Spring Breeze (望春風)

(This post is part of a series in conjunction with Chinese New Year 2017)

Spring Breeze (望春風)

Popular Taiwanese Hokkien Song.
Also known as Spring Wind.
Original Chinese title translates to "Longing for the Spring Breeze".

Released by Columbia records in 1933.
Melody is purely pentatonic
but melodic trajectory provides
many opportunities for creative reharmonization.

Wikipedia entry here.

Favourite Two-Piano Arrangements/Improvisations

(this post is inspired by the amazing concert of piano duos/trios/
 at the recent Malaysian Jazz Piano Festival 2017)

Favourite Two-Piano Arrangements/Improvisations

Here are some of my favourite two-piano pieces/arrangements/improvisations. 

Some of these have been featured in previous posts. 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

More Songs for Christmas

More songs for Christmas!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

(extract from cover of the Sam Smith single; amazon.com)

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Very popular Christmas song.

Memorable melody and catchy chord progression.

Written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane in 1943.

Introduced by Judy Garland in the movie Meet Me in St Louis (1944).
Note the evolution of orchestration, reharmonization and arrangement style over the years.

Circle of fifths harmony provides many opportunities for reharmonization and lush orchestration.

Wikipedia entry here.

Flight of the Bumble Bee

Flight of the Bumble Bee
(1899-1900)

by Russian composer Rimsky Korsakov
Originally an orchestral interlude for the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan.
Now popular as a stand-alone virtuoso piece for piano.
Also transcribed for other instruments. 
Characterized by torrents of cascading chromatic semiquavers,
representative of a buzzing bumble bee.
See Wikipedia entry here for details and background.