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Golliwog’s Cakewalk, is the final movement of the 6 movement, Children’s Corner Suite. This piece has great significance for me. Some of you may know that I have somewhat small hands. Fortunately, I have a solid octave, and can reach most ninths comfortably. But as a child, my hands were very small, and weak.

When I was 13 years old, I learned and performed the complete Children’s Corner Suite which was a milestone for me. My father had many students who had far more developed technique at the piano than I had at the time. But, I was always able to create a great variety of tonal colors which worked incredibly well for Debussy.

However, at the end of the entire suite, Golliwog’s Cakewalk ends with a crashing lowest B-flat octave on the piano in the left hand, with the right hand adding a third E-flat. The octave was so anemic, my father had me play just two E-flats two octaves apart. Even then, my weak fingers couldn’t produce a suitably big sound to end this epic piece. So he had me use all my fingers curled up together in each hand to get some oomph at the end of this wonderful suite!

A Cakewalk was a popular dance form at the time this piece was written. You may notice a rather strange middle section. There is an interesting story to this! Debussy was one of the great composers of the French Impressionist style of music. This was in great contrast to the late Romantic, German style. There was a rivalry between Debussy and Wagner. The slow, middle section of Golliwog’s Cakewalk pokes fun at the very dramatic Tristan theme from Wagner’s opera, Tristan & Isolda. You can listen for the statement of the theme followed by what sounds like chuckling! Then the music transcends back to the cakewalk. Hope you enjoy this delightful piece!

Thanks for listening!

Debussy – Golliwog’s Cakewalk – Performed by Robert Estrin, Pianist

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about the importance of volume in music. It’s interesting, as technology has grown, the use of volume to reach larger and larger audiences has ensued over hundreds of years. Originally, music was just singing, because the human voice is the first musical instrument. Then percussion instruments came along with people banging on things to make even more sound. With the invention of modern instruments like the saxophone, volume again increased. Then electronics took us to another level with how much volume is possible. But today, we’re talking about something a little bit different. The subject today isn’t about how the volume of musical instruments and musical expression has grown over generations and beyond, but how volume in your own music has a profound effect upon the listener and the emotions that are conveyed. The actual amount of amplitude, the energy of sound levels, has a profound effect upon how you feel when you’re listening to music. I’m going to demonstrate this for you with some original music to celebrate the new year. I hope you enjoy this!

See the accompanying video to hear the performance

Sometimes you can actually make a far louder message by holding back and playing delicately. The same thing is true with technology on a grander scale. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone into venues where the music has been so loud that you can’t really appreciate it because it’s beyond the threshold of pain! Any sound over 100 decibels is considered to be above the threshold of pain. If you go into a club, often the music is far above that level. But lower volume music actually draws listeners in! That’s the lesson for today on a personal level, as well as a global level.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this! Here at Living Pianos we wish you a great new year of music! We have plenty of great subjects for new videos in 2021, so stay tuned!
I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

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Does Music Need to be Loud to be Good?

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is about the two different kinds of encores. There are fundamentally two different types of moods you want to create in encores, and I’m going to get into that. But first I want to start with a personal reflection for you.

My father, Morton Estrin, had such a profound effect upon me.

I want to talk a little bit about my father’s experiences as a performer. As much as he performed, he got extremely nervous for performances. And when he would walk out on stage, it was a terrifying experience for him! He would get so nervous, his pedal foot would shake. I remember watching him perform and feeling so badly for him. There he was, trying to control things, and his foot was going up and down like crazy! It was once kind of funny, in retrospect. In one of his New York recitals, the reviewer commented on his beautiful performance and his “fluttering pedal technique.” Little did he know it was nothing intentional. It was something my father fought with his whole career. And the way he overcame it was very interesting. For him, the easiest thing to start a program with was something really heroic. He could go out there and play the most bombastic virtuosic music right from the get go. With that, he didn’t have any trouble. But to go out and start a program with a delicate piece, like something of Mozart, or a Schubert Impromptu, was extremely challenging for him. With that very delicate music, any little motion of any part of the body has such profound effects. He worked really hard to overcome this and was proud of himself that he could go out on stage and play something delicate as an opener for a program. Because programmatically, he wanted to be able to have architecture and not just start with the most heroic piece. Usually you want a big finish at the end of your program.

