Easy sheet music for beginners

I have found out that it is a terrible problem, to choose appropriate pieces for beginners. Especially with young pianists this process transforms into a burning issue. All of them want to play The Moonlight sonata and For Elise immediately, as soon as they have crossed the threshold of piano room. And no one wants to play studies and exercises. Although studies can be sometimes not really boring and exercises can be quite melodic and nice. What is the best way to explain for children that without playing of exercises they will not be able to play even For Elise? I try to find some funny or interesting moments, to invent a story together with a child. The main purpose is favoring a pianist to understand what does he playing about. When a player has a certain image – a mouse, running fast on the floor, sea waves and so on – it makes him listening very attentively to what is he playing, to the sound of an instrument. In this case not only his fingers but also his mind and his ears are working efficiently. The result of such kind of exercises is much better. It would be very helpful if composers write more programmatic studies and pieces. This is very important for beginners, and not only piano players, I think.
There are some good examples of such pieces:
Berens 50 Piano Pieces for First Beginners Op.70
Beethoven Six pastoral Dances

Verdi La Traviata of Anna Netrebko

Why do we need opera nowadays? It is based on outdated subjects, emotions, stories. Musical language in most famous operas is not modern, too difficult for people who are used to perceive sound track no longer than 5-6 min. No trick effects, no computer graphics. For generation of cinematography and computers it is too boring to sit three hours and look to the stage where are one or two-three singers walking hither and thither. No explosions, pursuits and fights.

Yeah, really I am wonder that the Opera genre is still alive. And feels not bad should I admit. Especially if a good professional as Willy Decker straps to his work. His 2005 Salzburg Festival production of Verdi’s La Traviata is something unforgettable.



Dramatic acting of Russian operatic star Anna Netrebko and fantastic Alfredo - Rolando Villazón – makes me feel creepy all over. I think that the passion, which singers put into the acting, and stage relaxedness make theirs vocal parts more realistic and vivid. Although sometimes it seems to me that this style of performing prevents singers to sing theirs parts more carefully and exactly. In the Violetta’s Air Sempre Libera from the I Act orchestra hardly can follow a singer here and there. Of course how can we expect this if Violetta is blind drunk? I am only wonder and terrified how it is possible to sing in such inconvenient positions.



That broken up glass was very impressive, wasn’t it?

Just let us compare with another recording of this Air. I advise you to take note of the acting, costumes and stage design. No glasses, but shoes.



Yeah, absolutely different idea… and impression. Which version do you like more?
Sheet music of Verdi’s La Traviata piano score.

Funny musicians

Musicians can be sometimes very flippant. And absolutelly all of them like jokes, don't they? And sometimes they take a very strange forms.
I couldn't keep myself from mentioning of the next funny videos here.

The performance of the Trons, quite famous self playing robot band.



Lightpaint Piano Player is simply charming



No comments, just enjoy!

Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2: Volodos interpretation

Today I was occupied with listening of Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2. And I’ve found a recording of Arkadi Volodos. Besides this I also have heard the interpretations of Kissin, Beresovsky, Rachmaninov, Gavrilov, Hanada, Weissenberg. This is one of the most beautiful piano concertos ever composed I think. The widely singing melody and amazing Rachmaninov’s harmony make this concerto absolutely unique.

I like to compare several renditions of one piece. It is always interesting, what have one or another interpreter find in well known composition and how does he feel this music. Let look to the Volodos version.



In Volodos’ interpretation should be noted a very good balance between the piano and the orchestra and not only this. A voices balance in the piano part is also absolutely perfect. I heard many melodic lines, which I didn’t hear before.


And the second thing is an amazing tempo. Actually I prefer the first part of this concerto to be played more slowly, especially first chords. But this tempo let the interpreter make the form of this concerto more understandable and perfected. Many pianists make the first part aspiring to the culmination in reprise. It seems to me that Volodos unites all parts and further development of a musical reflection is aspiring to the culmination in the third part and the end of the concerto.



