Morton Feldman - The Viola in My Life 3 (1970) SoupyMold 2020-07-31 | Feldman’s “The Viola in my Life” III for viola and piano is part of a “The Viola in my Life” cycle, for which work began in July 1970. The cycle was written for Karen Philips, then the resident performer on the viola at Hawaii University. The piece is to be played in a quiet subdued manner. As each note fades in and out, the piece challenges the objective concept of time.Date: 1970Dedicatee: Karen PhillipsPerformers: Maurizio Barbetti on viola Rossella Spinosa on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.
Bohuslav Martinů - Mazurka, H.284 (Koukl) SoupyMold 2024-04-14 | Mazurka, by Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů, is a piece written in 1941 as a “Homage to Paderewski” in honor of the Polish politician and composer and to commemorate his death. It was intended to comprise an album of 17 works, commissioned by the publisher Boosey & Hawkes, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Paderewski’s debut at Carnegie Hall. The celebration quickly turned into a funerary tribute, as Paderewski died at the age of 80 before the publication of the album.Overall, the Mazurka is around 2 minutes long, and uses textures that, at times, remove it somewhat from the Polish dance’s character and intent. The piece’s overall tonal center revolves around the note of B-flat, while using the typical 20th-century dissonances seen in Martinů’s works. The structure of the work is in ABA form, where the middle passage of steadily-cycling 16th notes is sandwiched within a languid dance theme.Date: 1941Catalogue: Halbreich 284Dedicatee: in memory of Ignacy Jan PaderewskiPerformer: Giorgio Koukl on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.
František Kotzwara - The Battle of Prague, Op. 23 SoupyMold 2024-04-01 | “ACK!”The last breath from the lungs of Czech composer František Kotzwara (also spelled Kočvara) left his body, as he sat on the floorboards of an English apartment with a noose around his neck, one that he tied for himself. The other end of the rope was fastened to a doorknob, and standing above him was the screaming owner of the apartment.Earlier on that fateful day of September 2, 1791, Kotzwara, seeking the pleasures of the flesh, met with the streetwalker Susannah Hill in Westminster, Great Britain. After a quick dinner date with her at her lodgings, Kotzwara, in a frisky mood, decided to immediately use her services. He thereby paid her two shillings, and asked her to use a knife to render him a eunuch. Horrified by a request too degenerate for even her, Hill refused to commit such a heinous act, for she was not completely devoid of dignity. Slightly disappointed, but nonetheless still willing to continue his clientship, Kotzwara proceeded to tie a rope to his own neck, aiming to enhance the coming experience. Hill gave in, and did the deed with him. Once the pair finished, Kotzwara lay dead on the floor; his last moments were shrouded in ecstasy. Hill was initially arrested on suspicion of murdering Kotzwara, but was able to get acquitted by the jury in court. Her testimony was later used to produce a pamphlet about strangling, titled “Modern Propensities”. Long after his time, when Kotzwara would have otherwise been completely forgotten into the mists of IMSLP, he remains remembered today not so much for his life but for the lurid manner of his death. To boot, he has the dubious honor of being one of the earliest reported cases of death by auto-erоtiс asрhyхiatіon.Kotzwara’s most famous piece, “The Battle of Prague”, though touted as a sonata, does not follow sonata form and functions more along the lines of a Baroque Battaglia. It had an orchestrated version, but is most commonly found with the solo piano instrumentation. It remained in print for decades after Kotzwara’s demise, and received a boost in popularity in 1870 at the height of the Franco-Prussian War. The piece was popular during its day, and was commonly played for leisure in middle-class and upper-class households. It even made a cameo appearance in Mark Twain’s book “Huckleberry Finn”, which most readers would miss and be none the wiser.As a Battaglia, given the Baroque format but written in the Classical musical language, it depicts the eponymous Battle of Prague that occurred in 1757 between the Prussians under King Frederick the Great and the Austrians of the Holy Roman Empire under Empress Maria Theresa. The battle was a Prussian victory, and given the pieces’ jubilant perspective through the eyes of the victors, this may imply certain political loyalties that Kotzwara maintained.There are between seven to eleven movements in the “Battle of Prague”, depending on edition and distinction between movement and section, which can be fluid in this work. The piece imitates the sounds of the battlefield, including bugle calls, blasting artillery in the form of low register pedal points, charging infantry as Alberti bass, and galloping cavalry as arpeggiated ostinato triplets. Harmonically, the work is rather conservative and rarely ventures outside of F Major, but nevertheless generates a good amount of tension linking between sections and movements. The piece is also episodic, starting with the preparations of the battle, moving onto the vivid scenes from the battle itself, to the victory celebrations enjoyed by the Prussians after defeating the Austrians. In between, one can hear the English national anthem “God Save the King” and some generic Turkish Janissary marching music, even if the armies of both nations were absent from the battle.Date: circa 1778 or 1788Catalogue: Op. 23Movements: No. 1 - Slow March: 0:12 No. 2 - Largo a) Word of Command: 1:30 b) First Signal Cannon: 1:54 c) The Bugle Horn Call for the Cavalry: 1:59 d) Answer to the First Signal Cannon: 2:23 No. 3 - The Trumpet Call: 2:29 No. 4 - Prussians and Imperialists: 2:47 No. 5 - Cries of the Wounded (Grave): 6:21 No. 6 - The Trumpet of Victory: 7:13 No. 7 - God Save the King: 7:30 No. 8 - Turkish March (Quickstep): 8:41 No. 9 - Finale a) Allegro: 9:01 b) Go to Bed Tom (Andante): 9:46 c) Tempo primo: 9:55Performers: Caspar Richter as conductor Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin Police OrchestraNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes.Score: Quinn Mason.
Tianhe Chen - Blood Debt (1939) (Zhang) SoupyMold 2024-03-30 | “Blood Debt” for solo piano is a piece written by Chinese composer Tianhe Chen in 1939. Dolorous and mournful, the piece was composed while Chen was in a bunker, taking shelter from the Bombing of Chongqing during the Second Sino-Japanese War (which subsumed into the wider World War Two scene). The heavy civilian casualties angered him, and contributed to his overall patriotic and revanchist attitude toward the Axis Powers, thereby inspiring works bearing such titles like “Blood Debt”.As a note on the manuscript, Chen writes:"May 3, 1939, during the bombing of Chongqing city by enemy planes, as the people were evacuating the urban area, all that could be seen on the way were the refugees struggling with the elderly and young. Their condition was extremely miserable. I write this to express my indignation at the plight of fellow countrymen forced to flee."Date: 1939Performer: Yiming Zhang on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.Editors: Pu, Fang. Sun, Lamei. Suzhou University Press.
