My new LP album, titled, “Toy Portugal” has been released. The record is comprised of 15 original tracks for an approximate total listening time of 50 minutes. It is the combination of my "Portuguese Suite for Toy Piano", "Portuguese Scenes" and three bonus tracks. Toy Portugal is a soundtrack of my past. All these pieces … Continue reading Toy Portugal
Category: Toy Piano
Finding one’s voice: assembling and mixing the little bits that ring inside yourself.
There's the famous theory that everything is a remix, that we are entangled in «webs of significance». Culture, according to the notable anthropologist Clifford Geertz, is «a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life». Everything that surrounds me … Continue reading Finding one’s voice: assembling and mixing the little bits that ring inside yourself.
A slice of Liquor Cake
Illustration @RGBStock/Christine van Dam This is a soundtrack for an imaginary movie in my head. It is a work for Toy Piano, Portuguese Guitar and Orchestra. I really enjoyed composing this and it is fully dedicated to Duy Vu Tran. I feel it can easily be used or adapted for movie industry. You can find … Continue reading A slice of Liquor Cake
Vira da Vinha
This is the first work of my new suite for Toy Piano, "Portuguese Scenes", and it is dedicated to the people of Casal de Loivos, a village in the north of Portugal, in the Douro Valley, the place where the famous Porto Wine is made. People work hard to take care and harvest the grape … Continue reading Vira da Vinha
A Pleasant day (with Toy Piano)
This is an orchestral instrumental work, with toy piano. I've made this as a soundtrack for a pleasant day, a movie, a short, anything you find it could be appropriate.
Portuguese Suite played around the world
My Portuguese Suite for Toy Piano has been premiered and is being played around the world. It is with much joy and happiness that I notice the amount of visitors that come to my site because of this work and how many have downloaded the musical scores. Miss Veronica Yen played it in Taiwan in … Continue reading Portuguese Suite played around the world
Portuguese Suite
The Portuguese suite is a work mostly for Toy Piano Solo. The concept was to create a small set of pieces with a common line: they should all reflect the traditional music from Portugal. Melodies and rhythms linked to the imaginary clichés of Portuguese folklore, fados, marchas, vira. The challenge was bigger because the Toy … Continue reading Portuguese Suite
Vira do Douro
This is my sixth piece of my Portuguese suite for Toy Piano solo and it is fully dedicated to my dearest great aut Deolinda, the «Douro Almond». A very unique and special person with many, many years of a long and happy life in the Douro Valley. I composed a Vira (a traditional Portuguese dance) … Continue reading Vira do Douro
Caldo de Feijão
Caldo de Feijão (Bean Soup) is the fifth piece of my Portuguese suite for Toy Piano. This one is dedicated to my mother's childhood memories, since the Caldo de Feijão is a very traditional soup from Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro. The studio version contains samples from her voice telling a short story about it. The … Continue reading Caldo de Feijão
Valsa da Alheira
The Alheira de Mirandela is a traditional sausage made by the nice people of Trás-os-Montes. It is very popular and, unfortunately, many times mis-cooked. People from the south usually fry it and eat it with chips, like if it was a burger or a stake. Totally wrong! The Alheira is suposed to be grilled. You … Continue reading Valsa da Alheira
O Fadista
Vasco Santana in the motion picture "Páteo das Cantigas" This is the third work for Toy Piano in my Portuguese suite collection. After "Rua da Paz" and "The Sewing machine" dedicated to my grannies, I present now "O fadista", a work dedicated to my father. In this work I try to portray the figure of … Continue reading O Fadista
The Sewing Machine
"At the sewing machine" - Ignat Bednarik This is a new musical work where I explore, once again, the toy piano solo. I'm really in love with this small, yet so amusing, instrument and I feel it suits perfectly a certain kind of Portuguese traditional musicality, or at least, I'm trying to do that. In … Continue reading The Sewing Machine
Rua da Paz
This song was composed on Christmas 2010. It is fully dedicated to my beloved granny Adelaide Almeida and to a jolly spirit and a very long life. The tune is composed for toy piano solo and I've recreated also the environment, as I remember it, in her old street Rua da Paz, in Lisbon. It … Continue reading Rua da Paz
La Vernissage
This is a new work, very amusing, whimsical and in a style that I, personally, cherish very much. I gathered a couple of sounds that are very close to my imaginary: namelly the accordion and the toy piano. I'm expecting to use them recurrently in the near future since I'm very happy with the aesthetic … Continue reading La Vernissage
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