And the third part is absolutely great. The sound is full of life energy and reminds spring high water. Although all lyric places are absolutely tranquil and melodious, they are not taken out of context and general movement.
The Volodos’ style of performance impresses me by an incredible easiness of technical places which is mixed with perfect articulation and large scale of dynamic nuances.



Users from youtube service write “volodos scares me” or “Volodos is awesome!!”.
After I have heard the third part of Rachmaninov’s concerto No2 played by Arkadi Volodos I have the same feeling should I admit…

Liszt's Transcriptions

There are many things in the world which are worth to learn. Math, riding, swimming, Italian language, tango, figure skating, well, I don’t know…and a lot of other things, just I can not guess it in this minute. Oh! I should add the piano playing of course! It would be really great to find a time for all this activities. The time, this is what we never have enough. Even if choose one from that all our interests, for example piano playing, we don’t have enough time to play or listen all the greatest music ever written. So, we continually have to choose the most interesting pieces or performances for us.
I had read that the great Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter never played any transcriptions but only original piano works, because he believed that the life is not enough to play all piano repertoire and too short to waste it with music, which was transcribed. Well, I think if there are any transcriptions worth to be played, then these are the transcriptions of Franz Liszt, which are absolutely independent and completed works, real masterpieces should I admit.

Beethoven Pathetique Sonata No8

The Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No8 in C minor op. 13, also known as “Pathetique” is very famous, one of the most famous Beethoven’s sonatas, I think the second after the “Moonlight” sonata. It was written when Beethoven was 27 years old.

I have just heard the first part of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No8 “Pathetique” performed by Freddy Kempf.



The rendition of the first chords which are marked with fp by Beethoven is for me quite strange. I never heard this place performed in such way and it seems to me too “verbatim et literatim”. But generally I like this interpretation of the Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata, it is very understandably and consonant to my feelings, with large dynamic scale and typical Beethoven’s sudden sforzandos. There is a lot of the air in the pauses.
Generally I like the performance style of Freddy Kempf. His interpretation is always very delicate and heartfelt, full of passion and love to the music which he is playing. I was really upset when he didn’t take the first prize in the International Tchaikovsky competition.

Venice

Last month I visited Venice. It was my second trip to Venice. The first time was in the Christmas time, so it was quite cold there. But streets were beautifully illuminated and Christmas mood was in the air. To be honest I waited more from my first visit of Venice. But the second time I had felt this inimitable ambience of old buildings, narrow streets, bridges and canals. This time the weather was really beautiful. A lot of sun, flowers, sea… I enjoyed it very much.

There is no doubt that Venice is absolutely unique. Many composers were living and creating theirs music here. Albinoni,Veracini,Monteverdi, Zarlino, Gabrieli are only few of them. There is even a term Venetian school to describe the composers working in Venice at the turn of the sixteenth century. Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice.

W.A.Mozart Ave verum corpus

Recently I have read that an unknown work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart found in a library in Nantes. Actually it is not a complete work but only a page from unknown work and it is supposed this could be a sheet of some Mozart’s composition, probably a Mass. The reason of experts’ confidence is their identification of Mozart’s handwriting. Currently around 100 Mozart’s autographs are known. Well, I can only imagine how much this sheet cost could! I think it is priceless. The only regret is that only a little fragment of Mozart’s composition was found, but not complete Mass. Perhaps it would be even more outstanding than his Requiem. As did one of experts say this work also is supposed to be written shortly before his death.

Other well known Mozart’s choral work is Ave verum corpus. This work was written at the time when his wife Constanze was pregnant with their sixth child.

The sheet music of Mozart’s Ave verum corpus (for voices only).

Maurice Ravel Alborada del gracioso

I have found very nice interpretation of Alborada del gracioso by Marie-Joseph Jude. You can listen it right here.