Er Nie - Dance of the Golden Snake (1934) SoupyMold 2024-03-28 | Chinese composer Nie Er's "Dance of the Golden Snake" ("金蛇狂舞") is a short work written for traditional Chinese orchestra, intended for the Bai Dai Orchestra in particular. The piece is, according to certain sources, a variation arranged from a traditional piece called "Yang Ba Qu".Nie Er (born Shouxin Nie) was a composer born in the Yunnan province of China. He was brought up with traditional Chinese instruments, but later moved on to learn Western music. From a young age, Nie showed a precocious talent for music as well as an ability to move his ears, and as a result, he received the nickname "Er", which means "ear" in Mandarin Chinese. Nie loved the name so much that he eventually adopted it as his official name. Although Nie suddenly drowned at the young age of 23 while in Japan, he is nonetheless remembered in history as the composer of the national anthem of the People's Republic of China.Date: 1934Performers: Shanghai National Folk Music OrchestraNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. This video was uploaded as part of a collaboration with another channel.Associated channel: space.bilibili.com/1665364343
Ryan Collis - Nephrolithiasis (2022) SoupyMold 2024-03-25 | “AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!” is the sound one makes when attempting to pass a large kidney stone naturally. Incidentally, British composer Ryan Collis’s “Nephrolithiasis” for piano trio is named after the condition of having a kidney stone. The work is in one movement, and largely consists of freely atonal harmonies. Lasting approximately 6 to 7 minutes in duration, the performers often navigate moderately complex polyrhythms and syncopations at various points within the work. Within the score, one can encounter Satiesque blurbs here and there, vividly putting the up-and-down roller coaster of pain and suffering from experiencing kidney stones to words.According to the composer:“Naming a musical composition "Nephrolithiasis" offers a unique lens through which to explore various themes and techniques:Metaphor for Struggle and Release: The music reflects the journey from tension and discomfort due to a kidney stone to resolution and relief, embodying personal or emotional struggles.Exploration of Texture and Timbre: The composition delves into rough, gritty textures and sharp, sudden contrasts in sound, echoing the physical crystalline characteristics of kidney stones, leading to innovative instrumentation and sound design.Commentary on Human Experience: The title prompts listeners to reflect on the vulnerability of the human body and the commonalities of human experience, including illness and pain, fostering a deeper emotional connection.Biological and Scientific Inspiration: The composer translates the biological processes and scientific aspects of kidney stones into musical structures and motifs, inspired by their crystalline structures and formation processes.Challenge to Conventional Aesthetics: Choosing a title associated with discomfort challenges traditional notions of beauty in art, suggesting value and meaning in all aspects of human experience.”Date: 2022Dedicatees: Fidelio TrioPerformers: Fidelio TrioNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission. There are differences between the performer’s interpretation and what is depicted on the score.Composer’s profile: movingclassics.tv/classicpeople/ryan-collis Composer’s channel: youtube.com/@ryacoliComposer’s MuseScore page: musescore.com/ryacoli
Antonín Dvořák - 2 Furiants, Op. 42 (Kahánek) SoupyMold 2024-03-12 | 2 Furiants is a set of dance pieces by the famous Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. These Furiants, true to the manner of the general Slavic folk dance, contain hemiolas as a mainstay feature. They are relatively unknown compared to the composer’s other works. Both pieces contain common ideas and motifs, among which are the Alberti Bass variants, stiff rhythmic diminution, and, due to folk inspiration, a fondness for both minor plagal cadences and pentatonic scales. A (possible) coincidence to note is that within the second piece, beginning at around measure 157, there is a passing quotation of the Neapolitan major-sevenths chord progression found at the beginning of the third movement of Beethoven’s Tempest Sonata.Date: 1878Catalogue: Op. 42, Burghauser 85Dedicatee: Karel SlavkovskýOrder: No. 1 - Allegro con fuoco (D Major): 0:08 No. 2 - Allegro con fuoco (F Major): 5:18Performer: Ivo Kahánek on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.
Anton Rubinstein - Ondine, Op. 1 (Cousin) SoupyMold 2024-01-27 | “Ondine”, subtitled “Etude”, is the first published piece by Russian composer Anton Rubinstein. It was composed in the year 1842, when he was only twelve years old. As the programmatic name implies, the Etude evokes the feeling of flowing water in which the titular female sprite dwells. Above the continuous deluge of arpeggi, a constant pattering of single-note droplets form the top voice and main melody. In regards to the overall style, the piece establishes the composer’s German idiom that contrasts with the consciously nationalist compositions of Mikhail Glinka, who came from the same country and studied under the same teacher (the teacher is Siegfried Dehn) as Rubinstein.Date: 1842Catalogue: Op. 1Dedicatee: Princess Volkonsky (unknown)Performer: Martin Cousin on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.
Alexander Scriabin - Fantasy in B Minor, Op. 28 (Hamelin) SoupyMold 2024-01-15 | Alexander Scriabin’s Fantasy in B Minor is a monumental late Romantic work composed at the turn of the century, when the composer’s early period was at its twilight. According to legend, Scriabin did not recall composing the piece, as when his friend Leonid Sabaneyev performed it, Scriabin absent-mindedly (or trollingly) denied ever hearing it before. As a hazardously difficult piece of mighty proportions, the Fantasy is littered with precarious leaps between loaded chords, whirlwind arpeggi from one end of the piano to the other, confusing contrapuntal voicing between interlocking fingers of both hands, and requires massive stamina with little reprieve. This masterpiece gives much reason to marvel at the thought of a five-feet-tall man composing seven-feet-tall music.The Fantasy is roughly structured in sonata form, with an exposition, development, and recapitulation. Throughout the piece in the various sections, one will constantly encounter the two perennial motifs: the dotted triplet rhythm (mm. 1 third beat) and the octave-doubled quintuplet (or sextuplet in the major key sections, rarely quadruplet) extended ornamental turn (mm. 5 third beat). The exposition contains three sections. The main subject begins in the key of B Minor, venturing outward and rarely returning to the original tonic. It consists of block chords fitted with extended but still functional tonal characteristics. In the second subject, a graceful flowing melody in the relative key of D Major, one among Scriabin’s finest, enters the scene. Here in its second iteration, the composer imitates the melody in another voice, with both voices borne by the right hand, offset by one measure. In contrast to the second subject’s lamblike gentleness, the lockstep codetta imparts the emotion of open joy; a dignified imperious theme culminates into a series of chromatic chordal cascades of French Sixths concluding the exposition on a high note. A sudden anti-Picardy third would twist the tonality to D Minor and onward to F Major.Starting in F Major, the development section takes hold. The first theme and the codetta of the exposition figures most heavily at the start. The dense sevenths harmonies slowly morph the chord progression toward C Major and then to G Major. The next section sees Scriabin dancing around the dominant of the key, in the form of heavy triplet tremoli, tantalizing the listener with but refusing to simply surrender the implied harmonies. The Mystic Chord almost appears, but is not completely spelled out. The climax comes crashing down a series of French Sixths (different from the one in the exposition codetta), thereby resolving onto the original tonic’s dominant key of F-sharp Major, and rolls straight into an ominous, rumbling recapitulation.The recapitulation, beginning with the reprisal of the first subject, is tense and foreboding. Low-frequency quaking emits from underground in the low registers, as if heralding the imminent approach of an anomalous cosmic entity. With this in mind, the subject serves in a transitory role more so than the introductory one it had in the exposition. The key slowly climbs chromatically through a series of augmented chord resolutions. The thrust of the transition accelerates with each iteration of the broken arpeggi in the right-hand. As the texture changes to block chords, the tension grows taut, and the pressure mounts to a breaking point. The tension finally snaps and the moment of release arrives. The coming of the second subject in the key of B Major is nothing short of rapturous. The feeling a cripple has when he is able to finally walk, when a blindman can see for the first time, when a pre-deployed soldier learns that the war is won; this sense of triumph is what is encapsulated under the epiphanous pen of Alexander Nikolayevich. The imitative counterpoint appears, as usual, but this time it is shared between both hands. After a left-hand passage with wide arpeggi and doubled notes, the piece braces itself, yet again, for the oncoming codetta, which faithfully reprises the corresponding section in the exposition.The final coda further develops the first and second subjects. The first subject, in A Minor, slowly degenerates into a dazed slurry of chromaticism. The second subject snaps the piece back awake. The first iteration of the subject floats above waves of pulsating left-hand notes, and the second more urgent iteration has the right hand engage in frenzied monologue, which quickly sours and angrily modulates to the decisive finale, one filled with arpeggi of the likes never seen before. The Fantasy, in the original block chord texture, concludes on a Picardy third. Date: 1900Catalogue: Op. 28Sections: Exposition: 0:04 Development: 3:18 Recapitulation: 4:08 Coda: 6:27Performer: Marc-André Hamelin on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes.
