New set of 21 works for intermediate students

Info on composing and creating the score: This set of 21 short piano pieces was composed in a matter of days, in early July. The (mechanical then) recordings were taken by artist Piero Pierini, who also got the drafts of the scores and he created 21 illustrations corresponding to each piece. I must admit that he did a fabulous job, considering that the titles were somewhat weird to begin with... A dear friend and wonderful piano teacher added fingering (since I was unable to do so, not only due to extremely heavy workload, but also because of my belief that I would do a poor job putting MY fingerings (with my big hands and all) on MY works).

Technical info: These short works all range from very easy and very short (Quicky is only 10 secs and 8 bars long) to intermediate difficulty and medium length with a few being a bit more difficult than others. Each one offers a glimpse to a different harmonic idea and musicality, but the form and rhythmic material is always clear.

Following is a recording made by me of 3/21 of the pieces; VI, VII, VIII titled Ditsotred romance, The pride of the moron and Ooooooobsessions bbbbbbbsessions sessions. The recording was created with the use of computer samples, but no editing took place after the live recording of the performance of these works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeTFz-6G-SY

The Editions Musica Ferrum page has two more pages as previews of the score. You can also buy the score from that page, by clicking to 'add to cart' and then proceeding to the checkout, etc...

Regards,

Nikolas Sideris

PS. The initial image is taken from Cirque du Rien in the score.

I saw these the other day, they look really cool and I've already ordered my copy!

Very fine, Nikolas.

Potentially this would fit in with exactly the kind of ear training I have been working on, moving from the most dissonant intervals to the most consonant ones.

The second one seems especially practical for students who are not too advanced.

Cool illustrations...

"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

Nicholas, this quote came to mind as I looked over the links you shared. Yours is a unique book that doesn't look anything like the type of music books I see in local stores. I like that you have paired an intriguing illustration with each piece.

Hi Nikolas,

Will Ed. Musicum Ferrum have a display at Musikmesse this year? If you catch my drift.

John

Hey all,

I'll start from bottom to top.

John: The EMF will not have a display this year, but perhaps next yeat (if all goes well). We do have hopes to exhibit in other shows as well (WOMEX comes in mind right now...). Now... me getting to frankfurt is much more probable though. But as I've told you, I've still got plenty of time to book the flying tickets and all that. Promise to keep you updated though.

Ann:

This set came as a complete surpise for me. A student was complaining with me putting some Beyer in front, so I gave her a short work of 8 bars (called 'quicky' in the book). She loved it and I thought that I could perhaps carry on like that. On 3 days I had done 20/21 of the short works...

Then came the titles. Initially I was looking for a story teller to add a story, but that came too difficult to come, thus I turned into looking for an illustrator and adding my own completely bizare titles! The results can be seen in the book!

Gary: Thanks. There are more, easier works than the ones in youtube (the website has a preview of the first one called 'Chinese jungle' which you can check out. VERY easy to play). Ear training. 'Pride of the moron' is one of my favorites from the set, and it's actually rather 12-tone-ish... The main melody does contain all 12 pitches, so even with the right hand playing and very peristent patterns, my students had some trouble learning that (though they did love it).

Kreisler: Thank you, and thanks for ordering. You are the first US customer btw! I'm looking forward in hearing your impressions!

______________________

Everyone.

Something important that came to my attention:

1. The prices in $ are approximate 16$ for the book and 5$ for shipping fees (more or less anyhow).
2. Our website IS secure. You can check that in the checkout and cart pages the address changes to http[s] (not the normal http, and in Chrome it should be green, which means that all is ok). The whole website holds an SSL certificate which encrypts all information to 256-bit code... Very difficult to crack!
3. That said, keep in mind that in our website you do not give credit card details, but just your name and address. The payment takes place in paypal.com which is as secure as it gets!

I'm hoping that this will calm any worries you may have, but if not I'm here to reply to any questions...

Nikolas, I'm cash-strapped right now but I will definitely order when I can! I love new music and promoting living composers.

Best of luck with this collection, Nikolas - looks like like it should be a lot of fun, and the presentation is enviable, to say the least

I hope do Ben! When I decided to hit the publisher I had very specific ideas about the works I wanted to promote/publish and the way to present them! I find notating to be an art and as such scores are ... art items on their own! With that in mind I wanted this score to be beautiful in its own way and I found Piero who stood up to the challenge and did a brilliant work!

very very cool.. I'll order one. (I'm leaving for vacay but will do so when i return.. I also liked Perniciosus

I just ordered a copy. It looks interesting. I'm always on the lookout for new pieces for my students. The problem of boredom and apathy is constant in my experience. Thanks for your contribution to the literature!

apple*: Thank you for your post and for enjoying this set!

