VIDEO: Toccata No.1 Andy Quin

[jimmyhillside]

Andy Quin performs his own composition Toccata No.1 on his magnificent Estonia 9' Concert Grand.

[awesom_o]

Marvelous!

What a fine piece, and played with real mastery! Bravo Good Sir I look forward to more! Is the score available? When was this composed? Did you use software or pencil?


I also LOVE Estonia pianos, though I don't recall ever playing the concert grand. Dr. Laul didn't bring it to NAMM this year, and they're few and far between in my neck o' the woods.

[jimmyhillside]

Thank you awesome_o for your kind comments!

There is some blurb about the piece here;

https://vimeo.com/68534339

When first written there was no software available for such things as music writing!!! However the latest revision is being prepared on Sibelius and the recording will be released on the Academy label shortly.

The service and welcome I received from Dr. Laul at the Estonia factory in Tallinn was second to none. When it came to my final visit to select one of three concert grands they had set up for me, the whole factory staff was brought in for an impromptu concert!! I ended up choosing the one they had built for me and the piano now features on dozens of film and TV soundtracks all over the world.

[awesom_o]

Yes, Dr. Laul is quite the mensch! Estonia is a wonderful musical culture and that reflects in the sound of his pianos.

Have you composed many other works for solo piano?

[jimmyhillside]

I am a professional composer for TV and film so writing for solo piano has only been a tiny part of my career, however next year I celebrate 50 years of piano playing so I thought it was about time I recorded some of my classical piano pieces that had not been published. Toccata No.1 is the first of these.

Probably my best known solo piece is from the soundtrack of the Oscar nominated film; My Architect. This is in the 'stride' style and aptly entitled Arty Stride! ;

https://soundcloud.com/andy-quin/arty-stride

I have recorded a number of piano albums for my publisher DeWolfe, most recently documenting the history of solo Jazz piano but also some classical;

https://www.dewolfe.co.uk/musicsearch/cd_tracks.php?cdnumber=DWCD%200239
https://www.dewolfe.co.uk/musicsearch/cd_tracks.php?cdnumber=DWJAZZ%2007
https://www.dewolfe.co.uk/musicsearch/cd_tracks.php?cdnumber=DWJAZZ%2008

and I have a track on the recent Centrepoint TV appeal for young homeless people ( recorded on the Estonia);
https://vimeo.com/56106867

Hope you enjoy them!!

Do you write yourself?

Ps you might also like this although not solo;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds-oDU9SJP8

[awesom_o]

I do. I'm just putting the finishing touches on my first piano sonata, and I've written numerous smaller works for piano. I would dearly like to better understand orchestration, so that I can branch out into larger forms and write for different forces.


I love the stride piece-sound very classic! You play well! Are you mostly self-taught or were there some formative teachers who you thought influenced your technique in particular?

[koopakool]

Really beautiful! I wish I could do that 

[jimmyhillside]

I do. I'm just putting the finishing touches on my first piano sonata, and I've written numerous smaller works for piano. I would dearly like to better understand orchestration, so that I can branch out into larger forms and write for different forces.


I love the stride piece-sound very classic! You play well! Are you mostly self-taught or were there some formative teachers who you thought influenced your technique in particular?

A sonata sounds quite ambitious, I have never got round to getting my teeth into a longer-form, all my pieces are relatively short but I guess that is partly due to commercial constraints. I would love to write a concerto and have had some ideas knocking around for ages but whether I will ever find the time?!!
I learn't orchestration the hard way!! basically my publisher wanted some orchestral tracks, I said yes and before I knew it I was scoring for the RPO!!
I would say that my teachers were very influential indeed, no-one famous I'm afraid and they have nearly all passed on now but in my early teens, Melvyn Weston was my private teacher and Mike Hurren my school music teacher (there is a tribute to him here;

https://clactonconcertorchestra.com/news/mike-hurren/

and then of course at Uni I guess the most significant to me was Prof. Cecil Lytle who introduced me to Coltrane, Miles Davis, George Duke etc. etc. and Peter Seivewright who was my piano coach. I loved working with him on Bach and Beethoven, he had such insight and was able to get across the importance of detail and how the slightest change of articulation or weight could completely alter the affect of a phrase in the same way that the stress on a single word can change the meaning of an entire sentence.  ( Although of course all my teachers were important!!).

Anyway, I ramble!! Good luck with the sonata! Do you have any recordings posted up?

[jimmyhillside]

Really beautiful! I wish I could do that 

Thank you so much! I love writing and playing and I hope that comes across!

Do you play yourself?