Le Cygne (The Swan)

Le Cygne

(The Swan)

Beautiful cello solo with lyrical melody. 

The second last movement of the Carnival of Animals Suite (1886) by Saint-Saens. 

Popular as a stand-alone piece.

Transcribed into many different versions with different instrumentation.

Wiki link here. 

Spring Festival Overture

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

Spring Festival Overture

Energetic overture of the Spring Festival Suite for Orchestra.
Composed by Li Huanzhi.

Popular during Chinese New Year.

Catchy pentatonic melodies played at an exciting pace.
Interesting harmonization and chord substitution.
Wiki entry here.

He Xin Nian (贺新年)

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

He Xin Nian

(贺新年)

Title translates to
"New Year Wishes".

A Chinese New year favourite.
Lively melody with interesting harmonization possibilities.
A surprise to discover that this song was around as long as 70 years ago.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year!

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!