So much enjoyed listening Veikko, thank you…

@veikko-viljanen: I wish you also a very blessed and especially a healthy New Year Veikko, and thank you for all your beautiful music!

Some of you will be familiar with this tune, and indeed it has been modified to include a bit of audio which was the basis of the theme. This bit of audio is the original recording of Stephen around 1982. I had looked for that recording for decades to be included just before the start off this song. Also, most recently I had redoubled my effort to find it to play for my beautiful wife as  she lay on her death bed. But, alas, I was only to find it the very day after her passing.

As you might imagine, the old cassette tape was full of hiss. So, my good friend and mentor, Sander (https://soundcloud.com/wane-of-summer), volunteered to help subtract that flaw and render Stephen's little voice to crystal clarity. Well, that is very much part of Sander's trademark. Thank you, Sander.

And below follows the original description of the song:


This is a song from a child which has no voice of his own. Having succumbed to the side effects of a childhood vaccination, he was never able to learn the spoken word...though through some miracle he seems to have developed perfect pitch. 

How would I know? Well, if I pick up various objects which can make a tone if they are blown into, though he may have heard it only once before, he will sometimes sing the note as it is being picked up. Blow into that object and, sure enough, he is in tune with it.

He was only about 3 years old when we were trying in vain to get him to speak into a tape recorder. Instead, he came up with this tune, which I decided to just add accompaniment. The original recording actually had his voice on it, but it has been lost over the years.

Stephen's Song (REMIX)

Big Shadows written for Piano Day 2023
inspired by "Go to the Limits of Your Longing" by Rainier Maria Rilke
read the poem here:  https://www.jeffchipman.com/allposts/2023/3/29/big-shadows 
www.jeffchipman.com

Big Shadows

I created a video for this. To watch it go to: https://youtu.be/WRMXCoEO_LA?si=fzZ-Q0xR2UcAF6Th

I am in increasing pain every day because my spine is a mess. Playing the piano is one of the most painful things I do. It sucks the oxygen out of the room. I don't let it beat me. The day before I recorded this I had steroid shots in my mid back, hoping it would give me a little relief. That day I had no pain. I sat at the piano for 5 hours working on music because it was such a joy. It lasted for a day and a half.  It was supposed to be weeks. anyone with chronic pain for years knows what this is like. I can only lay back on pillows for so many hours each day. I am not complaining. It is what it is. Arthritis in my hands would be worse and I have none of that. But this day - this one day was wonderful. I had asked the doctor for one day. That is what I got. W.e have to fight for the things we love.Music gives me the energy to keep going,  Who knows what these hands will produce. I don't have to be the best. I need only be the best I can be.

No Pain

https://youtu.be/LaxzBLemJRk?si=XGcV_cyD0f53o8XU

Moving The Needle

I sketched a short piece out of some melodies that came to my mind while I was dozing off early in the morning.

Simba, the adorable cat in the picture(2015), used to live in my neighborhood, but seems to have moved into the cat world a long time ago... I wish him all the best!

Piano Sketch 16 Hide And Seek

Dans la vie, il y a des événements pour lesquels il n'est pas toujours possible d'anticiper ou de maîtriser et pour lesquels, il est légitime d’être plus préoccupé, plus stressé que d’habitude. De ce fait, la musique aide souvent à passer ce cape, de ce moment du quotidien très perturbé.
Ici, cela pourrait être l'image aux résonances expressives de cet épisode si particulier ….

****************************************************************************************************

In life, there are events for which it is not always possible to anticipate or master and for which, it is legitimate to be more concerned, more stressed than usual. As a result, music often helps to pass this cape, from this very disturbed daily moment. 
Here, it could be the image with expressive resonances of this very particular episode ....

Beyond The Light ....

L.v. Beethoven: IV. Adagio of String Trio No. 1 op.3. Transcribed for two pianos by VV,
 Jan 9-15, 2025. 
A pair of Petrof Mistral 284 modeled grand pianos, revoiced & reconfigured by VV were used on its recording, and rendition, after a careful reading, review, and re-writing of the articulations (...'ad libitum by ear'...) of its original score, and, and of its now re-read, previously generated reading/sequence, regenerated for the original string trio setup in ca 2010's by H.Fesefeldt (1942-2019, a German nuclear physics researcher, and music software developer). Now, the instrument and the rec. setups were set by VV. - Artwork edited by VV on ideas inspired bytheis piece...✨🤔💫💫
ANY KIND OF COMMERCIAL USE OF THIS TRACK IS PROHIBITED.