What was interesting about my father’s performances, we would always go backstage at intermission and hug him and tell him how beautiful it sounded. He couldn’t even believe it because he was so terrorized up there for the first half! But in the second half, he would relax. By the time he got to the end of the program, he was in his element. He would play encore after encore and the audience would cheer for more! He would play five, six encores, as many as the audience wanted. And at that point he could do anything. He had no nerves left whatsoever. It was a thrilling experience for everyone who heard him!

There are two different types of encores.

When a program ends and you come out for an encore, the audience has been through a whole program. You want to charge them up! So you play something like a Chopin etude, something virtuosic and energetic. But what if the program ended with something big and dynamic and it’s already a blockbuster at the end of the program? That’s when you want to flip it and come out with a poetic encore, maybe a Chopin Nocturne or Prelude. That could be just the mood you’re looking for.

My father recorded the Scriabin Etudes Opus 8.

It was the first modern recording of the complete Opus 8, and it won record of the year. You can find them on YouTube. His performances don’t sound like etudes. They are rich musical experiences. He didn’t play them as just technical exercises. He played them for the gorgeous music that this early Scriabin is. The Opus 8 was very different from later Scriabin where he explored very sophisticated harmonies that bordered on atonality. Early Scriabin is sometimes compared to Chopin. It really has a voice all its own, but it’s quite chromatic, beautiful romantic music that is extremely emotional. I got to hear my father play them in New York at Lincoln Center. It holds a very special meaning for me.

I’m going to play the D-sharp minor Etude from Opus 8 which is the last of the set. Then, just as if the program ended heroically, because that is an incredible blockbuster piece, I’m going to go right into a movement of Debussy from the Children’s Corner Suite, The Little Shepherd, which was my mother’s favorite piece. I would play it for her as an encore. So this is very special and a personal performance for you. You can listen to the accompanying video. I hope you enjoy it.

Those are two completely different types of encores. What is appropriate depends upon your programming. So remember, if you’ve already pulled out all the stops, and you’ve ended really big, then bring it down and show poetry and express intimate feelings. Show what you can do to the soul! On the other hand, if the program ends with something long and melodic like a Schubert Sonata with beautiful architecture, then you’ll want to charge people up with your encore so they leave the hall with energy. Judging your encores is very important. Sometimes you can even have two or three encores prepared. Or maybe you’re brave enough and you have an audience that’s enthusiastic enough so you can play a bunch of encores like my father used to do!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this. Thanks again for joining me! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

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2 Types of Encores – for My Parents – Scriabin: Etude in D# minor Op 8 Debussy: The Little Shepherd

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to share with you a personal story about the first Chopin piece I ever learned. It’s a funny thing. I was in my office going through music, because we just moved a few months ago and I’m still sorting through things. And what did I uncover but a book of Chopin music. It looks just like any old Schirmer edition of Chopin Preludes. But if you open it up you can see that this is the book I used to learn my first piece of Chopin, the E minor Prelude. You can even see where my father assigned the piece to me. It’s really something after all these years to uncover this. And it brings up a few really important points.

Chopin had an incredible output for the piano.

Chopin was incredibly prolific. He wrote ballades, scherzos, polonaises, etudes, mazurkas, and many waltzes, as well as monumental concert pieces, sonatas and concertos. Yet he wrote pieces that can be approached by relatively intermediate pianists. This isn’t to suggest that these preludes are in any way lacking or aren’t profoundly deep pieces of music, because they are. That’s what made me so unbelievably enthralled. I remember when I first played this piece, I couldn’t even imagine any other piece of music, much less another piece of Chopin, being as enthralling. I was just completely in love with this piece! The funny thing is in revisiting it, I still have that same passion for it! Truth be known, I’ve played this piece many times over the years and I never play it the same way twice. I want to just talk a little bit about this unique piece which I’m sure many of you know.

The interesting thing is how simple the melody of this piece is.

