Goodnight, Sweet Dreams is one of six compositions by Lisa Donovan Lukas.

To Raise The Wind Horse is an imaginative duet that was premiered at the Daniel Pearl World Music Days concert in California. You can read a little about the inspiration and history of the composition on the Daniel Pearl Music Days website. I can think of several horse-loving students that would love to learn this duet!

Each piece presents fairly advanced rhythmic challenges, but the end results are well worth it! The most accessible of Lisa’s six works is A Song From the Garden. It has a lovely singing melody, and could be handled by a motivated intermediate student.

I think Summer Dance would be an engaging selection for a student looking for a fresh contemporary piece to use for a festival or contest. Waiting is a rich, gorgeous piece that I’m adding to my collection of wedding and prelude music. And A Passing Cloud is a great mood piece if you or a student are looking for something to sink your hands into and let your expressiveness take you away.

I love that you can download samples and listen to full recordings of each piece on the Alberti Publishing website! But I love even more that Lisa has offered to giveaway a copy of each of her compositions to Music Matters Blog readers! Six winners will be given one of her pieces and you can enjoy it yourself and/or use it with a student in your studio. Just leave a comment below and six winners will be chosen using a random number generator at noon (CST) on Thursday, February 9, 2012.

I didn’t realize until after it was posted that the credits at the end rolled through at the speed of light! So, here is a list of pieces included in this year’s program for those who are interested (all of which should be available through Sheet Music Plus):

O Come, Little Children
Arr. Phillip Keveren

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
Arr. Catherine Rollin

‘Twas in the Moon of Wintertime
Arr. Joseph Martin

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
Arr. Lyn Freeman Olson

Mary, Did You Know?
Mark Lowry
Arr. The Band

We Three Kings
Arr. Nancy Faber

We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Arr. Catherine Rollin

Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow with Go Tell It on the Mountain
Arr. Melody Bober

There is a Redeemer
Arr. Ellen Banks Elwell

Joy to the World
Arr. Lloyd Larson

The Little Drummer Boy
Arr. Nancy Faber

Away in a Manger
Arr. Nancy Faber

A Cradle Prayer
by Rebecca St. James

Silent Night
Arr. Melody Bober

Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
Arr. Nancy Faber

What Child is This?
Arr. Melody Bober

The First Noel
Arr. Melody Bober

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
Arr. Mona Rejino

Sing Hallelujah
Arr. Mark Hayes

Sing We Now of Christmas
Arr. Martha Mier

Panis Angelicus
Cesar Franck

Amazing Grace
Arr. Wendy Stevens

And Can it Be?
Arr. Marilynn Ham

Pat-a-Pan
Arr. Carol Klose

O Come, All Ye Faithful
Arr. Melody Bober

Angel Medley
Arr. Melody Bober

Carol of the Bells
Arr. Kevin Olson

What a Friend We Have in Jesus
Arr. Lenny Seidel

My Savior, My God
Aaron Shust
Arr. The Band

Georg Frederic Handel – March in G HWV 419/3
Henry Purcell – Air in D Minor ZT 676
Domenico Scarlatti – Sonata in C Major K. 73B
Franz Joseph Haydn – German Dance Hob. IX/22 No. 3
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Minuet in F K.2
Daniel Gottlob Türk – ‘Horn With Echo’ from 49 Pieces for Beginners at the Piano
Robert Schumann – ‘Soldier’s March’ from Album for The Young Op. 68
Theodore Oesten – ‘Echo’ from Mayflowers Op. 61
Robert Fuchs – ‘Sad at Heart’ from Album for the Young Op. 47
Cornelius Gurlitt – ‘The Rope Dancer’ from Little Studies Op. 130
Stephen Heller – ‘Scabieuse’ from Album for the Young Op. 138
Friedrich Burgmüller – ‘L’Arabesque’ from 25 Progressive Studies Op. 100

The entire book can be downloaded as a pdf file for free! At the end of the book are a couple pages with teaching notes for each piece. And as an added bonus, students can visit his YouTube channel to listen to recordings of each piece. What a great resource!

