Chopin-Czerny. Polonaise Brillante Op.3

Composer since the age of seven, Chopin needs no introduction. A genius pianist, he forcedly lived in Paris for most of his life, but his compositions always have indelible Polish feel, influenced by folk motifs of his Motherland.

Chopin’s masterful piano miniatures are dramatically romantic, sincere and spiritual. Never before him was music that expressive. If it wasn’t for Chopin, polonaise and mazurka wouldn’t sound that poetic, there would be no such genre as a piano ballad and one of the craters on Mercury would stay nameless.

Introduction and Polonaise Brillante in C major, Op.3 is initially a composition for cello and piano. Luminously arranged by Carl Czerny for piano, it is available here:

Introduction and Polonaise Brillante in C major (Piano Arrangement), Op.3

Alkan Piano Sheet Music

Charles-Valentine Alkan is a French virtuoso pianist. Besides composing, he taught Chopin’s students after death of a Polish composer and translated Bible (as a whole!) to French. Unluckily, his translation didn’t live till our days. And what’s even sadder, several of his works were lost, too. First composition of Alkan dates 1828 and most of them are written for solo piano.

Friends of Alkan thought of him as of lively, warm and humorous person. Even the title of his "Funeral march on the death of a parrot" warrants his ironic nature, noticeable in his works, musically-challenging yet written by a deeply sensitive and open man.

During the 20th century, music of Alkan wasn’t frequently heard in the concert halls, but now more and more pianists turn to his worthy and innovative works.

Alkan piano sheet music is available here.

Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky

Pictures at an Exhibition is one of the most deservedly staged and re-arranged suites of Mussorgsky. Subheading of this work (A Remembrance of Victor Hartmann) is self-explanatory – it is dedicated to a composer’s close friend, an architect and painter, who died early from an aneurism. Mussorgsky himself outlived Hartmann by three years, dying in the age of 42, but his contribution is huge: Pictures at an Exhibition was re-arranged even for such instruments as glockenspiel, xylophone and marimba. There were so many of those who want to adapt suite for themselves that we can easily find two bands starting from “Tangerine” among them – Tangerine Dream and Tangerine Trees, respectively.

In 1991-1992 Arkadi Troitsky transcripted Mussorgsky's suite for a string orchestra. Troitsky is a composer, arranger, and conductor with a great experience. Download the high quality sheet music here: Pictures at an Exhibition, arranged by Arkadi Troitsky – who knows, maybe it will inspire you to play its parts on sitar or theremin!..

Video of another version of arrangement, by Ravel, is below:

Music Self-Publishing

World never stops moving. Neither the world of music does. The pace of its changes and development doesn’t cease to surprise contemporary composers. To be successful in this highly competitive environment they need to adjust, to learn and to develop themselves.

Every way to composer’s success begins with such basic steps as, first of all, motivation and, second of all, getting music scores PUBLISHED so that they were acknowledged by the public. Unlike the first task, the second one may require some comprehensive informational research before a composer finally chooses the way to follow.

That is exactly the purpose of the article “Music Self-Publishing” – to provide a talented but probably overlooked composer with all the data regarding the options he’s got. All-mighty publishers or means of self-publication – that is the question. The overview, comparative analysis and the choice of solution – all inside. Have a look Music Self-Publishing

Destination Broadway

Did you know that though the word “musical” just at the beginning of the 20th century appeared history of this relatively new music genre goes back to the theatres of the ancient Greeks and Rome when ancient dramatists used in their plays musical accompaniment and choreographed dances of the chorus? But, of course, the very first musical was staged many centuries afterwards. This important historical event took place on Broadway in 1866 when the play “The Black Crook” written by Charles M. Barras and produced by William Wheatley was firstly performed.

Generally speaking, musical has always been especially close to people showing ordinary persons in unordinary situations and having an entertaining character though often getting deep thoughts and serious dramatic emotions across the footlights and thereby very popular among the public from different social milieus, while classical theatre plays and operas demand usually a certain level of education and respective knowledge of the piece.
I personally love musicals and adore actors for their amazing versatile talent and physical strength which are surely needed when performing complicated dance figures accompanied by skillful vocal pirouette.
Though most musicals are scored for orchestras and they’re hard to be performed at home, we can sometimes meet smaller plays for piano and voice, as for example here, enjoy this great music and feel like you were joining one of these breathtaking Broadway shows.

Contemporary Sheet Music

As a listener, if I had to choose between contemporary classical music and light modern music as for example pop or r&b songs, I would prefer light music. And this is a musician’s opinion too! Strange, isn’t it? Well, of course I should admit, it is my personal point of view, but I am very curious how many modern musicians are listening to contemporary classical music at home, so to say, just for fun… Do I play contemporary music myself? Yes, sometimes. But I should say that my students are not very happy having contemporary music in their repertoires. I think the contemporary piece in repertoire of pianists is the Must, not the Wish, sometimes. No competitions or serious recitals can avoid some kind of contemporary composition. And it’d better be interesting and valuable. And I am continuously looking for some new worthwhile compositions of contemporary composers. I would recommend one of the biggest and rapidly rising collections of contemporary sheet music both free and paid.

Christmas Sheet Music: Silent Night

Silent night, holy night…This charming music comes along with me from my childhood through all years passed… What would be with Christmas celebration if an Austrian composer Franz Xaver Gruber had never composed Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht? Written December 24, 1818 and performed that very day, this music became very famous during the next two centuries and now it is one of the most popular Christmas carols. It is always so astonishing when a song becomes worldwide popular, when every child in the world knows, enjoys and sings this song. And definitely the Silent Night (Stille Nacht) is absolutely magic song. Listen to it once and you will never forget it. It makes you feel happy; it gives you taste of coming Christmas, joy and pleasure. Numerous musicians have made arrangements and cover versions of the Silent Night for any kind of instrument, voice or ensemble. I enjoy playing the piano arrangements of the Silent Night (Stille Nacht).



There are of course many other beautiful Christmas carols. My other favorite carol is Oh Holy Night.



You can download Christmas sheet music and enjoy playing and singing Silent Night (Stille Nacht) or Oh Holy Night as well as numerous other beautiful carols.