Wedding Celebration 


​How Beautiful

Performed by Gregory Tait
Copyright  ℗ 2022  Gregory Tait
 
By Twila Paris 
Copyright  © 1990  Capitol Cmg Genesis
Compulsory Mechanical License #1509640
How Beautiful
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File Type: m4a
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Johann Sebastian Bach’s Adagio in D minor   is a very popular musical piece, and has been used in soundtracks of several films, including Coda (2020) and Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) .  This Baroque-era work is expressive, meditative, and somber, even a bit dark, with a beautiful melancholy melodic line undergoing many stylistic ornamentations over a slowly plodding, steady progression of chords in the low-mid register.  The Adagio is a solo keyboard arrangement of the second movement of Bach’s Concerto in D minor, BWV 974, which in turn is a transcription of the Concerto for Oboe and Strings in D minor composed by Alessandro Marcello.  Bach’s autograph of this keyboard arrangement has been lost, but the arrangement was copied around 1715 by Bach’s second cousin, Johann Bernhard.  It is this copy that we use today to perform the Adagio.
 
Technically, this is not a difficult piece to play.  But the artistry is in the articulation and expression of the ornamental melodic line, and in the nuanced tempo variations.  This is why a ‘live’ performance of this work is so important.  Here is my recording of the Bach Adagio in D minor.
Bach Adagio in D minor.m4a
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Fare Thee Well Sweet Ireland  
Traditional Irish Folk Song
 
Performance ℗ 2022 Gregory Tait
 
Oh fare thee well sweet Ireland,
my own dear native home.
It breaks my heart, to see friends part,
for it’s then that the teardrops will fall.

I’m on my way to Americay,
will I e’er see my homeland once more.
For now I leave my own true love,
on Paddy’s green shamrock shore.
Charles Gounod      Ave Maria

The formal title of this work is "Meditation on the 1st Piano Prelude of J.S. Bach" .   It was published in 1853 by Charles Gounod, and subsequently became known as the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria.  Gounod's beautiful melody is voiced by solo violin (or cello) over Bach's Prelude No. 1 in C-Major from the Well Tempered Clavier, Book I (1722).  
This performance is my arrangement for solo piano.
The album  Revival  is a collection of simple tunes and songs that were popular at Protestant revival meetings of the Second Great Awakening during the nineteenth century in America. 
 
Amazing grace !  how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me !
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

​-- John Newton
Amazing Grace!  How Sweet the Sound
New Britain
Virginia Harmony  (1831)
Shall We Gather At The River ?
Tune:   Robert Lowry  (1826-1899)
Nearer, My God, To Thee
Tune:  Lowell Mason  (1856)
St. Anne Revival 
St. Anne  (1708)
Tune:  William Croft  (1678-1727)
Rock of Ages
Tune:  Thomas Hastings  (1830)

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save from wrath and make me pure.

-- Augustus M. Toplady
Eventide Revival
Tune:  W.H.Monk  (1861)
Blessed Assurance
Tune:   Phoebe P. Knapp  (1839-1908)
My Country, 'Tis of Thee
Harmonia Anglicana  (1742)
Tune:  Henry Carey
Hymns for Our Times is a collection of cherished tunes from the Christian hymnody.  I hope these hymn tunes will be comforting and inspirational during this difficult period in our nation.
Ave Verum Corpus  K. 618   (1791)
Wolfgang A. Mozart
God of Our Fathers
National Hymn
Tune:  George W. Warren  (1828-1902)
Our God, Our Help in Ages Past
St. Anne  (1708)
Tune:  William Croft
Be Still My Soul
Finlandia  (1899)
Tune:  Jean Sibelius
A Mighty Fortress is Our God
Ein Feste Burg ist Unser Gott   (c. 1529)
Martin Luther
Eternal Father, Strong to Save
Melita
Tune:  John B. Dykes  (1823-1876)
Abide with Me
Eventide  (1861)
Tune:  W. H. Monk
Jerusalem  (1916)
Music by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green ?
And was the Holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen ?

And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills ?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark satanic mills ?

Bring me my bow of burning gold !
Bring me my arrows of desire !
Bring me my spear ! O clouds, unfold !
Bring me my chariot of fire !

I will not cease from mental fight
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

-- William Blake   (c. 1804)

Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856) 
 
Robert Schumann, a German pianist and composer of the mid-Romantic period, wrote exclusively for the piano up to 1840, when he married Clara Wieck, a renowned pianist and daughter of Schumann’s piano teacher.  His early piano works were often collections of short pieces that embody emotions aroused by themes and figures in literature and poetry.   His best-known early compositions include Papillons (Op. 2),  Carnaval (Op. 9), and Kreisleriana (Op. 16).
 
Kinderszenen (Op. 15) is a set of thirteen short piano pieces composed in 1838.  These “Scenes from Childhood” capture the remembered emotions and experiences as a child, but the titles of each of the pieces were assigned after the completion of the work.  Schumann noted that these descriptive titles are “nothing more than delicate hints for execution and interpretation.”  

​No. 7, Traumerei (Reverie), is a popular favorite piano piece, and is often used in film scores.
For me, Traumerei is a wonderful example of Schumann’s romantic piano style.  It’s easy to recognize Schumann when you hear his music.
​

1.  Von fremden Ländern und Menschen   (About Strange Lands and People)
3.  Hasche-Mann   (Blindman's Bluff)
4.  Bittendes Kind   (Pleading Child)
7.  Träumerei    (Reverie)
11.  Furchtenmachen   (Frightening)
12.  Kind im Einschlummern   (Child Falling Asleep)
13.  Der Dichter spricht   (The Poet speaks)
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Pedal Point Sound by Gregory Tait is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.