Illustration by (for real) Andy Warhol.

Hi! It’s me, Matthew. I used to post stuff on the internet. And then I stopped, because—well, look, I’ve learned that it’s futile to wonder why my brain does anything it does. Anyway, I’ve been thinking (always a dodgy pursuit, admittedly) that, after a couple years away, it’s time to start straightening up the old space and putting some new goods on the racks now and again. So let’s flip the lights back on with a holiday card.

I spent a good part of the past year messing around with Romantic piano transcriptions, primarily of Bach. I’ve always loved this repertoire: it is both unnecessary and impractical in ways that I find wonderfully appealing. And from the Chicago fire until the Second World War, it seems like everyone took a stab at it. Poke around the margins and you make all kinds of new, fascinating, dead friends. (Ignaz Friedman, you lovable maniac.) However, there is a slight problem with a) falling down this rabbit-hole b) with a church gig c) in December, which is that all of these people took Christmas off, thematically. Advent? You’re spoiled for choice—you could fill an entire recital with arrangements of Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland alone. The 25th, though? Pretty slim inventory. So to pad out my Christmas Eve prelude slate, I did one of my own.

Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich (J. S. Bach, arr. Guerrieri) (PDF, 81Kb)

Now all I have to do is learn it.

More to come in the new year. Stay warm, stay cool, stay safe.

Update (12/23): Fixed a couple of typos in the score; thanks to Dan Schmidt for having better eyes than mine.