Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Composer's Lounge Ballade in C-sharp Minor - a challenging piano work....:)

I thought this was a rather different piece of music and kind of chopinesque. I don't know. I feel bad for not posting here much, but i thoght you guys might enjoy this!

you can download the mp3 here: http://www.savefile.com/files/7213327

Thanks, guys!
~Nico

Wow, Nico, that's really great! The opening sort of reminds me of Chopin, but I don't think the piece as a whole really sounds very Chopinesque. It's very distinct.

In fact, I like it so much, that if I were a much better pianist I'd probably ask you for sheet music!

(but alas, I'm afraid I'm not nearly a good enough pianist yet to play something like this)

great work nico!

thanks guys! I posted in here in slight hopes one would be good enough to record this..........*hints*
lol jk. It would be a great honour for me though, in case anyone IS interested. Gah, who am I kidding.


Thanks guys, though!

If you want someone else to record it, you should post a score.... *hints*

PDF HERE!! WHOOOOOO IF ANYONE DOES PLAY THIS I WILL BE FOREVER INDEBTED!!


http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2228

Nico, that link didn't work. But I did a search at the website, and I think I found it here:

http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2186&hl=ballade

strange...the link works for me

I have a new ballade im working on...but the LH isn't workin out... I like Chopin!

*sigh* Yes, we all love Chopin.

(but I'm sure even Frycek often had trouble writing his left hand parts. )

who was Frycek? Oh by the way, in case you want to see the LH problem I'm having, you can go here:

http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum...1116791739&st=0&#entry1116791739

sorry for the double post...

OMG DERULUX I HEARD YOUR RECORDINGS IN THE MEMBER RECORDINGS SECTION AND THEY WERE INCREDIBLE!!! I WOULD FRICKIN PAY YOU TO PLAY THIS BALLADE!!!!!!!

Frycek (pronounced Freetz-ihk) was Chopin's nickname as a child.

*laughs* I'll take a look at it, but I think, before you pay me to play the piece, you should pay me for my advice. But since I'm feeling charitable, I'll give you the advice for free: Get a better pianist if you're going to pay them.

*points to self*
*gets ridiculed all the time by my teacher for various things...all of which, regrettably so, are true*

*laughs* This is what he said to me tonight: "Your hands move faster than God. Speed is not your problem. Your problem is that, when you're playing, you hear about as well as Beethoven."

Even I had to laugh when he said it that way....

So, now we're on the long road towards getting what I hear in my head to actually come through my fingers so everybody else gets to hear it, too. However, if I finish the process anytime soon, I will certainly be willing to accept payment for playing this piece. :p

oh...well, i was partly kidding about paying you. I was telling you how much I love your playing, but I mean as long as it's not a huge some i guess i could crack open my piggy bank. Or I could get a mediocre recording for free.

oh...well, i was partly kidding about paying you. I was telling you how much I love your playing, but I mean as long as it's not a huge some i guess i could crack open my piggy bank. Or I could get a mediocre recording for free from someone else. But it would be nice.......

I think Nicola's desire for someone other than himself to play his piece is absolutely normal. This situation highlights one of the challenges for today's composers. He discovers that one of our fellows is a great player and suggests he'd pay for him to learn his piece. Derulux plays it modest, but manages to avoid committing to learning a piece he "sort of, but not really" asked for the score of.

Why would Derulux resist learning this piece? I can speculate any number of reasons;
1. His teacher wouldn't approve
2. It wouldn't serve him to invest that much time and effort into an unknown piece by an unknown composer.
3. He's got a jury coming up, maybe during the summer.

The bottomline is it's just easier to justify learning another piece by Ravel or yet another Beethoven sonata (afterall one has to learn all 32 if one wants to be famous as a pianist and the world is craving yet another interpretation of this tired repertoire) than to bother with a piece by Chandler (or Canzano). Forgive me if I sound bitter, !@#$ I poured my heart and soul into my Rhapsody and it's sank into the ocean of the piano repertoire with not even a BLEEPIN RIPPLE! Why do we bother????

OK, I've collected myself (sigh!). So did you like that bit of drama? It's easy to get frustrated being a composer.

So Derulux why don't you learn either Nicola's piece or my Rhapsody?

Actually, I've been playing around with Nico's Ballade these past couple days. Some of the parts that I thought would be really tricky pianistically actually fit fairly well under the hands.

I like it a lot, and would love to learn it - I do have a jury coming up in a couple of months, and I still have a lot of work to do on my music for that exam, but perhaps if I have time, I would love to try to learn this one. If not now, maybe after my jury.

It really is a great piece of music, Nico!

Steve, I've never seen/heard/heard of your Rhapsody. You should market it better (plugging my college degree right there :p ).

As for learning the piece, I certainly will eventually. I actually think I can sight-read about half of it (because of the wonderfully slow tempo ). And since Mr. Jerome says the rest fits nicely under the hand, it may not be too bad.

Here's the thing: Even if I learned it right now, today, spent 12 hours in front of a piano until my fingers bled and played it tomorrow, the recording would be the same crappy piano on which and equipment I played the Mephisto Waltz. There are better pianists (and better pianos) around even in the forum to have perform the debut of the work.

As for why I can't learn it right now...it has nothing to do with music, actually. I'm finishing my degree, which is work of its own. But the all-time-consumer would be my novel, which is currently undergoing editing. Lots of editing. And its a tedious pain in the *** that takes up too much time...but it has to get done if I want the novel to ever see the light of day. Add to it that I'm an avid martial artist currently working with three styles throughout the week (aikido, judo and jujitsu) while maintaining my first and base/best style (Isshinryu karate), and that's a handfull on its own. (I've been asked, as a favor, to compete in a benefit tournament for cancer research. They agreed to waive my entrance fee if I would compete. So, I'm competing for fun, but still have to be in shape so I don't get hurt, and call me intense, but I won't enter without a shot at winning, even if it's a long one. Ever since I retired from competitions in 1999, I haven't quite been the same competitor.)

Now, add to all of that job interviews, networking, travelling, consulting (two businesses in Philadelphia, one in the Poconos), and lastly, practicing the piano for what my teacher actually wants me to work on.

So, you see, my time is very limited. In fact, usually when I'm in hear posting, I'm waiting for something else to "finish". (A print, a download, a transfer, a phone call to be returned, an "idea" to spark in my novel [usually the late-night times].)

But if you send me the Rhapsody, I promise here and now that at some point, I will play both it and Canzano's Ballade, and when I have a good piano and good recording equipment, will make recordings of both. You will just have to be patient (see above) until some of those projects (graduation and novel) are done.