Moritz Moszkowski - Humoresque in D Major, Op. 14 (Hobson) SoupyMold 2024-01-07 | Moritz Moszkowski’s Humoresque is a piano composition that was composed sometime during the latter half of the 19th century, relatively early on in his career. The work often makes use of heavy bassline pedal points on the tonic while keeping a boisterous beer-tavern melody, but nevertheless, still has its tip-toe mischievous moments. It also emits a very Germanic flavor due to the horn fifths within the main subject.Catalogue: Op. 14Dedicatee: Xaver ScharwenkaPerformer: Ian Hobson on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.
Mason Ishida - String Quartet No. 2 (2020) SoupyMold 2023-12-28 | “After the New England Conservatory sent all students home due to COVID-19, I began work on this string quartet immediately after returning home. I finished it in five days - the fastest I Have ever finished a multi movement work (though it is only about six minutes minutes). I worked under a six minute time limit because I planned to submit it for a reading session which didn't allow for pieces longer than six minutes. This was for a summer festival called EAMA at the Nadia Boulanger Institute in Paris which I never attended because of the pandemic. The assignment was to show off contrapuntal ability. I composed this while taking the course (online at that point) sixteenth century counterpoint with Professor Lyle Davidson, who passed away during the pandemic, and I intended to dedicate it to him though he never heard it. I structured the piece: A-B-A'-CODA (B') similar to the structure of Bartok's Third Quartet (my favorite of his quartets). The harmony also is quite inspired by Bartok, though I aimed to add a lot of my own flavors to it. All movements keep the same underlying pulse, the second movement just counts the quarter instead of the half. This makes the attaccas between each movement much more fluid.” —Mason IshidaDate: 2020Dedicatee: in memory of Lyle DavidsonOrder: Table of Contents: 0:00 No. 1 - Like a Motet without Words: 0:08 No. 2 - Aggressive, Dance-Like: 2:08 No. 3 - Reminiscence: 3:45Performers: Tiffany Chang on violin Alison Kim on violin Julian Seney on viola Mari Nagahara on celloNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission.Composer's channel: youtube.com/user/twigster2000
Edgard Varèse - Dance for Burgess (1949) SoupyMold 2023-12-24 | “Dance for Burgess” for chamber orchestra and percussion, is a fun little work by the composer Edgard Varèse as a part of a Broadway musical project by Burgess Meredith, a dancer and Varèse’s friend. The stagework never came to fruition. Though the orchestral piece was written in 1949, it was only published in 1998, thanks to the efforts of Wen-chung Chou, who helped to edit and revise the final score. As an attempt to write for Broadway on behalf of a friend, the piece is relatively mild for a visionary like Varèse.Chou also left other notes regarding the structure and scheme of the piece:“The distribution of percussion instruments and stick specifications have been edited as close to Varèse’s intentions as is practical. There is a part for tenor saxophone – bass clarinet in the manuscript. The saxophone, however, is required for only four notes, in mm. 11-12, after which the part is exclusively for the bass clarinet. That part is now assigned to the bass clarinet only. With the elimination of the need for switching instruments at m. 12, it is now possible to fill out the sonority at mm. 13-14, as in mm. 11-12. This is accomplished by adding the bass clarinet part; filling two notes into the horn part in m. 14; and assigning the B-flat clarinet in m. 14 to double the E-flat clarinet as in m. 13 — all of which is accomplished through a redistribution of instruments without adding pitches or changing octave positions.In these same measures, phrasing for the tuba, piano, and violoncello parts have also been provided.Throughout this tutti passage, the contrabass is silent in the manuscript. It now participates in the doubling between the tuba and piano parts, in the same manner as the violoncello part, weaving between the trombone and piano parts. The two violin and viola parts are expanded, as originally suggested in mm. 13-14.In mm. 20-26, the distribution of the E-flat and B-flat clarinets has been edited, assigning mm. 20-22 to the B-flat part, and adding a B-flat part at m. 25, where it doubles the trumpet. In mm. 35-37, the B-flat and bass clarinet parts are added, doubling the piano, as do the piccolo and E-flat clarinet in the manuscript, at an octave higher. Similarly, in m. 43, these parts are added to double the lower octave of the piano.In mm. 22-26, the string parts have been edited to more fully double the piano part, as intended in the manuscript. The contrabass, silent in the manuscript, now doubles the piano as do the other strings.In m. 44, the strings are added to double the piano chord. At m. 46, in the black-and-white copies of the manuscript, the two violins are in unison, as are the viola and violoncello. These parts are now revised to cover a wider range in the doublings of the sextuplet figure. In the final measure, the violoncello part is converted to an octave double-stop, doubling the open C on the viola, while the contrabass part is added to double the violoncello’s open C.”Date: 1949Dedicatee: Burgess MeredithPerformers: Riccardo Chailly as conductor The Asko Ensemble The Royal Concertgebouw OrchestraEditor: Wen-chung ChouNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.
