A story about my new cycle of preludes and exploring more of modernism.

“If you think about it, the word "composing" or "to compose", means "to put together". So, you have to know what to put together and what to leave out.”

Jan Hammer

 It's been quite some time since I wrote my last blog, I went on a great holiday and almost completed a new project.
Writing a new cycle made me think more about my style of composition and made me analyse how I come up with the ideas and what I like about my particular approach.
This cycle is called "12 Colourful Preludes" and it consists of 12 small preludes, each one of those has some variation of the word "colour" in their titles.
So it's not a about different colours (red, black, white etc), but it's more about the actual meaning of the colour - tone, hue, tinge, paint  or combination of colours like "monochrome", "pallette" etc.
Also I do not see colours in particular keys (like Scriabin), but I'm able to see colour in a particular piece of music or a note, but it can change depending on the mood.
And this cycle is about different moods and not different colours.
They are:
1. Block colour of C
2. Layered graphites of C sharp
3. Dreaming of wintery stills in D
4. Enigmatic palette of E flat
5. Clownish colourfulness of E
6. Violet shades of F
7. Breaking the rules of painting in F sharp
8. Transparent aquarels of G
9. Dramatic tones of A flat
10. Anxious tinges of A
11. Monochromes of B flat. 
12. Fairytale hues of B.

 

Sheet music is also on the way.
Here I'm answering some questions that I asked myself. :)

Erik Satie.

• Why Erik Satie? I dedicate this cycle to Erik Satie who appeared to have been a "godfather" of this kind of composition, the one who inspired Debussy, Stravinsky, Ravel  - who in turn influenced me.

• Why cycles? I think I've been writing short form for a long time, and now I'm ready for a much bigger form and the cycles are my transitional period. This is a second cycle I wrote (the first one is quite monumental, "Seasons and Places" which is still unreleased as I'm waiting for the right time), but this one is my favourite nowadays because I get to explore my modernistic part and I like the way it gets developed.

• How was this cycle born? When I read more about  Satie in Wiki, I became so inspired that I wrote 7 preludes in the space of a few hours, it happened on 16th of August. And the other 3 pieces were preexisting compositions that didn't fit anywhere and were just waiting for their time. And the last 2 were born on 31st of August. :)

• Why 12? For each note of the chromatic C scale. I wasn't strict about sharps or flats, I called black notes the way that I feel them, for example, I always feel A flat and never G sharp. And C sharp makes more sense to me than D flat. Et cetera. So I went with my feeling as opposed to the rules of classical chromatic harmony. :)

• Are they tonal? Some of them are, and some - aren't, they are mostly named after the base note that they start with, but I'm not concerned with keeping the particular key, it's all about the mood of that very first note. I'm a big fan of the atonal or modulational (if that's a word!!) composition.

• Major or minor? To me - those two are easily interchangeable, especially in impressionism, so I didn't label any prelude as major of minor (title-wise), except for the key signatures in sheet music. :)

• How do you play them? The idea is - to perform cycle as a whole as it's programmatic and interconnected. But each prelude can still exist on their own, only their conceptual meaning would change 

Alexandra Khrobostova. "Psychodelic tree"

Artwork? Yes, this is a very exciting part! I'm collaborating with an amazing artist (painter) on this cycle and she's gonna draw all the original paintings for the CD and the music book. Her name is Alexandra Khrobostova and she's so multi-talented! This is one of my favourite paintings by her:  

• Just piano? So far - yes, but I'm thinking of possible arranging an entire cycle for viola and piano, I have written a viola part for one of the preludes already, "Anxious tones of A".

• Was it thought through? No, the writing of this preludes is completely improvisational and complete by playing a prelude through from the beginning to an end (I record them straight into midi as they come to me, so it's gonna be easier for me to create sheet music in Sibelius later), and only 2 of them have any minor "afterthought" additions or changes.

I'm really looking forward to completing this work shortly and presenting it to you in audio, sheet music and live performances. :)
It will all happen during the month of September and I'm planning the release for the end of September, beginning of October.

A story about my start in music.

A story about my start in music.

“Rossini would have been a great composer if his teacher had spanked him enough on the backside.”
Ludwig van Beethoven

People always ask - "how come your playing looks so easy", "how old were you when you started", "why don't you look at the keys" etc.
So here are a few answers. :)

My mum, who is a a classical piano teacher (in a music school), always had great ambitions which she couldn't realise due to the lack of performer's talent.
And coming from such poor family and such small town that she had trouble getting the education she wanted.
But she appeared to be a very good teacher and many of her students, including me,  became professional musicians.

My mum showing me that the only real value is books :)

Before I was even conceived - she already had a plan for me to become a classical pianist and to achieve all her ambitions she had for herself, namely, becoming a "second Evgenij Kisin" (very famous Russian classical pianist who became known as a child).
When mum was pregnant with me - she played classical music for me and read Pushkin to her belly. :)

I think, the fact that I was a child prodigy - was my way of "protecting myself", coz if I were to not have any discernable talents - i don't think i could bear my mum's disappointment, so I had no choice but to develop quickly and early. :)))

My first word was "a book", i was 9 months old,  and my first phrase was "The moon is just like a dandelion".
By the age of 4 I started playing and reading.

My father showing me first moves on a piano

By the age of 5 I was accepted in the music school.
I know, in a modern western world it's not even early enough, but back then, in a tiny soviet town, that wasn't even marked on a map (it was a part of a defence industry, we had a uranium mine) and where any sort of "being not like everyone else" was discouraged - it was pretty unusual.
When I had to go to the regular school, at 7 years old  - I was already educated enough to skip the first 3 grades, but my mum was talked out of it by the school board, they feared that I wouldn't cope psychologically and also since my mum always knew that I'd go to music college and it was in another city, by the time I'd have to go (after the 9th grade) - I would've been only 11 and impossible to accommodate at college.

