Скачать или смотреть Peace of the Woods - Edvard Grieg

I've been learning this piece for a few months now, and finally had a chance to record it on one of the coolest digital pianos I've ever laid my hands on. A special thanks to Promusic.az for letting me use their pianos at my own discretion, and also to friends and consistent viewers like @PiotrBarcz for motivating me to still record and upload videos from time to time.

This was the first time I've ever used midi for a solo-piano recording, and it's honestly life-changing. For my previous piano recordings, it would often take tens if not scores of takes until I got a play-through which had minimal errors, and which I was comfortable publishing. Now, with nothing more than a USB cord and a modern digital piano, I can easily remove any blemishes or inaccuracies in post, without having to splice multiple takes in Audacity like I had previously done. This was honestly the most painless recording I've ever made. I kid you not, all it took was the first take, and then maybe fifteen minutes of editing the midi file on REAPER.

And the piece itself... all I can say is it gives me a cathartic dopamine rush every-time I listen to it. So many jazzy chords with such deep and dark voicings... It just feels like a long sigh after a day of hard work. The main motif is simple and harmonically pleasing. We hear it in several variations - Grieg keeps it interesting by changing keys, tempo, and modes. As a result, we experience sharp emotional contrasts throughout the piece. Whereas the phrase which starts at 0:42 is light and jovial, we swiftly run into trouble at 0:56 where the mood suddenly changes to a gloomy, almost spooky parallel minor. The spookiness is brought out by the chromatic descent which seems to settle, taking us back to the beginning of the same phrase, only this time a step lower. If this pattern were to continue much longer, soon we'd end up in a deep bog. We need to find a solution to get us out of here and, luckily, we do at 1:35 with that jazzy C# minor 6 chord. The pressure starts to build, culminating in an orgasmic burst at 1:44, launching us high up into the air, and bringing us back to the path we had initially started on.

I think one of my favorite parts about the piece is the call and response section which starts around 2:34. It almost sounds like a stubborn little kid, begging to stay outside and refusing to go home. All the while, the parent is warmly beckoning the child homeward. It takes several attempts, but eventually we stop hearing the treble outbursts and the phrase finally resolves at the tonic, giving us that final cathartic release.

The final section with the arpeggiated chords is just pure bliss: Grieg utilizes almost the entire range of the piano, taking us from a deep, dark B1 to a light and glowing F6 in a sequence of long, contemplative chords. Simple and beautiful.

I hope I did this piece justice with my performance. Let me know what you think in the comments section!