Sonata Secrets is a media channel with concert pianist Henrik Kilhamn, producing episodes with analyses of classical piano pieces.
Watch on Youtube or listen as podcast.
...and another film music video: The extraordinary musical number "Married Life" from the Disney-Pixar movie "Up" (2009). 🎥🎵🎈
In this video we'll look up the beautiful musical number "Married Life" from the Disney/Pixar movie Up (2009), scored by Michael Giacchino. With pianist Henr...
New video explaining the incredibly silly music of The Simpsons! 🌥🍩😂
Pianist Henrik Kilhamn points out five things about this iconic theme song written by Danny Elfman.▶ Performance video: https://youtu.be/_EOv6lholyk📄 SHEET ...
New video on Schubert's Epic "Wanderer" Fantasy, Op. 15.
Not too much detail, only 40 mins long. 😉
This is a real showstopper of a piano piece, composed by a young and ambitious Schubert in 1822. The seed of much of the work's material comes from the song ...
New video on Liszt's visionary"Vallée d'Oberman" from the "Années de Pèlerinage" (Years of Pilgrimage) book I: Switzerland.
It's an amazing work - quite thoughtful and introverted music dealing with psychological matter from pioneer romantic figure Senancour's novel Obermann about a young man who goes out in nature to seek answers to life's hard questions. But over the span of this 14 minutes long musical essay, you also see the amazing view from the mountain tops, full of hope and glory!
This is a valuable major Liszt work from his first book of "Years of Pilgrimage". It's quite thoughtful and introverted music, dealing with psychological mat...
New video on Scriabin's epic Sonata No. 3 in F # minor, Op. 23 "STATES of the SOUL". Link in comments.
Finally made a video again! :)
on Rachmaninoff's magnificent Suite No. 2 for two pianos, Op. 17.
It's a slightly new format covering larger works a bit more generally than the in-depth analysis, which feels very worthwhile doing. It's meant to be a good introduction for a work of music, to give some pointers to what musical experience that can be elicited from listening to it.
Rachmaninoff's suites for two pianos are quite unique in the classical repertoire - a musical language from the height of the romantic period but breaking ne...
New video on Granados "The Maiden and the Nightingale" fom Goyescas!
Enrique Granados is one of the most prominent Spanish composers that used the national cultural heritage in his art music to open up new ways of writing for ...
New video on one of Chopin's grandest pieces, a Polonaise exuberant with joy and national pride in a pianistic whirlwind!
The Polonaise provided Chopin a ground for writing grand pieces in dance form. One of the most emblematic, the "Military" Polonaise feels more like a victori...
Latest video: What makes a Chopin MAZURKA? Op. 17 no. 4 in A minor. 🎹🎶💃💃
Chopin's collection of Mazurkas is an important manifestation of his Polish identity, comprising a range of musical elements from the traditional folk dance....
New video on Chopin's amazing Prelude no. 20 in C minor. 🎹🎵✨
Henrik Kilhamn looks into Chopin's famous Prelude in C minor, a miniature piece just like a poem, that rings with heavy tolls of funeral bells.0:00 About0:56...
Some people have requested the Chopin Nocturne in Bb minor Op. 9 no. 1 over the years, and I've finally made my analysis on it! 🎹✨🌙
Henrik Kilhamn explores Chopin's first, embematic Nocturne in B-flat minor.⭐️EASY ARRANGEMENT: https://sonatasecrets.gumroad.com/l/chopin-nocturne-9-1💲 -15%...
New video on Philip Glass' Minimalist Piano music, in general and an in-depth analysis of the Glassworks Opening. It's nice to do music of living composers for a change :)
Alongside Einaudi and Michael Nyman, Glass' music aims to carry the torch of instrumental music into the modern musical world of a steady pulse and coherent ...
Latest video from last week on Bach's Goldberg Variations. We look at the material of the Aria which is the basis for all 30 variations. But I didn't have time to learn all of them so I improvised a couple instead 😅 (at the end of the video).
J. S. Bach proves his compositional genius in the Goldberg Variations. A bass line with implied harmony of 32 bars provides the basis on which Bach creates t...
Róck it with Bartók!
Analysis lecture (35 mins) on the Romanian Folk dances for piano 💃
Béla Bartók's six Romanian Folk Dances introduces exciting rhythms, modes and harmonic setups that we are not that used to, coming from a classical perspecti...
