Norwegian Rain is the companion songbook to David Lanz’s 2016 solo piano release by the same name. All sixteen pieces from the album are included, notated note-for-note to the recording. This was Lanz’s first solo piano album in awhile, and it was worth the wait! The pieces range from quite short to fairly lengthy, from slow to very lively, from quite ambient to quite dramatic, so playing through this book is a lot of fun and an opportunity to express a broad range of emotions at the piano. Hal Leonard doesn’t usually spiral-bind their songbooks, but their bindings are very good and usually stay open on the piano from the first use. The notation is clear, roomy and easy to read. The music is printed on a bright white bond paper in the 9”x12” format. The covers of the book are full-color reproductions of the CD cover artwork, so even the covers are very nice to look at! Most of the pieces are at an upper-intermediate to early-advanced playing level, but a few a bit more difficult than that. A couple of the pieces have passages where the hands are crossed and there are a few reaches of more than an octave. All of the pieces are fun to play, but my favorites right now are “Sirkel Dans (Circle Dance),” “Troll-Dans (Troll Dance,” and “Kristina.” The songbook is available from Amazon, Sheet Music Plus, and Hal Leonard. Highly recommended!

The song titles, the keys they are in, and the number of pages are:

The Norwegian Rain Suite:
Norwegian Rain - Key of A minor (0 sharps or flats) / A major (3 sharps) - 4 pages
The Approaching Storm - Key of Eb major/ C minor (3 flats) - 5 pages
Cloud Burst - Key of C (0 sharps or flats) - 1 page
And The Skies Opened Up - Key of A minor - 6 pages
Autumn Comes Winter - Key of D (2 sharps) - 7 pages
Fjord Spring - Key of A minor / C minor (3 flats) - 5 pages
The Last Days of Summer - Key of F (1 flat) - 3 pages
A Child For All Seasons - Key of F - 5 pages
Sirkel Dans (Circle Dans) - Key of F major / D minor (1 flat) - 3 pages
Troll-Dans (Troll-Dance) - Key of Db major / Bb minor (5 flats) - 6 pages
She Is… (Interlude) - Key of F - 1 page
Kristina - Key of F - 4 pages
Adieu Sweet Mary - Key of A minor / C minor - 3 pages
Sunset Over Nordland - Key of D / F# minor (3 sharps) - 4 pages
Aurora’s Sunrise - Key of F# minor - 5 pages
Waltz of the Northern Moon - Key of D minor - 7 pages