If you are not lucky enough to be in Chicago this week, here is a sneak peak inside Sonny Chua’s collection: Piano Music of Sonny Chua. This collection would be fabulous for 40 Piece Challenge students as it includes pieces at a range of levels, so some quick wins as well as some pieces to work towards.
These miniatures were created to taunt, tickle and teach. I wrote these pieces to amuse myself, as much as for the student to perform, and for the audience to participate as our unsuspecting victims.
Even though these works are preceded by descriptive titles, I hope the music itself is just as evocative without its extra-musical references. I believe music is a unique language and can perhaps communicate more richly and mightily than words.
These pieces were great fun to write as they allowed me to explore many aspects of pianistic technique and timbre. It was also immensely enjoyable to dabble as a “sonic character actor” with a range of musical concepts and styles. I hope you will enjoy the craft and the bluff in this quirky collection of piano music.
Piano Music of Sonny Chua (order number 0101340976) is available through these great stores in Australia and available from all good stores in the US via Hal Leonard. The collection includes:
You Dirty Rat (from a Gangster Suite)
Angel (intermezzo from Sonatina)
No. 3 (from Waltz it All About?)
No. 12 (from Waltz it All About?)
Hoonmobile (from Bogus Boogies)
Headache Crawl (from Bogus Bogies)
TV Zombie (from Bogus Boogies)
T-Rex Hungry (from a Day in the Life of T-Rex)
Jamaican Fumble (from Red Hot Rhapsodies)
