Amberley Wild Brooks by John Ireland
4,822 views · Published 13 October 2010 · 3:54 · Indexed 20 September 2026
I believe this is the first performance of this piece to be posted on Youtube. :) This is my performance of a somewhat esoteric piano piece called "Amberley Wild Brooks"; it was composed in 1921 by John Ireland, a British composer whose impressionistic works display influences of Debussy and Ravel. This is probably one of his better-known and more frequently played pieces, next to "Island Spell". "Amberley Wild Brooks" is the name of an actual marshland that branches off the River Arun in West Sussex, England, and upon hearing the piece in a John Lenehan recording I immediately thought of a type of riverside scenario with all sorts of wildlife and changing currents. I then immediately decided I wanted to learn it myself...then I asked my piano teacher if she had the sheet music and she told me that she did, even though she hadn't looked at it in at least 40 years. :) This piece is tranquil at times and tumultuous at others, and often times the melody just meanders about without staying on a single key. I practiced this piece for about three months on and off. I wish I could've played the runs a bit more cleanly, and maybe brought out a few of the voices a bit more, but overall I'm quite pleased with this performance. This performance is dedicated to my father on his birthday. He is an avid fisherman and some of his favorite locales include the gorges and streams of Ithaca, New York. I played this piece at my parents' home on their baby grand.
