Some beautiful, quasi-impressionistic works for solo piano.

Thanks to a promo that my printing company is running, I'm able to sell these couple of pieces for the printing cost (About $7.50), and have them shipped to most countries *free* for a very limited time, which is very cool... So I wanted to use this as an opportunity to try and get some of these pieces onto pianos around the country and abroad!
If you're interested in getting your hands on some new, beautifully printed, and beautiful sounding works for solo piano, please take a moment to check these two out as I don't think you will be disappointed! smile emoticon

The Mountain Stairs - $7.50 *Including Shipping*
http://chrishealey.tictail.com/product/the-mountain-stairs-for-solo-piano

Six Piano Miniatures - $7.50 *Including Shipping*
http://chrishealey.tictail.com/product/six-piano-miniatures-solo-piano

Works for Solo Piano (Six Miniatures / Mountain Stairs)

Dream Waves (December 2017)

End of year playlist from Making Waves:  this is a marathon collection of all Soundcloud tracks featured in playlists this year.  Your holiday listening sorted!

2017 Waves

Sample Recordings

Composed by Christopher Healey

www.facebook.com/chrishealeymusic
www.twitter.com/Healeycj

Piano: Corey Sinclair
Soprano: Marielle Allan

Original Text:
When death comes and whispers to me,
"Thy days are ended,"
let me say to him, "I have lived in love
and not in mere time."
He will ask, "Will thy songs remain?"
I shall say, "I know not, but this I know
that often when I sang I found my eternity."

From Tagore Rabindranath's 'Fireflies'

Text as set:
"Thy days are ended,"
"Will thy songs remain?"
let me say "I have lived in love."

St Tagore's Cathedral - Thy Days

Brass Quintet based on the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Performed by Josh Rogan, Allison Wright, Georgia Ioakimidis-MacDougall, Ashley Carter & Tim Duncan.

Daydreams & Nightmares - For Brass Quintet

Written over a month in London 2014, Dean Stevenson composed the suite as an underscore for the days. Each day Dean spent in relationship with the city and its people became a mood that found music of an evening. Limiting himself to a string sextet and piano. each piece evolved, not as a continual narrative, more a series of vignettes. These do not seek to direct the listener through or into a particular time or place, but to allow a scene or mood to be felt or remembered from the listeners experience. Each piece is somewhat static; feeling a moment without necessarily moving through it. Like the underscore of a film, it remains unresolved in itself and requires a visual (memory) to fulfil it. That is in the hands of the listener. This suite truly democratises the ears of the audience. Feel for yourself your own past, present or future within the moments of the London Suite. 
The London Suite was recorded in Government House, Hobart Tasmania in February 2015. The ensemble involved musicians from the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

Dean Stevenson - London 14 Lullaby V00m01 44k16b

Singing into a broken Violin in my Grandmothers kitchen.

Artwork by J. Whatman, 1805

Melatonin Dreamscapes

Netuke

Netsuke

Responsibility

Miniature 6

Miniature 4

Miniature 3

Miniature 1

Miniature 5

Miniature 2

Birches

Birches was written several years ago and was one of the very first works I wrote after starting my Bachelor of Music degree. The work is very much inspired by the poem by Robert Frost of the same name. The first few lines begin as follows:
  
When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.  

If you haven’t read the poem before, I recommend it. The imagery and the themes of youth, spirituality, natural world and the human imagination, make it beautiful in Frosts unique, controlled and metaphorical style of writing.  In particular, the crystalline imagery of vast snowfields and bent Birches really spoke to me musically. The opening lines capture this, as well as a sense of fragility that I find runs through Frost’s poem.  A few other lines worth mentioning here are:

 I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.

The work’s structure reflects this journey, moving from the snowy ground, up, up, towards the heavens, only to fall back to earth.

Performed by Brijette Tubb

Birches for Solo Flute

A response to the lives lost in Paris, November 2015. The piece attempts to portray the confused but overwhelmingly energised inner workings of a young, fanaticised mind and give form to their misshapen and distorted reality.

Works by playwright Wole Soyinka influenced my choice of perspective when approaching this topic. 

… the shadowy one, the waiter-stalker, a youth
 Fed on dreams of sarabands of houris
 Doe-eyed virgins, wine and sweetmeats in the afterlife 
But to his paradise, a key - the plunging knife. 

an excerpt from Samarkand
by Wole Soyinka

The Fanatic or I Am Right You Are Dead

Commissioned by Samantha Wolf for International Women's Day 2016 concert: This Will Be Our Reply. First performed on 7th March 2016 by Tamara Kohler, Gemma Tomlinson, Aaron Klein, & Adam McMillan.

