Who is the composer and where is he from? Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (October 26, 1685 – July 23, 1757) was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style. His influential 555 sonatas were almost all written for the harpsichord with a few exceptions for chamber ensemble or organ. The harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick produced an edition of the sonatas in 1953, and the numbering from this edition is now nearly always used (the K. number). Previously, the numbering commonly used was from the 1906 edition compiled by the Neapolitan pianist Alessandro Longo (L. numbers). Kirkpatrick's numbering is chronological, while Longo's ordering is a result of his grouping the sonatas into "suites". What a way to spend your life, right? Numbering the Scarlatti sonatas? Wow.
What else have they written that we may already know or have heard? other sonatas perhaps?
What is the title? What does it mean? Baroque sonatas are single movements, mostly in binary form (A possible repeat of A, B, possible repeat of B), and are almost all intended for the harpsichord (there are four for organ, and a few where Scarlatti suggests a small instrumental group)
What time period is it from? We will call it Baroque.
What about this piece do you like? Some of my students just don't care for the two equal hands of Baroque style and say it is difficult to compete and win with a Baroque piece. I say if you play it well, it doesn't matter what time period it's from.
What sounds challenging? The runs of thirds.
Here are videos both on a piano and on a harpsichord, just for fun. The pianist treats this piece much more lyrically and romantically, don't you think?
glimpses of the wonders of music teaching
Friday, October 16, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Contest Literature-Haydn Sonata in g minor, Hob. XVI:44
Hello blogging friends and colleagues-you are joining us in the middle of a gathering of Minnesota Music Teachers Association contest literature. Students have the opportunity to perform one of these pieces for an adjudicator, receive a critique, and the ultimate prize is a performance at Northrup auditorium on the University of Minnesota campus. At this Senior A level, there are twelve pieces from which to choose. Music is from across time periods, and hopefully, from across the globe, to provide new pieces and styles to students and teachers alike. So, after hearing the 12, make sure to stop back and tell me which pieces you would choose to learn in depth this year.
My regular blogging will be sporadic as I gather this information for my students and you. But I'm still here!
Who is the composer and where is he from? (Franz) Joseph Haydn (March 31, 1732 – May 31, 1809) was an Austrian composer. He was one of the most important, prolific and prominent composers of the classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these genres. He was also instrumental in the development of the piano trio and in the evolution of sonata form.
A life-long resident of Austria, Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Hungarian aristocratic Esterházy family on their remote estate. Isolated from other composers and trends in music until the later part of his long life, he was, as he put it, "forced to become original". At the time of his death, he was one of the most celebrated composers in Europe.
What else have they written that we may already know or have heard? Student may have played other sonatas or sonatinas, short minuets or German dances.
What time period is it from? Classical
What about this piece do you like? The arpeggiated figures running down the keyboard sound fun to play.
What sounds challenging? One student complains that the classical style takes too much listening for the differences. "It all sounds similar if you're not paying attention." This is also one of the longer selections.
My regular blogging will be sporadic as I gather this information for my students and you. But I'm still here!
Who is the composer and where is he from? (Franz) Joseph Haydn (March 31, 1732 – May 31, 1809) was an Austrian composer. He was one of the most important, prolific and prominent composers of the classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these genres. He was also instrumental in the development of the piano trio and in the evolution of sonata form.
A life-long resident of Austria, Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Hungarian aristocratic Esterházy family on their remote estate. Isolated from other composers and trends in music until the later part of his long life, he was, as he put it, "forced to become original". At the time of his death, he was one of the most celebrated composers in Europe.
What else have they written that we may already know or have heard? Student may have played other sonatas or sonatinas, short minuets or German dances.
What time period is it from? Classical
What about this piece do you like? The arpeggiated figures running down the keyboard sound fun to play.
What sounds challenging? One student complains that the classical style takes too much listening for the differences. "It all sounds similar if you're not paying attention." This is also one of the longer selections.
Contest Literature-J. S. Bach Prelude and Fugue #15 in G Major
Who is the composer and where is he from? Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March 1685 – 28 July 1750) (often referred to simply as Bach) was a German composer and organist whose works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. Bach's works are revered for their intellectual depth, technical command and artistic beauty. Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected throughout Europe during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognised as a great composer until a revival of interest and performances of his music in the first half of the 19th century. He is now regarded as the greatest composer of the Baroque, and as one of the greatest of all time.
