March/April 2012

March/April 2012
Companion
March/April 2012
Volume 4, Number 2
Single Issue $9.95
Published by the Frances Clark Center for
Keyboard Pedagogy
12 The pleasure of learning
and searching never ends:
An interview with Alfred
Brendel
Columns
4 Editor’s Page
Beyond the notes
Pete Jutras
6 Winds of Change
by Richard Zimdars
Robert Weirich
22 A place in the sun: Recent
editions of Beethoven’s
Piano Sonatas
8 Personal
Perspectives
Beginnings and
endings
by William Kinderman
Peter Kristian Mose
80 Questions &
Answers
28 2012 Directory of summer
camps and institutes
Louise L. Goss
National and international
programs for students and
teachers
Departments
46 Jazz & Pop
17 Poetry Corner
Playing Indie Pop
18 Poetry Corner
Christopher Norton
20 Clavier Companion
Crossword
48 Repertoire & Performance
A master class on three favorite
Beethoven sonata movements
53 Humoresque
Nancy Bachus with Jerry Wong and Peter
Takács
66 First Looks
66 Falco Steinbach’s Figures
54 Counterpoint
Opus 111: A revelation
67 New music reviews
Helen Smith Tarchalski with Seymour
Bernstein
70 CD & DVD reviews
58 Rhythm
How do you decipher rhythms when
transcribing the recordings of Bill
Evans?
Bruce Berr with Pascal Wetzel
62 Adult Piano Study
The trapeziectomy diaries:
Recovering from arthritis
Michelle Conda with Jill Dew
72 News & Notes
74 Pupil Saver
76 Keyboard Kids’ Companion
78 Advertiser Index
Cover photo by Benjamin Ealovega, courtesy of Colbert Artists Management
MARCH/APRIL 2012
CLAVIER COMPANION
1
Companion
Publisher
Associate Editors
Contributing Editors
The Frances Clark Center for
Keyboard Pedagogy
Nancy Bachus
Bruce Berr
Michelle Conda
Rebecca Johnson
George Litterst
Craig Sale
Scott McBride Smith
Helen Smith Tarchalski
Managing Editors
Lauren Thompson
Tony Caramia
Louise Goss
Steven Hall
Geoffrey Haydon
Phillip Keveren
Barbara Kreader
Jane Magrath
Christopher Norton
Robert Weirich
Richard Zimdars
Steve Betts
Susan Geffen
Copy Editors
Circulation
Carla Dean Day
Kristin Jutras
Kristen Holland Shear
Publication Fulfillment
Services
Editor-in-Chief
Pete Jutras
Executive Director
Sam Holland
Design & Production
Bob Payne
Website Designer & Editor
Tim Smith
Advertising
Director of Outreach
Maggie Zullinger
The Frances Clark Center for
Keyboard Pedagogy is a not-for-profit
educational institution (501c3) located in
Kingston, New Jersey.
The mission of the Frances Clark Center
is to extend the influence of her inclusive
and revolutionary philosophy of music
education at the keyboard. In so doing, the
Center conducts research, develops and
codifies successful methodologies and
applications, and disseminates its work in
the form of publications, seminars, and
conferences that focus on improving the
quality of teaching.
Our goals are to:
• Enhance the quality of music-making
throughout life;
• Educate teachers who are dedicated to
nurturing lifelong involvement in musicmaking from the earliest to the most
advanced levels; and
• Develop methods and materials that
support an artistic and meaningful
learning experience for all students
regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, or
socio-economic status.
In the May/June 2012 issue:
Special Issue: Focus on the Job
Market
- Marketing your strengths as a teaching
artist
- 250 ideas to energize your career
- Challenges facing performing artists
- The state of the collegiate job market
Columns by Barbara Kreader and
Jane Magrath
Questions and Answers with
Louise Goss
Keyboard Kids’ Companion,
News, Reviews, Pupil Savers,
and more!
