[wax]

im not sureexactly what im looking for, but im really getting to love the sound of piano.
obviously played with extreme talent and intensity.
im totaly new to the kind of music im after, so i dont really know how to expain what it is i want.
lets say solo intense piano pieces.
modern or very old, doesnt matter.
perhaps some of the old famous guys? mozart or something? ive really no idea, so please someone who knows about this kind of thing give me some advice.

[Cantankerous]

i don't know, go listen to diamanda galas.

[Gulasch Noir]

Mondscheinsonate, Beethoven, listen:
http://www.beethoven-haus-bonn.de/fl...nate/mond.html

[porkmarras]

Erik Satie.

Satie's first great piano period dates back to his youth and his first time spent in Montmartre. During these years he wrote some 20 piano pieces, five songs, some sketches for string quartet, theatre music for Joséphin Péladan and a little orchestral piece, later re-used as the penultimate movement in Trois morceaux en forme de poire for piano duet.
These early compositions stand against a background of Gregorian chant and salon and cabaret music. Satie's personal life was also in a turnmoil: his conservatory studies failed, while at the same time he found a new interest in the "esoteric". He also met artists and writers and got to know the special atmosphere that permeated Bohemian life in Montmartre during La Belle Époque - this curious mixture of serious seeking, mysticism, an unbridled sense of fun and the general madness that were par for the course in the famous cafés of the day: Chat noir, Auberge du clou, Le lapin agile and many others.
During the years of his youth in Honfleur, two people came to have a great, perhaps decisive, importance in Satie's future development: his uncle Adrien Satie, and his first music-teacher Vinot, the organist of the church of Saint-Léonard. The uncle, who went by the name "Uncle Seabird", appears to have been a most eccentric man and something of the black sheep of the family. He devoted little attention to his profession - he was a ship-broker - but all the more so to boats, horses and frivolous theatre. This charming, rather mad, gentleman and his young nephew spent much time together, which certainly left deep traces in the personality of the latter. When Satie later came into contact with the cultural climate of Montmartre he evidently had no problems adapting to it himself. It would also appear to be a popular misconception that Satie should first have become jocular in the early 1910s. His special brand of humour and sense of the absurdities of life was part of him from the

beginning, as was the equally characteristic deep strains of melancholy.

In the spring of 1874 Satie's grandfather brought his musically gifted grandson to the organist Vinot, who undertook his musical education. Vinot had received his education at the École Niedermeyer in Paris, the most famous school for church musicians in the latter half of the 19th century. He was the organist and choir leader of the Saint-Léonard church in Honfleur between 1873 and 1878. It was probably through him Satie first was subjected to Gregorian chant, which serene, distant and endless melodic lines are traceable in almost everything he wrote from the Ogives in 1886, to Socrate in 1918. But Vinot also had another, less expected, trick up his sleeve: he composed slow waltzes that were sometimes played by the orchestra association of Honfleur. Thus the two main tonal foundations of Satie's musical creation were already in place in the mid-1870s, clearly defined and established: Gregorian chant and light music.

 

Charcoal drawing of Erik Satie by Ramón Casas from 1892.

Satie had no doubt already encountered the latter on going to the theatre and the circus with Uncle Seabird. Moreover, his many-talented father was quite a passable amateur composer who wrote salon music and cabaret songs. When he remarried in 1879, it was to the piano teacher Eugénie Barnetche (who also composed salon pieces for piano). Together they founded a music business which included a shop, a publishing company and a comprehensive piano and song-teaching school. Satie's father presumably turned the
new home in Paris to a proper centre for popular music.

It was in all probability the step-mother, whom young Erik immediately loathed, who was the driving force behind his studies at the conservatory; studies which were certainly decisive in his artistic
and personal development, if in a very negative capacity.