What else have they written that we may already know or have heard? Bach wrote new pieces for his church every week. It is an extensive collection of keyboard repertoire.
What time period is it from? Baroque
What about this piece do you like? "I think Baroque music is an acquired taste", she said. "I didn't used to like it at all and now I find it to be so brainy and interesting."
What sounds challenging? Fugues, what else do you need to say. Equal difficulties of fugue subjects in each hand, the LH is usually the downfall of a fugue. I do not know these pianists, but this gives an indication of the many tempi that can be considered.
What else have they written that we may already know or have heard? Bach wrote new pieces for his church every week. It is an extensive collection of keyboard repertoire.
What time period is it from? Baroque
What about this piece do you like? "I think Baroque music is an acquired taste", she said. "I didn't used to like it at all and now I find it to be so brainy and interesting."
What sounds challenging? Fugues, what else do you need to say. Equal difficulties of fugue subjects in each hand, the LH is usually the downfall of a fugue. I do not know these pianists, but this gives an indication of the many tempi that can be considered.
Contest Literature-Schumann Forest Scenes
Who is the composer and where is he from? Robert Schumann 8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856 was a German composer and influential music critic. He is one of the most famous and important Romantic composers of the 19th century. He had hoped to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist, having been assured by his teacher Friedrich Wieck that he could become the finest pianist in Europe after only a few years of study with him. However, a self-inflicted hand injury (NOTE this students!) prevented those hopes from being realized, and he decided to focus his musical energies on composition. Schumann's published compositions were all for the piano until 1840. In 1840, after a long and acrimonious legal battle with his piano instructor (Wieck), Schumann married Wieck's daughter, pianist Clara Wieck, who also composed music and had a considerable concert career, including premieres of many of her husband's works. Robert Schumann died in middle age; for the last two years of his life, after an attempted suicide, he was confined to a mental institution at his own request.
What else have they written that we may already know or have heard? My students could not answer this one. One thought maybe he had heard the piano concerto. I guess I have overlooked teaching this composer. There is also Papillons (Butterflies), Carnaval, and Scenes from Childhood repertoire that they may have studied.
What time period is it from? romantic
What about this piece do you like? "It is shorter than some on the list and I probably could memorize it".
What sounds challenging? It's not what sounds challenging per se, but it is advanced in depth of character and the tiny details. It will take a finicky pianist, who is ready to dig into the details.
This recording is all movements, but the competition will use only Entrance AND Hunter in Ambush.
What else have they written that we may already know or have heard? My students could not answer this one. One thought maybe he had heard the piano concerto. I guess I have overlooked teaching this composer. There is also Papillons (Butterflies), Carnaval, and Scenes from Childhood repertoire that they may have studied.
What time period is it from? romantic
What about this piece do you like? "It is shorter than some on the list and I probably could memorize it".
What sounds challenging? It's not what sounds challenging per se, but it is advanced in depth of character and the tiny details. It will take a finicky pianist, who is ready to dig into the details.
This recording is all movements, but the competition will use only Entrance AND Hunter in Ambush.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Contest Literature-Toccata, Aram Khachaturian
Who is the composer and where is he from? Aram Khachaturian(June 6, 1903 – May 1, 1978) (born in Tiflis, Russian Empire) was a Soviet-Armenian composer whose works were often influenced by Armenian folk music. Khachaturian showed such great talent as a young man, that he was admitted to the Gnessin Institute where he studied cello In 1925 Mikhail Gnessin started a composition class at the Gnessin Institute which Khachaturian joined.
In 1929, he transferred to the Moscow Conservatory where he studied under Nikolai Myaskovsky (composition) and Sergei Vasilenko (orchestration), graduating in 1934. In the 1930s, he married the composer Nina Makarova, a fellow student from Myaskovsky’s class. In 1951, he became professor at the Gnessin State Musical and Pedagogical Institute (Moscow) and the Moscow Conservatory.
Aram Khachaturian was enthusiastic about communism. In 1920, when Armenia was declared a Soviet republic, Khachaturian joined a propaganda train touring Armenia, populated by Georgian-Armenian artists. The composer joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1943. His communist ideals are apparent in his works, especially Gayane (which takes place on a collective farm) and the Second Symphony. It was the Symphonic Poem, later titled the Third Symphony, that earned Khachaturian the wrath of the Party. Ironically, Khachaturian wrote the work as a tribute to communism: “I wanted to write the kind of composition in which the public would feel my unwritten program without an announcement. I wanted this work to express the Soviet people’s joy and pride in their great and mighty country.”