2
CLAVIER COMPANION
In the Departments:
Jazz & Pop: An aural journey
through Spring is Here by Tony
Caramia
Music Reading: Sight-reading for
all students
Perspectives in Pedagogy: Still
on fire, or burning out?
Home Practice: What is the
practice toolbox you use with
your students?
Technology: Your musical future:
Hints from the 2012 NAMM show
Clavier Companion (ISSN 1086-0819),
(USPS 013-579) is published bi-monthly by
the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard
Pedagogy, 90 Main Street, P.O. Box 651,
Kingston, NJ 08528. Periodicals Postage
Paid at Kingston, NJ, and at additional mailing offices. Printed in USA.
Contents © 2012 by Clavier Companion. All
rights reserved. None of the contents of this
magazine may be duplicated or reprinted
without advance written permission from
the publisher. The statements of writers and
advertisers are not necessarily those of
Clavier Companion, which reserves the right
to refuse to print any submitted advertisement.
Subscriptions and Circulation
Subscription rates are $29.95 for one year,
$55.95 for two years, $9.95 for single copies
(includes shipping and handling), $26.95 for
individuals in groups of five or more in the
US.
Canadian subscription rates are $35.95 US
funds for one year, $67.95 US funds for two
years. Foreign subscription rates are $41.95
US funds for one year, $79.95 US funds for
two years. All non-US subscriptions payable
by Visa or MasterCard only. Claims for
missing copies cannot be honored after 60
days. Please allow a minimum of four weeks
for a change of address to be processed.
Address subscription and change of address
correspondence to:
Clavier Companion, P.O. Box 90425
Long Beach, CA 90809-9863
Toll-free: 888-881-5861
[email protected]
Advertising
Address advertising correspondence to:
Clavier Companion, c/o Lauren Thompson
Telephone: 512-745-5908
[email protected]
Editorial
Address content and editorial correspondence to:
Pete Jutras
Editor-in-Chief Clavier Companion
Hugh Hodgson School of Music
The University of Georgia
250 River Road, Athens, GA 30602
[email protected]
The publisher does not assume responsibility
for return of unsolicited manuscripts, photos, or artwork. Unsolicited letters to the
editor, articles, and other editorial matter
will be edited at the discretion of the editorial staff. Clavier Companion reserves the
right not to publish any material deemed
inappropriate by the publisher.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
Clavier Companion, P.O. Box 90425,
Long Beach, CA 90809-9863
CPM 40065056
ISSN 1086-0819
Canadian Post Publications Mail Agreement #40065056
Canadian Return Address: DP Global Mail,
4960-2 Walker Road,Windsor,ON N9A 6J3
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Columns
Editor’s Page
Pete Jutras, Editor-in-Chief
Beyond the notes
must learn the notes. I have little time to practice, and a
informed choices. In our Rhythm department, the daunting
performance coming up much too quickly. I scramble in
task of transcribing Bill Evans reminds us of the imprecise
each practice session to learn more—the coda, the tricky
and vague nature of notation.
transitions, the twists and turns of the recap. I set goals on my
Even with inspiration like this, it is easy to fall back into a
calendar for learning sections of notes. The notes must get
familiar focus on the notes. (That reminds me, I really should
into my fingers and start to gain a foothold in my memory,
be practicing.) If I spend more time at the piano, I think, I
which never seems secure enough. I must learn the notes.
will play the notes better. Four hours a day isn’t cutting it, so
In my heart, however, I know that there is much more to
I should try six, eight, ten if I can. Nevermind the scores of
this performance than the notes. Of course
legendary pianists who advise students
the notes are necessary, but playing the
NOT to practice for hours on end, but
right pitches at the right times will not
instead to spend time attending concerts
even begin to communicate the true
and museums, reading history and philosIt is easier to
essence of the composer’s intentions. This
ophy, watching and learning from other
count wrong
piece is not about black and white lines
artists.2
We live in a marvelous age, an age in
and dots. It is about structure, soul, meannotes than it is
which art and ideas are instantly accessible
ing, and character. The piece has someto think
to anyone with an internet connection.
