Arrangements
Keyboard arrangements are at the centre of my compositional activity. At an early age, I spent many happy hours playing Mahlerian symphonies and Wagnerian operas at the piano (by ear) as a welcome diversion from practicing. Today, my work is inspired by past authors, including Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Liszt, Maurice Ravel, and others, who elevated an oftentimes functional workaday activity to the sphere of high compositional art.
Rameau (arr. Louie) : Complete Pièces de Clavecin en Concerts, arranged for Harpsichord
Bach (arr. Louie) : Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, arranged for Harpsichord
Keyboard instruments are media of limitless imaginative possibilities in the hands and minds of skilled creators. One may recreate through a keyboard not only the general outlines and finer details of a composition originally conceived for other media, but also capture the spirit and essence of the original, viewed through the prism of a new perspective.
Miscellaneous Works
Mendelssohn (arr. Louie) : Sonata in D minor for Violin and Piano, completion of unfinished fragment
Mozart (arr. Louie) : Cadenza for Piano Concerto in A major, KV 488
Mozart’s original cadenza for the first movement of his Piano Concerto no. 23 in A major, KV 488, is presented here with two optional passages (ossia) by David Louie that expand the cadenza with further thematic material from the movement.
The first ossia is nineteen measures long and based on the lyrical theme that appears at the start of the development section. The second ossia is fourteen measures long and based on the main theme heard at the opening of the movement. Although it is possible to play both ossia sections, it is suggested to play either one or the other, in situations where a somewhat longer cadenza than the one provided by Mozart is desired.