Launching Today: Simple Solutions Volume 3 - Nights and Dreams! ✨🎹
I have spend the last couple of months in an arranging bubble and I'm very excited to introduce a whole set of 12 new arrangements for the Intermediate Pianist: Simple Solutions Volume 3 - Nights and Dreams! ✨
It features slightly more ambitious pieces than Vol. 2 (but still made much more playable) by the great composers Brahms, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Debussy and Rachmaninoff. As the theme suggests this is music for the night with lots of dreamy piano ambience in pieces you might have heard of... Two more Chopin Nocturnes, the Liszt Liebestraum 💖 and the famous Rachmaninoff C-sharp minor Prelude to name a few.
Check out the full Volume and its contents here: https://sonatasecrets.gumroad.com/l/SSE-vol3
From there you can also click on the individual pieces if you wish to purchase them separately, but the full volume gives you an absolute bargain of 60% compared to individual prices.
💲 If you buy within two weeks, you can also use the promo code "pianodreams" to get 20% off all arrangements in this collection, including the full volume! 💲
Happy piano playing!
Henrik
Latest video on Bach Prelude No. 2 in C minor (from WTK 1). Also some half-cringe attempts at impersonating other pianists... but it's out of admiration and nothing else! 😍🎹
Come along when we explore the harmonic journey of Bach's Prelude no. 2 in C minor from the Well-Tempered Clavier. Since there are very few markings other th...
Completing the Rachmaninoff playlist with a 7th Prelude: the simply gorgeous D major. 🎹⭐️
A real gem to celebrate the 150 year anniversary of the great Rachmaninoff. This is his way of basically writing a Nocturne, albeit under the wider-encompass...
Beethoven's small Sonata no. 20 in G major is a great piece for intermediate piano students. New video going through the 1st movement with its youthful energy and clear sonata form structure. 🎹🎵✨
Beethoven's two sonatas in Op. 49 are usually called "Leichte Sonaten" or "Easy Sonatas", and are perfect pieces for early intermediate students who want to ...
Mendelssohn's SPRING SONG, Op. 62 no. 6.
Childlike lightheartedness as warm spring feelings 😍🌱💐🐦 but a tricky texture! 🎹🎹
Op. 62 no. 6 of Mendelssohn's Lieder Ohne Worte has the accompanying title "Frühlingslied" or "Spring Song," and the popularity of the music is testament to ...
Back in the production churn again after the Tchaikovsky piano concerto adventure. I've had a list of pieces I wanted to do for a long time that I'm finally getting to, and this is the perfect starting point. First video of Mendelssohn on the channel with one of his fabulous Lieder Ohne Worte! 🌷🎹
Felix Mendelssohn wrote songs for piano: Lieder Ohne Worte = Songs Without Words. The very first one of all the volumes (Op. 19 no. 1) is a perfect piece for...
Latest video on Debussy's Reverie, complete with Westworld references and the angry letter to the publisher about it! 🧐🎹
The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: https://skl.sh/sonatasecrets02231Debussy spins up the perfect patterns fo...
New video on Brahms' Intermezzo in B flat minor, Op. 117 no. 2. 🎹🎵🎵
I have a special relationship to this piece--it was the first music of this kind I got introduced to at music conservatory (when I've decided to become a musician). I remember we had music theory class and learned about functional harmony and I turned to a fellow student, a violinist, and said something like: "I get Mozart and Haydn and the harmony in their phrases, it's very straight forward, but Brahms is pretty hard to analyze, right?" and he answered without hesitation: "Yeah, you usually go bust in the third bar."
Now, 15 years later I think I've finally got the hang of it!
The middle Intermezzo in the Op. 117 set is more restless than the outer ones, but still shows much nostalgia and introspection. Here we taker a proper look ...
Last video of the year, a typical mature Debussy piano piece.
I wish you all a merry Christmas or happy holidays!
Feels a bit weird to do it with such grim music, but as we shed our dead leaves in dark times (northern hemisphere perspective), we prepare to grow them again as brighter times lie ahead. 🍁🎹
/Henrik
Debussy paints a musical depiction of dead leaves with dissonant harmonies and eerie and fragmented lines in his "Feuilles mortes," Prelude no. 2 from the se...
New video on Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker March that summons the Christmas spirit with its high energy marching features! 🥁🎄🥁
The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: https://skl.sh/sonatasecrets12221Tchaikovsky made the piano arrangement t...
Fauré video no. 2, this time a movement from his Requiem!
The "Libera me" movement from Faurés Requiem is such a great piece I decided to do it on the channel, even if it's for choir and orchestra. I play it quite f...
