Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Yann Tiersen-Hey Monica!

Monica (and anyone else) have you ever played La Valse d'Amelie? I'm just listening to it now, it's a great piece. I'm wondering how hard it is compared to other pieces of this sort.

Here is a very high quality version of it. Looks like a lot of work, but worth the effort.

it's easy.. really

Hmmm.... "easy" wouldn't be the word I'd use for it, but it's not insurmountably difficult. It's not quite as fast as some of Tiersen's other pieces, e.g., the Tabarly album. I tried to sight-read it once, didn't get too far, and decided it would take more effort to learn than I wanted to expend at the time, so I put it away in my "to learn later" pile. It's a pretty big pile.

Speaking of Tiersen, I bought his most recent album, "Dust Lane." It's markedly different in tone than "Amelie" and his earlier work. Apparently he was striving to hit the American adult alternative market with it, but I gather that a lot of fans weren't too happy about the switch. I like the album a lot, even though it doesn't have any good solo piano potential.

Mark, thanks for that YouTube! It's great to see the hands. (Plus, I want to know who that kid is, and how it is that he is able to make those cool black and white videos with that beautiful piano!)

I just read through the score with the music playing again (after watching the YouTube kid's perfect hands!)

I would say, at least for me, that although this music has more "notes" (i.e more variety in melodic lines) than the Comptine piece, it looks like this one would ultimately be easier to play. (I still get tension with Comptine and am nowhere near where I'd want to be to record it). I think what Monica said is right though, it would take a little longer to get the piece into your fingers probably. Funny how that stuff works. Comptine was in my fingers and in my brain in like a day, and after about a week, that piece, in terms of what's on the page, is just so "simple" (which is not to say that it's easy to play).

Monica, what's the Tabarly album?? I haven't heard of Dust Lane either, I take it it's not solo piano? Have you heard his music from the movie Good-Bye Lenin? I have not seen the movie, but my mother just watched it and she was telling me about the music, which is what made me go back and listen to this Valse.

I'm working on a few pieces that are in various stages of completion (i.e. none of them are complete!) but maybe I'll try to play through La Valse D'Amelie when spring break starts. If it seems reasonable, I'll put it on my practice menu. If it's too hard, it'll have to join my pile of future pieces!

P.S. remember to use your filter when Apple says something is easy, she can play anything!

"Tabarly" is a soundtrack he did. Musically, it's a lot like "Goodbye, Lenin." Here's the title track; the rest of the music is similar in theme/melody, just different tempos and instrumentation.



"Dust Lane" was meant, I think, to be his entree into the album charts. Not sure it succeeded, but I like it. My favorite song on the album is "Palestine." The first time I heard it, I thought it was horrible. The lyrics, btw, consist of nothing but spelling out the word "Palestine." The third or fourth time I heard it I started humming it. Then I found myself hitting "repeat" on the iPod. It's strangely captivating.



I like "Goodbye, Lenin," quite a bit. The movie is very enjoyable, too. It's a comedy about a family in Eastern Germany whose mother falls in a coma before the Wall comes down. When she comes out of the coma, the doctors warn that she should not be stressed out, so the family goes to great lengths to hide the collapse of the Soviet Union.

I'm listening to Palestine right now. This sounds a lot like stuff I used to listen to when I was in high school (and wore all black and shaved my head! Not that there's anything wrong with that! )

But I can see how it would grow on you, and I can also hear how it's Tiersen-esque, in its own way! I bet no one will remember this, but several years ago, I posted a link to a Japanese commercial with this really intense piano music (the commercial was for Kumon, I'll have to see if I can find it online). Somehow, this reminds me of that.

It's been a long time since I listened, but I'm thinking the Tabarly music reminds me of Glass's music for the Hours. Both are like right at the edge of the kind of music I like, a little bit too minimalist at times, perfect at others.

Ooh, I found the music from the TV commercial I mentioned above! Way back when, I emailed with this pianist, and he said he had considered releasing sheet music for it, but I don't remember what ever happened. (I still have the email, back from 2006).

