Water Phoenix

It’s two songs I’ve not even demo’d yet, but that I like playing live, but it’s good to actually hear what it sounds like from a listeners point of view, so I can think about whether I need to change the songs, or listen to how I’m playing them so I can make the performances better. I’m never entirely happy with any performance or recording, but that’s just how it is at the moment. :)

Galway Rain

The other songs I have video and mp3s of are “The Bliss Returns”, “Is This What They Call Romance?” and “Re-Run” which I might post up at some point. I never ever play “Re-Run” well though – and the recording is wonderfully scrappy and awful to my ears. So I might just keep that one to myself until I get it recorded properly sometime. Heh.

I started playing piano quite young, and went through the RIAM classical piano grades. I started to lose interest somewhat at about the age of 15, when I was coming to the end of my grades, and wasn’t really interested in doing a Diploma. But something that reignited my love for playing was the movie “The Piano”, and particularly the beautiful score by Michael Nyman. I saw it on VHS when I was about 13, if I recall correctly, and I remember my parents making a special exception to allow me to watch a movie that was rated 15.

But I was really taken by the soundtrack, and I love the fact that Holly Hunter played the piano parts seen in the movie. Initially, it was the piece “Big My Secret” that I loved and played a lot, but I was won over to all the pieces over time, and they became some of my favourite pieces of music for piano. I spent the rest of my teenage years without going to piano lessons, and discovering pieces of music that I wanted to play, as opposed to just having to learn them for an exam. It’s something that I think was very important in continuing my love for the instrument. That, and discovering artists like Tori Amos and Kate Bush, who used piano in their music in ways that I hadn’t heard before.

The main theme from the piano, “The Heart Asks Pleasure First”, also called “The Sacrifice”, has become one of those standard pieces that piano students all love and learn:

It is a beautiful piece of music, but my favourite is still “Big My Secret”. Some people feel that it’s played too fast in the movie, as the recording by Nyman is much gentler and slower, but I like the flexibility of the piece, and it’s appropriate in the scene, I think:

Holly Hunter in the movie:

(Nyman’s version and some other bits after the cut)

Nyman’s version:

I loved the visuals of the piano on the beach used in the promo shots, and also scenes of the movie itself. Pianos are such beautiful instruments, and they really command your attention in a room. Having one standing proudly on a beach as the waves were coming in was an image that really called to me. You might psychoanalyse it and wonder whether it was about my own waning interest in the instrument at the time, being reignited by a desire to save the piano from the beach and the rising water. Or you might just think that it’s a striking image ;)

Both are very different and well worth a listen.

For my part, I suggested this astonishing piece of music from Bach’s B minor Mass: [Gloria] Cum Sancto Spiritu, which is one of my favourite pieces of music ever. We started on a Bach binge, so my other two favourites are both from the St Matthew Passion, which I was lucky enough to sing as part of a choir when I was in university. These are two of my favourite parts of that work: Wir setzen uns & Erbarme dich.

When we first started performing together, it was along with two other singers, Sarah Elaine and Meadhbh Sullivan, doing jazz/60′s girl-group numbers as the opening act for the Cuckoo’s Nest weekly cabaret night, as well as solo jazz standards from Alex.

This developed into a weekend residency playing jazz standards, and our own jazz-influenced takes on pop and rock songs such as Gossip’s Standing In The Way Of Control, Jason Mraz’s You And I Both and Mr. Zebra by Tori Amos.

For special occasions we drafted in some local brass players, and a drummer, to give a big-band jazz sound to classics like Big Spender and Feelin’ Good.

It was a big departure for me, going from adding piano to Anna Lee’s original songs to interpreting jazz standards and other covers with Alex, but it really expanded my range musically and taught me to use the piano in different ways.

Alex has since moved back to Australia, but is still making beautiful music. Check out her sublime vocals at her myspace:
MYSPACE: Alex Hahn