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1. A Not So Silent Night
2. The Decorated Hall
3. The Good King
4. I Saw Three Queens
5. A Partridge in a Holly Tree
6. Jubilo
Mark Tanner’s music covers a wide variety of styles and instruments, and is popular with ABRSM, Trinity College and London College. Around 50 pieces have been selected for piano, brass and woodwind syllabuses. His five volume piano series entitled ‘Scapes’ was shortlisted for the Best Print Resource at the Music Teacher Awards, and Mark’s piano music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. Mark has perfomed extensively, having appeared on many occasions at London’s Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room and St John’s Smith Square. In excess of 300 recitals have been given at sea on all of the Cunard, Saga and P&O lines, many with flautist Gillian Poznansky, and his recordings, which have made an especial feature of new commissions and previously unrecorded works, have achieved consistently glowing reviews: “Magnificent playing”, Gramophone.
As well as having published over 70 volumes of compositions, transcriptions and arrangements with various publishing houses, Faber have published six books/repertoire volumes, including The Mindful Pianist (also published in Chinese) and The Piano in Black and White, the latter pitched at the independent adult learner. Mark has published around 50 feature-length ‘Masterclass’ articles for Pianist Magazine and has written hundreds of reviews and articles for a number of leading music publications. He has also published two books on mindfulness for Leaping Hare Press: Mindfulness in Music (also published in Spanish) and Mindfulness in Sound. Mark holds a PhD and Honorary degree from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
He is a member of Mensa, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is a veteran adjudicator for B.I.F.F. For ABRSM Mark has examined grades and diplomas for 20 years, having undertaken nearly 50 international tours to all continents. He has also adjudicated the keyboard section of the BBC Young Musician.
Christmas Suite is a set piano pieces by Mark Tanner inspired by six of the most loved Christmas favourites. Very different from the traditional versions!
Previously…
Christmas Suite is a set piano pieces by Mark Tanner inspired by six of the most loved Christmas favourites. Very different from the traditional versions!
Previously Published by Spartan Press
Former catalogue number: SP1342
1. A Not So Silent Night
The tranquil beauty of ‘Silent Night’ is turned abruptly on its head in this punchy version, in which rude accents and an emerging boogie-woogie flavour come to the fore.
2. The Decorated Hall
A thinly disguised ‘Deck the Hall’ is given an entirely new complexion in this lightly decorated piece in a quasi Renaissance style.
3. The Good King
A tango might not seem the most obvious genre in which to reimagine ‘Good King Wenceslas’, but set in a minor key, the piece takes on an attractive quirkiness.
4. I Saw Three Queens
Immediately after Christmas 2015 Gillian and I set sail on the Queen Elizabeth, bound for Cape Town. Embarking from Southampton on that same day were the other two magnifient liners in the Cunard fleet, Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria. We embarked in convoy to a turbulent sea ablaze with fireworks and flag-wavers. ‘I Saw Three Ships’ seemed the perfect backdrop for this piece.
5. A Partridge in a Holly Tree
The piece begins with ‘The Holly and the Ivy’, but morphs impercepibly into ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ half way through. Careful pedalling (and half-pedalling) will assist in the left hand’s notes — some blurring is desired.
6. Jubilo
‘In Dulce Jubilo’ has always struck me as the most optimistic and warm-hearted of Christmas carols, which has its roots firmly in the Middle Ages. Here, the bells take on a rather darker, more portentous tone altogether, cast in a minor key amid a torrent of notes.
