Piano feres!

I had been wanting to prepare this collection of pieces for young piano pupils for some time. Written in a straightforward and pleasant way, this book introduces children to aspects of music such as bitonality, scale tones, and time signature changes, among other features which I hadn’t focused on so much in earlier collections.
In the book I present the piano pieces as a collection of terrifying monsters, some of which, I’m sorry to say, are not imaginary. That’s why the book is called Pianoferes (Piano Beasts).
My friend Mercè once told us about a room where the Picordi monsters live, a room which, apparently, still exists in their house in Vic. Although Mercè and her two sisters never saw them or knew what they looked like, they were scared at the mere mention of the Picordis. It was down to our nephew Genís, when he was just five, to imagine what they must look like. He reckons they are like penguins but with a long beak full of teeth. They can cause the most horrendous tragedy (for a 5-year-old child): when you’re asleep, they steal your mobile phone! Horrific!
Other beasts in the book, called the Pupulins, come from Manlleu. In our family home, with seven siblings, every bedtime became a battlefield. When our mother couldn’t stand it any more and was out of patience and energy, she’d shout at us, warning us that the Pupulins would come down from the Pedraforca mountain! It quickly did the trick and we were soon off to bed! The other monsters mentioned in the book are all invented ones, except the Hydra of course.
As with most of the pieces I’ve written for young piano players, there are many moments where you can decide how you want to finish the piece, by changing octaves or other options. That means you can customize the compositions as you please.
Pianoferes won the seventh edition of the Maria Dolors Calvet Piano Composition Contest organized by the Vilafranca del Penedès council and the Vinseum wine museum.

Jordi Domènech