Barbara Arens writes...

A fact: I love Scotland. Every time I come home after travelling in Scotland I feel myself bursting with ideas inspired by all I've seen and experienced there. The heather-covered hills and the dusky forests, the wind, the amazingly pure air, the mysterious ruins - and especially the water - be it a dark brown burn, a roaring waterfall, heavy clouds, a gentle mist, or the waves of the North Sea, or a loch just begging to be explored - and the people I meet and their lovely, almost always comprehensible speech...

What a source of inspiration! And then there's the music - nothing is more thrilling than hearing massed bands of pipes and drums, as well as the rich tradition of folk music. So I come home and sit down at the piano and try to put these impressions into music, trying always to keep the pieces as easily playable as possible - I want my piano students to enjoy them and express themselves through them without struggling with technical difficulties.

So some of these pieces reflect my impression of a landscape, standing stones, a sunset over a loch; but some of the pieces are based on actual traditional gaelic songs and tunes. A wonderful discovery was finding the Scots Musical Museum, the collection of traditional songs assembled and revised to a great extent by Robert Burns, which appeared in Edinburgh 1769–1803 - a fantastic resource.

I'm hoping you'll enjoy playing this collection of Scottish Piano pieces.