Darkness Fades
Joe Bongiorno
2022 / Piano Haven
55 pages / 10 songs
Review by Kathy Parsons
Darkness Fades is the companion solo piano sheet music book for Joe Bongiorno's 2022 album by the same name. Ten of the eleven tracks from the recording are included. (The eleventh is "The Illuminate" version of the title track, which features Eric Tingstad on guitar. The solo piano version of the title track is included in the book.) John Zechiel of zechiel.com did the transcriptions note-for-note to the recording and did a wonderful job. The layout of the music is clear, well-spaced and easy to read. The printed songbooks are spiral-bound and include an enlarged version of the gorgeous album cover artwork by Matt Strieby at newleafdesign.com.
I would put the playing level of the music at upper-intermediate to early-advanced as a few pieces have four or five sharps or flats in the key signature (see below) and both hands are quite active at the same time in several areas. None of the music is what I would call difficult, but some of it is a bit beyond an intermediate level and might take some additional practice - a labor of love when the music is as nice as this is!
As always (this is Joe's 14th album), Joe's music is very expressive and easy to relate to and I would think pianists in any age group would find much to enjoy in this songbook! Printed books and pdf downloads of the complete book as well as individual pieces are available exclusively from Joe's website. Great stuff!
The titles of the pieces, the key(s) they are in and the number of pages are:
My Beautiful (MiaBella's Song) - Key of Db (5 flats)/ E (4 sharps) - 5 pages
In This Moment - Key of G (1 sharp) - 6 pages
Darkness Fades - Key of C# minor (4 sharps) - 6 pages
Fade to Light - Key of E minor (1 sharp) - 9 pages
Hills and Valleys - Key of Ab major/ F minor (4 flats) - 6 pages
We Come Together - Key of Eb (3 flats) - 4 pages
Lost in the Light - Key of G minor (2 flats) - 5 pages
Softest Landing - Key of C (0 sharps or flats)/ Eb (3 flats)/ C - 5 pages
Heal - Key of A (3 sharps) - 5 pages
Precious Peace (revisited) - Key of Ab (4 flats) - 4 pages
July 27, 2022
(as Joe Bongiorno with Amy Janelle) with Amy Janelle
2021