Sheet music book - Any ideas about how else to get this book??

ShiroKuro · 2026-03-25T16:35:43+00:00

I want to order this new Einaudi sheet music collection: https://einaudi.decca.com/products/solo-piano-sheet-music-book?mi_u=35867406&variant=5767685996...

MarieJ

pianoloverus This would be a first - using AI to explain Einaudi’s magic.

Most of us who have attempted to capture even part of it would have come to the same conclusion: Playing his notes is easy - playing his music is really hard.

ShiroKuro

MarieJ Playing his notes is easy - playing his music is really hard.

Truer words were ne’er spoken!

ShiroKuro

pianoloverus I don't think there's anything in my comments that fits your description

Which is truly unfortunate.

ShiroKuro

pianoloverus then that seems to bolster my argument for having the composer mark the the score much more.

I’m not saying that the score wouldn’t be improved without more articulation and notation beyond the notes themselves. I’m just describing what I see (in the kind of music that I have been playing extensively for over 20 years)

Contemporary music not of the Einaudi genre does have very detailed marking in terms of voicing, dynamics, articulation etc.

Can you refer to some specific composers?

I actually think this would be a great topic of study for someone in something like ethnomusicology (or some other music-research related field), to compare the written music of different contemporary pianists. The classically trained: Einaudi, Ffrench, Sakamoto, Hisaishi. The ones who have said they can’t read music, and pay other people to transcribe their music to scores: Nevue, McLaughlin, Winston.

There are surely more in each group, but those are the ones I came up with off the top of my head. If my memory serves, Nevue’s scores have more info, but again, he doesn’t write those scores himself, he pays someone to transcribe/notate his compositions.

So it would be interesting to have a comparative study to see how the scores are notated in terms of information/details in the score… it would also be interesting to have a musical comparison, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.

It would also be interesting to see what the orchestral scores (e.g., of Einaudi, Ffrench, Sakamoto, Hisaishi) look like. Because I have to assume there’s more info there than there is in the solo pieces. I’ve heard that Hisaishi is exacting as a conductor, moreso than other conductors, so you would expect to see more direct in the score…

ShiroKuro

pianoloverus My point was that since layering is just a substitute word for voicing and dynamics,

And my point (which you are always ignoring because you seem unable to believe that someone other than yourself has insight into these topics) is that the person making the video is trying to say that this is something different.

Do you ever play Einaudi? Have you listened to this piece in its entirety? Have you listened to other pieces by him?

it's not something so special that a good pianist would use voicing and dynamics when playing the piece.

Perhaps the problem is that “good pianists” are used to scores with more directive notation in them, and not finding those directions in this score, they fail to add in the articulation and dynamics.

A more likely cause, though, is just lack of knowledge on the part of the player. If they’ve worked up the piece, record it and then compare it to Einaudi’s playing, they would surely notice the gap and hopefully seek out ways to close it.

So I don't see why the pianist making the video pointed this out as something special.

Perhaps because you don’t like Einaudi and don’t listen to his music?

mAnd if it's true as he says that many amateurs don't do much of what Einaudi does when playing the piece and as a result the piece doesn't so so good, that seems like a very good argument for including a lot more markings in the piece.

I’m not saying there shouldn’t be more markings in the music. I’m just acknowledging that there isn’t.

Why not make things clear to the performer?

We can’t know without asking the composer. I’ve read tons of articles of interviews with Einaudi, and they rarely ask him the things I want to!

pianoloverus

ShiroKuro And my point (which you are always ignoring because you seem unable to believe that someone other than yourself has insight into these topics) is that the person making the video is trying to say that this is something different.

I don't want to get into a lengthy discussion with you but basically disagree with almost everything you wrote in your last three or four posts. I'll just comment on this one sentence you wrote. If you really think the person making the video is trying to say something different from the fact that Einaudi plays the piece with something other than what would normally be called voicing, dynamics, accentuation, and articulation not written in the score, which is what I said, you should be able to say what the difference is. The person making the video never says Einaudi Is doing something different from what I described although he does use terms that are different from it would normally be described.

ShiroKuro

@pianoloverus I’ve mentioned this to you before, but if you’re going to use AI, you should say which product you used (ChatGPT?) and include the links it shows for where it pulled its info from.