Gary Noland - The Melancholic Moneymonger, Op. 26 SoupyMold 2023-12-08 | Gary Noland’s “The Melancholic Moneymonger” for piano is a bite-sized neobaroque composition that lasts less than one minute. The style of the piece uses mostly Baroque period language, until the final few measures of the piece, where dissonant chords break that illusion. Noland dedicated the miniature work to his pen-pal, Ladislav Kupkovič. Kupkovič, once a modernist composer who was a disciple of the Darmstadt School and a member of the Cologne school, and also no less the dedicatee of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s composition “Mixtur”, whole-heartedly embraced Classical period style composition by the 1980s. This artistic path was something Noland found very relatable given his own eclectic style.Dr. Gary Lloyd Noland was born 1957 and grew up in a house shared by ten people. As an adolescent, Noland lived for a time in Salzburg, Austria and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Having studied with a long roster of acclaimed composers and musicians, he earned his Bachelor’s in music from UC Berkeley in 1979, continued studies at the Boston Conservatory, and transferred to Harvard University, where he obtained a master’s degree and a PhD in Music Composition in 1989. In addition, he has taught music at Harvard, the University of Oregon, and Portland Community College.As a composer, Noland’s works come in a diverse range of styles. His catalogue consists of hundreds of tonal and atonal works, of which include piano, vocal, chamber, experimental, electronic pieces, and graphic scores. Noland’s compositions have been performed and broadcast worldwide, including his Grande Rag Brillante that premiered on the Yamaha Disklavier at NPR. Noland founded the Seventh Species concert series in San Francisco in 1990, and was also a founding member of Cascadia Composers association.Date: 1992Catalogue: Op. 26Dedicatee: Ladislav KupkovičPerformer: Meliton Soupelin on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission.Composer’s website: composergarynoland.godaddysites.com
Gary Noland - The Broom Brigade, Op. 25 SoupyMold 2023-12-03 | Gary Noland’s “The Broom Brigade” for piano is a bite-sized neoromantic composition that lasts less than one minute. The style of the piece uses mostly Romantic period language, until the final few measures of the piece, where dissonant chords break that illusion. Noland dedicated the miniature work to his teacher, Ivan Tcherepnin, who is of the Tcherepnin musical dynasty.Dr. Gary Lloyd Noland was born 1957 and grew up in a house shared by ten people. As an adolescent, Noland lived for a time in Salzburg, Austria and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Having studied with a long roster of acclaimed composers and musicians, he earned his Bachelor’s in music from UC Berkeley in 1979, continued studies at the Boston Conservatory, and transferred to Harvard University, where he obtained a master’s degree and a PhD in Music Composition in 1989. In addition, he has taught music at Harvard, the University of Oregon, and Portland Community College.As a composer, Noland’s works come in a diverse range of styles. His catalogue consists of hundreds of tonal and atonal works, of which include piano, vocal, chamber, experimental, electronic pieces, and graphic scores. Noland’s compositions have been performed and broadcast worldwide, including his Grande Rag Brillante that premiered on the Yamaha Disklavier at NPR. Noland founded the Seventh Species concert series in San Francisco in 1990, and was also a founding member of Cascadia Composers association.Date: 1992Catalogue: Op. 25Dedicatee: Ivan TcherepninPerformer: Meliton Soupelin on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission.Composer’s website: composergarynoland.godaddysites.com
Massimo Trotta - Fugue, Prelude and Samba (2016) SoupyMold 2023-11-19 | Fugue, Prelude and Samba for eight saxophones is a multi-section rhapsodic piece written by Italian composer and professor Massimo Trotta in 2016. The work, approximately seven minutes long, is dedicated to his colleague at the Francesco Morlacchi Conservatory of Perugia, the saxophone professor Roberto Todini.The music is influenced by jazz and the titular samba genre, with the bossa nova chordal patterns coming to the forefront in the third section of the piece. The characteristic motif of the main theme, consisting of a long note followed by two short notes and a pair of grace notes that roll into the aforementioned short notes, can be found in the first and third sections. However, it fails to make an appearance in the “slow movement” Prelude. The final section, titled “Samba”, has its own thematic motif of three 16th notes preceding a lower-pitched sustained note of either a dotted eighth or a fourth 16th note tied to an eighth note. Upon further examination, one may notice that this new motif may resemble the one from the main theme, but with its rhythm altered. In the coda, a trilling finish and a final blast of all eight saxophones conclude the piece.Sections: Fugue: 0:04 Prelude: 2:36 Samba: 4:14Date: 2016Dedicatee: Roberto TodiniPerformer: Roberto Todini on all 8 saxophonesNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission.Composer's channel: youtube.com/channel/UCxo0BJa-syX0Et3SZWtPCzw
Mikhail Glinka - Mazurka in C Minor SoupyMold 2023-10-28 | The Mazurka in C Minor is a small piece written by Mikhail Glinka. Glinka was known as the Father of Russian Music, in no small part due to him founding a distinct nationalist school that diverged from the German tradition, and gaining wide recognition across his country.Date: unknown, possibly 1843Performer: Inga Fiolia on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.
Massimo Trotta - Jazz Nuance SoupyMold 2023-10-16 | “Jazz Nuance” for piano is a piece written by Italian composer and professor Massimo Trotta. The work is around three to four minutes long, is in mixed meter, and contains aspects of modernist dissonance combined with the atonal harmony, rhythmic elements, and improvisatory style of free jazz.Performer: Giacomo Battarino (also known as “Asgore Kujo”) on pianoPerformer’s son’s channel: youtube.com/c/AsrielKujoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission.Composer's channel: youtube.com/channel/UCxo0BJa-syX0Et3SZWtPCzwScore: M. Soupelin, R. D. Lee, 2022.
Alexis Roland-Manuel - String Trio (1922) SoupyMold 2023-10-09 | French critic and composer Alexis Roland-Manuel’s String Trio is an early 20th-century work in three movements. The first has no name other than that of its tempo, while the other two are, respectively, a Sarabande and a Rondo. The works are modal and bear much influence from the musical style of the dedicatee of the piece, Maurice Ravel. Ravel did much to teach Roland-Manuel the art of music composition, in addition to being a lifelong friend.Date: 1922Dedicatee: Maurice RavelOrder: No. 1 - Allègrement: 0:08 No. 2 - Sarabande (Grave et doux): 7:44 No. 3 - Ronde [Vite (alert et gai)]: 13:50Performers: Manchester Music Festival OrchestraNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.
Carl Tausig - Fantasy on Moniuszkos Halka, Op. 2b SoupyMold 2023-09-20 | The “Réminiscences de Halka, de St. Moniuszko. Fantaisie de concert” is an operatic paraphrase on Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko’s Halka, composed by the 18 year old Carl Tausig, considered one of the most eminent of Liszt’s students. This transcription, taking after Liszt’s style, maintains progressive tonality, beginning from one key and ending somewhere else, far away from the original. The Halka Fantasy was given the “Opus 2” catalogue number along with Tausig’s Tarantella, which is a separate piece. Thus, in music scholarship, the Tarantella (paired with an Introduction) is given the “2a” designation while the Halka Fantasy is assigned “2b”.Sections: Introduction (D Minor): 0:04 Restatement of Introduction (F-sharp Minor): 0:46 Grand Bridge to Theme 1: 1:37 Theme 1A - Polonaise (D Major): 2:06 Theme 1A Restatement: 2:22 Theme 1B: 2:39 Transition Back to 1A: 3:06 Theme 1A: 3:14 Bridge to Theme 2: 3:32 Prelude to 2A: 4:00 Theme 2A - Nocturne (A-flat Major): 5:07 Theme 2B: 5:47 Theme 2A: 6:06 Theme 2C: 6:25 Theme 2A: 6:58 Theme 2B: 7:41 Theme 2A: 7:58 Theme 2C: 8:19 Theme 1A - Polonaise (A-flat Major): 8:45 Bridge to Theme 3 - 9:01 Theme 3A - 9:10 Transition to 3B: 9:24 Theme 3B: 9:46 Theme 3B Restatement: 10:00 Theme 3C: 10:13 Theme 3D: 10:27 Theme 3E: 10:46 Theme 3C: 11:02 Theme 3D: 11:09 Theme 3B: 11:25 Theme 3A: 11:39 Theme 3C: 11:51 Theme 3C Restatement: 12:00 Bridge to Finale: 12:12 Finale: 12:20Date: 1860Catalogue: Op. 2bPerformer: Michael Ponti on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.