Tavner: Thanks. I agree (not on the 'looks interesting' part. That would be weird on my behalf! :D) that boredom and apathy are two problems that could be solved with new repertoire!

I was hoping that I would be able to produce another youtube video with 3 more pieces from the set, but illness has kept me inside sadly! Hope to be able and pull myself together the next week!

i hope you bump this again in a couple weeks.. i am worried about shipping while we are gone. i love love the illustrations and novelty of the music i was able to listen to.

Hope you feel better!

A bump to showcase three more pieces from the set. Same situation as before (me playing, samples but not edited (after all they are easy pieces) and illustrations by Piero.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tMBOVFIMx8

I hope to make more videos with more of these once I find some time...

I enjoyed the youtube previews and I love the presentation -- what great illustrations! I'm ordering a copy now.

I'm glad you bumped this thread or I probably would have missed it. Maybe you should also post it in the Adult Beginners' Forum; I think people there might be interested in something like this.

Thanks...

I'm not too sure on how much I can stretch the 'rules' of the forums. I know that cross posting is not exactly looking nice on the mods, but perhaps they won't mind?

Kreisler? Someone else?

Nikolas, considering the many useful and helpful posts you've made over the past 5 years, I doubt folks would be upset learning about your new music.

I would think it would be OK (but I'm new here...). I was looking around last week for some intermediate level arrangements of modern music, so I'm really happy to have found this. I think there are people who don't really venture out of ABF too much but might also like your work.

I'm only involved with the Pianists' Corner, but personally, I don't see a problem with it.

I listened to a few of the pieces, and just ordered a copy!

Nikolas, your thread that was on the ABF has, rather mysteriously, vanished.

I had left a post on it; however, that particular post is not in my "posts" list anymore (it is as if it had never even existed). It is a shame they took the thread down, your set of pieces seems well suited to Adult beginners, which is not something that can be said of a lot of contemporary music.

Hi Nikolas,
9 March 2012

Having just recorded my playing of the first 8 measures of your Perniciosus ... it made my dog howl!! ... nothing but discords to break sensitive eardrums ... (but grateful for the “p” dynamics).

You seem to have gone out of your way to jangle a single-note romp of steadily increasing Manhattan outlines (mostly below Middle C) ... ouch!

But why?

PS ... Rubato is not an indication of tempo ... merely a licence to spread some notes. Also ... there is a keyboard tradition to include a rhythmic input, upon which to
float a melodic theme ... which can be enhanced by use of counterpoint.

Perniciosus is devoid of a regular beat and/or counterpoint.

btb,

I think you mixed up the threads, since this thread is NOT about Perniciosus, but since you posted I might as well reply...

Thanks for taking the time to have a look at (part of?) the score. You took a bite of the first 8 bars, which are... monophonic! So I would hardly think there is too much discord going on. I mean discord has the idea of 'dissonance' inside and if you're looking at a monophonic stream of notes it's quite difficult to pin down 'dissonance', right?

Ouch says you. I know plenty of people who enjoy this particular style of music and a lot who actually enjoy this particular work! And again you seem to be talking for the first 8 bars of a work which has no less than 239 bars! So it's about... 3% mathematically speaking.

Are you honestly asking that because you're interested to learn the opinion of the composer, or you're trying to devalue a work of music, simply because you don't like it? If it's the latter I won't be bothered with replying. If you are sincerely interested in knowing why I would be most willing to reply (perhaps in another thread?

An indication to spread some notes?!?!? Rhythmically? Off tempo? Either way you are free to disregard the 'tempo molto rubato' in the score as an indication of tempo and use it as a license to spread some notes. There's also a quartet = 52 up there I think...

You have not mentioned if you heard the whole work in youtube (where you can preview the whole score), or if you bought the score, but I can promise you that there's plenty of counterpoint and melodies going on in the 11 minutes of this piano music.

My turn now:

Why pollute this thread, which is about a different work, with this? I mean, really, I'm here and ready to answer to any questions, but this seems off topic last I looked at its definition.

Okay, that's just rude. You owe Nikolas an apology.

My dog howls at pieces by Christopher Norton and Robert Schumann, and Stephen Heller. Each morning he's howling as my son plays Norton repertoire.

My dog is content with gentle, lyrical pieces though.

I think that dogs hearing is more sensitive than humans, and what sounds fine to us can be very unpleasant to them. Probably like our enduring some violin screeches. Anyway, if the comment was intended as an insult, I don't see it as much of an insult, because it's an observation of how dogs sometimes react to music. And dogs are not prized for their mature taste in music.

