Dennis, thanks for your kind words. And, strangely, Anonymous lived an incredibly long life. His work first appears in the 11th or 12th century and he continues to be active up until this very day. Now, it may be that the family tradition is to only use one name in which case there may be one or more active descendant writing music -- certainly the number of styles in which Anonymous wrote/writes is exceptionally broad and varied and that would be an explanation.

Ed

Miss Viv may be a looker, but her vocals are somewhat one-dimensional. The accompanist, on the other hand, did a masterful job. I disagree with your assessment. I think you are there now. This sounds wonderful!

You don't look tense at all to me. Great job and I may have said this before, but that is a very poignant song.

Angelojf

Good job,

Where do you guys play?

Oh my! Only April 3rd and already five pages of piano bar.

Here I my comments on the ones posted so far:

Angelo - Hmmm... Solitude as a duo. I'll let the contradiction slide since you guys did a great job. The bass is a little too loud though (or the piano too soft).

epf - These historical pieces are fascinating. I definitely hear similarity with Bach. A harpsichord voice would work well -- of course then you'd need to wear a sixteenth century French getup and a powdered wig to make it work on vid. Great job!

JohnFrank - Another gem by someone I've never heard of (alas, my knowledge of works without electric guitars is wanting). Nice even coordination between the hands. You captured the minuet mood well.

Bill - Very nice job! The piano, voice, and vid all came together on this piece. You are one talented guy!

Riddler - Congrats to both you and Viv, plus your excellent drummer (do he and Viv have a thing going?). Your fills around the "voice" were very smooth. An overall very professional recording.

Peyton - Another very moving composition. I agree the audio recording of the piano wasn't on par with the playing. I hope you can resolve it so the technology does justice to your talents.

Homeinmyshoes - I'm amazed by people who can produce such beautiful improvisations. I have to plan every note or I end up with horrible gaps and hesitations. Great job.

***

I feel like Fred Flintstone posting an MP3 with so many people now in the video age, but here is my humble attempt at the Beatles' Let It Be.

http://www.box.net/shared/2qn1s1n6ko

As usual there are a couple of mistakes and a nasty hesitation on one of the verse changes, but overall I'm satisfied considering my general beginner-ness and increasingly obvious lack of aptitude for this whole piano thingy.

Thanks everyone for the kind comments on my video. I had to pull it off youtube as I just wasn't pleased enough with the quality so my appologies. I really like putting my songs up on the web on box net with all their flaws and mistakes but it just seems different when it's a video on Youtube. (If I could get the video to just appear here on the forum and not on the whole damn web that would be fine.) I'm going to work at trying to tie in my recording program with my video program and maybe do a job I think is worthy of being on youtube. In the meantime it's back to boxnet...


Hey, I just realized you can't go back and edit old posts.... that's wierd.


bluekeys... nice job on 'Let it Be' by the way.

Well, thanks for the thought but the wig is absolutely out. However, here's an audio recording of the Galliard on a harpsichord.

Ed

JohnFrank: One of the few pieces I play. =) I like that you play it fairly slowly. Brings out the emotion well, which is tough with baroque pieces. The score (at least my copy) dictates Allegretto, which is what, 110-125ish? I usually play it around 120, but it's hard not to sound rushed and mechanical at that speed. Compare the Krieger with Bach's Minuet in G, which, though marked Moderato (which is more or less the same as Allegretto, right?), actually sounds livelier and more natural at a slightly higher tempo. I think it's the minor key of the Krieger minuet that makes us want to hear it Andante-ish; brings about a pensive, brooding state. It's a very pretty piece, at any rate. I hadn't heard it either, until my piano teacher gave it to me as homework.

I'll put up my own recording as soon as I get my 6.3-3.5mm jack converter.

Right. Picked up a plug converter in the city, so here goes:
http://www.box.net/shared/7tckc47apc

Might upload the Bach minuet for comparison. Be gentle! I only started a few weeks ago.

Btw, JohnFrank, I liked your enhanced ending-repeat. Nice touch.