Tony Gemayel - Gavotte in D Minor, G90 SoupyMold 2023-09-09 | Gavotte in D Minor is a solo piano piece by Lebanese composer Tony Gemayel. It blends Baroque influences with his Modernist style, as melodious tonal passages in lockstep rhythm are often interspersed with rattling dissonances and irregular meter. Given the da capo, the work is in binary form.Date: 2021Catalogue: Gemayel 90Performer: Zeina Alam on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were uploaded with the composer’s approval.Composer’s channel: youtube.com/channel/UCcJv5XJDl6NuWZEW8mzpFXgComposer’s score archive: musescore.com/user/31935847
Franz Liszt - 2 Performance Pieces, S.268 SoupyMold 2023-08-28 | Hungarian composer Franz Liszt’s 2 Performance Pieces [“Zwei Vortragsstücke”] are a compiled pair of organ pieces from his late period. The first, “Introitus”, is inspired by the opening celebration of the Eucharist rite in various Christian denominations. The second, “Trauerode” [German for “Mourning Song”], is an organ arrangement of the oration section from an earlier piece of Liszt’s called “Les Morts”, composed in 1860.In both movements, the notes are, on average, widely spread, but not as sparsely as his usual fare of his twilight years. There is much vertical padding in the block chords of “Introitus”, and the “Trauerode” returns some of Liszt’s older complex textures in the form of extended trills, tremoli, and arpeggio sections. The transition sections of the first piece are often monorhythmic and tonally neutral, but those sit nestled between the radiant grandeur of the authoritative clamor of multi-octave triad chords which, due to the nature of the organ instrument’s pipes, never run out of air unless the performer wills them to. The second piece also begins on an atmospherically lackadaisical and tonally ambiguous section (with some exceptions). But when the piece really takes flight in the latter half, even if for a brief moment, the bravura of young Liszt, tall, virile, and blonde, shines through his elderly self’s decrepit, chaste, and gray shell. Particularly in this piece, Liszt freely imbues it with perhaps his favorite harmonic technique—the chromatic submediant shift. This is maintained to the very end, even as the final cadence shifts from a functionally C-sharp Major chord to the local tonic of E Major.Though Liszt had his 20-year-old and freshly deceased son, Daniel, in mind when composing the original version of “Trauerode”, the piece is officially dedicated to his daughter, Cosima, whilst she was still tied in matrimony to the noble-born conductor Hans von Bülow. A subsequent series of unfortunate events following Cosima’s dirtying of the Bülow surname led to her becoming the matriarch of the Wagner clan.Date: 1884Catalogue: Searle 268 Thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke Franz Liszts [LW] E41 (No. 1) Thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke Franz Liszts [LW] E7 (No. 2) R**be 390Order and Dedication: No. 1 - Introitus: 0:08 No. 2 - Trauerode (for Francesca Gaetana Cosima -von Bülow- Wagner, née Liszt): 4:01Performer: Olivier Vernet on organNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes.Score: Gyula Pfeiffer. imslp.org/wiki/2_Vortragsst%C3%BCcke%2C_S.268_%28Liszt%2C_Franz%29
Tony Gemayel - Scherzino No. 4, G99 SoupyMold 2023-08-19 | Scherzino No. 4 is a solo piano piece by Lebanese composer Tony Gemayel. Overall, the piece often starkly and abruptly juxtaposes major and minor, fast and slow, and loud and soft. Beginning with the main theme in the Arabic Baladi rhythm, the Scherzino has multiple successive themes, which often abruptly break upon each other. The piece eventually concludes on the coda theme in the key of D (which ultimately gets subverted by a G Major chord).Date: 2022Catalogue: Gemayel 99Performer: Zeina Alam on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were uploaded with the composer’s approval.Composer’s channel: youtube.com/channel/UCcJv5XJDl6NuWZEW8mzpFXgComposer’s score archive: musescore.com/user/31935847
Cameron Lee Simpson - Hey-O: Novelty Piano SoupyMold 2023-08-12 | “Hey-O”, by American composer Cameron Lee Simpson, is a piece in the novelty genre written in 2023. Novelty piano, rooted in the piano roll technology that flourished during the 1910s and 1920s, is a direct descendant of ragtime and is a cousin to the jazz and stride styles. The novelty genre contains only light syncopation compared to its immediate stylistic forebear. The work is dedicated to Sebastian Pazmandi. Lasting between three to five minutes in duration, the piece is in ABACD form. It is largely in the key of D-flat Major, but contains a Trio section in the key of G-flat Major.Date: 2023Dedicatee: Sebastian PazmandiPerformer: Maryna Buksha on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission.Composer’s channel: youtube.com/@therisingpianoplayerofthe2272
Clarence Dickinson - Reverie in D-flat Major SoupyMold 2023-08-05 | Reverie, by American organist and composer Clarence Dickinson, is a short piece for organ in the key of D-flat Major. As indicated by the title, the piece is to be played slowly and in a lilting syncopated rhythm. The dedicatee of the piece is the renowned architect J. Cleaveland Cady, who was very old and on Death’s doorstep at the time of publication.Dedicatee: Josiah Cleaveland CadyPerformer: Christopher McWilliams on organPerformer’s channel: youtube.com/@christophermcwilliams5379Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.
Mico Aquino - Sketch: Kleiner Tanz in der Mitternacht (2023) SoupyMold 2023-07-28 | “Sketch”, subtitled “Little Dance at Midnight”, is a short piece by Filipino composer Mico N. Aquino. It is set roughly in the key of D and takes on the rhythm of a Spanish tango. The work concludes on an open dominant with the tonic note pedal point still clinging on.Date: 2023Performer: Maryna Buksha on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission.Composer’s channel: youtube.com/c/MicoNAquinoComposerScore: Abner Gutiérrez, 2023.
Cameron Lee Simpson - Skeleton Blues (2023) SoupyMold 2023-07-23 | “Skeleton Blues”, by American composer Cameron Lee Simpson, is a piece written in 2023, inspired by the Blues style. The work is dedicated to his friend whose online nickname is “Skully”; the title is a play upon the name. Lasting around five minutes in duration, the piece is in ABACA form. It is largely in the key of C Major, but contains a Trio section in the key of F Major.Date: 2023Dedicatee: “Skully”Performer: Maryna Buksha on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission.Composer’s channel: youtube.com/@therisingpianoplayerofthe2272
Yağız Arslan - Improvisation for Çığ Tokgöz (2023) SoupyMold 2023-07-20 | Turkish composer Yağız Arslan’s “Improvisation for Çığ Tokgöz” is a modernist composition written for his eponymous friend, pianist Çığ Tokgöz. Lasting little more than a minute, the miniature work contains a harmony-dense line that repeats once with some alterations in the second half of the line. Within the piece, there are occasionally passages of upward-cascading triplets that mimic the ringing sound of bells.Date: 2023Dedicatee: Çığ TokgözPerformer: Çığ Tokgöz on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission.Composer’s channel: youtube.com/@yagiz885
Franz Liszt - We Are Not Mummies, S.90/3b SoupyMold 2023-07-15 | “Wir sind nicht Mumien”, alternatively known as “We Are Not Mummies” when translated from German to English, is a secular composition by Franz Liszt for male choir (two tenors and two basses). Liszt first wrote the work in 1842 as the premier movement of “Vierstimmige Männergesänge”, and later revised it in around 1860-1861 as the third movement of “Für Männergesang”. Humphrey Searle, Liszt’s biographer, gives the first version the catalogue number “90/3a”, while the second version (used in this video) is designated as “90/3b”. The librettist is the German poet August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, from whose poem “Gottlob” Liszt took the lyrics. Liszt’s rendition contains three functionally identical verses, each sung with roughly the same melody.Date: current revision between 1860 to 1861Catalogue: Searle 90/3b Thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke Franz Liszts [LW] M10 R**be 560/3Performers: Tamás Bubnó as conductor Saint Ephraim Male ChoirNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes.