Ann I do not wish to pollute this thread, which is about Sketch Music, further about this issue, so I will PM you, instead.

Thanks for your response Nikolas (Perniciosus m1-8) ... but when you defend your composition style with

“looking at a monophonic stream of notes
it's quite difficult to pin down 'dissonance', right?”

No ... WRONG.

I’m too long in the game not to instantly detect dissonance ... which can be hugely effective in small doses as a shock motif ...
but in Perniciosus, you labour the effect ad absurdum.

Please excuse me going off at a slight tangent ... happily I am the owner of the score of Schoenberg’s Opus 46 (6 minute)
“A Survivor from Warsaw” ... which will always rattle my cage.
The orchestral discourse
(whether brass, strings or woodwind) is rivetting ... including a narrative starting with
“I cannot remember anything ... I must have been unconscious at the time”

Against a rhythmic beat, the counterpoint of various instruments and voice ... there is the insistent jab of a haunting highlighting of the
outrage of the inhumanity of Man (to man) ... however, the harmony remains intact ... no need for dissonance ad lib.

Thanks Ann from Kentucky for sharing views on “howling” dogs. Far be it from wanting to insult Nikolas ... I was wanting the chappie to explain his style.

Please folk ... play the first 8 measures of Perniciosus and see if you don’t agree about the extensive use of discords ... please park sensitive dogs outside (thanks Ann).

I am in agreement that btb's post was extremely rude. I just meant that his complaint that the music made his dog howl was a lame complaint.

We all know btb. It's endless insults with him. I do give him credit for being able to outwit me in online battles though. So this is the last I'll say.

I'm sorry that our respected friend Nicholas has to endure this mean treatment.

This is marvelous music! I'm not a teacher, but as a student I'm delighted to see a set of new pieces.

Cheers!

I looooooove this and have ordered my copy. Thanks for sharing your talent with us, Nikolas. (And for the record, I like Perniciosus too lol).

Lizzy,

Glad to know you're enjoying the 'previews'. I can promise that there are more worthy tracks in the set (21 in totla), but alas only 24 hours in every day!

LadyChen, Thanks... And thanks for enjoying the more 'evil' side of me (?) in Perniciosus!

I'm currently working on some short-ish works for 4 hands (quatre mains) for piano (2 players, 1 piano)... Would there be interest to share my work as it goes in? :S It might turn into a blog-ish thread, but if there's interest, perhaps I would go about it... :-/

Yes!!! I would love to be updated on your 4 hands pieces (in addition to anything else you compose). I am looking forward to hearing additional recordings from the 21 pieces too.

Nikolas, got my copy in the mail and it looks great! As I was playing through the pieces my wife commented that the art matched the music - or was it the other way around? Which came first?

I was also happy with the invoice in Greek and the foreign stamps on the envelope! Life's little pleasures...

I looked for the other thread in the ABF forum. I guess the powers-that-be took it down. Too bad...

Sam

Sam,

Thanks for reporting your thoughts and first impressions.

The sequence of happenings with this set are as follows:

* first came the one named 'Just a Quicky'. Frustrated with a student who wouldn't study, I gave her this short assignment.
* Then I thought that I could shape out quick little 'doodles' like that for intermediate students, with a more contemporary approach. No more Czerny or Beyer or the such (not that it ever crossed my mind that I could replace such works...).
* Later on the student I mentioned earlier quit the lessons for a single lesson and as a result 'Failing Alkistis' came to existence. Her name is Alkistis and she keeps having lessons with me after all, but at that time I felt that I was failing her and she was failing herself.
* Everything else was composer and I started looking for a story teller to write a story on the music set. I did mention that the sequence of the works was not set, there were no titles and nothing else to give any guidance to anyone. That fell through COMPLETELY!
* So I decided to provide titles to the pieces on my own... In a whacky sense the titles worked quite well, so I started looking for a sketch artist instead.
* After looking at A LOT of artists who applied for the job, I came back to Piero Pierini, who I had met a month ago (before putting an ad that I was looking for an artist). We agreed with Piero.

Piero had in his hands most of the titles (I think 3 were missing, because I was unable to find any more suitable titles), the score in a draft version, with some empty spaces, where the illustrations would be, and some mechanical recordings from a computer.

He was wonderful! He did an excellent job on all 21 illustrations and I do think that the work would not be the same without his art! We had NO dissagreements on what felt right and what not. I requested only 2 things for two works (Failing Alkists and 5 Blue), and the rest were his own creations and ideas. A few illustrations had to be reworked slightly because there was too much black in his illustrations and a few size issues, but other than that nothing else was wrong.