He also held important posts at the Composers' Union, which would later severely denounce some of his works as being “formalist” music, along with those of Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich. These three composers became the so called "titans" of Soviet music, enjoying worldwide reputation as some of the leading composers of the 20th century.
What else have they written that we may already know or have heard? the "Sabre Dance" and an intermediate piano work Ivan Sings, is in many collections.
What is the title? What does it mean? Toccata (from Italian toccare, "to touch") is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers.
What time period is it from? contemporary
What about this piece do you like? TBD
What sounds challenging? TBD
YIKES! I have studied the wrong Toccata! I will post the music as soon as I clear this up!
In 1929, he transferred to the Moscow Conservatory where he studied under Nikolai Myaskovsky (composition) and Sergei Vasilenko (orchestration), graduating in 1934. In the 1930s, he married the composer Nina Makarova, a fellow student from Myaskovsky’s class. In 1951, he became professor at the Gnessin State Musical and Pedagogical Institute (Moscow) and the Moscow Conservatory.
Aram Khachaturian was enthusiastic about communism. In 1920, when Armenia was declared a Soviet republic, Khachaturian joined a propaganda train touring Armenia, populated by Georgian-Armenian artists. The composer joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1943. His communist ideals are apparent in his works, especially Gayane (which takes place on a collective farm) and the Second Symphony. It was the Symphonic Poem, later titled the Third Symphony, that earned Khachaturian the wrath of the Party. Ironically, Khachaturian wrote the work as a tribute to communism: “I wanted to write the kind of composition in which the public would feel my unwritten program without an announcement. I wanted this work to express the Soviet people’s joy and pride in their great and mighty country.”
He also held important posts at the Composers' Union, which would later severely denounce some of his works as being “formalist” music, along with those of Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich. These three composers became the so called "titans" of Soviet music, enjoying worldwide reputation as some of the leading composers of the 20th century.
What else have they written that we may already know or have heard? the "Sabre Dance" and an intermediate piano work Ivan Sings, is in many collections.
What is the title? What does it mean? Toccata (from Italian toccare, "to touch") is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers.
What time period is it from? contemporary
What about this piece do you like? TBD
What sounds challenging? TBD
YIKES! I have studied the wrong Toccata! I will post the music as soon as I clear this up!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Contest Literature-Chopin Mazurka
Who is the composer and where is he from? Frédéric François Chopin (Polish: Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, sometimes Szopen; 1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He was one of the great masters of Romantic music.
Chopin was born in the village of Żelazowa Wola, in the Duchy of Warsaw, to a French-expatriate father and Polish mother and was regarded as a child-prodigy pianist.In Paris, Chopin made a comfortable living as a composer and piano teacher, while giving few public performances. Though an ardent Polish patriot,in France he used the French versions of his names and eventually, to avoid having to rely on Imperial Russian documents, became a French citizen. After some ill-fated romantic involvements with Polish women, from 1837 to 1847 he had a turbulent relationship with the French authoress George Sand, (her pen name). Always in frail health, he died in Paris in 1849, aged thirty-nine, of pulmonary tuberculosis.
Chopin's compositions were written primarily for the piano as solo instrument. Though they are technically demanding, the emphasis in his style is on nuance and expressive depth. Chopin invented musical forms such as the instrumental ballade and was responsible for major innovations in the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, étude, impromptu and prélude.
What else have they written that we may already know or have heard? Some of Chopin's smaller preludes and waltzes may be in a student's repertoire. I suggest playing a more traditional mazurka or two before using this slow one as a competition piece.
What is the title? What does it mean?The mazurka (in Polish, mazurek) is a stylized Polish folk dance in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo that has a heavy accent on the third or second beat. This is "one of Chopin's most evocative and melancholy themes, known mostly to pianists. It is almost a secret to other musicians or the public", according to Michael Glenn Williams.
What time period is it from? romantic
What about this piece do you like? Chopin's works are usually very weighty, meaningful, deep. And most that I've heard have elements of melancholy.
What sounds challenging? I see many small notes not lining up with the Left Hand.
The first video is the famous pianist, Vladimir Horowitz and the music follows along below the clip! The next video is a musical response to Vladimir's playing. Both are interesting musically and watch their differences in technique! Look at wrists, fingers, and fingering! Which one do you prefer?