thing to say, and it is my job to convey a
critically, to
While no substitute for a live performmeaningful message. If I want to do that, I
ance, an engaging conversation, or a trip to
must go beyond the notes.
think deeply, to
an actual art museum, technology does
There is no better reminder of this point
find something
provide us with a bounty of knowledge
than this issue’s cover subject, Alfred
and inspiration unprecedented in human
Brendel. One of the greatest pianists of the
worthwhile
history. Yet despite all our connections to
last sixty years, Mr. Brendel’s work conto say.
the world around us, we often seem less
stantly challenges us to go beneath the suraware of what it all means. Maybe this is a
face. A consummate scholar, author, and
function of our society’s obsession with
poet, he has devoted his career to searching
assessment—it is easier to count wrong
for a deeper understanding of music.
notes than it is to think critically, to think deeply, to find
In his essay “ The Text and its Guardians: Notes on
something worthwhile to say.
Beethoven’s Piano Concertos,” Mr. Brendel writes that errors
I worry that this focus on the notes extends down to our
can come from those who “enthralled by the printer’s ink,
youngest students, whose beginning lessons are often focused
read music as uncritically as most people read their newspaonly on learning to read and play the marks on the grand
per: they simply believe what they see.” Other musicians “do
staff, and not on making artistic choices. Young children are
not take the trouble to ascertain that their text is correct. For
able to hear and create character and style at the keyboard,
them, life is too short for the fine print. They are happy to
often with an admirable enthusiasm and lack of inhibition,
play the large print, whatever that may be, and with no matyet we frequently set aside these matters in the early stages so
ter what distortions it has arrived on the page.”1
Mr. Brendel then proceeds in this essay (and a host of othwe can set about learning the notes.
ers) to help the reader investigate the score and its notes
I, for one, am reminded to spend more time going beyond
through a variety of lenses, all of which draw focus to the
the notes, in my own practicing and with my own students. I
composer’s true intentions and the inherent meaning of the
am reminded to value depth and savor the process of discovmusic. These lenses often involve the historical influences on
ery, the process of finding something to say. I’m very grateful
the piece and its composer, theoretical and structural relathat there are guides like Mr. Brendel to assist me in this
tionships (and clues) within the piece, and the piece’s place in
journey. p
a larger set. We are reminded that the notes do not exist in a
Brendel, A. (2001). Alfred Brendel on Music: Collected Essays. Chicago, A Capella
vacuum: they are part of a larger context.
Press, p.128.
There are three wonderful articles on Beethoven in this
For a host of comments from various pianists reminding us to not practice mechanissue, in which the esteemed authors (Seymour Bernstein,
ically, but to inform our playing through art, poetry, history, and other ideas, see the
William Kinderman, Peter Tackás, and Jerry Wong) demoninterviews in Great Pianists on Piano Playing by James Francis Cooke (1999, Dover)
and Great Contemporary Pianists Speak for Themselves by Elyse Mach (1991, Dover
strate the value of exploring the music’s true meaning, of
edition combining Volumes 1 and 2).
thinking critically about the editions we use and making
I
1
2
4
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Winds of Change
Robert Weirich
ello chatter, my old friend.” So wrote New York Times
columnist Maureen Dowd, who in calling attention to
the new silent film The Artist last December 7, 2011,
took on much more (all quoted paragraphs below come from her
column).
“The sounds of silence are a dim recollection now, like mystery,
privacy and paying attention to one thing—or one person—at a
time.”
My students will tell you that I insist they hear the silence before
playing music. That I repeat myself on this point so often suggests
they may already be immune to silence.
“As far back as half-a-century ago, the Swiss philosopher Max
Picard warned: ‘Nothing has changed the nature of man so much
as the loss of silence,’ once as natural as the sky and air.”