Clarence Barlow - 25 Anéis (2010) SoupyMold 2023-07-03 | “25 Anéis”, translated from Portuguese to English as “25 Rings”, is a piece that contains 25 iterations of a sequence of notes, each sequence slightly faster than the previous. That being said, the work begins in a languid state and accelerates into a frantic bevy of notes. The twenty-fifth “ring” comes to a sudden halt, and the two notes that conclude the piece pass with the same sluggish demeanor as the first ring. Written for the Pierrot ensemble, each instrument plays three different notes in a sequence. With the exception of the notes performed by the piano part, all the notes in the sequence are tuned to a specific centitone outlined in the foreword.Barlow, of British and Portuguese descent, was born in Calcutta, India. He studied variously in the Calcutta University in India, the Trinity College of Music in Britain, the Cologne University of Music in Germany, and the Utrecht University Institute of Sonology in the Netherlands. He later became the artistic director of the Institute of Sonology, taught composition at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, and served as the head at the University of Santa Barbara’s composition department. Though Barlow is a pioneer in the field of electroacoustic music, he prefers the sound of traditional instruments.Date: 2010Performers: Ezequiel Menalled as conductor Ensemble Modelo62Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were uploaded with the composer’s approval.Composer’s website: clarlow.org
Cameron Lee Simpson - Ghostly Gala: A Spicy Novelty (2022) SoupyMold 2023-07-01 | “Ghostly Gala”, given the subtitle “A Spicy Novelty”, is a piece in the eponymous novelty genre written by American composer Cameron Lee Simpson. Novelty piano, rooted in the piano roll technology that flourished during the 1910s and 1920s, is a direct descendant of ragtime and is a cousin to the jazz and stride styles. The novelty genre contains only light syncopation compared to its immediate stylistic forebear. Lasting approximately five minutes in duration, the piece is in AABBACDCD form (or ABAC with a longer C section). It begins in C Minor for strains A and B and moves to the submediant key of A-flat Major in strains C and strain D. Strain C and strain D (assuming it is distinct from strain C) have similar formats at the beginning, but the similarities end past the first two measures.Date: 2022Performer: Polina Chorna on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission.Composer’s channel: youtube.com/@therisingpianoplayerofthe2272
Yağız Arslan - Piece for Meliton (2023) SoupyMold 2023-06-28 | Turkish composer Yağız Arslan’s “Piece for Meliton” is a modernist composition written for his friend, Meliton Soupelin. The piece is one of his various forays into a modernist “Jazzical” fusion style. Lasting around three minutes, the work is to be played moderately slowly.Date: 2023Dedicatee: Meliton SoupelinPerformer: Maryna Buksha on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission.Composer’s channel: youtube.com/@yagiz885
Thomas Wiggins - March Timpani (1880) SoupyMold 2023-06-17 | Thomas Wiggins, popularly known as “Blind Tom”, is remembered in history as a genius savant who could memorize and recreate sounds on the piano upon first hearing. His salon composition, “March Timpani”, is dedicated to his teacher Joseph Poznanski. Particular to note is the quotation of the introduction to the Op. 34 No. 1 waltz composed by Poznanski’s fellow diasporic Pole Frédéric Chopin, which is slightly altered for Wiggins’s “March Timpani”.Wiggins was born in the American state of Georgia as a slave and the property of plantation owner Wiley Jones. Due to the blindness impacting Wiggins’ ability for manual labor, Jones initially intended to murder the newborn. Desperate, Tom’s mother, Charity Wiggins, asked Jones’ daughter to name the infant, thereby saving Tom’s life. Within the year of his birth, Wiggins’ entire family was sold to the Bethunes. The Bethune patriarch, General James Neil Bethune, added his own surname to Thomas’ name.At an early age, Wiggins showed a particularly strong affinity for the world of sound and gained access to the Bethune family piano once the Bethunes recognized his talent. Unsurprisingly, the family of plantation owners proceeded to exploit Wiggins’ gift. The Bethunes earned hundreds of thousands of dollars (worth millions in the 21st century) from Wiggins’ performances. During the Civil War, the revenue generated by Wiggins’ talents went to support the Confederate war effort. Even when the war concluded with a Union side victory, Tom Wiggins remained a ward of the Bethunes, and continued to perform under the name "Tom Bethune".In his late life, Wiggins was the subject of multiple custody battles. His new owner became Eliza Stutzbach, the ex-wife of General Bethune’s son John. Stutzbach was aided by Charity in her efforts to keep Tom, with the expectation that Stutzbach would divert some of the revenue for the old woman’s well-being. Eliza Stutzbach would soon default on her financial obligations to Tom’s mother, and the old woman returned to Georgia empty-handed and bitterly disappointed.Wiggins suffered a stroke and passed away in 1908, a freedman in name.Date: 1880Dedicatee: Joseph PoznanskiPerformer: John Davis on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.
Franz Liszt - Recueillement, S.204 SoupyMold 2023-06-12 | “Recueillement”, alternatively known as “Recollection” when translated from French to English, is a solo piano work by Franz Liszt in the formidable key of C-sharp Major. The work was written in 1877, during Liszt’s late period and well into his old age. Dedicated to the memory of Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini, Liszt composed “Recueillement” upon the instigation of composer and musicologist Francesco Florimo and on the occasion of the raising of a monument to Bellini in Naples, Italy.The piece’s main feature is its use of various arpeggio techniques. The first section is the most texturally impressive part of the piece, containing long flourishes of alternating arpeggio descents after an initial ascent, as if perhaps to signify a disillusioned old man recollecting his virtuosic playboy-pianist days. Once the virtuosic section is finished, it gives way to a far slower chorale consisting of sparser chords and completely monodic passages; the spirited first section itself appears no more thereafter. After the chorale, feebly rolling arpeggi (of a type different from that featured in the first section) struggle to materialize in between the lapses of memory and through the lingering fatigue. Besides those aforementioned features, “Recueillement”, for a late period work, is lighter than other late period pieces in terms of chromaticism but nonetheless holds its own in the realm of harmony.Date: 1877Dedicatee: in memory of Vincenzo BelliniCatalogue: Searle 204 Thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke Franz Liszts [LW] A280 R**be 86Performer: Jue Wang on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes.
Franz Liszt - Qui Seminant in Lacrimis, S.63 SoupyMold 2023-05-27 | “Qui Seminant in Lacrimis”, alternatively known as “They That Sow in Tears” when translated from Latin to English, is a sacred work by Franz Liszt for SATB choir and organ and set to lyrics from Verse 5 of Psalm 125 in the Latin Vulgate Bible (Psalm 126 in the King James Version). The work was written in 1884, a few years before Liszt’s ultimate demise. Given the monophonic chanting, highly chromatic chord progressions, and patches of complete silence, it would sound like a work from the composer’s advanced stage in life. The ultimate cleanly tonal resolution of the piece in the key of D Major betrays that impression. The cadence arrives to the expected tonic via a chromatic mediant as was Liszt’s wont. On the four occasions when the lyrics “lacrimis” are pronounced, the Tristan chord appears thrice (the third incarnation is the exception) and circumlocutes its way to the resulting cadence.Date: 1884Catalogue: Searle 63 Thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke Franz Liszts [LW] J48 R**be 525Performers: Vox DanicaNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes.
