Last week Ponty asked for more open mic material, thus proving the heavy burden of talent—the fans are never satisfied.  I’ll note that Ponty has a significant backlog of requests, all of which I’ll get around to approximately whenever I feel like it (or, more accurately, when I have time to learn the pieces—they’re quite challenging for a hedge-pianist like myself).  Perhaps I should ask him to favor us with some of his guitar repertoire.

I’ll certainly get back to the “true” open mic material soon.  Summer looms, and I’ll finally have the time and energy to get back out to open mic nights on a regular basis.  In the meantime, I’m continuing to experiment with short piano compositions, and wrote this little ditty, “Carousel,” between classes on 2 May 2023.

Franz Joseph Haydn’s Seven German Dances was a major inspiration for this piece, especially the first one:

I explain a bit more about “Carousel” here—and give a slightly botched performance:

Here is a slightly better performance, but I still mess up the second ending—d’oh!:

For those interested, here is my simple right-hand only manuscript (chords to be played in the left hand):

My Middle School Music Ensemble students nominated two possible names, “Carousel” and “Ambata,” and “Carousel” won the day.  I’ll be writing “Ambata” soon as a separate piece.

The inspiration for this piece was not just Haydn.  Stacey Johnson‘s piece “Spore Song” inspired me to write a piano piece of the same name, and this piece was originally intended to represent the lightness of airy little spores dancing about.  It morphed into something a bit different, so I’m planning a separate “Spore Song” soon as well.

Happy Listening!

—TPP

Other Editions of Open Mic Adventures:

• “Open Mic Adventures I: Oingo Boingo’s ‘Just Another Day’“
• “Open Mic Adventures II: Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’“
• “Open Mic Adventures III: Joanie Sommers’s ‘Johnny Get Angry’“
• “Open Mic Adventures IV: KISS’s ‘I Still Love You’“
• “Open Mic Adventures V: ‘There’s a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place)’“
• “Open Mic Adventures VI: Journey’s ‘Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’“
• “Open Mic Adventures VII: ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’“
• “Open Mic Adventures VIII: Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound of Silence’“
• “Open Mic Adventures IX: Journey’s ‘Faithfully’“
• “Open Mic Adventures X: ‘Time Warp’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XI: Spooktacular Supergroup Covers ‘Monster Mash’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XII: ‘Ghostly’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XIII: The Penguins’ ‘Earth Angel’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XIV: ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XV: ‘O Holy Night’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XVI: ‘Please Come Home for Christmas’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XVII: ‘L’il Divertimento in C major’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XVIII: ‘Satiean Motion’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XIX: ‘Two-Day Minuet for Left Hand’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XX: ‘Sleepy Student’s Serenade’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XXI: Styx’s ‘Come Sail Away’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XXII: ‘Blessed Assurance’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XXIII: ‘Gabbi’s Gavotte’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XXIV: ‘Softly and Tenderly’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XXV: ‘Venite, exultemus Domino’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XXVI: ‘Sonatina’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XXVII: ‘Heavenly Sunlight’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XXVIII: ‘Song of the Bigfoot’”
• “Open Mic Adventures XXIX: ‘Lavender’s Blue’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XXX: ‘Chorale for a Sleepy Wednesday’“