Andrew Eales

Why Perform?

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

I recently announced the MK Piano Celebration 2024, a chance for learners and amateur players to perform in front of a friendly audience of family, friends, and music enthusiasts, focusing on enjoyment and mutual support, rather than anxiety and competition.

But in an age where growing numbers learn online, perhaps playing purely for their own interest and enjoyment, some inevitably wonder whether performing is a worthwhile or necessary part of their piano journey.

I have explained before that playing the piano is an amazing journey that can bring immense personal satisfaction, cultural enrichment, and genuine enjoyment to our lives whether we choose to perform or not.

But I sincerely believe that there are many positive benefits to playing the piano to an audience, however informal, and in this post I would like to suggest a few of them.

Darren Day’s Belfast Heart

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

Darren Day is a pianist, teacher, and composer who is based in Belfast. I have previously recommended his easy piano Christmas arrangements, which were self-published. Since then, he has been picked up by 80 Days Publishing, who now bring us Belfast Heart, an excellent collection of 12 Traditional Northern Irish songs and original solos for piano.

Introducing this new collection, we are told,

“Escape to a world of jigs, sweeping mountains, winding roads and magical kingdoms as Belfast Heart transports you to some of the stunning scenery of Country Down and to the city where people are famous for being friendly and great ‘craic!”

Fasten your seatbelts and let’s check it out…

Developing an interest

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

As a child, I developed a number of fleeting interests, including the history of art (a major scrapbook project, winning a prize at the school hobbies exhibition), counting the spots on ladybirds (for which I received fewer accolades), exploring Bedfordshire by bicycle, and Russian literature,

That’s right – I was a bit of a nerd! But at a fairly young age, I had discovered an important truth:

Anything can be interesting
If we approach it with enough interest.

But none of the aforementioned topics could ultimately compete with the profound interest I developed in music from the age of eight. That was when I first heard an LP of Mozart’s Horn Concerti, which changed my life forever…

Brian Davidson • Scottish Suite

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

Scottish composer Brian Davidson has recently been on quite a roll, with his enchanting piano works appearing in a series of tastefully presented folios from publisher Kevin Mayhew.

Davidson’s intermediate collection Music Box came first, reviewed here, followed by his Nursery Suite, five original piano pieces aimed at late intermediate adult players, which evocatively reimagine traditional nursery rhymes, reviewed here.

Davidson’s latest publication is his Scottish Suite, and makes a very welcome addition to his expanding catalogue of intelligently written and musically rewarding music.

Subtitled Five Original Pieces for Piano, and again suitable for late intermediate players, this new collection will appeal to fans of Donald Thomson’s Celtic Piano Music series reviewed here, and all who enjoy musical portraits of Scotland’s scenery and heritage…

The flexible piano teacher

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

Because they are flexible, younger saplings can weather most storms, but older trees are not always so fortunate. Lao Tzu observed this comparison:

“When we are born, we are supple and tender like a young plant. When we die we become rigid and unyielding.
The ten thousand beings, including plants and grasses, when young are soft and pliable. At their death they are dry and brittle. Therefore we say that the stiff and unyielding are the companions of death.
The soft and yielding are the followers of life. A mighty tree may be strong, yet its branches may be broken off.
The hard and unyielding will fall, while the soft and yielding will overcome.”

Tao te Ching, 76, abbreviated from the translation by Solala Towler

For piano players, there are multiple applications for this wisdom, from physical technique to practice strategy.

But in this post, I want to focus on how Lao Tzu’s advice is relevant for those of us who teach. Let’s consider the important lessons here for staying flexible in our educational approach, studio practices, and professional outlook…

Poulenc • Mélancolie

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

Among the many French composers to make a significant impact on the piano repertoire, Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) stands out as among the most unjustly overlooked. His piano music surely deserves a more prominent place, alongside his well-known chamber, orchestral, choral, and vocal works.

As a child, Poulenc enjoyed listening to music from beneath the family grand piano, and as his musical skills developed, he took pleasure in playing the instrument himself, delighting friends with his improvised performances, and excelling as an accompanist and chamber musician. Poulenc may not have regarded his piano works with particular seriousness, but his predominantly short pieces showcased his distinctive musical voice, quirky humour and personality.

Mélancolie stands in contrast to much of this music however, being one of Poulenc’s most extended and deeply personal piano works. The piece was completed in August 1940 following, and written in response to, the Nazi invasion of France, the composer’s brief mobilisation, the armistice, partition, and his subsequent refuge in the ‘free zone’.

Summarising the piece in his introduction to a superb new edition from Durand Editions Musicales, Edmond Lemaître rather perfectly writes,

“More complex than mere sadness, Poulenc’s Mélancolie takes on an air of nostalgia, a resignation that never reaches despair. A bit painful, but at the same time filled with sweetness…”

Mélancolie is without question a genuine masterpiece, so the appearance of this new edition, making it more accessible, is to be warmly welcomed. Read on to find out more about this diploma level concert piece, listen to a recording, and discover the brilliant new Durand edition…

Josef Suk • Easy Piano Pieces

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

Josef Suk (1874-1935) was a prominent Czech composer and violinist, born in Křečovice, near Prague. A student of the famous composer Antonín Dvořák, he expertly bridged the gap between the late Romantic era and the emerging modernist style of the next generation; he is celebrated for seamlessly infusing Czech music with a sense of modernity while preserving its nationalistic roots.

Suk composed much for the piano, and twelve of his more accessible works have now been brought together for a new collection in Bärenreiter’s popular Easy Piano Pieces and Dances series, offering an ideal introduction to this repertoire…

In Praise of Cream Paper

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

Among the positive differences this website has sought to encourage, the growing adoption of cream paper by music publishers is to be celebrated.

Regular readers are sure to have noticed that I typically include information about paper quality and colour when reviewing music books; some will be glad for this tidbit of information, while others may wonder why it matters, or if indeed it matters at all.

Is the use of cream paper simply an odd, even slightly elitist, anachronism? Actually, no. So let’s consider the noteworthy advantages of using cream paper for music printing and publications…