sun. The repetative motive of the first movement returns, but by now it has been transformed into something else. A pensive quintuplet-passage emerges, paving ground for the final themes of the work. The ending of the work is thick in sound, depicting the relentless glare of the sun and the heat sun creates. Within the entire work, one can imagine to have gone through a whole 24-hour period on the sea, in which the three strides of light are apparent in different parts of the day.

Piano

SKU: HL.48024835

6 Small Piano Pieces for Youthful Players. Composed by York Hoeller. BH Piano. Classical. Softcover. 12 pages. Duration 360 seconds. Bote & Bock #M202535585. Published by Bote & Bock (HL.48024835).

ISBN 9783793142553. UPC: 840126908756.

In these pieces composed for his niece, York Holler follows prominent examples, from Schumann to Bartok, as the title suggests. Theycombine educational elements with a compositionally quite simple, yet artistically valid lyrical form. Each of these miniatures gives shape to a certain character, conveying no programme like Kinderszenen but something purely musical like march, chorale or perpetuum mobile and giving expression to it on the instrument. The independent movement of both hands is technically demanding and encouraged above all else.