A Charlie Brown Christmas

A classic Christmas song for jazz piano (and often voice), Vince Guaraldi's "Christmas Time is Here" is one of my favourite relaxing pieces to improvise around on the piano. A gorgeous instrumental version of the piece can be found at the following link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gmiSPMHrWQ

A Spider-y Day

I don't mind spiders, but it's not exactly my cup of tea to wake up on a Sunday morning to find spiders laying in bed with me, or crawling on my legs. Not surprisingly so, I became more than a little jittery for the rest of the day so far. In fact, seeing two jumping spiders chilling on the wall beside my desk wouldn't usually startle me so much... but today I freaked out a little more than I should have.

Maybe I should take my own advice and do some meditative practice on my piano or cello.

Except the piece that I'm working on for my Grade 10 Cello Exam is called "Tarantella" by Popper, and it's about doing a dance to dance out the poison of a spider bite. How pleasant.

Piano it is.

Cello Choir Repertoire for Today's Performance

Our school's cello choir played in the school assembly today. It was loads of fun! We performed Couperin's Air, Romberg's Sonata no. 1 in E minor (arr. for four cellos), and the second movement of Vivaldi's Concerto in G minor for two cellos.

They are all beautiful pieces, especially the Vivaldi concerto. The Romberg sonata was also well received at our school -- it's a very lush arrangement. Go check it out and have a listen! Enjoy!

Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809 - 1847), known to most English speakers as simply Felix Mendelssohn, was nothing less than a genius. Born in Hamburg, Germany, this incredible pianist, organist, conductor, and composer created brilliant masterpieces during his lifetime. All of his works are worth listening to, but if you're going to just pick a couple, I'd recommend hearing his beautiful "Andante and Rondo Capriccioso" for solo piano (also on the RCM ARCT repertoire list, by the way), his very virtuosic "Violin Concerto in E-minor, Op. 64," and his well known Overture to Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

They're brilliant, so get out and listen to them!

Or stay inside, by your computer, and have a listen to these YouTube links.

Andante and Rondo Capriccioso:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQngHGBI4ak

Violin Concerto in E-minor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCLxso5XDN4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_3PJf4lAj0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr0ixoV8mtc
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Y2qZRocdXYU

Overture to "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h1MGAlkqno
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37mLJzAsOEs&feature=related

Happy listening!

Medley!

My friend and I are making a medley for our Music Exam! We're going to be using piano and cello, but we don't know what songs to use -- any requests?

So far, we're starting off with "Love Story" by Taylor Swift, and then transitioning into "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. We're thinking of including "Viva la Vida" and maybe some songs by Train. What do you think?

Looking forward to this! :)

Finlandia

Music is powerful. Take one listen to Finlandia and that fact becomes startlingly obvious.

Here's the YouTube link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgwr3wrenkQ

Enjoy!

Twelve Angry Men and a Phoenix Wright

I just finished reading "Twelve Angry Men" by Reginald Rose, and I loved it! The teleplay is about twelve jurors trying to come to a verdict in regards to a sixteen-year-old boy who supposedly murdered his father. The play starts with an initial vote between the jurors. It's 11-1, in favour of guilty.

There's only one man who believes that there's enough room for doubt. This one man, juror number eight, doesn't believe that the defendant is innocent. To contrast, Eight simply doesn't KNOW that the boy is guilty. Eight looks past prejudices in order to prolong the jury's decision. He is determined not to sentence the boy to death on the basis of assumption.

There's a similar video game for Nintendo DS called Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney which follows the story of a newbie defense attorney who fights for the truth. The entire while I was reading Rose's masterpiece, I had Phoenix Wright music playing in my head.

So here's a YouTube link to some of the music from the first game (Phoenix Wright has a whole series. A wonderful series.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3_VTviC5dc

I hope you enjoy the music. Hopefully you'll check out the games (they're really good!) and either read or watch "Twelve Angry Men".