Anyway, give a listen if you have a minute, this is the full piece, not the commercial! The piano and the video are both his creations.

Takagi Masakatsu "Girls"

(How do you embed a YouTub video??)

Sometimes first impressions are the best impressions...





You'd think she'd jump for joy at that great news - but I guess even that reaction could be "stressful" in a way...

JF

Go to full reply, and click the blue box. It then gives you the option of the different video services including u tube.

Ahh, the one that says "enter a media tag" I was wondering what that was, but didn't actually click. Now I can see that it gives you several video options. Thanks, good to know! Let's see if it works. Here's the Takagi video again, please watch it, I'll be curious to hear what people think!

Shiro, I think I can speak for the entire forum that we will not believe this statement without photographic evidence of you with a shaved head!

There are other songs on "Dust Lane" that are a lot closer to Tiersen's usual style.

I liked that Takagi piece a lot, but it sounded like a nightmare to play. Was the video supposed to have all the jumbled up colors or is that my computer acting up again?

Monica, let me think about that. I have a few photos, but they are excellent blackmail material!

Re the Takagi piece, yep, I think it would be a nightmare to play! I guess I was pretty optimistic back in 2006 when I thought I could tackle it. Now, I listen to it and I can just imagine the pain and suffering it would cause me! Ah the wisdom that time brings!

Re the video, nope not your computer, that's Takagi's "visual" art, he does video installations, or did, I don't know how active he is these days!

I did some digging and couldn't find the score for solo piano played in 2nd post.

Yann Tiersen - La Valse d'Amelie

I'm not sure if it's found in the Six Pieces for Piano vol. 1 and 2 seen on sheetmusicplus and thus turn to the giant brain that is painoworld for confirmation.

I have Yann Tiersen six pieces pour piano Volume 2 and it contains:

Comptine d'un autre ete: l'apres-midi
Le Moulin
La Dispute
Sur le fil
La Valse d'Amelie
Comptine d'ete No 2

It wasn't cheap....I got it at sheetmusicplus, but it is a beautifully produced collection of music. Very high quality paper and the book remains flat when opened. It also has a very nice print, both in terms of its darkness and its font.

^^^ Booya! much appreciated.

I'll just tuck that tidbit of info away for another time. Carry on!

I am in trouble now!!

I have been working on this piece (La Valse d'Amelie). I find it somewhat difficult, but I play it well enough to please myself and have fun doing it. Took me about 3 weeks to get to that point. I also play other songs from the move "Amelie" that I find not as hard and also very beautiful.
The recording you posted (with the young guy) is not my favorite recording of this song, I have found ones I like better. To me, he plays it mechanically without much feeling. Just my opinion.

PianoFran, and all, I am going to start working on this piece, probably tomorrow night (I actually need to study for a midterm tonight, kick me off ABF!) Then we go on Spring Break, so I am hoping to get a fast start to La Valse and make some progress on other pieces before school starts up again.

I picked through it one handed just now, and then listened again while following along with the score. It's conceptually very simple (just like Comptine), but it really needs a certain tempo to bring out what's most beautiful in the music. My score says 150 for the middle part, but there are only eighth notes (or slower) so that should be doable. Also, it looks a lot like some of the exercises in my Alfred's Complete Scale book so I am going to approach the middle sections like I do scales, as pieces of music theory. Then I am going to work on the piece from the middle out, and try to apporach it both as exercises in theory and as music.

Monica, I bet if you did that it would seem much easier than it did the first time you tried it.



That's such a good way to put it! It's like that's one stage of the process of polishing a piece, and sometimes motivation depends on how quickly we can get to that point. I suspect if I can get the tempo up to 120 in a fairly short amount of time, that I will get to that stage quickly. And if I can't get the tempo up there, then I will probably feel more frustrated than I anticipated!

I'll have to report back, say around March 11th.