In other words: Oh boy did he deliver! I am very lucky to have found him and I do hope to work with him in the near future.

Sorry for the long story, but I'm a fan of speaking my mind out loud, plus I feel that being autistic about my own art, doesn't help!

_________________________________

Invoice in Greek: Yes... I have to put that inside... I guessed it would appeal to a few... Then again it's all Greek to you, right?

_________________________________

Yup, thread dissappeared. I'm not still 100% certain on what happened exactly, but as I keep saying on various threads, this IS the home of Frank and I do need to respect his wishes.

Thanks again Sam

I got my copy on Monday. The book is just as beautiful as I thought it would be, but unfortunately I've been too busy this week to set at the piano -- though I couldn't resist a quick go at Ditsotred Romance, which was lots of fun.

Thanks, Nikolas!

I got mine too! Loved the Greek stamps on the envelope, which are beautiful before even opening the package. I was pleasantly surprised with the edition and illustrations as well!

tomorrow..

i don't buy many things 'new', but am really happy to support, i have just the sisters who will love it when I am thru.

I'll have to revisit this tomorrow when I'm a little less tired.. i keep ordering 3 books.

thanks apple*

Even if you ordered 3 copies, I'm sure that some human would be taking care of your order, and as such they would notice the 3 orders and would check with you...

and I'm glad that the copies have arrived to the rest of the people!

EDIT: We won't be able to ship out anything on this Thursday or Friday, because of the Musikmesse. If anyone is to make an order I would suggest they do it over the weekend and we will compensate by adding express shipping to any order without the extra charge!

I'll try again this morning. I must have been tired. You know Nikolas.. I lived in Salonika for over a year. My Greek wasn't the best (I could read it better than I could speak it) but I could easily find my way around and order food and converse about philosophy.

Ευχαριστώ

Παρακαλώ!

(you're welcome...).

It's quite interesting that you lived in Greece, even if it was for a year... How come?

well.. on advice, i applied for and received a grant to organize original biblical manuscripts in a corrected chronological order (after college). I have a background in ancient Greek and Latin and I think I was the only person who applied for this grant.

The manuscripts were on Mount Atmos - and i was supposed to be a male.. they tried shipping them to Salonika but there was a huge earthquake and i lost the grant. - the work was tedious and there were no lights because of the earthquake .

so I worked on a farmette - weeding and picking peppers and eggplants (i actually liked it quite a bit and as an au pair for an American family.. the parents taught at an academy for foreigners).. since I was already there..

pretty fun for a year. I missed my fam and returned home.

(My dad taught Latin and Greek).

Received my copy last week! I've been enjoying playing the pieces, and my husband has been enjoying looking at the art . And I can't wait until one of my little boy students is ready to tackle the collection. I know he will be thrilled with it. (I'm sure girls would enjoy it too, but i have one little boy that loves dragons and magic and anything fantasy related)

Fun collection! Received my copy today and plan to order more. My favorites so far: "Cheap Ripoff" , "the Pride of the Moron" ; all are fresh and fun to play.
Thanks, Nikolas! Looking forward to your collection for 4 hands.

favorite picture has to be the "fried chicken"

i received my book a few days ago.. it's delightful.. my husband loved the stamps. It certainly addresses a subset of skills that is rarely focused on. kind of hard to sight read.. i had to really think about it..

and loved the pics.

i have this girl who is an excellent sightreader.. so excellent that she won't practice efficiently and separately (altho she must be doing something right.. tho advanced, I am going to see if she can learn 1/2 the book in a week).

thanks

ladychen, Barb, apple* I'm pleased that you got your copy hassle free and that you're enjoying the music and the illustrations!

I will admit that, while composing them I hadn't fully taken into account the 'learning it by heart' factor, so some works are rather hard to learn. The 'Pride of the Moron' is a prime example of that. The first couple of systems while monophonic and require only the right hand, do not have anything repeated and the melody seems to go on developing (even if the pattern remains the same), so it's quite hard to memorize it.

Same goes for sight reading. Exactly because of the harmonic language it's a tiny bit harder in the aspect of reading and getting the right spelling of the notes. I am hoping, though, that the result will be satisfactory for both the student and the teacher!

apple*1/2 the book in a week?!?!? Do let us (me?) know how this went... I'm most curious to learn the reactions of the students!

just this one student. She is quite advanced but does not have the same learning and practicing techniques that I embrace. She can sight read Chopin and when i give her a piece and can sit down and play it slowly, hands together. I actually bought the book for her little sister and if the older sister will play it, the younger will acquire an aural memory.

bwa ha ha ha ha

Sorry that I'm bumping this thread, but it's for a good cause...

