Week Two: Joie de musique!
Hello and welcome to the WEEK TWO Main Thread for this challenge! 
Alright everyone - this is the thread where we'll all be posting our daily updates.
Make sure you've read the rules before replying (<- click)
Twice a week between May 16 - 23 I hope to be reading your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Please use the following format when commenting (feel free to copy & paste!):
- Piece you worked on:
- One thing you found easy:
- One thing you found difficult:
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
Sample daily update:
- Piece you worked on: Ravel's Prelude
- One thing you found easy: Learning the notes, and rhythms were rather straight-forward, and not challenging!
- One thing you found difficult: Shifting the Hands was a bit tricky to get smooth!
Feel free to make these updates as short or long as you wish!
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Bonjour, mes amis!
- Piece you worked on: Chaminade "Pierrette"
- One thing you found easy: The format of the piece is very straightforward because it is truly a "miniature". So, no big development sections to analyze. I had never really heard of this composer before Dominic put her on our list of choices last week, and I'm so excited to discover her.
- One thing you found difficult: I was able to find a really cool ancient recording of Chaminade herself playing the piece, and the tempo is much faster than I thought. I really need to listen to pieces more than once before I pick something to learn. LOL! (Or, as you say in French..."MDR"! Mort de rire!). I'll take a stab at making a first recording tomorrow evening.
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Gail Starr How exciting to find a recording of the composer playing her own work. Looking forward to hearing your interpretation!
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Vidhya Bashyam I was amazed that they even HAD recordings way back then. Granted, it is REALLY scratchy and bumpy sounding, but you can get the gist of what she intended. What piece are you learning?
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Gail Starr What a wonderful piece, Gail!! Thanks for introducing me to it :) Hope you are well xx Bisous !! xx
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Gail Starr Looks like she lived around the same time as Rachmaninoff and some of his recordings are on YouTube. I am learning Faure’s Romance Sans Paroles #3.
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Vidhya Bashyam Wow! I didn’t know Rachmaninov had recordings!
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Bonjour!
I found a wonderful collection on imslp a few days ago: Anthology of French piano music edited by Isidor Philipp who was a close friend of Debussy. (For everyone who would be interested in discovering more musical jewels from France, here is the link: https://s9.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/7/74/IMSLP350837-SIBLEY1802.17637.dbaa-39087012342293vol._1_score.pdf)
For this week I picked a Passacaglia from Charles Hubert Gervais. I found it easy to read, not so difficult to play. It might need more ornamentation and a bit more fluidity.
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Andrea Buckland Beautiful！
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Meiko thanks, Meiko! I have never heard about Gervais before. His music reminds me of Purcell somehow. I am very glad to have found this piece.
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Andrea Buckland Me, neither. This is the first time I listened to his music. The transition of harmony is so beautiful. (Your performance, too.) I feel like playing the piece, too. Thank you for introducing the composer and his music.
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Andrea Buckland What a remarkable music, Andrea! You always discover me new pieces. Thank you for sharing it!
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Andrea Buckland Wonderful! Great to hear music from a “new” composer!
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Andrea Buckland lovely piece and it sounds wonderful! I did not know this previously!
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Andrea Buckland What a great find. Sounds beautiful!
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Andrea Buckland I loved listening to this very gentle and restful piece, it is a perfect way to end the day today. Thank you for playing this so beautifully and sharing it.
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Vidhya Bashyam thank you, Vidhya!
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Jenny many thanks for listening, Jenny!
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Andrea Buckland that was lovely! Very soothing. Also, thank you for providing the IMSLP link.
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Susan Rogers Thank you, Susan, for listening! This Anthology of Isidor Philipp is actually amazing. There is also a second volume. It was a lot of fun for me to look/ play through different French pieces which were popular at Debussy`s time.
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I don't know what is the secret of this music, since if you play it, you want to play it again and again; if you listen to it, you want to listen it more and more. It has the magic power of the ancient spells... It is very curious since it sounds beautiful with different tempi or dynamics. I have tried to play it with the less sustain pedal possible, but I feel that I am not sure yet how to do it. So, I am going to play it again and again...
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Juan Carlos Olite Oh my goodness. Such mesmerizing music! I can understand playing it again and again! I will be adding this to my list of pieces to learn.
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Juan Carlos Olite How wonderful!
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Juan Carlos Olite What a beautiful piece of music!! I have definitely heard it before....it's very grounding and calming.
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Juan Carlos Olite I love this piece! Great playing!
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Juan Carlos Olite well done, that sounds great, such a nice tone! The piece sounds so fresh even though it’s many centuries old!
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