Alborada del gracioso is the forth part of Ravel's cycle Mirrors, written in 1905.
The Mirrors contain 5 parts:
1. Night Moths ("Noctuelles"),
2. Sad Birds ("Oiseaux tristes"),
3. A Boat on the Ocean ("Une barque sur l'ocean"),
4. The Comedian's Aubade ("Alborada del gracioso"),
5. The Valley of Bells ("La vallee des cloches")

The forth part was orchestrated by Ravel. The orchestral version of Alborada del gracioso you can listen in the interpretation of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev.


The sound of orchestra version is really terrific, isn't it? Timbres of different orchestral groups make this piece more distinct and vivid. It became more understandable for me how some frases should be played. After I had listen orchestral version, I decided to play piano version by myself.

If you also would like to try, you can download Ravel's Alborada del gracioso piano version for free.

Fifteen uncommon music terms

I have made a little list of less known Italian words, which are often used as musical terms. Honestly, many of them were unfamiliar for me and every time when I saw such a word in the score, I was puzzled what this word might mean. So I decided to look these words up and write them down, to not lose my time searching next time or trying to remember their meaning. Well, here are fifteen uncommon Italian music terms. Perhaps, they can be useful for you.

Apaisé – calmed
Bisbigliando – whispering
Bruscamente – brusquely
Con slancio – with enthusiasm
Dolente – sorrowfully
Fiacco – feeble
Lusingando – coaxingly
Perdendosi – dying away
Repente – suddenly
Sognando – dreamily
Spianato – smooth
Stentato – labored
Stinto – faded
Tosto – rapidly
Volante – flying

Puttmann Fantasia on Christmas carols

Christmas is the most favorite fest of many people and I am one of them. The Christmas time is fanned by a romantic fairy tale aura. This is the island of never-ending happiness and boundless joy in the sea of everyday problems, expectation of a holiday and magic, so familiar since the childhood. Once I have noted a paradoxical thing. The sound of Christmas carols arouses in me sensation of warmth and coziness, though the Christmas is the time of snow and cold.
I have found very nice piano piece written on themes of Christmas carols by Max Puttmann. Name of this piece in German is O, selige Weinnacht, which might be translated as Oh, happy Christmas. This is an easy Fantasia on the most beautiful Christmas carols. Most of them are German origin. The author used famous carols as Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming (Es ist ein Ros entsprungen), The Christmas Tree, Most Beautiful Tree (Der Christbaum ist der schönste Baum), Oh Christmas Tree (O Tanennbaum), Silent Night (Stille Nacht Heil'ge Nacht), Sweeter the Bells Never Sound (Süßer die Glocken nie klingen), Oh Thou Joyful Day (O du Fröhliche, o du selige), Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ. If you are looking for the music for Christmas time the Fantasia on Christmas carols O, selige Weinnacht by Max Puttmann might be interesting for you.

S. Wagner piano (organ) sheet music

I have found several pieces which can be performed either by organ and piano players. And this is specified by author – composer Serge Wagner. All this pieces are quite short – one – two pages. And all of them are appropriate for exercise. Difficulty level varies from easy to middle.
The discussion about is it normally or not that we play compositions of J.S. Bach and other Baroque composers by the piano although they were written for the organ or the harpsichord lasts for long time. I think - from the time of the creation of a piano. Yes, the nature of these instruments is quite remote. And as result an interpretation and a sound of the same composition played by organ or by piano players will be always various. I have heard the audio recording of one Bach’s piece performed by Glenn Gould in one case on the piano and in other case – on the organ. The tempo and the interpretation in the organ variant were absolutely different from the piano performance. Of course the time period between these recordings can be the reason of this, but I think that facilities of these instruments – piano and organ - have played theirs part.
This is why it seems to me very interesting to take a look at Serge Wagner’s pieces. In some of them he has specified that it is possible to play them by Harpsichord, Keyboard, Organ, Piano, Reed organ, Synthesizer. If you play any of these instruments you can visit the page of Serge Wagner and download his sheet music for free.

