“Jazz Nuance” for piano is a piece written by Italian composer and professor Massimo Trotta. The work is around three to four minutes long, is in mixed meter, and contains aspects of modernist dissonance combined with the atonal harmony, rhythmic elements, and improvisatory style of free jazz.
Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission.
“Fatum”, or “Fate”, is a symphonic poem by the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Composed in 1868 (while he became smitten by the Belgian singer, Désirée Artôt), it was dedicated to fellow Russian composer Mily Balakirev. Tchaikovsky, being one who was extremely self-critical and despite initially considering the piece the “best thing he has written so far”, destroyed the score in the 1870s after feeling disillusioned by the lukewarm reception from its second performance, and due to the fact that Désirée Artôt married another man in 1869. Though Tchaikovsky reused a theme from “Fatum” in his opera “The Oprichnik”, only after his death was the piece reconstructed and published on its own by Mitrofan Belyayev’s company.
Date: 1868
Catalogue: Op. 77, Tchaikovsky Handbook 41
Dedicatee: Mily Balakirev
Performers:
Theodore Kuchar as conductor
National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine
Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes. This video is a reupload from Thomas van Dun, who withdrew all score videos of pieces not composed by himself.
Original Uploader’s Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThomasvanDun/
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_PxGI-xBw0
2 Cello Pieces, alternatively titled 2 Pieces for Cello and Piano, are a pair of dissonant works by the revolutionary American composer Leo Ornstein. The pair of pieces were first published in 2007.
Catalogue: Op. 33, Severo Ornstein 620
Order:
No. 1 - Andante: 0:08
No. 2 - Allegro ma non troppo: 1:51
Performers:
Joshua Gordon on cello
Randall Hodgkinson on piano
Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.
Score: Gordon, Joshua. Woodside, CA: Poon Hill Press, 2007. Catalog S-620. https://imslp.org/wiki/2_Cello_Pieces%2C_SO_620_%28Ornstein%2C_Leo%29
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_1gJGkQsm0
“Suite Kiều” for solo guitar is a set of seven pieces by the Vietnamese composer, guitarist, and actor Dang Ngoc Long. The music is inspired by the Vietnamese epic poem, “A New Cry from a Broken Heart” ("Đoạn Trường Tân Thanh" in Vietnamese), written in the early 19th century by poet, mandarin, and diplomat Nguyễn Du. The poem is most popularly known as “The Tale of Kiều” (“Truyện Kiều”). The story, itself based on a Chinese novel, revolves around the life of a girl named Vương Thúy Kiều, who is known in China as Wang Cuiqiao (“王翠翹”). Piece by piece, Long’s Suite succinctly encapsulates the synopsis in its entirety.
Prelude: The story is set in 16th-century China during the reign of the Ming Dynasty Emperor Jiajing. The Wang family, to which Cuiqiao belonged, lived in the province of Shandong. Long’s rendition of the scene focuses on the lush landscape of Shandong, and as such, is serene and idyllic.
Childhood (“Kindheit”): Wang Cuiqiao is born into a well-to-do landowning family. She has a brother named Wang Guan and a sister named Wang Cuiyun. Cuiqiao is beautiful, educated, and well-mannered. She falls in love with a young scholar named Jin Zhong, but their marriage must wait until Jin finishes his ceremonial mourning for his dead uncle. The music in this movement has more drive than the previous movement’s meandering nature.
Storm (“Sturm”): A silk merchant accuses the Wang family of cheating him out of his money. Cuiqiao’s father and brother are arrested by officials and tortured until they can return the fortune the Wang family allegedly stole. Cuiqiao sells herself into slavery to a man called Scholar Ma to bail her family out of their debts. Before leaving, Cuiqiao asks Cuiyun to marry Jin Zhong when he returns. The third movement, in expressing Cuiqiao’s crisis, contains an assortment of extended techniques and highly advanced chromatic harmony, to the point of atonality.
