That's What Friends Are For

Friends, real friends, apparently are not only there when we need them. My friends are also my source of inspiration. Many short pieces of mine are dedicated to my dearest friends, and mostly they are written very quickly in a burst of inspiration. Those pieces count as those which are the closest to my heart, besides the numerous pieces i wrote for my daughter Alicia Pirena. As I always say, music (at least mine) is a record, or a still photograph of things, events and people that have happened and crossed our path in real life. ............................................................................................................................................... I am excited by the project which my pianist friend Henoch Kristianto is doing now. As I wrote in my previous entry, he is recording my Rapsodia Nusantara pieces. For now he is working on 6 of them : nos. 2,3,4,5,6 and 10. All 6 of them would take 40 minutes of the CD approximately. When Henoch needed several "lighter" pieces to fill up this CD, i immediately thought of these pieces from the series of Alicia's Piano Books. I myself put them in "cycles" or groups. "5 Friends" are those which are using my friend's names or initials as the motif to be developed in the piece, while the character of each piece was determined by something that I saw, felt or wanted to evoke from that particular person. The Germanic system of naming the notes starts from A to G (yeah, we've got only 7 notes, so it couldn't go further). I then had to continue further with the alphabet as the notes go higher (although i sometimes used the note B for the letter H, as the Germans call it as such).And then some exceptions, such as D for the letter R for Re, E for the letter M for Mi, and E-flat for the letter S pronounced as Es, the German note for E-flat. ............................................................................................................................................... Another continuing cycle will be "Love Songs". I have written about some of the pieces in my earlier entry of this year, check this out : http://andystarblogger.blogspot.com/2013/05/is-music-really-food-of-love.html ............................................................................................................................................... My "Lullabies" are, in fact, the most truthful representation of what is sounding in my brain. What is sounding there, in fact, is the twinkling music box. Most of my music is a transformation of that music box. In fact, THE WHOLE WORLD for me is a music box. Obviously, the last few weeks have been an intense correspondence between Henoch and me. I'd like to paste here some lines from my emails to him concerning notes about some pieces, hopefully it would be useful for you who would like to play them too : ............................................................................................................................................... And about the rest of the pieces for the CD, you made a good point there! I think then the crucial ones are the 5 musical names, the lullabies, and at least 3 love songs (Unexpected Turns, Differences Unite & the Little Variations which was written for the film Romeo & Juliet). They also have varied technical difficulties, so pianists from all levels would enjoy it (the lullabies are quite easy). Those ones in Alicia's book are the ones written for piano, the rest of "dedicatorial" pieces are for different instruments. So there you have them, quite complete. If there is more time, the sunset pieces would be nice, but let's concentrate on the musical names, lullabies & the love songs first. ............................................................................................................................................... I then have to tell you some interpretative & corrections on those pieces : For Adam G : the beginning section is meant to sound like 2 music boxes : one (the LH) is very very distant, and the other (RH) very close to your ear. So pls make the RH quite "marcato" (In fact I wanna say "percussive", like a vibraphone or so), not lyrical. Bar 4, still use the una corda so it gives the effect of unclearness, and please just take it off when the tune suddenly appears in bar 5. As much pedal as poss, just change when it gets quite disturbing, or when the chord changes. And it should sound like a machine (although yeah, of course a kinda phrasing is inevitable, especially for someone as musical as you). The effect is kinda like a lullaby, but more hypnotizing. Bar 23, the LH is cut off by mistake in the published score, all those are in fact chords with an interval of 5th, so from the 1st chord they are : B-F# , G-D, A-E, F#-C#, B-F# . This piece sounds strange, yeah, but it's one of my favorite piece hehehe .. yup, I AM that strange .... ............................................................................................................................................... A Little Light Music on the name EDITH : I would like to have a clearer difference of tempo between the introduction (like a slow waltz) and the Allegretto con tenerezza. ............................................................................................................................................... Lullaby for Jessy : one note missing at bar 32 : RH plays an octave D (the lower line of bar 31 should end in D in bar 32). ............................................................................................................................................... Two corrections on "Differences Unite" : the point of the piece is that everytime LH plays 2, RH plays 3. So, in bar 9, 2nd beat, LH should just be 2, not a triplet. And bar 14, also 2nd beat, the LH should also be playing only 2 chords. ............................................................................................................................................... And it goes without saying that all the lullabies have the purpose, literally, to make people sleep. They are not meant to be played in a concert, but recording them is a perfect vehicle to listen to them. So if you doubt about the tempo, then remember one thing : the slower one is always the better. ............................................................................................................................................... I should one day write a piece on H-E-N-O-C-H , but for now you are the dedicatee of my longest and most complex piece for piano anyway hehehe ... ............................................................................................................................................... And as I wrote in my last entry, that last sentence wasn't just a wishful thought ..