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Happy Birthday

2014-03-19

"Happy Birthday", birth of a fragmented style.

Back to this time, I'm still using the "one hour piano per day" mode, but this one hour, I'm waiting for it each day impatiently, this is the hour during which I can express myself and go in this world where anything is possible.

This time, my goal is clearly defined from the beginning: I wish to compose a real structured piece. However, I also wish to keep the pleasure of playing. So my composition technique was the same as before: improvise during one hour, memorize the best patterns, and, from session to session, assembly the fragments in a consistent whole.

For chords, I used the references that I had in memory, which was actually the "Happy Birthday" version by Arianne from the "Club Dorothée", a tv show that any french people of my age would normally have heard about.

After a few trainings, I had many finds at my disposal:

  • - the opening door's surprise,
  • - a wink at "Quand il me prend dans ses bras" (Edit Piaf),
  • - the main theme
  • - a waltz passage
  • - a 3 hands like passage
  • - an harmonic passage
  • - a laugh emulation
  • - an off-key passage
  • - an elegant passage (my personal favorite)
  • - a wink to "I get a kick out of you" (Erroll Garner),
  • - followed by a jazzy passage
  • - a surprise for the ending

And so I made my possible to compile the whole in a consistent piece; the result is the work that you can hear on this website.

Once again, although globally satisfied, I was still little disappointed of the final rendering: too inconsistent again. However, from now on I had found a working methodology.

At that time, I've got the impression that I can be part of the piano history. Needless to say that I need a third piece to train again, my third piece will be clair de lune.