Christmas Chimes (2 pianos/4 hands)

[Guy Bacos]

I took a few days in between VSL demos to write some holiday music. 

This is a potpourri of nearly all Christmas hymns which I arranged my own way. The piece is written for 2 pianos/4 hands

EDIT:The piece is now available on cdbaby for purchase, so I cannot upload here the full version, however this version, although only samples, is still long enough to give an idea.

[url=http://www.guybacos.com/audio/Christmas%20Chimes%20Samples.mp3]Christmas Chimes[/url]

Comments are appreciated.

Guy

[denis]

Hi Guy,
I've always been a big fan of your arrangement, orchestration and VSL mock-up skills and talent. What I hear in the Christmas pot-pourri this year is more of a ready-to-be-orchestrated piece than a 4-hands piano piece. At times I find it too complex and dissonant for one single instrument, but I can hear the wonders it would do played by an ensemble/orchestra. So did you really arrange it for 2 pianos or in the view of orchestrating it?
Oh well... These are just my thoughts and I'm not an expert.
Best,
Denis

[Guy Bacos]

Hi Denis,

Great observation and thanks for your comment. The reason I wanted this piece for 2 pianos instead of for orchestra, is that recently I remembered some lovely piano 4 hands rendition (or original versions) that had their own charm to it. For example. listen to Nutcracker for piano 4 hands, really lovely. Of course we know The Rite of Springs originally written on piano works also very well on piano.  Having said that, perhaps I will orchestrate it at some point, some passages definitely call for orchestra, I agree, but I'd still keep this version.

[gabriel81]

I am deeply impressed!

And I also like the 4-hand approach - this just fits very well. (During first hearing I was just sometimes irritated by very harsh high tones - but during second time I could not find it anymore)

And big thanks for not including Last Christmas ;)

Gabriel

P.S.: What about a VSL Christmas Song competition?

[doubleattack]

What nobody forebodes - how hard it is to play two pianos in an overdub way! Specially ritardando, accelerando etc.

Of course, you did it with MIDI. But it appears very lively and not really much edited. And very transparent arranged and mixed. I've had much fun to listen to it. And thougt when it comes to the parallel moved jazzy harmonies of "Oh Tannenbaum" (don't know the english title), that must be the thinking of a chrismas-fir 14 days after chrismas. Funny! 

Kind regards

Frank

[Guy Bacos]

Thanks guys, very much appreciated!  [:D]

Frank, you are correct, it was a mix of interpretation and editing recreating the original interpretation through tempo automation.

[gabriel81]

Just would like to push this , as christmas is coming closer this masterpiece should not remain "hidden" on the second page of this forum.

Merry X-Christmas

[William]

 Yes, I agree this is another example of Guy's amazing talent both as pianist and composer/arranger.  This piece has been a big success in performance and I wanted to say congratulations on it!