Easy music, chamber music, nice music

Writing easy music is not easy. Well, we composers know that, so there are 2 types of us: the ones who avoid writing music which is easy to play, and the others who then delve into it and start trying to write it. I used to belong in the first club, but since I wrote for my daughter Alicia, I joined the second club. But there is something more difficult than writing easy music, and that is writing easy and GOOD music to be performed. Not that the music in Alicia's Piano Books are not meant to be performed, no no ... in fact it's just a collection of any kind of short pieces. ............................................................................................................................................. Believe me, everytime I wrote a new Rapsodia Nusantara, I always intended that this one would not be a difficult one, so it could be played by young(er) pianists. And I sort of achieved it, like in no. 6 and recently no. 16 which became quite popular with Indonesian pianists. I just finished a new one too, which become no. 18, a set of variations and passacaglia which I am not telling from which song at the moment ;) and it's quite easy(-ier) than the rest. And lighter too, with some humorous quotations of existing music. ............................................................................................................................................. Now that my friends in 5 cities are organizing a piano competition for young people, I regularly talk to them too about this. Especially Eveline Philips in Makassar who told me that in Alicia's Piano Books very easy piano pieces are not enough. I mean very, like, for real beginners, just a few months touching the keys. Anyway, it's been nice chatting with her while writing several very easy and short pieces. I don't always succeed, as I said above it's not easy writing easy pieces, but I got some for Alicia's 6th Piano Book. And yeah, it's a wonderful initiative those friends of mine have about this Piano Nusantara competition. The idea is each of them in their respective cities organize a competition, and then the winner of each city would be eligible to do the Grand Finale in Jakarta. And it's a very friendly one, unlike the Ananda Sukarlan Award, which is tough. The idea is to show the (very) young pianists that competitions are not meant to "kill" them. Everyone is a winner, they will receive comments from the judges, and they can prepare any kind of music they want. The 2 things they have to comply is that 1. They have to prepare 2 pieces, one by an Indonesian composer and the other by a classical international one, you know, Bach, Schumann and those guys. 2. The duration, which as usual there is a limit. You can check everything out at pianonusantara.wordpress.com . ............................................................................................................................................. Now that the Foundation for Autistic Children "EMPATI" commissioned me for a new piece based on a famous children song "Kupu-kupu" (by the late very popular children songwriter Ibu Sud), I gotta succeed in making a quite elaborate (I mean longer than the pieces in Alicia's Piano Books) showpiece but playable by intermediate pianists. And yeah, in the midst of orchestrating my opera Tumirah, I finished a Theme and 5 variations on it. I finished them just now, in a hotel in near the beautiful town of Arnuero. I am serving as the president of the jury for their International Chamber Music Competition this weekend. One thing which is nice about writing "not-so-difficult" pieces is that one doesn't need a piano to try everything, unlike writing the Rapsodias where I constantly had to go to the piano and check whether something is (not) playable by our poor overexploited fingers. And there is a feeling of accomplishment afterwards, different than finishing my other "difficult" pieces, therefore I write these lines :). ............................................................................................................................................. And talking about the Chamber Music Competition, I just acquired immense pleasure listening to all participants. I am double happy that my Indonesian musician colleagues "Duo Schoko" could enter the final round. Nothing to do with me being the president of the jury, mind you! Ah, and also it was such fun playing with my colleagues during the opening concert, where we premiered my new Trio for flute, viola & piano. Just search it on youtube if you wanna hear it, it's in 3 videos but you can get them all if you search with the keyword "ananda sukarlan trio". ............................................................................................................................................. Millions of young pianists aspire to become soloists, but most forget how important it is playing together, either with instruments or with vocalists. The joy and fun is inexplicable, because we share the music together. Chamber music should be introduced at a very young age .... and now I am thinking to write easy pieces for chamber music!