Oriente

I don’t really like this piece because started from emotionally insincere moments and a desire to write something that was in a distant key to C minor (in which Portinari is close to - Eb lydian - as well as some other stuff that I never bothered to finish). The first part (bars 1-14) was the first result of this attempt, something simple in D major with some non-diatonic excursions for fun. The melody is simple and saccharine, something to accompany some different chords. I played a very early version of this part in a public piano, around November 2025, with seven people listening. If you’re one of them I’m pretty impressed you found this. Except if you’re the one that kissed me after playing this for you.

The piece then has a short build-up to the climax in Gmaj7#11-Em9. This is a fair bit above my skill level but it is exhiliarating to play. I held off on recording this piece for a long time because it is quite hard for me to play this part, but (as you can probably tell in the video) I got a decent take (maybe one wrong note, nevermind the poor dynamics and rhythm) and was pretty pleased. After this climax there’s an improv in the same chords until we do a 2-5-1 back to the initial Dmaj7 chord.

You can find a sheet for this piece here.