During a student summer in Austria, I remember visiting an
area in the Salzkammergut, far from the noise of modern life. The
inn in which our group stayed was nestled against the mountains
on an Alm, or Alpine pasture. I walked alone from the inn out
toward the horizon that promised a view of the valley below. The
farther I walked, the quieter it became. When I reached the edge, I
realized I could hear nothing but the wind. I also realized that this
was the first time in my life that I had experienced true silence. No
furnace blower, no jet overhead, no traffic noise, no voices. When
an occasional cowbell clanked in the distance, its clarity, delimited
by mountains and air and the absence of other sounds, was incredible.
“There will be fewer and fewer of what Virginia Woolf called
‘moments of being,’ intense sensations that stand apart from the
‘cotton wool of daily life.’”
In my best-of-all-possible worlds, music is a conduit to such
experiences. I speak not of the music that is the soundtrack of
modern experience (radio, TV, iPods, Muzak), but only of music
that comes from silence and returns to it. Think of the opening of
Mahler’s First Symphony: that five octave A hovering in space
played by the strings is itself an evocation of dawn’s quiet, a
primeval hush against which awakening birds announce their presence. Music that begins with a bang can be just as effective—
Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony whaps the listener upside the head
with a sforzando A major chord played by the full orchestra; the
solo oboe is left holding the tonic pitch, turning it into a motive of
four notes. Then whap—a sforzando E major chord from which a
clarinet continues the journey. The message: Listen! This is important—even if you’ve heard the piece before.
“H
6
Robert Weirich leads an extremely active career as a pianist, teacher,
author, and activist. He has performed at venues including Alice Tully
Hall, the Kennedy Center, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Tanglewood,
Ravinia, and Marlboro. He holds the Jack Strandberg Missouri
Endowed Chair in Piano at the UMKC Conservatory in Kansas City,
MO. He has been a frequent contributor to many publications, and from
1984 to 2003 he wrote the columns “The View from the Second Floor”
and “Out of the Woods” for Clavier. He is a past president of the College
Music Society, and he has twice received the Educational Press
Achievement Award for his writing.
CLAVIER COMPANION
All great music fulfills this definition. It requires silence to have
meaning. Silence, in turn, is the sonic equivalent of zero. We
understand “number” because we realize that there is also “nothing.”
The catalyst for these ramblings was, of all things, a piano concerto competition. One after another, accomplished young pianists
came onstage, sat down, and began their pieces. Keyed up to show
their stuff, their performances came not so much from silence as
from the last practice session, or from the memory of all the
recordings they had ever listened to. It was as if each concerto
already existed as an omnipresent sound-world, like traffic on the
freeway, that simply became audible when they played. And was it
ever loud!
The pieces played were the usual suspects, with a preponderance
of Russian Romantics. We’ve all heard these pieces many times
before. Students want to play them because, alas, they tend to win
the competitions, and because all the other “good” students are
playing them. They measure their value as pianists by the number
of notes required per page. One wonders if these unfortunate overused pieces can ever be heard as anything fresh, or whether their
meaning is lost in the daily din to which they contribute. Today,
the sound of your world will be honking horns, crying children,
argumentative politicians, and interminable Rachmaninoff
Seconds.
And yet, even that hackneyed piece in a great performance
emerges from silence. A quiet F minor chord in the solo piano,
mid-range, followed by a tolling low F, followed by a slightly different mid-range chord and another low F, the progression continues, harmonies changing in each bar, but the top of each chord (C)
and bottom (F) remain constant, everything growing in volume,
intensity, until the eighth bar when three notes move us to a roiling
pianistic sea of C minor and a heart-wrenching, long-lined melody
played by the violins and violas in unison. It can be extraordinarily
powerful. Or it can sound like the last hundred Rachmaninoff
Seconds.
