The Lord’s My Shepherd (arr. Wilbur Held)
Made another pipe organ recording yesterday
thefjord.org
The official online FjordArchive for Music
Original Music: Contrivance
Another original piece. This time featuring my recently-acquired Alesis Ion synthesizer. Yeah, I got another keyboard… My bedroom is starting to look a little bit ridiculous. :-)
Listen to: Contrivance.
Chorale Prelude on Nun danket alle Gott
I finally got around to recording a video of me playing the organ.
Chorale Prelude on “Nun danket alle Gott” (“Now Thank We All Our God”) by Georg Friedrich Kaufmann
They’re yours
Some more music! This time, an original song. Well, the music is original; I only adapted the lyrics. I’ve been wanting to set some of Spence’s poetry to music for a while, so when he posted Sestet and Sestet II (go read them!), I figured they were pretty much perfect for a song.
I wanted to use both poems, but I was having trouble coming up with an interesting way to combine them. Luckily, a coworker (thanks, Maciej!) happened to tell me about a song he had written that had two melody lines and used a reprise to combine them. I thought that sounded like the coolest thing ever, and two melody lines is an easy fit for two poems, so that’s what I did.
Listen to: They’re yours.
This is the second original song I’ve written. If you missed it, the first one is here: Leaves.
Fjord Plays the Pipe Organ (vol. 1)
Merry Christmas, everyone! My Christmas present to all of you is my first pipe organ recording. I’ve found a great church here in California. They’ve got a splendid pipe organ, and their totally awesome organist is giving me lessons.
So, here’s what I’ve been working on over the past several months. Enjoy!
Fjord Plays the Pipe Organ (vol. 1)
Here are some more pictures of the organ.
Recital #3
It’s been about a year and a half ago now that I started taking piano lessons, and on Thursday I had my third recital. It was by far the best recital I’ve done, mostly just because I’m less nervous about playing in front of people now. The two pieces I did were ones that I knew pretty well, so I just had a good time instead of being worried about it. As usual, here are some recordings I made at home of the pieces I played:
Chopin – Prelude No. 4 in E minor
I also started taking organ lessons about a month ago, so hopefully I’ll have some organ music recordings on here soon!
Recital #2
Last Thursday was my second piano recital since I started taking lessons last April (wow, nearly a year has gone by!). I was pretty nervous again, but not as bad as last time. I made some mistakes (including completely demolishing the ending to the first piece), but overall it was really pretty good. By the time I got to my last piece, there were a few parts where I felt like I was actually able to play with feeling and convey some emotional meaning instead of concentrating only on the notes.
And for those of you who weren’t able to make it, here are some recordings I made at home of the pieces I played:
Chopin – Prelude in C minor
Bach – Invention 1
Beethoven – Fur Elise
First Recital
Some of you know that I started taking piano lessons back in April. I had taken lessons when I was a kid, but I hated them and stopped. Then, of course, I regretted quitting, so I figured that since I’m out of college now, I don’t really have any excuse not to start them back up again.
Anyway, this Thursday, my piano teacher hosted a recital for her students, and she wanted me to play some pieces for it. I’ve never played in a recital before, even when I took lessons in the past, so I was a bit nervous about the whole thing. I had decided to memorize the pieces, not because I’m awesome (though it did generate a few compliments!), but because I’m not actually good enough yet to both read the music and get my hands in the right place all the time. So, my main fear was that I would freeze up and forget where I was and just be incapable of completing the piece.
After a week of frenzied practicing, the day of the recital finally came. I did make some pretty bad mistakes (and even omitted a few measures altogether!), but all the practicing paid off, and I was able to just forge ahead. Based on what people said afterward, the mistakes must not have sounded as bad to the audience as they did to me, but I knew what I was trying to accomplish.
Since y’all weren’t able to attend the actual recital, I made some recordings of what I played: Ballade by Burgmuller and Color It Blue, a medley of Valse Bleue by Alfred Margis and Valse Bluette by R. Drigo. And bonus, these recordings don’t have the mistakes I made at the actual recital! (However, I did get to play a lovely old Steiff baby grand at the recital, and these are just from my Yamaha keyboard…)
I’ve definitely still got a long ways to go, but I’m pretty happy with what I’ve been able to accomplish in the last 5 months or so.
Hi there. My name is Curtis Hawthorne, but most of my friends call me Fjord.