Piano Tutorial - Silotti's Transcription  of Saint Saens The Swan (The Dying Swan)
Channel: Tommy's Piano Corner
Date: 24/12/2019

This video is an in depth tutorial on Saint Saens the Swan as transcribed by Alexandre Siloti.  'The Swan' is part of his Carnaval of the animals.  It is perhaps most well known as the music from 'The Dying Swan' (a set piece choreographed for Anna Pavlova) - not to be confused with Swan Lake which of course is by Tchaikovsky.  

Well known as a Cello Solo, Alexandre Siloti did a wonderful transcription of it for solo piano.  This transcription is so beautiful that it often figures in encores by professional pianists.   However, it's a beautiful piece to learn and well within the reach of intermediate pianists.

The video contains lots of ideas for learning and practising this music - pointing out the frequent use of patterns which, once learned, are great as 'aides mémoires'.

If you're interested in seeing a ballet performance of the Dying Swan, the video from which I took a short extract can be found here:
https://youtu.be/nGnHyjKNhVs

The video I reference about considerations for those of us with smaller hands is here:
https://youtu.be/nGnHyjKNhVs

Aside finding a scan of this on imslp.org, it is possible to purchase from the Pianist Magazine Website:
https://www.pianistmagazine.com/music-store/advanced/saint-saens-arr-siloti-the-swan-lb-first-edition-issue-1/
Alternatively, it appeared in issue 94 and you can purchase the back issue if you prefer.



EQUIPMENT:
Fully details of all equipment used are available on my blog at the address below:
http://tommyspianocorner.com/youtube-equipment/ 
Filmed on an iPhone 8+ - using the Filmic Pro app
Audio captured on an iPhone 6S using a Shure MV88 Microphone
Vocals captured on a Rode SmartLav microphone plugged into an iPhone 4S
Video editing done using iMovie
Audio editing done using Garageband

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