As teachers we need to foster in our students an attitude of listening such that Maya Angelou’s words in Gather Together in My
Name would not need explanation: “Music was my refuge. I could
crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” This lovely metaphor reminds one of a Schnabel witticism: “I
don’t think I handle the notes much differently from other pianists.
But the pauses between the notes—ah, there is where the artistry
lies.” A respect—perhaps even reverence—for silence brings us,
ironically, much closer to the sound. Music is the sum total of
both.
While we’re at it, let’s de-commoditize the standard repertoire.
Poor Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff! Our focus on the
same pieces year in and year out has created a Conservatory Muzak
of Greatest Hits that makes Top Forties Radio look adventurous.
We owe these pieces an immense debt of gratitude—without them,
we wouldn’t have jobs. The least we can do is give them a break
now and then. p
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Personal Perspectives
Peter Kristian Mose
Beginnings and endings
mate him and calm him. Would I try working with him?
She asked me this with hesitation.
I said sure, I’d give weekly lessons with Don a try. And I
did, for the next teaching year, in his home. It became
some of the most rewarding teaching I have ever done.
Small surprise, it was also some of the most challenging
teaching I have ever done, and teaching for which I had
Don Brown
zero specific training. I knew nothing about memory loss,
met Don and Ruth Brown a few years ago at one of
or about dementia. I had never before had a student who
the adult education courses I was teaching through a local unidid not always know where his piano was located, and who someversity. It was a classical music listening course which I had
times had to be guided to it. I had never before had a student who
designed based on progressive principles of adult learning. Instead
sometimes did not know who I was when I arrived, yet who was
of lecturing, I thought adults might enjoy some help in unlocking
always friendly and delighted minutes later when we started in at
their own tools for appreciating serious music.
the keyboard. I had never before had a student who at the end of
They were a handsome, quiet couple in their seventies, and
many of his lessons would ask me beseechingly, “Will you come
clearly still in love with one another. Theirs was a marriage that
back again?”
had flourished over many decades: one could tell Don and Ruth
Our year of home lessons concluded when Don was moved into
were still best friends.
an assisted-living residence, and he died not long after. I was honIt was only when we had a celebratory dinner at the end of the
ored to speak at his funeral service. What follows are those spoken
course that I got a glimpse of Don’s mental decline. All he had to
remarks, which may have some resonance for all who are fortunate
do to win a CD prize was to say the name “Glenn Gould” when
enough to teach music in a one-to-one, tutorial setting. To my
prompted, in answer to a silly question. Mindless fun, and everymind, this remains a deeply personal, interactive mode of learning,
body won a CD as soon as they said the name “Glenn Gould.” But
two people together at a piano.
Don couldn’t do this, no matter how much we helped him. He was
confused and could only smile awkwardly. The brain of this career
lawyer/civil servant would not allow him to repeat the words
Reflections about Don Brown: Eulogy delivered November 11, 2010
“Glenn Gould,” though he tried. His wife was embarrassed. The
Every Thursday afternoon last year, from September through to
rest of us were embarrassed, and saddened.
this past June, Don and I pursued music together. In his home, on
After that course ended, Ruth asked me if I would consider
his piano. At right about this time.
teaching Don piano one-on-one. He had played as a boy, but now
He was returning to music lessons after a hiatus of some sixty
sixty years later he would regularly go to the piano to play a bit
years. He had not really played as an adult. And he was in a mental
again, and he expressed the desire for a teacher. Though his mind
world of his own, so it seemed we would not be able to interact
was frequently clouded by dementia, the piano seemed to both animuch.
I figured we would hit big roadblocks to learning right away. Or
that anything we did at the piano would be arrested before age fifteen, when Don had had his last keyboard lesson.
