The Pianist's Craft 2

Mastering the Works of More Great Composers

Richard P. Anderson

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 2015
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9798216291879
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

In The Pianist's Craft 2, pianist and scholar Richard P. Anderson gathers together a new collection of essays by renowned performing artists and teachers and discusses the preparation, pedagogy, and performance of selected works by an entirely different set of composers whose works are standard in the piano literature. In this volume, readers will find an invaluable collection of contributions on C.P.E. Bach, Antonio Soler, Felix Mendelssohn, Gabriel Fauré, Erno Dohnányi, Francis Poulenc, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Alberto Ginastera, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Olivier Messiaen, and John Cage.

The contributors—all nationally and internationally recognized as performing artists, teachers, recording artists, and clinicians—write thoughtfully about the composers whose work they have studied and played for years. Each author addresses issues unique to an individual composer, examining questions of phrasing, tempo, articulation, dynamics, rhythm, color, gesture, lyricism, instrumentation, and genre. Valuable insight is provided into teaching, performing, and preparing these great works—information otherwise available only in conferences, master classes, and private lessons.

This collection, with more than 250 musical illustrations, is intended for teachers and students of the intermediate and advanced levels of piano, instructors and performers at the university level, and those who love piano and piano music.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Illustrations
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. C. P. E.—Thinking Outside the Bachs: The Music of Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach
• Chapter 2. Soler’s Fandango
• Chapter 3. Lyricism and Lightness in the Piano Music of Felix Mendelssohn
• Chapter 4. Interior Virtuosity: Grasping Fauré’s Piano Music
• Chapter 5. Reflections on Performing Ernst von Dohnányi’s Variations on a Nursery Song for Piano and Orchestra
• Chapter 6. Francis Poulenc’s Early Writing: A Critical Analysis of Trois Pièces (1918) and Mouvements Perpétuels (1919)
• Chapter 7. Drinking from the “Source of Universal Folklore”: Villa-Lobos, Bach, and Chorões
• Chapter 8. The Musical Imagination of Dmitri Kabalevsky
• Chapter 9. Remembering Alberto Ginastera
• Chapter 10. Improving the Long Line through Score Markings in Piano Repertoire
• Chapter 11. Aaron Copland and the Musical Idea
• Chapter 12. Some Suggestions for Playing the Piano Music of Samuel Barber
• Chapter 13. A Practical Pianist’s Introduction to Messiaen: Technical and Theoretical Approaches via the Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus
• Chapter 14. A Pianist Looks at the Music of John Cage, 1946–1948
• Chapter 15. The Importance of New Music in the Pianist’s Repertoire
• Index
• About the Editor
• About the Contributors