But more to the point, if you are so unfamiliar with Einaudi that you need to rely on AI, perhaps you’re not the person to be expounding so authoritatively here…

pianoloverus AI Overview Piano scores by Ludovico Einaudi often contain minimal indications of dynamics ((p, f)) and voicing because his compositional style is heavily rooted in minimalism and pop music, which prioritizes a consistent, atmospheric mood over detailed structural instructions.

Having said what I wrote at the beginning of this post, of all the discussion so far, this comment is probably the most likely to be accurate, and gets the closely to a plausible explanation for the minimalist presentation in the score.

Accessibility: The lack of strict instructions makes the pieces more accessible to pianists who might be intimidated by complex technical markings, facilitating "easy to play" music that sounds impressive.

Knowing what I know about Einaudi, I seriously doubt that this is the “reason” why the scores are so sparse. This (accessibility) may be a byproduct, but it’s not the reason.

While some published, "official" scores exist with more detail, many versions focus on the notes themselves, leaving the dynamic "breathing" up to the performer.

This is BS, using scare quotes around official. Einaudi is incredibly active in publishing scores for his music, and he oversees their publication. (As did Winston for that matter, even though Winston didn’t write out those scores himself). Einaudi’s scores are published Chester (British music publishing company) and Hal Leonard, both well-regarded, traditional music publishing companies.

So unofficial scores should not be considered at all in this discussion.

KevinM

pianoloverus Layering is just another word for the much more commonly used "voicing". I haven't seen the score to this piece but if it's not obvious which voices are more important or the main melody, I'm surprised this is not marked by the composer. The same for any important dynamic changes.

It is the use of the word "just" that moves your comment into arrogant superior contempt for the person that made the video and the response to it. It puts you into the authoritative position and that contradiction is rejection of your position of authority.

If you had written for example:

Layering is another word for the commonly used term "voicing". I haven't seen the score to this piece but if it's not obvious which voices are more important or the main melody, I'm surprised this is not marked by the composer. The same for any important dynamic changes.

It would have opened the space for discussion.

ShiroKuro

pianoloverus I don't want to get into a lengthy discussion with you

If you don’t want to “get into a lengthy discussion” with me, please stay out of my thread.

It is the height of arrogance for you to write multiple lengthy posts and then choose to disregard my posts in response.

This is part of your core problem and the fact that you claim to not understand it is rather disingenuous.

pianoloverus

ShiroKuro I don't want to get into a lengthy discussion with you

If you don’t want to “get into a lengthy discussion” with me, please stay out of my thread.

It is the height of arrogance for you to write multiple lengthy posts and then choose to disregard my posts in response.

The reason I don't want to respond all your points is that I sense we will never agree on much about this topic so further discussion is pointless.

I did respond to one of the major ideas that has come up several times(in my post that you only partially quoted)as an example of how I disagree, and you didn't respond to that at all. The idea that I must respond to everything you write or that this is "your' thread so you can tell other people what they should write is inappropriate. And I have not been the one name calling on this thread.

ShiroKuro

pianoloverus name calling

for the record, I'm not name calling, I'm describing your behavior. But anything more will have to wait until the end of my workday. Cheers!

Monviso

Re notating layering etc, I recently played Elgar’s Salut d’Amour in which he indicates which notes should be in the background by printing them smaller. I found it incredibly confusing. I found it very difficult not to just overlook them and leave them out, and it gave my brain that extra stuff to process really oversaturating it.
I wished Elgar - a violinist - had trusted us pianists to use our ears!
Has anyone else had the same experience?

ShiroKuro

Monviso he indicates which notes should be in the background by printing them smaller

Oh that would be confusing, especially because sometimes notes printed smaller mean either that the notes are optional or that you only play them on the repeat.

pianoloverus

Monviso I think this is just a question of getting used to that type of notation. I have played a few pieces by Grainger that use that notation and actually find it quite helpful. OTOH when I played the Elgar piece I don't remember if the edition I used had enlarged notes for the melody. For the Elgar, the melody is more or less always on top so I don't think enlarging the notes serves much purpose. When I checked YT for performances with the scores, some had enlarged notes and others didn't. Here's an example of the type of score where I think enlarged notes could be useful.

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