Schubert Die Biene (The Bee)

I was really surprised, when I knew that the author of this famous violin piece The Bee is not Franz Schubert, more exactly – not that Franz Schubert who is the author of Die schöne Müllerin. Do you know that there were two composers with the name Franz Schubert? Actually the real name of Schubert from Dresden was Francois, but in German this name translates as Franz, so this coincidence leads sometimes to confusions. And whole my life I thought that The Bee is written by that famous Franz Schubert! And only when I saw life years of the composer of this piece I began to search any kind of information and opened this fact. The life years of famous Franz Schubert (let us name him “From Wien”) are (1797-1828). He lived a very short life but had written a lot of works.
That other Schubert lived in 1808-1878. There is not much information about him. I know that he was a concertmaster and composer, studied violin by Rolla and Lafont. And now I know that that was he who created The Bee – virtuosic piece for violin. I think The Bee (Die Biene) is the most popular composition of Franz Schubert aus Dresden.

Amor Dei for piano & strings by Boaz Avni

Contemporary music is very different. Many various composition styles compile a multifaceted many-colored mosaic of contemporary music. It seems to me that contemporary classical music moves generally to the side of a complication, of a merging of many styles. This is understandable. Composers are searching new ways for self-expression. A modern reality is maybe too complicated and too multilayer to fit in the classical expressiveness means. Globalization have made possible for everyone to be in the movement of global situation. A huge information flow attacks our minds every day and it is very difficult to concentrate on the main point. This is why sometimes it is necessary to find a place for relaxation and thoughts about what to do the next and were actually are we going.
This big intro was made to tell to you about one of the new for me works written by contemporary composer Boaz Avni. This work names Amor Dei. The name goes perhaps from the one of ideas of Spinoza’s philosophy – Amor dei intellectualis. There are three pieces in this cycle written in minimalistic manner. All pieces are based on a leitmotivs, themes, which repeat and migrate between piano and strings. The tempo of the first two pieces is quite slow – adagio and adagio quasy rubato. The third piece is in the tempo allegro non troppo. The music of the cycle Amor dei leaves the feeling of the time disappearing and the eternity.
You can download Sheet music of Amor Dei for piano and strings and see more sheet music of Boaz Avni.

Chopin Fantasie Impromptu sheet music

I remember that day when I heard Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu for the first time...
I was eleven years old. We had a music competition in our school. I took the part in that competition and had already performed my program. As far as I was free I came to the concert hall to hear how other participants were playing. When I came into the hall many other people came with me, although there were no free places already. So we had to stand on ours feet to listen a next performance. Next was the performance of a very talented boy, a pupil of our school. All listeners had been waiting his performance. He walked out on the stage to a thunderous ovation and began to play his program. The first piece was Fantaisie-Impromptu op. 66 in C-sharp minor of Frederic Chopin. The beginning of this piece is full of virtuosic passages and he played it really amazing. But that was not the place I was impressed by. When fast passages finished the middle part begun. When I heard the melody of middle part of Fantaisie-Impromptu I thought that I had never heard so beautiful music in the whole my life before...
If you are also the fan of this music, you can download Fantaisie-Impromptu op. 66 in C-sharp minor of Frederic Chopin and play it yourself.

Ave Maria sheet music of Schubert and Gounod-Bach

This is very famous and popular theme. There are many version of it. Shubert, Gounod, Piazzolla, Caccini, Verdi - these are just a few composers who wrote music to this prayer. Every of this pieces is very beautiful and real masterpiece. But the most famous in my opinion is Ave Maria of Franz Schubert. I was surprised when I knew that originally Schubert didn’t write this composition on habitual for us words of Catholic prayer Ave Maria. The origin text of this composition is German translation of Walter Scott's epic poem “The Lady of the Lake”. This is why this piece is a part of Schubert’s song cycle "Liederzyklus vom Fräulein vom See". There were words Ave Maria in the text of this song, and with the time the full text of Catholic prayer Ave Maria began to be used together with the composition of Schubert. And now it is common to hear this composition with traditional text of Catholic Prayer.
Sheet music of Schubert’s Ave Maria with words from Walter Scott’s Poem for voice and piano you can download for free.
Other very famous version of Ave Maria was written by Charles Gounod in 1859. The melody is based on the harmony of Bach’s Prelude Nr.1 from Well-Tempered Clavier. Originally this Prelude was written in C major. Gounod‘s transcription is in F major. The character of melody is very relaxing, calm and tranquil. There is no doubt that this is very successful example of co-authorship when a work has found a new life.
Free sheet music of Gounod-Bach Ave Maria for voice and piano can be downloaded here.