So they decided to "start me up" from the 1st grade where I was incredibly bored and also ridiculed for being "different" and a "smart ass". )))
I think, few years later I learnt to pretend and conform as to avoid constant conflict with the classmates.

Soviet Union style. :) (I'm on the left).

And after I went to college at 14 - I became adored by my ex classmates, who seek me out to this day, LOL. :)

Ok, back to music.
back then, in Soviet Union, behind the iron curtain and in our tiny town - we've hardly heard of jazz, only some restaurant musicians (we had 1 (ONE) restaurant in our "village) - knew some tunes.
My mum's friend, a gifted pianist and accordionist - has seen "The moon valley serenade" and he showed me how to play "Blue moon" when I was 7 years old.
I was hooked on it straight away and knew it was something wonderful and different from what was imposed on me by my mum without any motivation.
The best she could come up with "you will play this because I said so". :)
oh, and there's also such great motivation to play piano - as spanking!
When I've grown a little  - the spanking was replaced by occasional beating with a phone cable and a Mozart book on a head. :)

Also my mum's great strategy was to never tell me that I had a talent, because she was afraid that I'd become conceited and lazy.
So i was kept unaware of the fact that I had any musical gifts till I was 13 years old.
I gave a solo concert in my music schools and one of the teachers, my mum's greatest enemy, came to congratulate me and said - "Evelina, you are so amazingly talented, that's all we've been talking about for the past few years, how does it feel being a prodigy?"
I was puzzled and I didn't know what to say, because all I heard from my mum - is that I was "giftless" and "a piece of idiot". :)))))

During my years of music school - I noticed that it's extremely easy for me to pick up any tune from a movie or a song from the radio and i tried and played those, I also noticed that I had a knack for taking a tune and playing it with unusual chords or in different style, but I was greatly discouraged as mum was afraid that improvising and playing popular tunes would distract me from classical music.
I still continued to do that, but in secret. :)

My last year of music school - from 13 to 14 I was on a payroll in my school as an accompanist, playing with violin players and i was earning almost half my mum's salary. :)
And at the age of 14 I went to a nearby big city, Dnipropetrovsk, to a Music college, where I started "finding my groove", but it's another story...

Stay tuned!!! :)


P.S. My mum and I are great friends now, our relationship has completely transformed (although it took many years of work) and she even helps me write with he knowledge of music theory (which I half missed in college, I was too busy working. :))
And now I'm really greatful for the choice she made for me.
Music.

A story about playing Schnittke.

A story about playing Schnittke.

‎

"The goal of my life is to unify serious music
and light music, even if I break my neck in doing so". Alfred Schnittke.

One of my all time favourite composers is Alfred Schnittke.
I've first heard his music when i was 14, it was weird and wonderful, unusual and overpowering, I think I wasn't old enough back then to really get into his style.

But a few years later I got to perform his Sonata for Cello and Piano and that was an amazing experience, I'm forever grateful to my conservatory teacher, Galina Vinogradova, who took a risk giving this piece of music to a 19-year old, which was unheard of at that time in exUSSR. Only much more mature performers played it.

It ended up being a completely surreal experience.
I've practised this sonata with the Cello player, who was a teacher in the same conservatory (but in the evening we were colleagues playing in the same restaurants) and he was very talented, and, of course, an alcoholic. :)

Anyway, we really learnt it well and the girl who was turning our pages had to sit with us at all times coz even her job was difficult with all the different time signatures going on etc.

At the day of my State exam the Cello player turned up in the auditorium and he didn't look well, he was pale, his hands were shaken etc.

-What happened? - we asked?
-I got an ampule sawn in, - he explained.

(At the time it was quite widely used treatment for alcoholism, the doctor would saw an ampule with some medicine under a skin and the patient would have to abstain from the drink as it could kill him then).

Obviously being sober for couple of days and dying for a drink with no possibility to have it - didn't do anything for his nerves or physical state.
The reality of playing one of the most difficult cello parts in the world just hit him like a ton of bricks.

As soon as we got on stage, he got lost in his music and started playing total BS, just improvising through.

The girl who was turning pages got terrified and started crying, she didn't know what to do.
I kept playing the actual music.

then I noticed that he "found himself" a few pages later and he started playing right.

Continuing with my right hand, I started turning pages with my left hand and found where to "pick him up" .
My whole life was flashing before my eyes, the strain was unbelievable as Schnittke is this kind of music - if you get lost - you're lost forever.
But also there was a part of me that was totally calm and calculating and I knew that my Diploma depends on this exam.

-Run to him and turn his music to page 8, - I said to the page-turning girl.

And so she did. :)

From then on we finished the 1 part and played the next 2 parts without any accidents.

We got a standing ovation, and speaking to the audience later - they actually didn't realise that anything was wrong at all... ))))) They were just puzzled about me turning pages as opposed to the page-turner. :)

Backstage, I couldn't look at the cello player.

I asked him one question - "why did you decide to stop drinking in time for my exam? you know you play better when you're drunk!"

He didn't have anything to say...

(2 days later he ripped the ampule out and started drinking again. :)))

My teacher ran up to me backstage said that I almost gave her a heart attack with how great I was "under fire". :)

The exam committee of course did see what went wrong with us I still got the highest possible grade... ))


Here's an absolutely amazing perfomance of this sonata, I just love Heinrich Schiff:
Part one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b_VSPxiFk4
Part two http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mB-DcIgoiQ&feature=related
Part three http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct8k_iiF_I8&feature=related


Read about Alfred Schnittke http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schnittke

Starting point

This is my first try with blogspot. :)
I'm gonna talk about my music experiences here. 
Let's hope, it'll be interesting...