OK.... Here I go again. I got obsessed with trying to tie in my better recording gear with my video camera and I think I have it. This is a little melody I wrote about the salt marsh I have a little camp on here in Maine. I tied in some video of the marsh and the ducks and geese. I swear I'll keep this one up on youtube!

Thorium - funny you should bring this up - another poster of Baroque music here in the April Piano Bar & I just finished a lengthy, cordial and informative discussion via PMs concerning my tempo on the Krieger Minuet specifically, and the tempi of minuets in general. His version (shared in a PM) is faster than mine, but not as fast as yours. The tempo indication is Moderato in my source ("Essentail Keyboard Repertoire"). On the CD that accompanies this book the pianist plays it at a tempo somewhere between his version and mine. I recorded my version at 3 different tempi and submitted the slowest because I liked the way it sounded (bringing out the slightly dark & brooding textures of the music). Also, historically I believe the minuet, as danced, was a slow and stately dance and the music that accompanied it would have been similar. But, also as a strictly instrumental piece I believe that the typical tempo of the minuet varied quite a bit over time and from place to place. On the CD that I mentioned above are 16 minuets with a wide range of tempi probably bearing this out.



If the "Minuet in G" is the very famous and frequently played one I am thinking of then please note that for the longest time it was erroneously atributed to J.S.Bach, but now a gentleman by the name of Christian Petzold is generally given credit for it's composition. Petzold also contributed other pieces to the famous "Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach".



I fully agree.

Regards, JF

Bluekeys - I really like your tempo and chord choices. Very nice. I think you are quite apt.

I thought the jury was still out on that? I'd certainly be happy to attribute it to Mr. Petzold. =)


Yeah, mine turned out to be Allegro, around 140 bpm. I usually play it a little more slowly. I think I my tempo goes up with recording nerves! (I have insane stage fright.) Do you play the Petzold/Bach G-major one? Would be fun to compare interpretations.

Peyton - I like this video, and the piano playing I think it's cool that everyone's kind of taken up the visuals - didn't Lisztener start that with the slide shows? Now if we can just get someone to accompany old silent movies I'd love to do that, but am not quite at par for that course yet.

bluekeys - great rendition. Nice tempo, nice syncopations, great confident touch.

epf - I love harpsichord, and that was a fine piece.

Thorium - very charming, and nice ornaments. Nice balance between the hands.

Cathy

I'm really enjoying all the great submissions this month, especially those cool videos! Bill, I loved your playing/singing and the nostalgic look to your video with "On the Sunny Side of the Street". That's a great old song.


I still don't have a clue how to do videos myself yet, so here's just another MP3:

Send in the Clowns
http://www.box.net/shared/nx1dbpvi57

Yes - I worked on that a couple of months ago and had it down fairly well - since then I did the Krieger and am just about to finish up a neat little Minuet in G minor by our boy, good old Christian Petzold (also from the "Notebook").

If I get a chance (I'm currently working on 3 other pieces) I'll spend some time reviewing it and then record and upload it here. But, no promises

Regards, JF

Cheers and kudos to everyone who has already -- and it's only the 4th! -- helped to create such an entertaining piano bar. It's interesting and enjoyable to hear/see such a mix of works.

Some old/new stuff for me : I have just bought a real piano, a sauter 108 : I love my roland hp201, but playing on a real piano is so different...

So to celebrate this and my first year of piano playing (I started in april 2008), I recorded some of the pieces I learned (with a few mistakes... ;-) ).

Prokofiev : The moon strolls in the meadow

(already recorded on the roland hp 201)
Chopin : Raindrop prelude

Laputa :

Nausica : Legend of Wind

Lovely work, yoyofr! I love the Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki films too, and they're full of little musical gems. I remember adoring the credits theme in Spirited Away (Itsumo Nando?) If my singing voice were better, I'd play and sing that one all day.

Good luck on the Tiersen stuff. I used to play "Comptine d'un autre ete - L'apres midi" on my nylon, and will definitely learn the original piano version.