Peter Kristian Mose is an independent Toronto piano teacher who
But things didn’t work out this way. When Don’s mind failed, he
specializes in the adult learner. He is well known among colleagues due
could still play the piano. He could still learn new music at the
to his several years as an essayist for Clavier. Alongside his teaching, he
piano. He could still progress at the piano. Music somehow danced
is an active classical music journalist, having written for the Toronto
around obvious limitations, and got right through to the core of
Star, Globe and Mail, major US orchestras and concert halls, etc. His
this gentle, loving man.
favorite job was as a weekly music critic/commentator on CJRT-FM, a
He would say to me all the time, “This is great!” and he was
Toronto arts radio station.
beaming. Once with tears in his eyes, he said, “I’m having fun,
He holds degrees in music and adult education from Dartmouth
believe me!” They were tears of joy, and maybe tears of relief.
College and National-Louis University, respectively, and a diploma in
One time he said, “I’ve been waiting for a man like you for
piano pedagogy (ARCT-Gold Medal) from Canada’s Royal
years!” Actually, no, I’m embellishing that remark. Don’s exact
Conservatory of Music. In recent years he has pursued extensive studies
words to me were, “I’ve been waiting for a man like you for five
in Dalcroze Eurhythmics, notably with the late pianist/dancer Donald
years!” Why five, I don’t know, and I could not ask.
Himes.
What did we play? We developed a cycle of weekly pieces.
Photo of Peter Kristian Mose by Diana Renelli
Sitting together on the bench, we played duet versions of the “Ode
Author’s note: I have been committed to the adult learner
throughout my piano teaching career. It is an area of familiarity, even expertise. But I still confront the unfamiliar. This past
year three of my older piano students died of long-term illnesses:
a woman in her sixties and two men in their seventies. I considered each of these students a personal friend. I felt compelled
to reflect here on one of them.
I
8
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012
to Joy” of Beethoven, the “Skye Boat Song” from Scotland, the
Welsh lullaby “All Through the Night,” the famous Brahms
Lullaby. Sometimes Don’s wife Ruth would quietly slip into the
room to sit with us, and we’d play Wagner’s Bridal Chorus from
Lohengrin, better known as “Here Comes the Bride.”
Don also had his solo pieces. There was a tender ballad, there
was the hymn “Fairest Lord Jesus,” and more. And every week,
there was his signature piece, Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. He
could get through this very challenging keyboard arrangement with
great concentration, at a very. . . slow. . . speed. It was a musical
journey that might last a quarter of an hour from start to finish,
and I was privileged to share the journey.
Sometimes I would then put on my piano teacher’s hat after the
last G-major chord and ask Don if we could do it all again. (You
know, to fix a few things: piano teachers are always trying to fix
things.) Don would just smile broadly and say, “OK!” and plunge
into this wonderful music all over again.
I think this is one of the odd gifts of lost memory, of mental
decline: everything is constantly new. One lives in the present. No
regrets.
Yesterday I wrote the following words to Jennifer and to Jeff,
Don’s children: “I didn’t see your dad’s decline. Every Thursday
instead I saw a handsome, smiling man full of love, for whom
music was the means to connect. He was connecting to your mom
and me, but also to himself. Music goes deep.”
Let’s listen now to Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, that gently flowing
chorale from Bach’s Cantata #147.... p
MARCH/APRIL 2012
CLAVIER COMPANION
9
pleasure
of learning
and searching
never ends
The
An interview with Alfred Brendel
Benjamin Ealovega
by Richard Zimdars
12
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Barbara Klemm
READING AND WRITING
RZ: Could you expand your
RZ: Charles Alkan, speaking of
reading list to include a few of your
his friend Chopin, was reported to
favorites from fiction, poetry, hisAlfred Brendel’s presence on the post-World War
have said that Chopin was not a
tory of ideas, and literary and culII musical scene grew slowly but steadily. Brendel’s
reading man. You are clearly a
tural criticism—your desert island
early European concert successes led to many recordreading and writing man. Your
books or authors?
ings for Vox, most significantly the complete piano
books and articles have conAB: In my desert island library I
music of Beethoven (1958-1964). His concert career
tributed stimulating ideas and
hope to find all Shakespeare,
quickly expanded in international scope while his
observations for thirty-five years.
