December 2024
“All Is Quiet” (performed by Jean Hilbert and friends)
A few months ago, Iowan composer, Jean Hilbert, released her winter album, “All Is Quiet”. Jean took an Austrian Christmas carol “Still, Still, Still” and wove it throughout the title track. That’s pretty clever when you consider that when things are “still” they are quiet.
Sometimes composers use another composer’s melody in their own work. You would call that “quoting”. That’s different than making an arrangement and also different than copying (plagiarizing). When composers quote each other, they are using the melody to create their own unique music. They are doing something creative with it.
Not only did Jean compose creative piano music for “All Is Quiet”, but she also wrote parts for strings and flute. That can be pretty challenging. You need to know what is possible on those instruments to do a good job. She also composed music for vocalists. This summer, Jean invited me to sing some of the choir parts (3:14-5:30) for this recording! It was pretty fun to collaborate with her team.
We will be meeting Mrs. Jean Hilbert in February when she leads our “Creative Composition Workshop” field trip! Please spend some time over break working on your compositions! 🙂
November 2024
The title of this Christmas carol means “He is Born, the Heavenly Child”. I love this joyful, energetic melody. The lyrics talk about playing instruments to celebrate Jesus’ birth! I think it’s pretty creative for them to incorporate lots of percussion instruments into this performance.
This month we are practicing our feedback skills before our performance workshop. If you are Level One or higher please challenge yourselves to write specific comments on your feedback sheet. Find things you like about Jack and Andrew’s performance and things they can work on. We do this ALL THE TIME in lessons. You’re getting quite good at it! Some examples of comments you might write are:
- Sometimes your beat was steady
- Look at the audience and smile before and after bowing
- Great contrasts in dynamics
- Remember to do a cat back at the end
Smiley faces are fine for students in MFPA or Primer levels. 🙂
October 2024
Jean Hilbert, an American (and Iowan) composer, started writing music at a very young age. To date she has recorded six solo piano albums consisting mainly of her original work, but also some arrangements of cover songs, and a rich collection of hymns. You can find her music on Spotify, Amazon, Pandora, Youtube, Deezer and more. She has served her church for over 20 years as their music director and pianist. Fun fact: Jean loves her pet dogs Harrison and Luther.
Growing up her family enjoyed celebrating Halloween and dressing up in costumes. Mrs. Hilbert says her inspiration for “Haunted Dreams” comes from watching horror movies and staying up late with her friends scaring one another… until everyone was too afraid to turn the lights off to go to sleep.
When asked about “Haunted Dreams” she said that she started with a broken A Minor chord. She had a plan to make that motive (small musical idea) grow into something suspenseful and spooky-sounding.
“You will hear the slight increase in intensity at 1:07, backing off slightly at 1:24 and starting to build again, etc. Around 1:50 the suspense starts building again and there is a slight increase in tempo around 2:20 like the feeling when your heart is pounding if you hear/see something scary. Then you have sort of a ‘sneaking away’ around 2:40. The ending you can interpret as the spook has either ‘disappeared’ or it jumped out and got you!” -Jean Hilbert
*Mrs. Hilbert will be leading our Creative Composition Workshop field trip this February! You’ll get a chance to tell her what you thought of her composition and Youtube video. 🙂
September 2024
Prelude in F Minor, from The Well-Tempered Clavier
performed by Andras Schiff
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is one of the most important composers of the Baroque Period (1600-1750). In his day he was best known for his impressive organ playing. Bach built some organs. He worked as a court musician and for various churches as a musician, composer and director. He also was a private music teacher. In the 1800s musicians started to dig into his compositions and they were finally recognized as masterpieces! Some of his most beloved works include: “Brandenburg Concertos,” “Toccata & Fugue in Dm,” “Air on the G String,” “St. Matthew’s Passion” and “The Well-Tempered Clavier”.
This month’s piece comes from “The Well-Tempered Klavier.” “Well-Tempered” refers to playing on an instrument that would sound good in all twelve major and minor keys (scales). In the old days some scales sounded better than others on certain instruments, unlike our modern piano.
“Klavier” in German means keyboard instrument. Bach meant for people to play these “Well-Tempered” pieces on a harpsichord, clavichord or organ. He finished composing the first book in 1722. Twenty years later, in 1742, he published a second book. This is quite interesting because a new “well-tempered” instrument was starting to become popular… the MODERN PIANO! Undoubtedly J.S. Bach was anticipating that people would use the piano to play the pieces in his second book.
When repeating the melody in a Baroque piece, it is common to add ornaments (quick, fancy note) to keep it fresh. Listen to this piece again and notice how each time Andras Schiff repeats the melody he adds sparkling ornaments!
Extra Credit: Check out this 15 minute video of Sir Andras Schiff teaching a class of music scholars about playing J. S. Bach’s music.
*Information from “Britannica.com” and “Wikipedia.com”.