Franz Liszt - Ora pro Nobis: Litany, S.262 SoupyMold 2023-05-11 | “Ora pro Nobis”, alternatively known as “Pray for Us” when translated from Latin to English and subtitled “Litany”, is a sacred work by Franz Liszt for solo organ. The work was written in 1864 and was dedicated to Cardinal Prince Gustav of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst. The Cardinal Prince was originally Liszt’s enemy as he was instrumental in ruining Liszt’s plans to marry the noblewoman Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, née Iwanowska. The two men eventually became friends again, and the Cardinal Prince had the honor of inducting Liszt (a lecherous profligate who, in the eyes of the Church, was a particularly rowdy bronco whose taming would make a valuable triumph) under monastic orders. The composition “Ora pro Nobis” was the fruit of the reconciliation between them.The piece is very tonal, as it was written before the advent of Liszt’s late period. Nonetheless, the sparsity that characterized the late period is previewed in this piece. According to some sources, the work is inspired by melodies from the Holy Land recorded by Princess Katharina von Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, first cousin of the Cardinal Prince, while on a trip there.Date: 1864Dedicatee: Gustav Adolf, Prinz zu Hohenlohe-SchillingsfürstCatalogue: Searle 262 Thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke Franz Liszts [LW] E20 R**be 383Performer: Ulrik Spang-Hanssen on organNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes.
thenameisgsarci - Peachicato Polka (2022) SoupyMold 2023-05-08 | Filipino composer (and popular score video maker) Patrick Sarcilla’s “Peachicato Polka” is a dance piece in the neoromantic style, composed in March of 2022 and revised during the same month in 2023. The Polka, a parodic namesake of Léo Delibes’s “Pizzicato Polka”, is structured in ABACABA form, with the recapitulation further developed to include a coda. The piece is dedicated to “Kira Omori”, the alias of a Virtual Youtuber.Sarcilla’s preface for the piece is as thus:“Dear Kira, I know that this piece just came out as a playful response to your interest in classical music when I watched one of your livestreams in the hopes of helping you if you want any recommendations, but nonetheless I still cannot believe that this will be one of the fastest pieces I can ever attempt to write down in my composing hobby. (I say, hobby, I am not confident to make a living out of it, but it's alright with me, don't worry.) I tried my best to figure out how can I [sic] make the product not too melancholic nor too humorous. I feel contented [sic] with this one, and I hope you do too. By the way, the title of the piece is a humoristic portmanteau between "peach" and "pizzicato", a technique commonly used in string instruments played by plucking the strings to the assigned note. Since the piece is composed for piano, however, the equivalent technique for said instrument, the "staccato" is applied here. It is also a tribute to another piece, "Pizzicato Polka", by a French composer named Leo Delibes that he composed for his ballet "Sylvia," to which, I will admit, has influenced me in a helpful way, and therefore has some similarities to the one I made.Written in A minor, the piece begins with an octave introduction, the motif provided (C - E - A - B - F) making its entrance for the A section, the chromatic passages demanding a moderate level of finger dexterity with its staccato markings. In contrast, the repeating B section in A major is mellow in character, and no staccato is used; however the mood turns somewhat dramatic on its way to the recapitulation of the A section. This time, there are noticeable changes made towards the coda, in which the motif appears once again before ending the piece in the opposite ends of the piano.”Date: 2022Dedicatee: Kira OmoriPerformer: Meliton Soupelin on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score, and it is used for non-commercial purposes. The score in the video was obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission. The audio is owned by this channel, however.Composer’s channel: youtube.com/@thenameisgsarciOFFICIAL
Hector Berlioz - Toccata in C Major, H 99 SoupyMold 2023-05-06 | French composer Hector Berlioz’s Toccata is a miniature piece written in November of 1844 for the “melodium organ” (also known as a harmonium), newly developed by organ-builder Jacob Alexandre and Berlioz’s friend. Originally published under his “Trois Morceaux pour l’Orgue-Mélodium” set, the constituent works, including the Toccata, are often listed separately and were given their own separate catalogue entries by the Berliozologist Kern Holoman.The left hand features repeated figures of an upward stepwise triad followed by a downward scale and a turn [“gruppetto”] ornamental figure, before repeating. The right hand contains a contrapuntal passage that often crosses in on itself. The Toccata eventually culminates, abruptly but nonetheless gently, in a pause. Thereafter, the contrasting paths of the different hands reunite in the ensuing coda (which, like Bach’s preludes, are texturally distinct from the rest of the piece), where they play cadential chords in unison to conclude the work.Date: 1844Catalogue: Holoman 99Performer: Arturo Sacchetti on harmoniumNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.
Cameron Lee Simpson - Virus Rag (2022) SoupyMold 2023-05-04 | “Virus Rag”, by American composer Cameron Lee Simpson, is a jazzy ragtime piece written in 2022. Lasting approximately three to five minutes in duration, the piece is in ABACD form. The Rag begins in A Minor for strains A and B and unexpectedly enters E-flat Major in strain C and finally C Major in strain D.Date: 2022Performer: “goose” on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission.Composer’s channel: youtube.com/@therisingpianoplayerofthe2272
Jehan Alain - Monodie, JA 135A SoupyMold 2023-05-02 | “Monodie” for solo flute is a piece by French composer Jehan Alain, completed on September 8, 1938. As a piece for a solo instrument, it contains one slow melodic line.Alain was born to a family of French musicians. His father, Albert Alain, was an organist and also a composer. Jehan Alain attended the Paris Conservatory between 1927 and 1939, studying organ under Marcel Dupré, harmony under André Bloch, and fugue under Georges Caussade. Alain officially began composing in 1929 at age 18 and continued over a span of 11 short years, writing choral works, songs, and music for chamber, piano, and organ. At the outbreak of World War Two, Alain, one of the first to be mobilized, was sent to Northern France. During the Dunkirk Evacuation, he earned a medal for bravery after a particularly dangerous mission.Alain met his end at age 29, when he encountered a group of German soldiers while on a scouting mission during the Battle of Saumur. He single-handedly slew 16 of the enemy with his trusty machine gun before falling in battle himself. The German commander, doubtlessly impressed by the valor of his foe, ordered his men to give Alain a military burial with full honors in acknowledgement of Alain’s qualifications for an apotheosis to Valhalla.Date: 1938Catalogue: Jehan Alain 135APerformer: Françoise Gyps on fluteNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes.
R. D. Lee - Little Piece for Piano (2021) SoupyMold 2023-05-01 | Ramer Davey Lee, known by his online handle “Schroender”, is a composer and engraver from the Philippines. He is known in the art music world for making authorized typesets of British composer Kaikhosru Sorabji’s compositions. Lee’s “Little Piece for Piano” is a short work lasting between one to two minutes long, and written in a style inspired by Sorabji’s own. The work is full of dissonances to the point of atonality, but nonetheless tonally resolves on a D-flat Major chord. Some sections contain textures reminiscent of a tango or a habanera, seemingly influenced by Sorabji’s Pastiche No. 2.Date: 2021Performer: Maryna Buksha on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission.
Valentine Azpeitia - Waltz in F Major, Op. 37 SoupyMold 2023-04-29 | Valentine Azpeitia’s Op. 37 Waltz is a one-to-two-minute long piece composed in 2023. The Waltz is given a ternary ABA structure, where the A section is set in the key of F Major and the B Trio section is in the subtonic key of E-flat Major. The Trio in the Waltz was loosely inspired by the respective section of Joplin’s “The Nonpareil”. As given by the English tempo marking, the piece is to be played softly and slowly.Date: 2023Dedicatee: Meliton SoupelinCatalogue: Op. 37Performer: Maryna Buksha on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission.Composer’s channel: youtube.com/@valentineluvu
Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh - Waltz In F Major SoupyMold 2023-04-27 | Waltz in F Major is a piano composition by Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and later the sovereign Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The piece was likely written at an unknown date sometime before 1867, the publishing year. Set in the style of a Viennese waltz, the piece is in ABACDCABA form, with a Trio in the original key’s subdominant of B-flat Major. The Duke, as the son of Prince Albert and of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, inherited his father’s love for art and music and, like the Prince Consort, took up composing as a pastime. Among his other musical activities, Prince Alfred helped to establish the Royal College of Music in 1882, and also valiantly attempted to learn how to play the violin (special emphasis on the word “attempted”).Performer: Meliton Soupelin on pianoPerformer’s channel: youtube.com/@MoldySoupNote: This channel owns both the score edition and audio in the video.
