Andrea Bocelli – Besame Mucho

I’m currently hooked on to Andrea Bocelli’s highly emotive rendition of Besame Mucho. Here’s the English translation of the Spanish lyrics.

And here’s an equally emotive but “inspired” version composed by Jaikishan and sung by Mohammad Rafi.

The compositions are in the Harmonic Minor scale (raaga Kirwani in the Indian musical system).

A Long Hiatus

My first post in a really long time, during which a lot has transpired!

In June of last year, I made my first trip to Bonnaroo, which was held at Manchester, Tennessee. Then in September, I made my first trip to The Burning Man at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. Both turned out to be very interesting experiences, far removed as they were from everything one gets to see while being part of the mainstream in a place like the Bay Area. The things that stood out for me at these events were the sheer creativity, imaginativeness and an all round sense of tolerance and inclusiveness among those that showed up. For the curious, The Burning Man Image Gallery has a very good collection of photographs taken by various people over the years. I’d love to go back to Bonnaroo and The Burning Man some time.

In November, I took time off from work to spend a week by myself in the Santa Barbara wine country. I stayed in Solvang, a small Danish town north of Santa Barbara. Looking back, I realize that a week of vacation is a long time if you don’t plan ahead, paradoxical as it may sound. I hadn’t even made a hotel reservation, literally “stopping by” with only my Casio Keyboard and enough clothes to last a week.

It was refreshing to befriend the locals and discover from them which places to go to or which wineries to visit; often, they even accompanied me to show me around. I was surprised to discover that Solvang was at the heart of the Wild West, evident in the way some restaurants and pubs still display the cowboy culture. Coexisting with the ranches and the horses, though, are some of the finest wineries in all of California. My taste in wine has gone up a couple of notches after tasting the wines of the Santa Ynez Valley and the adjoining areas. While there, I also visited Los Olivos, a charming community north of Solvang, renowned as much for its art galleries as for its wineries. I don’t have the kind of money to afford most of what was on sale but I bought what was within my means and merely appreciated the rest.

My poor prose cannot capture most of what I experienced (as couldn’t my camera either), so I’ll be content with just saying that the trip would always remain memorable to me in more than a few ways.

Then in late November last year, I auditioned for CAPMT, the California Association of Professional Music Teachers, and passed, following which I was invited to play at the Northern Festival recital in Danville this January. I played Bach’s Prelude in C Minor.

During this time I’ve also been composing a little bit, and although I’ve written down some of it, I haven’t recorded anything yet. I’m currently preparing for my piano evaluations due in May. Later in June, it will be two years since I began taking lessons and I’m quite happy that I’ve already started playing Level 6 solos. But I can’t wait to get to Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy and more of Bach in the coming years, and composing more of my own stuff.

And on that note, I’d like to sign off. A much belated Happy New Year to everyone!

A Dorian Afternoon — Solo Piano Music

A Dorian Afternoon (mp3 here) is the name I’ve given to the solo piano original I’ve been working on over the last couple of weeks. As the name suggests, I’ve composed this rather short piece in the D Dorian mode. The Dorian mode, I feel, exudes a charm that is sedate and dignified in a very stately (even stoic) sort of way. This mode is a personal favorite because of the strong similarities it carries, in terms of musical phrases, to the elegant afternoon raga, Bhimpalasi, in the Indian Classical Music tradition. From a purely structural point of view, Bhimpalasi is Pentatonic Minor going up and Dorian mode coming down. Of course, it is much more complex than that when it comes to the articulation and exposition of its unique character.

Coming back to this particular piece, I’ve attempted to write it as a two section mix of musical phrases. The first section plays both the treble and bass clefs in the higher registers, which combined with its mildly rubato tempo makes it sound somewhat stark, and is evocative of a cold and rainy (even snowy, perhaps?) afternoon! The mildly gloomy air is then broken with the arrival of the second section which brings with it a warmth of expression (probably because it is played in the lower registers) that seems comparable to the sun fortuitously piercing the afternoon gloom, thereby mitigating it! 

That is how the piece ends, somewhat sooner than I’d have liked, in hindsight. My creative inspiration permitting, I might expand upon some of the ideas later!

A few repeated listenings (mp3 here) would hopefully allow the Dorian charm to grow on the listener and sedate her!

I apologize for the less than good recording quality, which I think is a combination of my old rental Hudson piano and my own lack of recording expertise! I’m also terribly slow when it comes to actually writing down my music. I’ll try to post the music sheet for this one as soon as possible!

The Dialogue Within — Solo Piano Music

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been working on an original, which I’ve named The Dialogue Within. It is set in what’s known as the ABA form consisting of an A part, followed by a very different-in-theme B part, and concluding with an encore of the A part. The composer may choose to put a different spin on the A part in its second appearance on the musical stage. This difference may be demonstrated using various devices but is commonly accomplished by a subtle change in the key, tempo, mood or expression. In that sense, the ABA form is similar to the much more restrictive and formal Sonata form.

Further, each of the A and the B parts in this particular piece are in a Question and Answer form i.e., structured as a series of questions each of which is followed by an appropriate answer. The answers can be parallel to the question i.e., they start off just like the question but then quickly diverge, or they can be contrasting i.e., they are different from the question but can still be perceived as an appropriate response to it. Overall, the piece can be thought of as some sort of a dialogue, and with the thematic changes from A to B and back to a transformed A, one could even weave a story around it.

I’ve got one of my own, unsurprisingly, but I’d elaborate on that later. For now,here’s the sheet music for the piece and here’s the MIDI recording of it. I got both done using Finale’s Notepad, which, I must mention, is an excellent piece of software that also happens to be free!

I, of course, want to record my own, and will do so, as soon as I get some time. I’m even more excited because I just got my hands on a Blue Snowball and am very impressed with its ease and recording quality. Most of all, it’s probably the coolest looking microphone ever!

Lastly, a few words about the composition. As anyone with even a decent ear for music will be able to discern, my music is still very poor in terms of harmony and richness. It’s only been a couple months that I’ve started learning the piano technique and although my imagination runs wild all the time, my hands have a hard time keeping up with it. Hopefully, in a few years’ time, that will change for the better!

Dissonance — Solo Piano Music

Two weeks ago, I started taking piano lessons, something I’ve been dying to do for a very long time now! But as they say, there is always a right time and place for everything!

As part of this week’s assignment, my teacher asked me to compose an original piece of music. After playing around for a few minutes on my old rental Hudson, I hit upon an interesting chord progression. There are still a couple of chords in here that I don’t yet know the names of; I was very fortunate to have accidentally played them while fooling around!

Here’s the track. I’ve named it Dissonance – the chord progression, for some reason, seemed very agitating and tense to me at certain points.

The recording isn’t that good as I used my Powerbook’s in-built microphone. I should buy a good microphone perhaps.