Sit Bach & Relax, Volume One - Track by Track

Hello, do you like slow, soothing classical piano music? Just before the pandemic took hold, I released "Sit Bach and Relax, Volume One". It's an album of 14 slower tempo classical piano pieces, two of which I wrote. 

Here are some ways to listen: YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music

The album begins with a transcription of a Larghetto from an Antonio Vivaldi D Major Violin Concerto, by Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach made many keyboard transcriptions of violin concerti of Vivaldi and other composers, and they are all wonderful. The Cypriot pianist Cyprien Katsaris has made a fine recording of all of them.

Second is Claude Debussy's famous Clair de lune, which is actually the 3rd of four pieces in his Suite Bergamasque. If you don't know the other 3 pieces, check them out: they are beautiful. I remember spending many boyhood hours listening to my Mom's LP recording of Aldo Ciccolini's recording of early Debussy piano works, which includes the Suite Bergamasque.

Third is Theme and Variations in C Major, a piece I wrote in the spring of 2019, and dedicated to Charlea Janette Bailey, who has done quite a few art covers and music videos for my music releases.

Fourth is the Pavane from Francis Poulenc's Suite Française, a suite of 7 pieces written in 1935, while looking through the eyes of 16th century France.

Number 5 is one of the Song Without Words by Felix Mendelssohn, simply entitled Adagio non troppo, Opus 30, #3. He wrote 48 of these short piano pieces, from 1829 to 1845. A few years ago I was visiting one of my former piano teachers, Kurtz Carpenter, in his utopian abode, nestled in a forest on a remote ridgetop in southeastern Ohio. As he sat at one of his grand pianos, and I sat in one of his comfortable chairs in his magnificent living room, he proceeded to play the first Song Without Word, then the 2nd, then the 3rd, the 4th, and all the way through all 48 of them, which took several hours!

The 6th piece is my own transcription of the plainchant "In principio omnes", by Hildegard of Bingen, a Benedictine abbess, writer, poet, composer, mystic, scholar, prophet, moralist, scientist, and herbalist who lived in 12th century Germany. She was a "Renaissance woman" long before the Renaissance!

7th is "At an Old Trysting Place" by Edward MacDowell. It's one of the Woodland Sketches, a group of pastoral pieces which may have been inspired by his move to a farm in New Hampshire.

#8 is my piano transcription of the song, "Into the Night", by Clara Edwards. Art songs, or classical songs, have these days largely faded from popularity. But thankfully, upon my introduction, I have several students who have fallen in love with art songs! Volume 2 of Sit Bach and Relax will be all art songs, with me performing the voice and piano parts. Stay tuned! The Art Song Preservation Society is a non-profit arts organization dedicated to preserving, revitalizing, and promoting the art song repertoire and the art song recital. Check out their website!

#9. Speaking of art songs, I set to music a poem called "Renewal", written by my mother, Edith Reed. I arranged it for solo piano for this album. I will be recording the voice/piano version soon, perhaps adding a violin, viola, and French Horn part, for these are the three instruments she played. I also wrote a piece for flute and piano in which I felt like my Mom's spirit was moving through me. Although it's an instrumental piece, I called it Song for Mom

#10 is a Sarabande from the D Major Partita of J.S. Bach. The Sarabande was originally a dance which was considered disreputable. It was banned by Phillip II of Spain in 1583 because it was thought to be loose and ugly, and inspiring bad emotions. But its popularity spread to France, Italy, and to Germany, evolving into a slow, stately dance, where a pious man such as J.S. Bach wrote many Sarabandes in his various suites for instruments.

Track 11 is the 4th Gnossienne, by Erik Satie. I love the mystical, mercurial feeling of this piece.

#12 is En rêve (Dreaming) by Franz Liszt. Many of Liszt's late works dispensed with the innovative virtuosity of his earlier works, and instead exhibit a rather impressionistic simplicity.

#13 is the famous first movement of what is often called the Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven. When I was around 16, I played this piece for a solo and ensemble event at Madison High School in Mansfield, Ohio. I was the last one on the schedule that day. After my performance, the judge told me that it was worth waiting all day long, just for the chance to hear me play Beethoven. His compliment was very encouraging, and part of what motivated me to pursue a career in music. 

The final selection on the album is my piano arrangement of "Adoration", an organ piece by Florence Price. She was an African-American classical composer, who lived from 1887-1953. She wrote symphonies, chamber works, art songs, and works for violin, piano, and organ. Many of her works make considerable use of characteristic African-American melodies and rhythms. The great contralto Marian Anderson often performed Price's arrangements of spirituals. After Price's death, her music unfortunately largely faded from view, but in recent years, more and more musicians are performing and recording her works, including Timothy Reed!