If you just listen to the melody of this piece out of context, without the accompaniment, it’s one of the most boring melodies you could ever imagine. How can this possibly be a beautiful piece of music? Well, it’s the lush, rich, ever-changing harmonies undulating underneath in eighth notes that brings this piece to life. Why did Chopin write eighth notes in the left hand with a slow melody on top? It’s because of the physics of the sound of the piano itself. If you just had sustained chords in the left hand it wouldn’t really work, because when you play a chord on the piano it just dies away.

Imagine what this would sound like with a string orchestra.

So much of Chopin’s music is evocative of the human voice or sustained strings, and yet it’s all done with a percussion instrument. Did you know that the piano is technically a percussion instrument? You’re not hitting it with sticks or mallets, but indeed there are hammers that are hitting the strings! To create a singing line out of the piano is really the art and magic of illusion. And when you have a score written by Chopin, it’s amazing how he brings it to life! That’s the mood you can create on the piano. How is it possible? By listening to the ever-changing harmonies while keeping them subtle enough to draw the attention to this incredibly simple melody. Each and every note of that melody takes on profound implications because of the ever shifting harmonies. In the accompanying video I play a performance of this for you so you can hear what I’m talking about. To revisit this prelude after all these years, and to share it with you, is a great pleasure. I hope you enjoy this performance of Chopin’s prelude in E minor.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this! I will be sharing more personal stories about my childhood and my life in music that I hope you enjoy! Again, I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com. This is your piano resource! Thanks again for joining me. See you next time!

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My First Chopin – Prelude in E Minor

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I have a really interesting presentation for you. What happens in a studio after dark? This week we’ve been putting together two whole new studios here. Late last night I walked over to the piano and it sounded so beautiful in my studio I just started recording.

I didn’t even turn the lights on!

I think you’re going to appreciate what I played. Interestingly, this idea of doing things after hours in a recording studio is nothing new. Studio time used to be very expensive, and even today to get a good room with good acoustics and a good piano is tough. A lot of times bands or musicians come in after hours when everything is quiet and dark, and it can be a very inspiring time to make music which you can hear for yourself.

That’s a little bit of what can happen after the studio is closed. You can’t choose when you will be inspired. So, a lot of these things can just go by the wayside and nobody ever gets to experience them because no one’s there. But the beautiful thing about a studio is that you can record! So that’s what I’m going to do for you with my new studios and loyal audience of subscribers, for which I am so grateful! You can join the Living Pianos Patreon to get even more! I figure this is the time to share my music with all of you. I hope you enjoy it!

I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
Please feel free to contact me with any piano related questions for future videos!

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Magic in the Studio After Dark

Hi, this is Robert Estrin at LivingPianos.com. The subject today is, “Finding the Vehicle for Your Music”. There are some points in history when there were excellent vehicles for musical expression. Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven had the sonata form to exploit. The piano also was just coming into its own as was the symphony orchestra. This provided incredible opportunities for creative expression.

There are whole eras of history where the arts flourished such as the Renaissance.

Conversely, times like the Dark Ages offered scant opportunity for creative expression. There is another side to this aside from historical context. If you are a musician or artist, you must find your unique system of creative expression if you are going to be prolific. If you look at some of the most successful composers today, they each find a niche in which to flourish. This can be combining styles of music that have never been fused before, such as Eastern and Western styles. Or, it can involve utilizing technology in ways that haven’t been done before.

One thing that I have done incessantly since childhood, is improvisation. Since I have done this for so long, I almost always have fresh, new musical ideas percolating in my mind. When I sit down at the piano, oftentimes, things come together in ways that seem inexplicable. While I have captured some of them on recording, at this time I am developing a system of recording these musical creations to share with you.

Last night, I set up the recording gear for a test.

While I had nothing specific in mind when recording, the music seemed to come together well enough to share with you. I hope you enjoy the performance on the accompanying video. Finding the vehicle for your musical expression is half the battle of becoming productive and effective in sharing your musical ideas. I am interested in your opinion of what I am creating with technology to share my musical ideas with you, and welcome your insights into how to create a vehicle for musical and artistic expression. Thanks for joining me, Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com – Your Online Piano Store.

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