I'd like to inform that anyone who's ordered and received a copy of Sketch Music shortly will be receiving a new copy! We decided to reprint Sketch Music having undergone a strict proof reading, eliminating (hopefully all but...), most errors. In addition to that we've gone our way to ensure a better printing quality and better paper quality (and much thicker cover).

The packages have been shipped on Monday, the 21st of March, so they should be reaching you shortly.

________________________

In addition to that, we'd like to inform you that quite soon we will be able to ship our products directly off Canada, thus with much quicker delivery times and cheaper shipping fees.

We are working hard for this to happen and we hope that it won't take too long, but for now every score is still shipped from Greece.

And we're also working hard to install a coupon method, that will allow us to offer discount to loyal customers, or customers who are teachers/students, etc...

________________________

Our member, Luke Bartolomeo and reviewer/blogger of Repertoire Review (<- LINK) has recently reviewed Sketch Music and performed a few pieces from the set, which have not been offered to the public yet! You can listen to the podcast and the recordings, or read the transcript of the podcast HERE. (<-Well... LINK)

A public thanks for Luke for doing this, even with a digital, watermarked score. I do hope that very soon he will be receiving his copy.
________________________

Finally,

If I may request all you members here.

I'm hoping to start some steady promotion efforts, especially for Sketch Music in the form of a a flyer, or something to be distributed around. I would like to quote some of you, through the posts, with your names if possible. So pretty soon (counting in weeks here) I will be contacting you for a direct permission, and your full name. I'm just thinking out loud right now, in case anyone objects to this, in which case I won't even try to contact them.

All the best,

Nikolas

Woo Hoo! Looking forward to getting another copy.

What a great review by Luke also. It was interesting, informative and it was helpful to hear him pronounce Cirque du Rien. Thanks for the link.

I'm almost sure that you'll find it much better than the previous 'editions'. As I said we worked hard to create a much better book...

Yup! Though I don't think he has much to do with France (?). He misses though the pronunciation of the name 'Alkistis', but who can blame him?

I enjoyed reading through the review myself, not only because he loved the collection, but because he really dug deep into the works, provided some great insights to teaching, plus he performed 'Smooth Classical' which is one of the hardest pieces in the set!

I got my new edition this week! Thank you so much. I am thinking it might be fun to have a subset of my students each learn a piece this summer then show them off at our end-of-summer party.

The new edition arrived yesterday. Thanks so much!

Ok! So I can relax, since you now hold a corrected score...

Stanny: Great idea! That would be huge fun! Let me know how it goes, or recordings or other...

Nikolas, do you have any other youtube videos out of the other pieces in the book? I can find the two you have out there with six pieces.

No, not at this moment.

But I think I could find some time and make another few if there's interest.

I should note that Luke (link given above, with the review) performed six of the 21 pieces, some of which have not been recorded yet.

BUMP!

Here's various news (and part reason of why I've vanished a bit from the forums).

1. I made a new video, with 4 more pieces from this set. They are the early one in the collection, so they probably are easier than the ones you've already heard. You can view it right in the following video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SEw9lS2pBM

2. The scores now are available in bundles and various discounts, which can be found through the catalog of the website (don't want to link it here for understandable reasons). 2 copies gets you a 10% off, 3 copies a 20% off and 5 copies a 30% off (which is a bit less than 2 copies for free in this case).

3. We do hope that in a couple of weeks at most (unless customs say differently) our North American Warehouse (stationed in Canada) will be operational. When this happens, shipping times will be lessen by a lot for anyone in N. American grounds or the whereabouts and I think that there's also a bit of savings to be found in shipping fees, but I'd have to double check, so don't hold me on that.

Received my copy today!

Only had a brief play through so far, but it more than lives up to expectations - I was immediately impressed with how approachable the pieces are, despite them belonging to a genre which is so often quite the opposite. There's certainly no fat here, either - not individually nor on the work as a whole.

I really like the overall feel of the book, too - the illustrations match the mood perfectly, the scores are nicely laid out, and it's all done on nice paper

I look forward to presenting it to my students in the coming weeks!

Thanks for the short review Ben.

And I like the term 'no fat here', given the fact that I've gained quite a bit of weight over the last year!

Very much looking for any kind of feedback from your students! It's always nice to listen to anything (positive or negative) from the actual users of the score: the students.