Harry Potter for 2 Pianos !

[Empty_45 0]

Hi to all,

I'm glad to share with you a transcription I have done of the theme from Harry Potter, for 2 pianos. I'm playing this piece with a friend for a chamber music exam in my conservatory, and a recording has been done during this one. The recording is available here thanks to the help of Markus, admin of the site http://www.mahawa.jw-music.net/

I hope you'll enjoy it, at least as we enjoyed playing it. I'm waiting for your impressions with impatience.

[ChuckM 1]

Very cool!

[Red 75]

Good form.

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

Wow, nice playing. And I'm impressed you transcribed the entire piece, rather than just the theme itself. Good stuff!

Ray Barnsbury

[scissorhands 16]

Nice performance! I loved the arrangement, pretty accurate. Congrats! (and thanks for sharing it with us )

[Docteur Qui 1,544]

I've been waiting for something like this since I started playing piano. Thank you so much.

You guys sound fantastic. There's some really ridiculously hard passages in that arrangement, but you did such a great job. Well done, and let us know how you go with the exam!

[Composer_Fan 2]

Wow, that's incredible! I'm STILL unable to figure out some of those fast passages. Is it possible to get this music? I love this two piano transcription, and I'd enjoy playing it.

Curious, what conservatory do you attend?

[ChuckM 1]

Is it possible to get this music?

Seconded. Any chance you have it in MIDI form that you could pass along?

[Damo 0]

That's an amazing arrangement for two Pianos! Impossible to do it for one Piano though.... But yeah for two Pianos....make things easier and playable....

[Eric_JWFAN 11]

That's an amazing arrangement for two Pianos! Impossible to do it for one Piano though.... But yeah for two Pianos....make things easier and playable....

Actually I believe this could be arranged for one piano and still maintain much of the texture and different voices.

To the original poster, bravo both on the transcription and the performance!

[JWfangirl1992 18]

I definitely agree some sheet music would be nice!! I'll just have to hunt another pianist down so I can try it. Excellent arrangement, exactly like the piece. Cresendos and decresendos were beautifully done. One thing I noticed though you seemed to go a tinsy bit fast at the beginning of the piece for about three seconds but after that amazingly played.

[Damo 0]

If this transcript arrangement become an official public performance worldwide then yes....But it need to get an copyright publisher and sell it.... well you know what i mean....

[HPFAN_2 0]

I like it, but now I want to hear three pianos. :cool:

[Datameister 2,037]

I enjoy arranging orchestral music for piano, and I've gotta say, I'm really REALLY impressed. This is a spot-on arrangement. Those fast passages are a nightmare to figure out; I spent hours trying to work out the notes, with only partial success. Do you just have a good ear, or did you artificially slow down the music, or did you have a score to refer to?

In any case, bravo. Truly awesome and amazing work. On the performance level, I was mostly blown away. A few parts lacked proper balance--the melody was hard to hear above the lovely runs and arpeggios. But overall, it was great. Personally, I think the "pizzicato" notes could be played a little less staccato, as they seem a bit overly dry, but that's just me. I swear, in some parts the pianos seemed to take on the timbres of the various instruments. Absolutely great. I need to know what your process is/was like! Any light you can shed on it would be great.

::saves file to mp3 player with glee::

[Empty_45 0]

Thanks a lot for all your reactions !

Well done, and let us know how you go with the exam!

We got the exam with congratulations . I don't know exactly what would be the equivalent level in US, but in France it is one of the last exam of the conservatory (only before the "price" of chamber music, the topest exam for this domain in the conservatory). The arrangement was a part of our program because we also played a 2 pianos transcription by Debussy, of the Studies Op.56 composed by Schuman (originaly for organ).

Seconded. Any chance you have it in MIDI form that you could pass along?

You can find here the midi file: http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?acti...2F3C77D235239DF

For the score, I'm still hesitating to upload it, I have a friend who upload some years ago on his site his own transcription made by ear of John Williams musics (he wrote many sketchs of Star Wars) but he got trouble because it was illegal... I fear already that sharing the music would not be authorized, so I don't want to have problems because of my score.

Those fast passages are a nightmare to figure out; I spent hours trying to work out the notes, with only partial success. Do you just have a good ear, or did you artificially slow down the music, or did you have a score to refer to?

In any case, bravo. Truly awesome and amazing work. On the performance level, I was mostly blown away. A few parts lacked proper balance--the melody was hard to hear above the lovely runs and arpeggios. But overall, it was great. Personally, I think the "pizzicato" notes could be played a little less staccato, as they seem a bit overly dry, but that's just me. I swear, in some parts the pianos seemed to take on the timbres of the various instruments. Absolutely great. I need to know what your process is/was like! Any light you can shed on it would be great.

Hopefully for me, I didn't have to transcribe all this music by ear. I have the chance to have the Signature Edition of the Harry Potter movies, that's the reason why the transcription seems more accurate. I did this transcription in october and I had different objectives: I wanted first, do the entire music rather than the theme only and do it with the most realism possible. Then I wanted to make the 2 pianos parts interesting, I mean that I didn't want to put all the technical difficulties in only one piano, or all the themes for one piano and the accompagnement to the other. During the piece we are often alternating between the main part and the accompagnement, in that case the score is interesting to play for both... The last important point for me was to respect the orchestration of the original score, that's why I was glad to hear that you recognized the timbres of the various instruments Datameister. I mean that we often play the same instruments during all the piece: for exemple, the piano one played always the celesta part, and the second piano the trumpet part for exemple... sure there are exceptions, but I found more logic to do it with this initial idea.

Actually I believe this could be arranged for one piano and still maintain much of the texture and different voices.

I agree. It would be certainly different and more difficult to play, but many parts will be deleted. I already transcribed the Prologue for piano solo and that's sure that all the arpeggios in triplets at the beginning are really "easier" when you have two hands free

All your comments on our interpretation are really interesting for me and my colleague. Effectively, we had the idea to re-record it with a better sound quality and in that case, we'll try to correct our "mistakes"... that's not sure for the moment but it would be interesting to do. In all case, that's interesting that several people find the end fast and the sound a bit dry.

[Datameister 2,037]

That's very cool. I'm heavily tempted to buy the Signature Edition score now, thanks to you.

Again, congratulations on your evaluation and thank you for a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable rendition of this piece. My hands are tingling.