Vocal: @oddrun-eikli
Uilleann Pipes, Whistle and Accordion : Phil Dale @philleann
Piano: Debra Buesking
Mixed and Mastered by Phil Dale
Thank you Oddrun and Phil for the pleasure of making music together.  

Down by the Salley Gardens, a tale of regret -- and perhaps unrequited love -- written by W.B. Yeats, has become one of the most beloved Irish songs of all time.

Down by the Sally Gardens, my love and I did meet.
She crossed the Sally Gardens, with little snow-white feet.
She bid me to take life easy, as the leaves grow on the tree,
But I was young and foolish, and with her I did not agree.

In a field down by the river, my love and I did stand
And upon my leaning shoulder, she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me to take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs,
But I was young and foolish, and now I am full of tears.

Down by the Sally Gardens, my love and I did meet.
She crossed the Sally Gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me to take life easy, as the leaves blow on the tree,
But I was young and foolish, and with her I did not agree.

Down by the Salley Gardens. Oddrun Eikli. Philleann. Debra Buesking

This is my humble first take of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov's famous "Flight of the Bumble Bee" (transcribed by Sergei Rachmaninoff). 

It was played by me on May the 2nd, 2023 with Yamaha Montage 8 synthesizer ("CFX Concert" sound). It was recorded into my DAW in one take as an audio wav file without any midi recording, and hence no midi or other corrections were made. I only added some reverb. I've been practicing this for weeks and I wanted to get this out of my hands so to speak and this is what I ended up with. My apologies for the numerous mistakes.. but nobody ever taught me how to do this and this is the result so far.. It may be that this is the best I can do but I have to say that I still am a little bit proud of myself because lately I had started to think that I will never be able to make even a mediocre recording of this piece!

I am not sure what the exact tempo here was. The sheet has a designated tempo of 144-152 but many real pianists including Horowitz, Lang Lang and David Helfgott of course have played it much faster. I also almost lost the rhythm at some point but I think I got it back after a while..

Some day I will maybe try to make a better recording with fewer mistakes. But since it took me maybe about 17-20 years or more with this piece to get to this point (although I had maybe a 10 years break in the middle) I can make no promises.. 

I first started playing Rachmaninoff and Chopin seriously after I saw the movie "Shine" many years ago and after that I tried to learn as many of the songs as possible. There was some great piano playing in the movie and the main character in the movie played the Bumble Bee in one scene (a recording which according to my knowledge was played by Mr. David Helfgott himself). After seeing that I wanted to learn the piece myself. I guess the line of thinking I had at the time was that "If they can do it, I can do it". And I think here is an important lesson for all the youngsters out there: You can do anything. Never give up! Although a little bit of proper guidance and teaching probably won't do you any harm...

Posted as a private individual for non-commercial purposes.

Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumble Bee. Transcribed by S. Rachmaninoff

Moonlight is just a name and will cover many kind of moods when viewing moonlight. The mood of this track is a bit tranquil and relaxing.

Moonlight

A hazy summer day in the beautiful Chinese city of Hangzhou - romantic 1950s vibes and jazz chords.

CREDITS
Maaike Siegerist, vocals, guitar 
Ron Phelan, upright bass
Susanna Downes, piano
Iain McCurdy, cicadas recording 

Mixed & produced by Maaike Siegerist 
Mastered by Nick Cooke 

LYRICS
Willows rustle on a warm summer’s day
The pagoda fades away in the haze 
A bride poses, a smile on her face 
With lotus flowers on the lake

Tiny dragons on the edge of the roof
At the temple, I burn incense for you
A buddha laughs inside a cave
Near lotus flowers on the lake 

When their petals fall
I will be far away, like the lady in the moon
Part of me remains
Sipping Dragon Well tea this afternoon

Wooden boats leave as the sun slowly sets
Under pink skies, trees become silhouettes 
I say goodbye, to silver waves 
And lotus flowers on the lake

Lotus Flowers on the Lake

Valse. III

Les Vagues - Performance Salvatore Bezzi

W śniegu, w niepamięci
Marsz śmierci
Kompozycja i wykonanie Alicja Maciejko 11.12.2023

In the Snow, the Shadow of Memory in Death March

“I paint what I see and not what others like to see.”― Édouard Manet
I invite you to listen to my piano improvisation "Impressionist fantasy № 2".
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

Impressionist Fantasy № 2 - Improvised Piano Piece

This one fought me every step of the way.

Lyrics:

this time I’ll only know
what you tell me
this time 
I won’t say nothin at all

far away and 
underground
you’ve got me 
turned around

this time I’ll 
simply close my eyes

this time it 
won’t be so hard to swallow
this time I won’t be 
thinking at all

there’s a stranger 
in my mind
circuits busy
please standby

this time
there’s nothing sane
or familiar


and I used to be so alive
and I used to feel so optimistic
and I used to speak my mind
and I used to be so afraid of nothing


this time I’ll 
dance like nobody’s watching
this time
I won’t tremble inside

out of phase and out of time
my instincts have been realigned

this time 
I’ll simply close my eyes

This Time

All men, women and children around the world, all together, breathe... and the breath comes from their souls who aspire to a better world (perhaps not all...) without abuse, hatred and destruction.. .
This is my music for PIano Day 2024: simple music that comes straight from my soul, crosses the skies, flies over the mountains and glides over the wide grassy plains... and screams peace and serenity!
Good luck to all !!

I thought of sending the same impro on my Youtube channel and making it the soundtrack of a slideshow on Villa Giulia in Palermo  (Sicily) and surrounding areas :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-3FLOnJmP4

The breath of Humanity ( Piano Day 2024)

music: Mike Brosco
image: Sydney Rinehart

Support Structure

Three-time FAWM participant, mostly a bassist but I play everything on all my tunes unless otherwise noted.  I LOVE TO COLLABORATE so hit me up.

Otherwise, I'm just a basement weirdo trying to make some tunes.

This Time

Aubrey Van Gelded

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