New video on Fauré's Beautiful Pavane! 😍
This is another sponsored video by Skillshare, and if you're curious about online learning in general it might be worth checking out what's on there. This link will get you 1 month free trial, which you can cancel at any time: https://skl.sh/sonatasecrets10222
The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: https://skl.sh/sonatasecrets10222Gabriel Fauré's Pavane is one of those p...
New video and my final episode on Schuman's Waldszenen."Bird as prophet" 🐦 paints a picture with both pleasant and profound strokes and Schumann thrives in that field of tension. Me, on the other hand, couldn't resist invoking both Matrix and Pokémons.
"Vogel als Prophet" (Bird as prophet) is a peculiar piece in Robert Schumann's Waldszenen suite Op. 82. On closer inspection we find the most prominent featu...
Patreons to the channel are smart people.
(Links in comments)
Introducing: "How Music Works: An Aesthetic Framework Reconciling Form and Content" (e-book). Written by Henrik Kilhamn, 2022.
A substantial text that brings together important ideas and concepts in music philosophy and theory into a coherent framework, with the ambition to spread them to a wider public.
⭐️ Buy it on Gumroad: https://sonatasecrets.gumroad.com/l/howmusicworks
💲 -15% DISCOUNT Code: "secretseeker"
📖 Read sample text: https://www.sonatasecrets.com/how-music-works
▶️Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/1xA8ed2P2J8
Continuing with Schumann's Waldszenen, here the bright but restrained opening piece Eintritt (Entrance). 🎹🎶
The piece that starts Waldszenen (Forest scenes) is "Eintritt", an Entrance into the forest. The pleasant melody shifts between the hands but for some reason...
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Simple Solutions Edition - Easy Arrangements for the Intermediate Pianist, by Henrik Kilhamn BUY THEM HERE: https://sonatasecrets.gumroad.com/ 🎹 VOLUME 1 - Eleven Easy Arrangements for the Elementary Pianist (~Grade 3): https://sonatasecrets.gumroad.com/l/SSE-vol1 🎹 VOLUME 2: Ten Easy Arrangements for the Intermediate Pianist (~Grade 5): https://sonatasecrets.gumroad.com/l/SSE-vol2 💲 -15% DISCOUNT Code: "secretseeker" ⭐️ Simple Solutions Youtube channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCKgRJYCbjM-vUhK6yFFdQpA 🎵 Volume 1 playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9P6Tw4vh1Z4WHSL5s0et1e3gQJJxlV2e 🎵 Volume 2 playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9P6Tw4vh1Z4RMidyrTNSdNdWQTb7szER ABOUT SIMPLE SOLUTIONS This is for everyone who loves the great piano repertoire but haven’t (yet) developed the skill required to master it. After all, Beethoven, Chopin, and Debussy wrote music for professional musicians, and it takes many years of studies to achieve a level sufficient to play their pieces as written. However, the musical material can be separated into melody, harmony, rhythms, and textures, and in some cases simplified while preserving the core ideas. This is what I have done in these arrangements of some of the most beloved piano melodies by the great composers. In this easier setting, you will instead have enough time on your hands (literally!) to bring the music to life and care about those aspects that often otherwise come second: phrasing, articulation, dynamics, and balance. This will help you develop your over-all musicality, which will be of great value in all other pieces as well. I believe you have the right to enjoy playing this great music with your own hands, even when the original writing is beyond your present level or would require too much time and effort. In the end, if you feel ready for a challenge and want to go forward with proper piano studies that requires years of practice—the originals are always there. In
Henrik Kilham, piano. Original version performance video: https://youtu.be/Rp0hYP35GKY
New analysis video! One of Chopin's most known waltzes, this contains both nostalgic melancholy and restless running energy. And what's up with the meter in the middle section? With pianist Henrik Kilhamn. Full video: https://youtu.be/xmNaROpR2bU
New video out! Is the "Minute" waltz really supposed to be played in a minute? Pianist Henrik Kilhamn takes a closer look at the famous piece in this video. https://youtu.be/scsE4Qts1GY
HUNT OF HORROR: Beethoven's Moonlight sonata mvt 3 Full video: https://youtu.be/EZgZ-e_P8Fk Summer finale! An exciting thriller, perfect for vacation watching.
SUMMER SADNESS: Tchaikovsky June - Barcarolle (Analysis) Full Video: https://youtu.be/LVNkKxKN-5A Summer is here and it's still June for two more days. What's better than some season music: "June" from Tchaikovsky's set of piano pieces "The seasons". It's not what you might think - it's all about some mysterious sadness...
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