Carl Czerny Studies (Etudes) sheet music.

I think it is quite difficult to find any piano player who’s never played Czerny’s Etudes. Carl Czerny wrote many works in this genre as Studies, Etudes, Exercises in various difficulty scale, from very easy (Op.777) to the real top of virtuosity (Op.834). But not many piano players knows that Carl Czerny wrote 6 Symphonies, many strings quartets, piano sonatas, Quartet for four pianos, Piano Concerto, a number of Masses and Requiems and many other music. He also made many arrangements of works written by other composers as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn. Besides this Carl Czerny was a prominent teacher and one of his students was Franz Liszt, famous Hungarian pianist and composer.
Many Studies of Carl Czerny are very popular nowadays. You can download most famous his circles - Preparatory Studies, op.636 and The School of Velocity, op.299 free sheet music.

Joseph Haydn The Seasons sheet music

Well, we have the autumn, again… Should we be sorry about warm and sunny summer? Life goes on and we cannot stop the time running. We can just hope that it will open for us new amazing horizons, we’ll get to know more interesting things, meet new wonderful people, and actually good days happens in any time of the year. So, let us not to be sad and sorry about last summer. It was beautiful and reminiscence of those amazing days will warm us in future cold time.
Many composers have written music inspired by the four seasons. Vivaldi, Piazzolla, Tchaikovsky are just few of them which names came across of my mind in this minute. The Four Seasons I think is the best-known work of Antonio Vivaldi and one of the most famous works from Baroque. Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires for violin and strings opposite is the music of nowadays. Written in typical for Astor Piazzolla style of Argentinean Tango this music charms a listener by the rhythm and passion. Pieces describing twelve months from piano cycle of Peter Tchaikovsky are familiar and abundant compositions in repertoire of many piano lovers around the world.
And there is another cycle dedicated to this theme. In 1801 Joseph Haydn finished his great oratorio “The Seasons”. I think many piano players will be interested to have a look at the sheet music of Haydn’s “The Seasons” piano version.

La Campanella

This word translated from Italian language means “The Handbell”. This is the name of the final movement of Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor. I think this music theme is second the most famous his composition after the Capriccio Nr. 24 and also very difficult. When I hear this part of Paganini’s Concerto it seems to me that millions of sparks are splashing from under the fingers of violinist.Having heard once this theme you will not forget it any more.
Download 2nd Violin Concerto of Paganini free.
The theme of “La Campanella” has inspired other composers as Ferruccio Busoni and Marc-Andre Hamelin to write transcriptions. But the most famous transcription on “La Campanella” is Etude No3 from "Grandes Etudes de Paganini" of Franz Liszt. There are six Piano studies in this volume. Five of them were written on themes from Paganini's 24 Caprices. The sixth Liszt’s Etude is written after the 24th Capriccio of Paganini.
Free downloads of “La Campanella” and all Studies from the "Grandes Etudes de Paganini" at Franz Liszt sheet music.
By the way there are many other Works of Franz Liszt on this page, among the other there is famous piano work “Liebestraum” ("Dream of love") No. 3 in A Flat Major, which is not terribly difficult and very beautiful. This is the most famous composition from the three Libesträume. Written as songs after poems by Ludwig Uhland and Ferdinand Freiligrath this cycle appeared for high voice and piano and at the same time as transcriptions for piano solo. Difficulties: two virtuoso cadenzas, chords and octaves in the middle part.
Playing this piece you can try to realize wide breath of song and feel irresistible impulses of unconditional loving heart. The page with the piano version of the Liebestraum Sheet Music. On this page you can also read more detailed information about “Liebestraum” No.3. I am sure you will enjoy playing it.