My family and friends will tell you that I love everything about nighttime. I love to sit outside at dusk, watch the light change, contemplate the heavens and let night’s unique sounds envelop me. A nice fire in the chiminea doesn’t hurt either. This love has found its way into my repertoire and in this post I’d like to share some of my favorite night pieces with you. So, here is my list of 15 cherished night pieces; in alphabetical order since I cannot choose a most favorite piece or child among them. I have left out the more obvious Chopin (and The Moonlight Sonata) from the group on the grounds that they are already iconic and hardly in need of any reinforcement from me.

fav pa nite pieces

I have played and taught these beauties many times over- truly Velveteen Rabbit material! Some are inspired by poetry and story, others atmospheric. Some are complex and dissonant, others wonderful miniatures.  A few are incurably sentimental and I make no apologies there.  I have left out the more obvious Chopin (and The Moonlight Sonata) from the group on the grounds that they are already iconic. 

I have paired Messiaen, Bartok, and Louie as a set. I have put Suisse’s Midnight in Gramercy Square with pieces by Rameau & Couperin and selections from Ravel’s Mother Goose and Le Tombeau de Couperin. It’s fun to improvise on the Suisse as well. One of my students even created a set of traditional variations on it with different locations for each one. The Suisse is also is great with Poulenc’s Nocturne or Debussy’s Evening in Granada. Debussy’s Sounds and Scents goes wonderfully with the Persichetti. I even threw Poulenc into that mix once (no apologies remember?). 

Students enjoy choosing images to project as they play. OK. So do I and so do the listeners. We have done sets of night pieces where each student plays one piece in the set. One year we did any entire recital of night themed pieces including some composed by the students. It always warms my soul to watch them collaborate on each set down to choosing a final performance order to make the pieces work as a whole. The discussions are fascinating. Should we go for stark contrast or a gradual progression? Hey, I think my piece is like yours because… When I hear this it reminds me of… 

I’ll leave you with this little gem.

PA nite poem andreas

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