L.v. Beethoven: Trio op.3- IV.Adagio. Transcribed for two pianos

L.v. Beethoven: IV. Adagio. String Trio op.3. Transcribed for two pianos

Author:		Jacek Romanowski
Polish title: 	Tak już jest
Genre:       	piano music, classical music, instrumental music

The Way It Is

“Who stole Teddy’s cookie jar” short movie main theme. Now on Fetchflix

Teddy loves cookies and jealously guards his recipe for himself. He gets help from a team of tiny bunnies and cats because his fur makes him rather clumsy. However, yesterday’s batch was stolen. Will Teddy and the tiny rabbits and cats team be able to recover the cookie jar? 

“This story is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental. Ho and for those who did not get it, Fetchflix TV is also fictitious.” 

Music: Syrel
Photography: Syrel, Book Cover (1987)

Musical notes: This theme could have been the main theme of the series “Only Murders in the Building.“ but hey, Siddhartha Khosla did such a wonderful work composing her theme that it would be a sacrilege pretending I could do better. Thanks to Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saëns for their help on mine ;o)

Who stole Teddy's cooky jar

Does anybody remember how good was the soundtrack to this movie? Like damn! Basil Poledouris did a really great job with Conan The Barbarian. It was a pleasure to recreate this piece as a humble piano cover.

Conan The Barbarian - Theology by Basil Poledouris - Piano Cover

To Say Goodbye

My warmest thanks to everyone stopping by for listening to my  'REVIEW   OF THE PAST TIME PIANISTS' INTERPRETATIONS ON THE HISTORICAL PIANO ROLLS, and also to a minor LIST of MY MY OWN RENDITIONS, all of the latter representing a variety of piano music & some pipe-organ classics, - and  TO THE Growing LISTS OF (just lately done and reproduced)  TRANSCRIPTIONS OF VARIOUS CHAMBER MUSIC CLASSICAL PEARLS FOR TWO PIANOS.
A HEADSET IS RECOMMENDED for optimal sound experience!
This kind of 'touching' on these old pre-sound-rec. era works by the great performers of the past, and giving my sound to these old 'punch rolls',  makes me feel  deep humbleness, .and I wish that this modest attempt to bring these  performances alive will satisfy you listening to them!
To introduce myself...
I am a Finnish M.D., PhD. and Hand Surgeon (now retired), previously when young with 10 years of professionally orientated piano studies at Turku Conservatory in 1965-1975, partly  along with medical University studies. 
The digital sound techniques have become very familiar to me already from 1980's along with my university research work  
and my musical activities.
As continuation to my musical and professional experience, I have, during the last few years of my retirement, adopted a music historical challenge
to bring the past time major and minor pianists, prior to sound-recording era, onto the same 'start line' with the present pianists, by making their presentations, played onto 'punch rolls' i.e. piano rolls, audible with modern digital techniques. This wouldn't be possible without the pioneering  efforts of Richard Stibbons, Wayne Stahnke, Terry Smythe, Warren Trachtman, Spencer Chase, and others, who developed the optical digitizing techniques of the piano rolls, and digitized them.

The main part of my recordings here in SC consists of selection recorded by me from optically digitized piano-rolls** (from 1910's on or earlier, classical and 'vintage era'). These recordings of mine are not and will not be commercially unavailable. - The rolls were first optically scanned and converted into a digital form by diverse operators** (see also to the info of each piece). The pieces here were partly (minor part) picked from various open net sources, publicly available, but mainly from the huge archive (n=ca.5000) of digitized copies copies of the original reproducing piano rolls, made available to me by one of the pioneers of roll digitizing tehchniques (willing to keep anonymous), and then recorded from this archive mainly with virtual grand piano (called by me 'Bluethner Model One') modified/re-designed by me, as well as the rec settings. 
Also a minor selection of my own renditions among my records can be found here, included on my playlist 'Bach Goes Virtual', the name of the list telling something about the techniques used for getting the end result... The list includes various organ works by J.S.Bach and others, and also a few piano renditions of mine. Then there are included also various pieces which have been in my repertoire, but here played mainly by the  'guest' great players of the past (before the sound recording era).
MY MOST HUMBLE THANKS TO THE NOBLE DONOR  OF THIS INVALUABLE PIANO ROLL MATERIAL FOR MY USE!!!
My Sincere Thanks also to The Player Piano Group, UK, for providing me their permission to use the information about the piano rolls collected and provided on their web page ( https://rolls.playerpianogroup.org.uk ),  and for simplifying my short historical presentations of these renditions on their re-publication here!
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, MY MOST HUMBLE THANKS TO EVERYONE  OF YOU FOR LISTENING, AND FOR YOUR 'LIKES' & COMMENTS !
YOUR LISTENING & FEEDBACK IS TRULY APPRECIATED..!!.
Use of good headphones or speakers will make your music experience more enjoyable!
Best wishes, all the best
Veikko
These recordings are not commercially available, and ANY KIND OF THEIR COMMERCIAL USE IS PROHIBITED.

L.v. Beethoven: IV. Adagio. String Trio op.3. Transcribed for two pianos

Veikko Viljanen

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