Celestial Dreams: 5 Original Piano Solos.

Celestial Dreams: 5 Original Piano Solos, Naoko Ideda. The Willis Music Company/Hal Leonard (www. musicdispatch.com; [phone]), 2007. 16 pp. $5.95.

If you are searching for some fresh, new, un-American and un-educational sounding pieces, then Celestial Dreams may be a collection you will want to use in your studio. Naoko Ikeda's collection features five very heavenly mid-intermediate pieces focusing on various celestial qualities, such as the stars, heavens and constellations. The collection features catchy titles like "The Sparkling Night Sky," "The Shining North Star" and "Shooting Stars in Summer," to name a few. A table of contents, which is really referred to as "Performance Notes," lists each piece with its respective key signature, time signature and tempo marking (for example, "Andante" and so on). Ikeda includes some brief thoughts about each piece, such as why the piece was written or for whom it was written, and continues on to explain the story behind each piece. Of special interest is "The Silver Boat," which is based on a Japanese folk tale and is a "sister piece" to "Moon Flute," found in her other book, Shoukei, Book I. A practice "tip" is included in the "performance notes" to assist the student in learning the piece. For example, the tip for "The Sparkling Night Sky" is to "Make sure the wrists and arms are relaxed, and play the slurs as elegantly as possible."

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All of the pieces in this collection sound good and lie well in a young pianist's hands. Each piece targets and promotes musical playing and finesse in movement across the keyboard. Furthermore, the composer states and strives for developing not only a lovely sound, but beautiful shaping and phrasing of each piece. This would be an exciting collection to add to the repertoire of any student!

The editing of this collection is clean, and the only drawback is the slim amount of fingering given in the score.--Reviewed by Adrienne Wiley, NCTM, Central Michigan University