Name: Bells Of Valhalla ("Carol of the Bells" Fantasy) by Jeffrey J. Torres
Duration: 1 min 55 s
Description: An epic take on this traditional carol fitting for the gods of myth and legend...

Fantastic arrangement and orchestration!!!! Really powerful!

Superb arangement Jeff, as ever :) Just excellent.

Merry Christmas For All Good People All Around the World!!! https://soundcloud.com/cadenzando/prince-of-peace

The sound of Brass staccatos are very powerful! Don't mind me asking, but what plugins did you use to make this? :D

"Ars longa, vita brevis" translated from the Latin is understood to mean "Art is long, life is short".

Ars Longa

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus  is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces.  Janus presided over the beginning and ending of conflict, and hence war and peace.

The Two Faces Of Janus (Contemplative Mix)

“I close my eyes, but I can’t fall asleep, my body dying for the rest while my mind’s wide awake.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

I invite you to listen to my piano improvisation "Sleepless Nights".
Watch the video version on my YouTube channel   https://youtu.be/ytRFTLrq3Hk

The sheet music of some of my compositions can be downloaded from my website https://pianoimprovictor.com/ Some new works are available on  https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/publishers/victor-birkan-sheet-music/3028943?isPLP=1
Find all my music here: https://linktr.ee/victorbirkan

Sleepless Nights - Improvised Piano Piece

Boghos Gelalian Sonata Breva Bis pour Violoncelle et Piano 3eme mvt
Adrien Frasse Sombet I Violoncelle
Zina Asfour I Piano
Extract from the cd entitled Folklore
Enregistre a Studio Malambo en FranceI Mixage Studio MARS I Mastering D. Brouillet I Edits Kawar Studios
Photo de couverture par Usama Tamimi a Petra Al Beida en Jordanie.

Boghos Gelalian Sonata Breva Bis pour Violoncelle et Piano 3eme Mvt

Sinnsuche

Sinnsuche - Search for meaning

Barbora Kolářová, violin
Jordan Bak, viola
Mia Barcia-Colombo, cello
Charles Paul, bass

Commissioned by the Lake George Music Festival
made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts


Program Note:

The initial impetus for …enfumée was Georgia O’Keeffe’s Blue II, an early work from a series of abstract and monochromatic explorations in 1916. When setting out to write this piece I initially chose to engage with O’Keeffe’s work because of her close connection with Lake George. While browsing a featured exhibit of her work at MoMA, I was immediately struck by the deep saturation and subtle shading of the color in this particular painting, the powerful movement portrayed in the crumpled yet expansive swirl of blue –  like someone making a fist of smoke. This image resonated particularly strongly at the time, as we were in the midst of New York’s first encounter with the hazardous smoke from the Canadian wildfires which was engulfing the city and surrounding regions of the country. In that moment I decided not to write a work that was necessarily in direct response to O’Keeffe’s painting, but rather to allow my connection and inspiration in that moment to refocus the piece as an outlet for my experience with that recent and present change in our environment. I began to see vivid imagery of the swirls of smoke, the flow of the air patterns, the gradually shifting colors of haze. I was mesmerized by air flow maps I found on various air quality tracking apps, the constantly shifting color patterns, all the while living through my own waves of paralyzing anxiety, an almost PTSD-like response to being told to be afraid of the air we breathe, yet again. It was ironic that after such a long period of time with Covid, growing accustomed to masking indoors but finding relief and safety in the free-flowing air outside, we were now being told to stay locked indoors and mask up if we ventured out. 

I composed …enfumée while in residence at Copland House, an idyllic retreat in Cortlandt, NY. Aaron Copland’s house is situated in a wonderfully isolated natural setting, a perfect space to engage with this subject matter, to escape from the city and breathe the fresh air. In the middle of my residency another wave of smoke set in, creating an opportunity for me to re-engage directly with the experience in the middle of the composition itself. I remember the first afternoon of the smoke’s return, driving on a bridge across the Croton Reservoir and almost stopping my car in the middle of the road as a I was struck by the imagery looking out into the hills beyond the water: it looked exactly like O’Keeffe’s paintings of Lake George, the haze from the smoke recreating her shading, her brushstrokes. The title …enfumée is also a reference to the work …à la Fumée, an homage to the composer Kaija Saariaho who passed away in June and whose music I have held in my mind and heart as I worked on this piece.

...enfumée (2023)

From my new EP Songs The Night Bird Taught Me, which was inspired by the bittersweet, solitary sound-world of the nocturnal. I hope to take the listener on a journey through starlit waking dreams, inside the liminal world that hums between moonset and sunrise.

Songs The Night Bird Taught Me

Liminal

Liminal #PianoDay2024

Composed in loving memory and celebration of my mom, who would've been 80 now but only reached 52.
Released especially for Piano Day 2024.
#pianoday2024

Zero to infinity #pianoday2024 Piano day 2024

PianoDay

An epic take on this traditional carol fitting for the gods of myth and legend...

Bells Of Valhalla ("Carol of the Bells" Fantasy)

Enrico Russo was so kind to arrange and orchestrate a piece I wrote in 2013...it was my very first composition.....
My sincere thanks go out to him for this beautiful gift....

Here is also a link to my original piece I posted on Youtube...
https://youtu.be/T8z3ley_0C8

Art picture by Thomas Q on Unsplash...

Vivons

Thank you for choosing to listen to, comment on, share and support my music! Almost everything here can also be found on all of the main digital music platforms. All music Copyrights are held by Jeffrey J. Torres

Bells Of Valhalla ("Carol of the Bells" Fantasy)

Jeffrey J. Torres

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