Publisher's Synopsis
This Work generically entitled "Toy Portugal" actually comprises two Toy Piano suites: "Portuguese suite" (2011) and "Portuguese Scenes" (2013). Toy Portugal is a soundtrack of my past. All these pieces are highly evocative and programatic and they are associated with sounds, places, people and memories of my childhood. In a certain way I'm re-living my own history through the lenses of a toy piano and creating my own folklore. This set of pieces was a very personal project that lasted from 2010 to the end of 2013 and it was all conceived by myself. I composed all the pieces and arrangements, I performed, mixed and mastered all of them. I also conceived the cover image. There is a recorded CD with all the musics available plus some bonus tracks. Toy Portugal is a set of works mostly for Toy Piano Solo. The concept was to create a small set of pieces with a common line: they should all reflect the traditional music from Portugal. Melodies and rhythms linked to the imaginary cliches of Portuguese folklore, fados, marchas, vira. The challenge was bigger because the Toy Piano is a somewhat fragile and very limited instrument. The most widespread version is only two octaves long, so this was a main concern. All of the pieces should fit within this range. To take optimal benefit of this range C3-C5, most of the pieces are written in C minor, with few exceptions. I hope I have achieved a very enjoyable repertoire, suited for the international market and all levels (simple to intermediate), with an "exotic and ethnic" flavor and at the same time amusing and fun to play. And I hope to have contributed to raise the level of the repertoire and to help people to regard this instrument as a more serious and genuine one, as it fully deserves. The pieces may be played and considered as a whole package, or can be played freely, as they are all independent from one another."