Lamentation (“Klagegesang”): Ma, to Cuiqiao’s dismay, is actually a pimp and brings her to a brothel owned by Madam Xiu. Xiu breaks Cuiqiao’s spirit and destroys what is left of Cuiqiao’s dignity. Cuiqiao’s beauty leads to her becoming a popular prostitute in the brothel. Eventually, Cuiqiao is bought and rescued by a wealthy client named Shu, who marries her. She arouses the jealousy of Shu’s first wife, Lady Huan, who treats her like a slave. Cuiqiao absconds with some valuables from Shu and Huan’s estate and finds refuge in a Buddhist convent. The convent’s nuns, afraid of the consequences of harboring Cuiqiao’s pelf, put her under the care of their contact Madam Bo—who, unfortunately, owns a brothel and coerces Cuiqiao into prostitution again. Her luck impro
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q27SJqPtVQ0
“Oltre il Profondo” (“Beyond the Deep”) for piano is a piece written by Italian composer and professor Massimo Trotta in the 1990s. The piece is around four minutes long, is largely meterless, and contains fluctuating and constantly-changing moments of tonal consonance and dissonance.
There are five major sections in the piece, each labeled with a letter of the alphabet. Section A contains a strictly-constant line of notes centered on F-sharp, with some specks of tonal dissent among them.
Section B takes over from Section A, and the piece becomes languid. The rhythm, though changed to a series of triplets interspersed with flourishes of grace notes, remains strict and austere.
Section C increases the speed of the piece, and a line of eerie tone clusters form, beginning on the tone of F. The tone clusters continue on in a mostly linear fashion, while the surrounding notes twist and coil about around the straight cluster line.
A short respite transitions the piece to Section D, which continues the line at a much slower pace. This section changes textures a few times, and each time, the pulse of the piece (excluding ornaments) slows down even more.
By the time Section E arrives, the piece devolves into a series of scattered notes. A series of D-flat tones intermittently appears, undermining an otherwise serial twelve-tone passage of even sparser clusters.
Performer: Giacomo Battarino (also known as “Asgore Kujo”) on piano
Performer’s son’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AsrielKujo
Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes. The contents of the video were obtained from the composer and uploaded with the composer’s permission.
Composer's channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxo0BJa-syX0Et3SZWtPCzw
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OBeYg-49Ks
“Mollitude” for solo flute is a two-to-three-minute-long miniature piece by the late American composer Frederic Rzewski, who is famous for his set of variations on “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!” The piece is dedicated to flutist Molly Barth, and the title of the piece bears an uncanny (likely intended) resemblance to her forename.
Date: 2006
Dedicatee: Molly Barth
Performer: Molly Barth on flute
Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.
Score: Pierre Gouin. https://imslp.org/wiki/Mollitude_%28Rzewski%2C_Frederic%29
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlpeQ8i6UNk
3 Bagatelles is a set of miniature works by Russian composer Anatoly Lyadov. All three pieces are set in the major keys.
Date: 1903
Catalogue: Op. 53
Dedicatee: Yevgeniya Tolkacheva
Order:
No. 1 - Moderato in B Major: 0:08
No. 2 - Allegretto in G Major: 0:38
No. 3 - Con moto in A-flat Major: 1:20
Performer: Marco Rapetti on piano
Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgQvZfVI1Lc
French critic and composer Alexis Roland-Manuel’s String Trio is an early 20th-century work in three movements. The first has no name other than that of its tempo, while the other two are, respectively, a Sarabande and a Rondo. The works are modal and bear much influence from the musical style of the dedicatee of the piece, Maurice Ravel. Ravel did much to teach Roland-Manuel the art of music composition, in addition to being a lifelong friend.
Date: 1922
Dedicatee: Maurice Ravel
Order:
No. 1 - Allègrement: 0:08
No. 2 - Sarabande (Grave et doux): 7:44
No. 3 - Ronde [Vite (alert et gai)]: 13:50
Performers: Manchester Music Festival Orchestra
Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxYcOMAfIVI
Ecossaise (“Schottis”) in F Major is an early piece by the Finnish composer Toivo Kuula. As a student work in an early-Romantic salon style, the Ecossaise was probably composed during the three years he dropped out of the Helsinki Music Institute due to financial struggles.
