I thought I'd write myself an update of how my preparation for my graduation recital went...this is more for me, actually...I want to remember it...every itty gritty detail of the frustration...and contentment (as rare as it may be)...I want to continually reassure myself, that I have come a long way...that I am so close now, to the performance, that I shouldn't be entertaining the thought of withdrawing...
So, I've got 7 songs to work on, consisting of 2 solos, 1 duet, and 4 band songs...
I started work on my 2 solo pieces, one is Since We Met, composed by Bill Evans...and another, Over the Rainbow, composed by Harold Arlen...I started on both, last semester in September '07...Since We Met, was challenging in terms of constant change of chords (2-3 chords per bar)...but it wasn't so popular due to lack of promotion...those who are avid fans of Bill Evans, may have heard of it...many moons ago...So since this Bill Evans piece wasn't all that famous and known, there were very few CDs, that featured that piece...which means, I had to start from scratch...all purely my arrangements, and nothing more to depend on, other than my major piano teacher...and on top of that...my itchy brain, had to reharmonize it, now making it all the more harder to remember...
So that was a jazz piece...as uncommon as that song have been, Over The Rainbow, on the other hand, has been over-comercialized...everybody knows it...from the senior citizens of the old folks home, to a three year kiddo...everyone has heard of it once...from a mother humming a lullaby, to listening to it over the radio...hence, I had the difficult task, of producing an arrangement, that will be able to stand on its own...without having people to go..."Oh, that dreaded song...AGAIN"...so this time, I'd thought I'd add a bit of salsa latino rhythm into it...
Both songs are now complete...I just have got the mountainous task of memorizing it...so we'll see how that goes...
The duet piece, was more challenging in a way...Canto Antiguo is its name...the piece was suggested and picked out by one of my good friends...no prizes for the person who guessed the name right...*grin*...
Canto Antiguo is a folk song...very simple melody, which my friend would be playing, using a tenor recorder...and I, will be playing the counter-melody with my piano...Upon the existence of melody, and counter-melody...then it is understandable, that the first idea of arrangement that came into my head...was to compose a some-what Baroque like piece...ala J.S.Bach...
Yea...big mouth...and a big brain...the size of a tiger prawn...by day 2 of my grueling task of being a Bach wanna-be...I was ready to quit...but I was in a dilemma...its as if, my left brain which holds all logic...is screaming at my right brain "What the hell were you thinking??!!!"...which my right brain which holds all emotion tells it to shut up, as it has its pride to consider...(reference here)
For a week, I studied Bach's Perlude and Fugues...he is a total G-E-N-I-U-S... B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T...really...nothing short of that...for the life of me, I will never be able to do what he did...Do you know that J.S Bach had to produce a cantata (a piece which is sung) for church every single week??...that makes about 52 cantatas in a year!!...and just so you know, in composing a cantata, he will have to write for sectionals such as the violins, organs, trumpets, etc...and let's not forget the whole choir, with four individual parts...that is an insane job to have!!...and yet, he manages to find time to write the Brandenburg Concertos, Fugues, Inventions...and the list never ends...
And to think, that there was one day, that Lessajinomoto thought she could give this fugue composition a chance...when chickens and ostriches fly...and the cow jumps over the moon...then she will be able to compose a little canon...
Ah, but it was just completed a couple of days back...it doesn't and is not committed to every rule that Bach practices...but the sound is close enough...the rest, I'm too tired to give a care...I just want to get on with it...
Writings about the band later...need my ZZzzzz....
So, I've got 7 songs to work on, consisting of 2 solos, 1 duet, and 4 band songs...
I started work on my 2 solo pieces, one is Since We Met, composed by Bill Evans...and another, Over the Rainbow, composed by Harold Arlen...I started on both, last semester in September '07...Since We Met, was challenging in terms of constant change of chords (2-3 chords per bar)...but it wasn't so popular due to lack of promotion...those who are avid fans of Bill Evans, may have heard of it...many moons ago...So since this Bill Evans piece wasn't all that famous and known, there were very few CDs, that featured that piece...which means, I had to start from scratch...all purely my arrangements, and nothing more to depend on, other than my major piano teacher...and on top of that...my itchy brain, had to reharmonize it, now making it all the more harder to remember...
So that was a jazz piece...as uncommon as that song have been, Over The Rainbow, on the other hand, has been over-comercialized...everybody knows it...from the senior citizens of the old folks home, to a three year kiddo...everyone has heard of it once...from a mother humming a lullaby, to listening to it over the radio...hence, I had the difficult task, of producing an arrangement, that will be able to stand on its own...without having people to go..."Oh, that dreaded song...AGAIN"...so this time, I'd thought I'd add a bit of salsa latino rhythm into it...
Both songs are now complete...I just have got the mountainous task of memorizing it...so we'll see how that goes...
The duet piece, was more challenging in a way...Canto Antiguo is its name...the piece was suggested and picked out by one of my good friends...no prizes for the person who guessed the name right...*grin*...
Canto Antiguo is a folk song...very simple melody, which my friend would be playing, using a tenor recorder...and I, will be playing the counter-melody with my piano...Upon the existence of melody, and counter-melody...then it is understandable, that the first idea of arrangement that came into my head...was to compose a some-what Baroque like piece...ala J.S.Bach...
Yea...big mouth...and a big brain...the size of a tiger prawn...by day 2 of my grueling task of being a Bach wanna-be...I was ready to quit...but I was in a dilemma...its as if, my left brain which holds all logic...is screaming at my right brain "What the hell were you thinking??!!!"...which my right brain which holds all emotion tells it to shut up, as it has its pride to consider...(reference here)
For a week, I studied Bach's Perlude and Fugues...he is a total G-E-N-I-U-S... B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T...really...nothing short of that...for the life of me, I will never be able to do what he did...Do you know that J.S Bach had to produce a cantata (a piece which is sung) for church every single week??...that makes about 52 cantatas in a year!!...and just so you know, in composing a cantata, he will have to write for sectionals such as the violins, organs, trumpets, etc...and let's not forget the whole choir, with four individual parts...that is an insane job to have!!...and yet, he manages to find time to write the Brandenburg Concertos, Fugues, Inventions...and the list never ends...
And to think, that there was one day, that Lessajinomoto thought she could give this fugue composition a chance...when chickens and ostriches fly...and the cow jumps over the moon...then she will be able to compose a little canon...
Ah, but it was just completed a couple of days back...it doesn't and is not committed to every rule that Bach practices...but the sound is close enough...the rest, I'm too tired to give a care...I just want to get on with it...
Writings about the band later...need my ZZzzzz....
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