HT: Repertoire Reviews (be sure to check out the weekly podcast of contemporary piano pieces for intermediate to early-advanced level students!)

You can download a 4-page pdf preview of the book from the Alfred website. I like the fresh, lively style of each arrangement. And instead of assigning it to one of my students, I decided to keep the whole book all to myself. I love playing through some of the carols each day as part of my practice routine.

Check out koertsmusic.com for more information and to listen to some of James’ other music.

Lucas improvises on Under a Glass Sky:

Graham plays Whirling Leaves:

Joey plays an original composition:

Hayley and Landon play Ode to Joy:

Olive plays Nocturne:

Desiree plays Carol of the Bells by ear:

Luke and Natalie play A Mysterious Adventure:

Noelle, Naomi, and Amanda play Impromptu:

#42 – Nancy Potoczky

These two will receive one of the historically rich Titanic: A Voyage in Piano Music books by Rebekah Maxner. Congrats! However, thanks to Rebekah’s generosity, everyone can get in on the win. She is offering a special deal: Buy 2 and get 1 for free! Here’s what she says:

Titanic: A Voyage in Piano Music is available as both an elementary level piano book with optional duets and an intermediate level piano solo book. Each volume includes nine repertoire selections that “recount the tale of the Titanic’s one and only voyage: original music that captures the mood of the day, numbers that were performed for passengers by the hired White Star Line musicians, popular music that would have been played by Third Class passengers who had their own instruments, and music that was bravely played as the ship was sinking.”

As if this weren’t enough by itself, Rebekah has also included a variety of black and white photos from the Titanic and its passengers, and a paragraph of historical notes for each repertoire selection. The books are truly beautiful and will be loved by pianists everywhere!

Now…the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Rebekah has kindly offered to giveaway two copies of these Titanic books to two Music Matters Blog reader. Just leave a comment below to be entered in a drawing to win one of these books for yourself or a special student! The giveaway will end at noon (CST) on Thursday, October 13, and the winner will be drawn using a random number generator.

1. A Day in the Jungle by Jon George
2. Bumblebee Toccata by Lynn Freeman Olson
3. Buzzing Bee by Mark Nevin
4. Castle Days by Kathleen Massoud
5. Cross Current by Ted Cooper
6. Devil’s Night Dance by Catherine Rollin
7. Dragon Hunt by Nancy and Randall Faber
8. Dream Echoes by Nancy and Randall Faber
9. The Fly by Nancy and Randall Faber
10. Wind Across the Badlands by Valerie Roth-Roubos
11. Spanish Dance by Catherine Rollin
12. Dreamscape by George Peter Tingley
13. Guitars of Seville by Mauro Giuliani
14. Hide and Seek by Linda Niamath
15. Mist by Carolyn Miller
16. Motion Machine by Carolyn Miller
17. Nature Pieces by Katherine Beard
18. Poet’s Lament by Jon George
19. Prelude No. 7 in B minor by Robert Vandall
20. Rainbow Fish by Catherine Rollin
21. Solo Flight by Elvina Pearce
22. The Rainstorm by Elizabeth Greenleaf
23. The Storm and the Rainbow by Nancy Faber
24. The Tempest by Faber

8notes.com has done a complete overhaul of their site since the last time I visited (which was quite a while ago!). They have over 500 free piano pieces in their collection, and dozens more exclusively for members. Even if they don’t have the piece on their site, they have a nice list of links to external sites that can save you a lot of time searching on your own. This appears to be a member-driven site, so the quality of arrangements you will find varies, but it’s definitely a great go-to place for free sheet music!

Easy Sheet Music has a collection of over 70 pages of well-known Classical favorites. You can access up to three a day for free. Or you can subscribe for $15/year for unlimited access.