Kolster-Pribelszky - Ghost Pepper Rag (2022) SoupyMold 2023-04-22 | It is a Rag.Date: 2022Performer: Christina Pepper (Coincidence? I think not) on pianoPerformer’s channel: youtube.com/@ChristinaPepperNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from a co-composer and uploaded with the co-composer and performer’s permission.
Samuel Mincarelli - Geflügelt (2021) SoupyMold 2023-04-16 | “Geflügelt” for solo piano is a miniature study-composition by American composer Samuel Mincarelli, dedicated to his friend, Meliton Soupelin. It is a serial work inspired by the style of Anton Webern. The piece is to constantly repeat, decreasing in volume all the while. The piece ends once it fades away, depending on the whims of the performer.Date: 2021Dedicatee: Meliton SoupelinPerformer: Maryna Buksha on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission.
Franz Liszt - Mariengarten: Quasi Cedrus!, S.62 SoupyMold 2023-04-14 | “Mariengarten”, alternatively known as “Mary’s Garden” in German and subtitled “Quasi Cedrus!”, is a sacred work by Franz Liszt for organ and voice. The work came to be only a few years before Liszt’s death, and was first published only in 1936. The piece is very tonal, despite being from his late period; however, other aspects of that compositional stage are present, like that of Liszt’s use of bare monody and the appearances of meandering melodic lines. The libretto was taken from the Bible, specifically Chapter 24 from the apocryphal and deuterocanonical Book of Sirach (also known as the Book of Ecclesiasticus).Date: around 1884Catalogue: Searle 62 Thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke Franz Liszts [LW] J47 R**be 512Performers: Kálmán Strausz as conductor Márta Lukin on alto voice István Gáti on tenor voice Zsuzsa Elekes on organ Hungarian Folk Ensemble ChoirNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes.
Konstantin Krystallis - Harpsichord Sonata in C Minor (2015) SoupyMold 2023-04-09 | Harpsichord Sonata in C Minor is a Baroque-style piece written by Greek composer Konstantin Krystallis when he was 16 years of age, likely inspired by the textures of George Frideric Handel’s Keyboard Sonatina in A Minor, HWV 584. The Sonata profusely incorporates Alberti Bass, and often switches hands to restate a common theme in a different manner. Curiously, the composition’s key is set in a natural minor.Date: 2015Performer: Dr. Claveciniste on harpsichordPerformer’s channel: youtube.com/@mahler914Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were uploaded with the performer’s approval.Composer’s channel: youtube.com/@konstantinkrystallis8484Score: imslp.org/wiki/Harpsichord_Sonata_in_C_minor_%28Krystallis%2C_Konstantin%29
Soupelin-Simpson - Spaghetti Rag (2023) SoupyMold 2023-04-05 | Composition between buddies. I wrote strains A and B. Simpson composed strains C and D.Date: 2023Performer: Maryna Buksha on pianoNote: This channel owns the score but not the audio in the video.
Louis Moreau Gottschalk - Jeunesse: Mazurka Brillante, Op. 70 SoupyMold 2023-04-04 | “Jeunesse” [French for “Youth”], subtitled “Mazurka Brillante”, is a piano piece by American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk. The Parisian-styled Mazurka is structured in ABACA form. The main A theme has a typical Mazurka dance theme in F Major. A majestic B theme makes use of a wide tone range in the dominant key of C Major. Finally, the trio section (C theme) approaches the listener twice; the first iteration is timid and crawls in the low registers. It then makes a grand and imperious reappearance in a manner similar to the B theme.Date: 1859Catalogue: Op. 70Performer: Alan Mandel on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.
Frédéric Chopin - Scherzo No. 1 in B Minor, Op. 20 (Cindy Elizondo) SoupyMold 2023-04-01 | Scherzo No. 1 is a composition for piano written by Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. Ironically named “Scherzo”, which means “joke” in Italian, the piece was composed during a turbulent and strifeful period in Polish history, and was dedicated to a friend who convinced Chopin not to return to his native Poland during the 1830 November Uprising and to stay in Vienna for his own safety; the contents of the piece were just as stormy and dark, full of difficult and frantic musical outbursts and often built on diminished chordal harmony. Chopin began work on the piece in 1831, completed it in or around 1833, and published it in 1835 via a Parisian company. The Scherzo is structured in A-B-A form, with an elaborate coda appended to the end. The B section contains an allusion to the Polish Christmas song “Sleep, Little Jesus”, while surrounding it on both sides is the A section, itself nothing short of dramatic and desperate. As the B section concludes, the signature two introductory chords from the A section charge to the forefront to begin ringing (like a French knight at the Battle of Agincourt) before the lilting B section textures even had the chance to finish, as if one were to suddenly wake from a beautiful, sweet dream by the sounds of a civil defense siren.Date: around 1833Dedicatee: Thomas AlbrechtCatalogue: Op. 20Performer: Cindy Elizondo on pianoNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes.Original audio: youtube.com/watch?v=Rs_ny89NdE4&ab_channel=FranFranBurgerOriginal uploader’s channel: youtube.com/@asdfg952816
Ryan Collis - Enscale (2022) SoupyMold 2023-03-27 | British composer Ryan Collis's "Enscale" is a piece for solo percussion inspired by a London art exhibition featuring South African photographer Bongani Tshabalala's "Montsho". The word "montsho", meaning "black", is often used derogatorily against those of darker skin color. The word aptly titles Tshabalala's photograph of an African girl with solemn eyes wearing a black cloak. The skin blends with the cloth with barely any contrast, creating a shadowy effect for the viewer. The silhouette effect in the photograph, perhaps to make a metaphor out of the invisibility one would feel when teased for having pitch-black skin, compliments Tshabalala's own personal experiences with the feeling of social isolation and lowered self-esteem that comes from the aforementioned childhood ridicule.Collis's piece, “Enscale” lasts around 4 to 5 minutes, and consists of various sections of contrasting rhythm. Overall, the piece maintains a consistent texture, with few areas and cadenzas that feature rubato and free time.Date: 2022Performer: Charlie Payne on temple blocksNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission. There are differences between the performer’s interpretation and what is depicted on the score.Composer’s profile: movingclassics.tv/classicpeople/ryan-collis Composer’s channel: youtube.com/@ryacoliComposer’s MuseScore page: musescore.com/ryacoli
Franz Liszt - Tantum Ergo, S.42 SoupyMold 2023-03-24 | Hungarian composer Franz Liszt’s Tantum Ergo [Latin for “Therefore So Great”] is a piece from his later-middle period, composed to a libretto deriving from the last two stanzas of St. Thomas Aquinas’s hymn, “Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium”. The Tantum Ergo is sung during the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament ceremony in the Catholic Church. There are two versions of the work; the original version for female chorus (two soprano and two alto voices) and organ was composed in 1859, and a rearrangement for male chorus (two tenor and two bass voices) and organ composed a decade later in 1869. Both versions were separately published in 1871.Date: 1877Catalogue: Searle 42 Thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke Franz Liszts [LW] J27 R**be 532Versions: No. 1 - For Female Choir: 0:08 No. 2 - For Male Choir: 3:16Performers (No. 1): Miklós Szabó as conductor Gábor Lehotka on organ Győr Girls' Chorus, Choir Of The Hungarian States Folk EnsemblePerformers (No. 2): Dominique Vellard as conductor Ensemble Gilles Binchois Chœur AltitudeNote: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes.