Chopin was born in the village of Żelazowa Wola, in the Duchy of Warsaw, to a French-expatriate father and Polish mother and was regarded as a child-prodigy pianist.In Paris, Chopin made a comfortable living as a composer and piano teacher, while giving few public performances. Though an ardent Polish patriot,in France he used the French versions of his names and eventually, to avoid having to rely on Imperial Russian documents, became a French citizen. After some ill-fated romantic involvements with Polish women, from 1837 to 1847 he had a turbulent relationship with the French authoress George Sand, (her pen name). Always in frail health, he died in Paris in 1849, aged thirty-nine, of pulmonary tuberculosis.
Chopin's compositions were written primarily for the piano as solo instrument. Though they are technically demanding, the emphasis in his style is on nuance and expressive depth. Chopin invented musical forms such as the instrumental ballade and was responsible for major innovations in the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, étude, impromptu and prélude.
What else have they written that we may already know or have heard? Some of Chopin's smaller preludes and waltzes may be in a student's repertoire. I suggest playing a more traditional mazurka or two before using this slow one as a competition piece.
What is the title? What does it mean?The mazurka (in Polish, mazurek) is a stylized Polish folk dance in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo that has a heavy accent on the third or second beat. This is "one of Chopin's most evocative and melancholy themes, known mostly to pianists. It is almost a secret to other musicians or the public", according to Michael Glenn Williams.
What time period is it from? romantic
What about this piece do you like? Chopin's works are usually very weighty, meaningful, deep. And most that I've heard have elements of melancholy.
What sounds challenging? I see many small notes not lining up with the Left Hand.
The first video is the famous pianist, Vladimir Horowitz and the music follows along below the clip! The next video is a musical response to Vladimir's playing. Both are interesting musically and watch their differences in technique! Look at wrists, fingers, and fingering! Which one do you prefer?
Monday, October 12, 2009
Manor Ball-the Event!
I adore the idea of daydreaming. A ball, a dress, an escort, a moment to be in a beautiful room of amazing people. An invitation to believe in possibilities can also be daunting. What if I don't fit in? Will I know what to say, how to dance? These same feelings sometimes come to the performer as he waits to take the stage. Will I be heard as I want to be heard, will I do and speak and become the music that is so amazing?
Shine, dance, and be-all the world is a stage. My gown is Versace, my jewelry is from Tiffany's. My escorts are Antonio Banderras and Denzel Washington, Pierce Brosnan and Tom Selleck. They are all 6'2" tall today. To be fair, I asked all their wives if it was acceptable to have them accompany me. And the music is eclectic: Mozart, Haydn, Spanish tangos, rock and roll. It's rather like A Knight's Tale, where old meets new and somehow, it works. Aaah, the music takes me there. Can you hear it?
I arrived in a bright red Ferrari Enzo, it was a wonderful day for a drive. Willow is such a gracious hostess, I brought her a little something as a token of thanks for the lovely party. October's birthstone is the opal, and there is none quite so lovely as the black opals from Australia.
Anthony Bourdain prepared a few appetizers, then decided to join the party in person, and flew ahead of me to the manor to get started in the kitchen. I heard him mumble something about the freshest ingredients and getting something imported quickly.
I can't wait to see who else is coming! Click here to transport yourself to the ball!
Shine, dance, and be-all the world is a stage. My gown is Versace, my jewelry is from Tiffany's. My escorts are Antonio Banderras and Denzel Washington, Pierce Brosnan and Tom Selleck. They are all 6'2" tall today. To be fair, I asked all their wives if it was acceptable to have them accompany me. And the music is eclectic: Mozart, Haydn, Spanish tangos, rock and roll. It's rather like A Knight's Tale, where old meets new and somehow, it works. Aaah, the music takes me there. Can you hear it?
I arrived in a bright red Ferrari Enzo, it was a wonderful day for a drive. Willow is such a gracious hostess, I brought her a little something as a token of thanks for the lovely party. October's birthstone is the opal, and there is none quite so lovely as the black opals from Australia.
Anthony Bourdain prepared a few appetizers, then decided to join the party in person, and flew ahead of me to the manor to get started in the kitchen. I heard him mumble something about the freshest ingredients and getting something imported quickly.
I can't wait to see who else is coming! Click here to transport yourself to the ball!
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