Category: Piano

Hauntingly beautiful and ethereal music despite the grim poetry that inspired the music.

From this lengthy work of many variations, I present here the theme with two of my favorite variations: IV for its storminess, and XI for its beautiful chromaticism.

A set of visionary and imaginative short works published in 1919. The video is separated in short works to reduce file sizes.

A 1926 piano piece imitating a harmonic tune of the American South.

A ragtime composition by Igor Stravinsky written for 11 instruments. This is a piano transcription by the composer dated 1920. Note that he spelled it as separate words. The chopped up rhythms make it quite entertaining to play.

This is a shortened version of a transcription of this orchestral piece for solo piano made by Leonard Borwick published in 1914. It is available for free download from the Petrucci Music Library online. I shortened the transcription to half the playing time by playing through the 6th measure on the 6th page, and then…

I shortened this piece to about one-half its length. I played the first 82 measures, then inserted the following modified passage: This passage leads back to the key of original key of Am instead of Em. Then I continued with measure 145 to the end of the piece.

This is an amateur performance of one of the more difficult pieces I’ve ever attempted. Prokofiev let his true feelings about Stalin spill into his three “War Sonatas,” nos. 6-8, written in 1942. The war sonatas are tumultuous, chromatic, and dissonant. The finale to no. 7, the “Precipitato,” is a relentless tocatta in septuple time.…