He sought companionship amongst writers and artists rather than fellow musicians. Early reading experiences of H.C. Andersen, Gustave Flaubert and Joséphin Péladan, amongst others, grew more important and inspirational than musical experiences (with the possible exception of Chabrier's opera Le roi malgré lui). Of special importance to him was the friendship with the young Spanishborn symbolist poet Contamine de Latour (1867-1926). "Le vieux modeste", as Satie ironically called him, is said to have claimed kinship with Napoleon and considered himself entitled to the throne of France. As a writer his talents were mediocre, at least if one is to judge by the texts Satie put to music in the mid-1880s, but he became a great source of inspiration, both as a Montmartre practical joker and a guide to medieval mysticism and esotericism.
Allegro

Satie's earliest known composition is an as yet unprinted Allegro for piano dated "Honfleur. Sept. 9th 1884". It is, however, hardly likely that this should be his first attempt at composing. This piece is only nine bars long (taking 20 seconds to play), but the elegant signature suggests that the young composer saw the little piece as complete. The notation is flowing, almost nonchalantly so, and moreover it seems that he wished to compress the piece even further by striking out a short bridge passage. The Satie researcher Laurent de François has shown that the piece is based on a popular tune with the refrain J'irai revoir ma Normandie" (a method Satie also used much later in his humorous piano pieces 1912-1915). This fact naturally prompts the thought that it is simply a little musical "postcard" from his summer holidays in his home town by the Atlantic Coast, far away from the hated conservatory and the energetic step-mother. It still resounds with bright optimism, far from the melancholy and slow tempo that would later come to dominate his music.

[porkmarras]

Valse-ballet & Fantaisie-valse

Among the first works by young Satie to be published were two salon-waltzes printed as supplements in his father's publication La musiques des familles on March 17th and July 28th of 1887. The first appended with the curious numbering "Opus 62" (!), and the second with the following introduction:
"Today we publish a charming Fantaisie-valse for piano by Erik Satie. This work by a very young musician is elegant in structure and gracious in rhythm, without dryness. All the author's works, amongst which we will mention Three Melodies, indicate a propensity for reverie and a tendency to move away from the strict laws of symmetrical rhythm." The rather trivial, frequently-repeated phrases and the bassnotes around the basic
chords are typical of the style of the simple salon music of the day.
At the same time, it can be noted that Satie - conciously or not - managed to avoid the sentimentality to the style. Instead, both waltzes have traits of timeless simplicity. Perhaps, even, something of the starkness one usually associates with the Gymnopédies.

[porkmarras]

Etc etc.

[wax]

cheers.
im checking them out now

[wax]

also, an adjective i forgot,

dark

[atari 2600]

First of all, forget the obvious like Thelonius Monk.
I'll limit my suggestions to five wunderkinds & pray that you can take the best advice going...

Art Tatum
Bud Powell
Herbie Hancock
McCoy Tyner
Brad Mehldau (more recent)

All of them are virtuoso jazz piano players & all of them have solo work available. As far as playing with bands, buy Tatum's the Complete Pablo Sessions, the Ultimate Bud Powell, Hancock's Empyrean Isles, Tyner's The Real McCoy & Mehldau Trio's Something Else.

Count Basie deemed Art Tatum "the eighth wonder of the world."
Bud Powell is esteemed as the best ever by many in the jazz world, although Lennie Tristano still has his die-hard advocates for his famous, one-of-a-kind "Lennie lines" & his unique way he can play blocked-out chords.
As for Hancock, his best work is his playing with Miles band & his early solo work in the sixties. Herbie was playing Mozart in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age eleven. Now, there were lots of concert pianists in that city I'm sure that wanted that job, but it was given to young Hancock. If that doesn't tell you something, then I simply cannot assist you because your mind is closed.


If you cannot leap all the way into some great jazz, then get some Lennie Tristano (Cross Current) or Sal Mosca (http://www.salmosca.com/salripped.htm) because they play improvisational jazz piano with a lot of classical piano influence.

a post from a couple of weekends ago:
I watched an svcd today from Berlin '65. It's a piano workshop that features musicians like Earl Hines, Teddy Wilson, Lennie Tristano, Bill Evans & Jaki Byard all taking turns at the grand pianos doing improvs, playing duets, etc. as the band (which features NHOP on upright bass) plays.