Toivo Kuula was born the son of a soldier and preacher named Matti. In 1900, Kuula enrolled at the Helsinki Music Institute (now the Sibelius Academy) to study under Martin Wegelius, but in 1903, was forced to halt his education because of its high cost. He married a classmate and sired a daughter who died in infancy. In 1906, Kuula was finally able to resume his studies and became a composition student of Jean Sibelius himself, and wrote many critically acclaimed songs and chamber pieces. As a staunch Fennoman in the national struggle between the Swedish and Finnish identities, Kuula utilized native Finnish mythology and legends for many of his works. Unfortunately, while Finland was celebrating the end of its civil war, the young and impulsive composer met his end when he got into a brawl with some Svecoman-sympathizing soldiers. Kuula was shot to death by a Jäger after stabbing one of them. He left behind an unfinished Stabat Mater, which was later completed by his friend Leevi Madetoja.
Date: around 1904
Performer: Jouni Somero on piano
Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes.
Score: Yukaghir. https://imslp.org/wiki/Schottis_%28Kuula%2C_Toivo%29
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSBy5q9E4VQ
The Réminiscences de Halka, de St. Moniuszko. Fantaisie de concert is an operatic paraphrase on Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko’s Halka, composed by the 18 year old Carl Tausig, considered one of the most eminent of Liszt’s students. This transcription, taking after Liszt’s style, maintains progressive tonality, beginning from one key and ending somewhere else, far away from the original.
Sections:
Introduction (D Minor): 0:04
Restatement of Introduction (F-sharp Minor): 0:46
Grand Bridge to Theme 1: 1:37
Theme 1A - Polonaise (D Major): 2:06. Act I, "Long Live the Newlyweds"
Theme 1A Restatement: 2:22. Act I, "Long Live the Newlyweds"
Theme 1B: 2:39. Act I, "Long Live the Newlyweds"
Transition Back to 1A: 3:06. Act I, "Long Live the Newlyweds"
Theme 1A: 3:14. Act I, "Long Live the Newlyweds"
Bridge to Theme 2: 3:32
Prelude to 2A: 4:00
Theme 2A (A-flat Major): 5:07
Theme 2B: 5:47
Theme 2A: 6:06
Theme 2C: 6:25
Theme 2A: 6:58
Theme 2B: 7:41
Theme 2A: 7:58
Theme 2C: 8:19
Theme 1A - Polonaise (A-flat Major): 8:45
Bridge to Theme 3: 9:01
Theme 3A (C Major): 9:10. Act III, "Dance of the Goral Highlanders"
Transition to 3B: 9:24. Act III, "Dance of the Goral Highlanders"
Theme 3B: 9:46. Act III, "Dance of the Goral Highlanders"
Theme 3B Restatement: 10:00. Act III, "Dance of the Goral Highlanders"
Theme 3C: 10:13. Act III, "Dance of the Goral Highlanders"
Theme 3D (E Minor): 10:27. Act III, "Dance of the Goral Highlanders"
Theme 3E: 10:46. Act III, "Dance of the Goral Highlanders"
Theme 3C: 11:02. Act III, "Dance of the Goral Highlanders"
Theme 3E: 11:09. Act III, "Dance of the Goral Highlanders"
Theme 3B: 11:25. Act III, "Dance of the Goral Highlanders"
Theme 3A: 11:39. Act III, "Dance of the Goral Highlanders"
Theme 3C: 11:51. Act III, "Dance of the Goral Highlanders"
Theme 3C Restatement: 12:00. Act III, "Dance of the Goral Highlanders"
Bridge to Finale: 12:12
Finale: 12:20
Date: 1860
Catalogue: Op. 2b
Performer: Michael Ponti on piano
Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes. This video was saved from Hexameron’s channel, and as Hexameron mentioned before, Ponti's interpretation differs from the available score.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZqRANPodzg