SONGS FOR MY SPECIAL FRIEND

For #pianoday2021 

Picture in the art work by one of my granddaughters.

©2021 Roger Hooper Music

I Will Love You 4Ever

Lable: Sonder house
Mastering: Case mastering

spotify link:
open.spotify.com/track/6J7M2LFGNX…NYRxKtu_FnDwMKmA

Photo. Jessica Lindgren Wu

Ostinato

Somewhere (Piano Solo) - Till Indy

Composed by Till Indy
Piano: Till Indy
© Till Indy 2021

Somewhere | Till Indy

My beloved wife was recently diagnosed with kidney cancer; not treatable by chemo. The day I dropped her off at the hospital for her surgery (not allowed to stay because of COVID; got calls hourly from the nurses, which was good), I came home an wrote the piano part of this track. I had also had an implant put in my right thumb a few weeks previously, so was still in a splint; this was a 9-finger composition! My wife has been home recovering since and is doing well, and the surgeon (who is an authority in this particular type of cancer)is optimistic about the success of the surgery. We'll know more after a scan in a few months; we are very hopeful and trusting God! 

The picture in the art work is by my daughter. The piano is the Claustrophobic Piano from the Pianobook UK site, sampled by Christian Henson.

© 2021 Roger Hooper Music

Recovery

A composition for my best friend; she loves her garden! The picture in the art work is by one of our little granddaughters.

© 2021 Roger Hooper Music

Ami's Garden

My Valentines Day tribute to my lovely wife. I used the new #spitfireaudio #labscommunity Glass Piano, and Spitfire's new Appassionata Strings. The picture in the art work is by one of our granddaughters. 

© 2022 Roger Hooper Music

I Love Ami

Forgotten Places  released for Piano Day 2022
www.jeffchipman.com

Forgotten Places

Improvisation 01

An homage to my beautiful wife! The piano is from the #casio PX-S3100 Stage Piano.

The photo in the art work is from Thomas Grams on unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@swutsh

© 2023 Roger Hooper Music

Beloved

BELOVED

Raindrop Prelude / Regentropfen-Präludium by Sandra Labsch Piano Solo 2023

Raindrop Prelude / Regentropfen-Präludium - Sandra Labsch

For the ever brilliant American composer Robert Brooks, who taught me composition. My tutor and friend.

Sonatas Op.2 No. 19 - 4th movement

Un petit air de rien

Un Petit air de rien...

For more orchestral tracks please check out my full orchestral album here:
soundcloud.com/pianissimo/sets/orchestral-works-original

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Track Notes
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Thematically this track went on a very interesting journey from its inception on through completion. To explain that journey adequately I need to first explain how I typically compose ... 

Nothing is more important to my composing process than IMAGERY. My songs tend to be rather evocative. They all live in their own world replete with their own history, their own culture, their own lore. The songs then give a window into that world by painting images in the minds of my listeners (I hope anyway!). People often ask me what inspires my music. The answer is that this imagery inspires it. The world that the songs live in inspires it. 

What's interesting though is that said imagery is not actually present at the time that I sit down at my piano to start on a new piece. Rather typically I'll just sit down and start messing around until I latch onto some interesting sonic ideas. Then once I have a fledgling new song, the imagery around it slowly starts to take shape. It's that initial imagery that then informs further development in the song. And then once the song is further developed, the imagery comes into even sharper focus ... and so on and so forth until the song is finally complete. In this way, my inspiration is actually almost paradoxically derived from the music itself. So how then does this whole process I'm describing relate to this particular piece of music?

Well the initial version of this song, despite not being terribly far removed from the final version, had a rather different thematic aesthetic. Initially it evoked strong imagery of Russia, soviets, communism, order, marching soldiers, etc. (I kept imagining those soviet-era propaganda posters in my head.) As a result, the initial working title of the piece was "Tsar". 

Once the piece developed further though, it outgrew this initial moniker. Instead now it was evoking a rather dark, industrial vibe. I saw factories, machines, gears, clocks. Cobblestone streets shrouded in a sky tainted with soot.  There was also a bit of a retro, dystopian sci-fi vibe that emerged. I saw robots, automata, an army of drones (and this is where it tied into the original soviet imagery). This new imagery informed some development in the composition and I ended up changing the working title to "The Machine". 

But then the piece developed further and once again the song outgrew the name. Some of the original imagery remained, surely, but there were new elements now. There was an element of fear, but also an element of excitement, adventure, and almost child-like curiosity and wonderment. Now the imagery in my head revolved around exploring an uncharted and perhaps somewhat scary/forbidden land. This is when the name "The Black Forest" emerged as I feel that it ties in all of these ideas. The wonderful piece of visual art also ties in nicely with the name and the music and rounds out the world that this song lives in. I imagine that the little girl in the image has escaped home. Adorned in her little crown and dress she makes her way rather naively into The Black Forest, the place that all children are forbidden to enter. She's afraid but she also has a lot of courage and she stubbornly marches on into the unknown. 

I invite you to please put on a good pair of headphones and march right along with her :)

Thank you for listening (and reading)! 

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Instruments:
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Brass: tuba (staccatos + legato)
String: violin ensemble (legato), cello ensemble (spiccato), bass ensemble (pizzicato), solo violin
Woodwinds: piccolo flute, c flute x2
Percussion: timpani, toms, bass drums
Vocals: female choir, male choir, children's choir
Other: music box

Image credit: the Swedish painter John Albert Bauer (4 June 1882 – 20 November 1918)

The Black Forest

Video that shows how it was recorded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qvVqwko3xc
This music includes acoustic piano, clarinet, back vocals, can percussions and the sound of a closing door. Recorded in studio. Thanks to anyone who support my music: https://ariad.bandcamp.com/track/sunday

I Love Ami

Roger Hooper

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