Suite Dreams.* Suite Dreams, by Tony Caramia. Hal Leonard Corporation Hal Leonard Corporation is a US sheet music publishing company. It is the largest sheet music publisher in the world. . 2009. www.musicdispatch.com; (800) 637-2852; 15 pp. $6.99. Intermediate. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Tony Caramia has been writing great jazz piano Jazz Piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. The instrument is also a vital tool in the understanding of jazz theory and arranging, because of its combined melodic and harmonic nature. music for years; in fact, my students have been enjoying his music since the mid-'80s. This suite of four solos in jazz style carries on Caramia's compositional legacy that is both harmonically creative and readily accessible. You'll find that each piece can be learned quickly since he uses a limited number of patterns that are skillfully varied through sequence and transposition transposition /trans·po·si·tion/ (trans?po-zish´un) 1. displacement of a viscus to the opposite side. 2. . "Playing" begins and ends in D Major. In 6/8 meter, it emphasizes harmony over melody by utilizing broken chord broken chord Noun same as arpeggio patterns. Caramia uses a creative modulation to return to the A section. I was a bit confused upon my first read-through, finding that the frequent key signature changes do not always correspond to the phrase structure. "Hoping" begins in D major with a left-hand hemiola-like pattern that is varied throughout the piece. A slow-moving, lyrical melody progresses through several keys, then returns a half step lower with a new harmonization har·mo·nize v. har·mo·nized, har·mo·niz·ing, har·mo·niz·es v.tr. 1. To bring or come into agreement or harmony. See Synonyms at agree. 2. Music To provide harmony for (a melody). . The piece fades into a rich jazz harmony Jazz harmony is the harmonic idiom or harmonies used in jazz. Similarities between jazz harmony and traditional or common practice harmony or tonality include, notational techniques, (e.g. the musical staff, clefs, accidentals etc.) many chord progressions, and many musical scales. , ending in A-flat major. "Melancholy," in B minor, effectively reflects its title by continuously dropping in pitch, reminiscent of Chopin's E minor prelude. Whole tone scale fragments are used near the end of each section. The final arpeggio concludes with a jazz harmony built in fourths. "Happy," full of energetic staccatos, is in G major, with the B section modulating to A-flat major. The A sections utilize first and second inversion triads moving in parallel motion, while the B section challenges the performer with quartal chords in the right hand. A playful hemiola In modern musical parlance, a hemiola is a metrical pattern in which two bars in simple triple time (3/2 or 3/4 for example) are articulated as if they were three bars in simple duple time (2/2 or 2/4). sets up the return to section A. The coda covers a wide gamut of the keyboard by utilizing octave shifts. You will enjoy using this outstanding suite with your intermediate students as contest pieces and with more advanced students as reading pieces. When you need some lighter repertoire yourself, don't forget that you too deserve Suite Dreams!--Reviewed by Victor Labenske, Point Lorna Nazarene University * The items marked with this symbol can be ordered via the MTNA MTNA Music Teachers National Association MTNA Middle Tennessee Nursery Association (McMinnville, Tennessee) website through our affiliation with Amazon.com. Go to www.mma.org and choose Member Services from the Membership option in the main menu bar for more information. |
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