Description
From OPENING DOORS, the in-progress collection of late-elementary piano pieces in keys of 2+ sharp/flat key signatures, this is Alla siciliana in G# minor - the only late elementary-level piano piece in G# minor of which I (the composer) am aware.
Notes on the composition:
As noted on the genre's Wikipedia entry, itself excerpted from Danuta Mirka's Oxford Handbook of Topic Theory, the siciliana "is a musical style or genre often included as a movement within larger pieces of music starting in the Baroque period. It is in a slow 6/8 or 12/8 time with lilting rhythms, making it somewhat resemble a slow jig or tarantella, and is usually in a minor key...and is often characterized by dotted rhythms."
This particular siciliana began life as the theme for a projected set of increasingly virtuosic piano variations; however, before I could complete them, I was hired to join violinist Amy Lee on long-term contracts aboard two different Holland America cruise ships as the Duo del Mare. Since those contracts required learning a large amount of duo repertoire on short notice, I had to pivot toward that (and was also starting to write the earliest contributions to Venturing Beyond at the time, since my adult piano students needed pieces of that type immediately). As often happens, other projects and obligations came up, and the variations were set aside. It was only when I was sorting through some old work in 2022 that I realized the theme would be perfectly suitable as a standalone piece for an early-stage student.
Notes on the collection:
The in-progress collection OPENING DOORS features mid-to-late beginner piano solos representing all key signatures with two or more sharps/flats (including enharmonics)--keys rarely seen in today's pedagogical piano literature for the early grades. This collection grew out of the high praise for my early intermediate collection of unusual-key solos, entitled VENTURING BEYOND and published in 2014, which led to some requests from teachers and adult students to write a similar collection a couple levels easier than most of Venturing Beyond's pieces.
These pieces, written in Baroque, Classical and Romantic styles, not only help acquaint students with the idea of reading "within keys," but they also introduce common musical genres of the Western Classical canon. These short, expressive compositions--each no more than two pages in a medium-sized font and requiring no more than a major sixth reach--are also ideal for adult students or college group piano students who desire to play musically satisfying repertoire that is within their technical grasp, but still suitable for public and private performance. Many of the pieces are cast in binary forms with repeats, which allows students to increase the length and substance of a piece for performance without requiring them to learn more musical material.
This volume also refrains from invoking programmatic titles or content that might suggest that it is geared toward the school-age student; thus, it is ideal for student pianists of all ages, from 5 to 105!
Fingerings are not included in this edition, given that ideal fingering choices vary widely among different hand sizes and are best decided upon by consultation with a knowledgeable teacher.