Thor

Re comments:

Bill, Peyton, Knotty, Angelo, Jotur, Dennis, Bluekeys - thanks for listening and for the comments.

Peyton, I am playing from a lead sheet (melody notes plus chord symbols) only. And, uh, ... the truth is, she won't do dishes, even in my imagination!

Angelo, I have been taking lessons (once every other week) for almost three years now. Also had a year of lessons on the Hammond organ in the 1970s, and basic piano lessons as a kid in the 1940s. I now have the built-in excuse of being "too old" to learn anything I darn well don't feel like learning! (But, if I feel like learning it - well, then, "You're never too old"!)

Jotur, apparently her musical intelligence vastly exceeds her verbal intelligence. She can actually improvise a respectable melody over any set of chord changes, but do you think I can get her to say dooby dooby doo? Never! Maybe it's a union thing, I dunno.

Re new recordings:

HIMS - nice improv. Sounds bluesey but also Phillip Glass-ish.

Bluekeys - I try to stay out of the personal lives of my band members. (But between you and me, I have long suspected there's some hanky panky going on between Viv and my drummer. One senses these things.)

Bluekeys, very enjoyable, played smoothly, and with feeling!

Thorium, that's excellent for someone who just started! Well done.

Peyton, a beautiful melody and arrangement, executed perfectly, and so nicely integrated with the video! Makes a great commercial for Maine tourism!

Elssa, beautiful, moving. As usual, you have created an excellent introduction and ending! I learn a lot listening to you.

Yoyofr - great recordings! If you have only been playing for a year, you must practice 24/7, or have the world's greatest teacher. I especially enjoyed the Chopin.

Ed

No nasty hesitation was noticed by me,. Anything taht you may have seen as a nasty hesitation was evidently so minimal that it slipped by me unnoticed. Very enjoayble!

Nice performance, Thorium!

Yes, you do have a much better sound quality on that video. Nice video of the waterfowl, too! That's a very peaceful composition and fits your description well.

You had to ruin that beautiful piano playing with those nasty syn-strings, didn't you? You know I'm kidding you, of course. Your arrangement on this is very possibly the best of your recorded work so far. I was drawn into this lovely melody by your playing. Truly wonderful!

Elssa, that was beautifully done! Nice quality on the recording too. It must have been fun going back in with the strings?

Thorium... you only started a few weeks ago? You have it down!

yoyfr- It's hard to believe you have only been playing one year! That Raindrop prelude was very well done! I'd put even more forte into the storm part... go for it!

yoyofr,
Very nice recordings. I cannot believe you have only been playing a year. Congratulations on your great progress. You are obviously a musical genius (at least when compared to me). I love the Prokofiev piece. Of course Chopin's Raindrop Prelude is a favorite of just about everyone, and you did a grand job on it. Laputa is new to me, but it is quite beautiful. You did a fine job on it. Nausica: Legend of Wind is also new to me. It is an interesting piece and very well played. Thanks for sharing these. By the way, your new piano is gorgeous in both appearance and sound. I particularly like the way its treble sparkles.

"It must have been fun going back in with the strings?"

Thanks so much, folks. I suppose I'm addicted to the strings and various other added sounds from my organ-playing days. I used to belong to several local electric/pipe organ clubs/groups. We would meet at different houses and other venues and go to concerts, such as at the Thomaston Opera House in CT. On occasion, the organ would be the background for wonderful silent movies, such as Laurel and Hardy. I can't tell you how much fun those days were. The strings are just a (bad?) habit with me, I guess. I do try not to overdo them, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLA8DCqgVMs

Thanks for your kind feedback everyone
My teacher is probably not the best in the world, but I think he's not the worst either
He always focus on feeling the music before playing it, to know where you are
going and to stay calm, relaxed. I think I only start to understand this (after a year )...

Thorium, that's impressive, please keep posting your progress.
Elssa, that's very nice too! How do you proceed to add strings ?