David Rakowski has gone mildly YouTube crazy over the past few months, and has videos of 29 of his 80 piano etudes. Most of the performances are by Amy Briggs Dissanayake and Marilyn Nonken.
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His etudes are true “etudes” in the sense that each is an exploration of a specific musical idea. “Martler,” in the above video, is an etude on hand-crossing; “Taking the Fifths” is on fifths; “Schnozzage” requires the pianist to play with her nose; “Bop It” bops; “12-Step Program” is on chromatic scales and wedges. And they kick butt.
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(The title of this post, incidentally, is more of a Bob Ceely pun than a Davy Rakowski pun, but the latter studied with the former so I figure I can get away with it.)
Fantastic!
I don’t have a list of Bob’s pieces, but here’s his website
http://www.ceelymusic.com/
His CD, like a lot of Rakowski’s music, is Kick Ass!
I think I snagged my copy of the Etudes CD under similar circumstances at the Lincoln Center Tower Records.
BTW, does anybody out there have a list of the titles of the Bob Ceely etudes that I’m emulating in the title of this post? The only one I can remember is Groovetude, and I can’t seem to find the info on the web. They’re good pieces, and Bob is a good guy, if mildly insane. . .
Amy Briggs Dissanayake is a fantastic pianist. I’ve worked with her on some of my own music in the late ’90’s, and last December I purchased the Bridge cd (#9121) of David Rakowski’s piano etudes from Books II, III & IV (also featuring Amy as pianist). These works are amazing – on many levels. It’s quite a kick to watch the YouTube videos now that I already have the exposure to the music in my head. Incidentally, this cd holds a special value for me since I purchased it in New York last December at the downtown Tower Records, the day before Tower Records came to an end. I went there for one last hoorah and stumbled upon this disc (making the experience into one last Hoorakowski). I would recommend the cd to anyone interested in great music and really exciting performance.