[Glice]

Debussy, Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Shostokovich... all masters of piano composition. A lot of people these days tend to be very into Shostokovich's solo piano pieces. Probably best not to tell you which to get by whom, as I'm not entirely on top of any of their corpus', but I suspect you'll probably find what you're after in there somewhere.

Laziest. Post. Evverr.

[Cantankerous]

Originally Posted by wax

also, an adjective i forgot,

dark

diamanda galas is the one for you.

[atari 2600]

Brad Mehldau's Radiohead covers are dark. There are solo & versions with his trio.
http://www.bradmehldau.com/
I also have about 20 soundboards of solo or trio, a few pro-shot videos & an ARTE TV documentary.

& yeah, I know of Diamanda Galas. She's okay, although it really doesn't take a hell of lot of talent to pretend to be possessed....let's be honest. She probably took Mike Garson's piano solo on Bowie's "Aladdin Sane" as her launching pad or at least her stuff certainly sounds that way...it may be dark, but it's in no way virtuosic. I saw her way back when before many of you were even in elementary school on David Sanborn's short-lived Night Music TV show. Another episode, as is well-known now, featured Sonic Youth greatness.

[HaydenAsche]

Meatloaf.

[Glice]

Originally Posted by atari 2600

Brad Mehldau's Radiohead covers are dark. There are solo & versions with his trio.
http://www.bradmehldau.com/
I also have about 20 soundboards of solo or trio, a few pro-shot videos & an ARTE TV documentary.

& yeah, I know of Diamanda Galas. She's okay, although it really doesn't take a hell of lot of talent to pretend to be possessed....let's be honest. She probably took Mike Garson's piano solo on Bowie's "Aladdin Sane" as her launching pad or at least her stuff certainly sounds that way...it may be dark, but it's in no way virtuosic. I saw her way back when before many of you were even in elementary school on David Sanborn's short-lived Night Music TV show. Another episode, as is well-known now, featured Sonic Youth greatness.

Ah, that's the chappy. I heard those on the radio, didn't make a note of his name. Danke.

And regarding your DG comments, that you need to suggest that she, someone you don't like, 'ripped off' Bowie, someone you do like, shows a certain lack of insultative flair.

She's a good pianist. Maybe not world class, I wouldn't know, not playing the instrument. But a good one. And her voice is very much a 'one man's meat' thing, there really is no point criticising or defending it. I love her, somedays more than anyone else, but that's neither here nor there.

[atsonicpark]

Listen to that william basinski album variations in chrome or whatever.

[atari 2600]

Diamanda is okay. She's interesting at least.
I can't recommend her though when there are so many artists out there that are so much better.
Is she better than Tori Amos? Yeah, by a million miles. Is she better than Kate Bush? Not even close.

[Norma J]

Try some David Helfgott.

[heavium]

you might like Sergei Rachmaninoff, and since we're talking about good pianists i just have to mention Tori Amos, hah.

Mogwai have some great piano-based songs..

[Pookie]

How about John Cage:

Three Easy Pieces (1933)
Two Pieces for Piano (1935)
Metamorphosis (1938)
Ad Lib (1943)
Triple-Paced No. 1 (1943)
Soliloquy (1945)
Ophelia (1946)
Two Pieces for Piano (1946)
Dream (1948)
In a Landscape (1948)
Haiku (1951)
Seven Haiku (1951)
For MC and DT (1952)
Music for Piano 1 (1952)
Waiting (1952)
Cheap Imitation (1969)
Etudes Australes (1974)
Perpetual Tango (1984)
ASLSP (1985)
One (1987)
Sports: Swinging (1989)
One5 (1990)


Or Charles Ives, Piano Sonata No. 1.

and you can't go too wrong with Satie or Debussy.

[sonicl]

Philip Glass - Solo Piano