I fell in love with the piano at an early age from listening to my sister practising in the front room. I have a memory of standing at the door looking at the piano while she was playing and deciding I wanted to do that too. I’m not sure how real the memory is, as my childhood memories are really random little fragments of things, but the emotion was definitely real. I remember walking up the hill to my first piano lesson alongside my sister. I remember the first piano book I learned from – it was A4 size, but bound horizontally with black spiral bind. I remember falling in love with the sound of the piano.
We changed teachers pretty soon after the first one, and found one who was just wonderful and is the person I would credit with my continuing love of piano as she was warm, friendly, and inviting and when I finished the classical grades, which is how you learn piano in these parts, I fell to the wayside a little bit regarding classical piano. There was no teacher in Galway at the time teaching Diplomas, and I couldn’t afford to go to Dublin every week. I had another teacher after that who I didn’t get along with, and then had no teacher until I went to university two years later when I had a different piano teacher each year of my degree. The last one being the one that I got on well with again properly, as well as musically, who pushed me to the highest classical level I’ve ever achieved. But I’m not a classical pianist.
My years without a teacher were some of the best years in terms of re-learning how to play piano, and learning to love the instrument again the way I did as a child. I played whatever I could get my hands on – sight-reading has never been a problem for me, and I’d play my siblings or cousins pieces from sight. But it was also around that time that I just started to sit at the piano and play whatever came into my head. I know a lot of it sounded rubbish, but it sparked the current relationship I have with piano. I previously described it to a friend as being like a conversation with myself through the language of music, and I guess that’s the best way I can describe it.
I don’t really aim to be able to play the most difficult classical pieces, and certainly my technique has dropped considerable since I finished studying classical piano with a teacher almost 9 years ago, but I’ve had the opportunity to play with jazz singers and musicians, rock bands, singer-songwriters, and stretch my knowledge of the instrument so much. I only fully rediscovered my love of classical piano music when I began to listen to what some contemporary composers are doing with the instrument – people like Ludovico Einuadi, Max Richter, Philip Glass – composing beautiful solo piano music that doesn’t show off, or revel in flair and flourishes, it’s often just simple gorgeous piano music. And it spoke to me in the way that I speak to myself when I sit at the piano alone.
I’ve always kept playing bits of the classical piano music that I love, but it was usually sidelined by the other music I was playing, or by my own songwriting. But lately, you’re as likely to see a book of Einuadi or Glass piano solos in my bag as you are a blank manuscript and whatever novel I’m currently reading.
I really wanted to dedicate this post to the piano music that drew me back to classical piano again. I’ve even had my old Mozart pieces out again recently. I can’t play any of it half as well as I used to be able to, from a technical point of view, but I certainly understand it more now and in my own way I feel I play the music better from a musical point of view. My left hand is still as lazy and weak as ever though.
And one more piece that I love. For once, someone in a youtube comment makes an excellent point:
Equilibrium484 11 months ago:
A lot of people dislike Mr. Glass for this reason, “That sounds so simple! Anyone could write that! How is he getting away with this?!?!?”My view on that has always been, “So what?” It’s about the music, not about the composer. Music is for all of mankind, we don’t need to waste time focusing on complexity, or intellectuality.
The metamorphosis pieces are very contemplative, and can invoke a large range of emotions in many people. This is one is my personal favorite.
bachelorfox 1 month ago: many people imply there is a direct correlation between the value of a piece and how elaborate/intricate/fiendishly-difficult it is.
ironically, the only people that end up sounding simple are them.
Beautiful music is simply beautiful, even if it is relatively simple compared to other pieces.