There is usually more complexity on the inside than what is initially seen.

"On the Inside" explores the many aspects of identity throughout a woman’s life, from growth to complexity, (as opposed to innocence to uselessness). It rejects the idea that women are to be seen as objects only, that a woman’s value lies in her physical attributes and functionality to another. 

Musically, this piece started with a single small motif that is heard about a third of the way in, which I then grew and developed continuously. Despite rejecting external ideals, aspects that might be perceived as "beauty" have been retained because, like all characteristics, beauty is not something to be ashamed of or feared.

On The Inside

[text by Rhys Nixon, composed && performed by Dan Thorpe].

going wild here on the footpath

a dog looked at me, walked away

going to buy a dog off amazon after getting something to eat

send pictures of dogs to strangers

no one sends any back

windows fogged up 

cant see inside

 

what am i doing between tabs i’m not looking at

another day, another empty mail box

no we don’t want to subscribe to your newsletter

no we are happy with our bandwidth 

no we don’t care about your coupons

no this letter isn’t meant for us


been waiting outside way too long

yes, it’s exactly what it looks like, more than one train approaching

walk down the street in pajamas, will people even look 

they glance and mutter

they really do need to subscribe

looks like their bandwidth is low

probably uses coupons

 

walking on footpaths, broken rubbish bag

empty milk bottles rolling into gutters

think of picking them up

we don’t, look at the bus drive past

everyone waiting

 

i can use this, open a store, sell my ideas

watches don’t tell the time, coffee tastes like water

inbuilt spelling mistake maker

automatic Facebook liker

app that answers the door

service that compares all the dogs in your area

white noise dream catcher

 

if i tackled a police officer would people stop me

or will the police officer step aside

consider this while waiting for a coffee

consider this while you exit the train station

consider that the police officer 

didn’t look at you

 

i walked into traffic and all the cars stopped politely, 

the drivers weren't watching me

if you were waiting for me

i’m sorry about that

it must be the water

can i get a drink

 

i’ll look at a sad picture and not feel the need to cry

until someone says ‘wow that made me cry a lot’

we’ll walk to the bank

take all our money

throw it on the road

watch cars drive over it

pick it up and deposit it again

 

don’t worry about it, honestly, 

i’ll make sure to stand up straighter

and meet up with friends

we’ll be the friendliest people

on the end of our street

in our complex

in our combined bank account

linked to our insurance company

 

bury my face in funny videos

don’t want to know anymore

turn the volume down here so i wont be noticed

give up sleeping

stay up every day

everything feels blue

we won’t be photographed

Considerate

What can we do, there's nothing to do,
about sickness and hunger and dying.
What can we do, there's nothing to do,
nothing but cursing and crying.

Find something to burn.
Let it go up in smoke.
burn your troubles away.

Sometimes it's witches or what will you choose?
Sometimes it's lunatics, shut them away.
It's blacks and it's women and often it's Jews.
We's all be quite happy if they'd go away.

Find something to burn.
Let it go up in smoke.
burn your troubles away.

The lyrics of Caryl Churchill from her play 'Vinegar Tom'. Performed and composed by ALPHAMALE (https://soundcloud.com/dad-dreams) and Marlene Claudine Radice. This piece premiered in COUP Canberra's 2016 production of Vinegar Tom.
http://www.agac.com.au/2016/12/the-musicians-of-vinegar-tom/

Cut Common interview with Hannah and Marlene: http://www.cutcommonmag.com/how-can-we-use-music-to-achieve-social-change/

Something To Burn

From the Colours of Creation 2012 Concert. Performed by John Addison (cello) and Adam McMillan (Piano). This was a live performance and they didn't have very long to learn the piece it so forgive them the occasionally rough edges. They did a wonderful job and I'm very very thankful to them both!

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www.twitter.com/Healeycj

Cello and Piano Sonatina

Soprano: Amber Evan's
Piano: Adam McMillan


www.facebook.com/chrishealeymusic
www.twitter.com/Healeycj

Text:
Let me not grope in vain in the dark
but keep my mind still in the faith
that the day will break
and truth will appear
in its simplicity. 
(From Fireflies by Tagore Rabindranath)

Miniature 3

Chris Healey - Composer