Cer vantes’s
Don
Quixote,
recording activity shifted to the Vanguard label and
Did certain books on music have
Lichtenberg’s Aphorisms, Stendhal’s
finally to Phillips. 1976 saw the release of his first
special value for you, especially in
The Charterhouse of Parma, Jan
book, Musical Thoughts and Afterthoughts. A
your younger years?
Potocki’s The Manuscript Found in
decade later he commenced a series of video recordAB: I am indebted to Hermann
Saragosa, Flaubert ’s Sentimental
ings. In 1996 he published his first collection of
Abert’s Musiklexikon of 1927, which
Education, Valéry ’s Cahiers, and
poems. Brendel played his last concert in Vienna’s
I studied from cover to cover at age
Musil’s The Man Without Qualities.
famed Musikverein in 2008, but he continues to
thirteen and fourteen. It has
In their essays, Isaiah Berlin and
write and lecture.
remained the basis of my knowledge
Ernst Gombrich have remained
In the Gare du Nord in the summer of 2008 the
about musical matters. (Abert ’s
friends.
alert eyes of my son Andrew spotted the June issue of
great Mozart biography is now
Le Monde de musique (a publication no longer in
available in a splendid English ediRZ: Does sound or thought
existence), featuring an interview with Brendel,
tion.) I made a special study of
dominate as you produce a poem?
written by Olivier Bellamy. Bellamy kindly gave
Liszt, reading all memoirs of his
AB: What dominates my poetry
permission to have portions of that interview
pupils, including Amy Fay’s charmis not singing but speech, not verse
reprinted in Clavier Companion. I have combined
ing Music Study in Germany, as well
but free rhythms, not only sense but
Bellamy’s questions with my own to form the folas Lina Ramann’s Lisztalso nonsense. The combination of
lowing interview.
Pädagogium. Of the more recent
both I find delicious. Editor’s Note:
Liszt biographies I enjoyed Derek
see this issue’s Poetry Corner for two of
Watson’s, a good concise introducMr. Brendel’s poems.
tion, and Ernst Burger’s beautiful
pictorial treatment [with a foreword by Alfred Brendel].
RZ: In years past, I learned much by reading the “skirmishBusoni was the other pianist-composer who particularly fases” between you and Charles Rosen on subjects such as Liszt,
cinated me. I read his writings and letters, but also Gottfried
and Beethoven’s Op. 110 in The New York Review of Books.
Galston’s diaries and Antony Beaumont’s publications. I should
However, I felt that the NYRB was not the place for
also mention, as pianist-writers, Edwin Fischer and Artur
exchanges between two important musicians to reach the
Schnabel. Deryk Cooke’s The Language of Music and Tovey’s
wide musical audience they deserved to reach. Have you had
analyses—written in such good English—provided food for
dialogues with other important musicians in German music
thought.
journals that English-reading audiences would enjoy?
MARCH/APRIL 2012
CLAVIER COMPANION
13
1203Clavier_nxtbook.qxd
2/21/12
9:31 AM
Page 14
AB: I have been proud and delighted to
publish something like ten articles in the
NYRB. It remains the outstanding intellectual publication. In German, my articles
have been printed in Die Zeit, and later in
the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
COMPOSERS
OB: Who is the composer that poses
the most difficulties for you?
AB: For an artist, to play the Mozart
sonatas, in my opinion, is and always
remains the most difficult task to accomplish.
RZ: As early as the 1880s, Hans von
Bülow advised musicians to improve their
performance of Mozart’s instrumental
works by examining the dramatic traits in
Mozart’s operas. So have you. For many,
Fidelio holds the noblest, most humane
utterances of Beethoven. Was Fidelio in
any way a source of inspiration or refer-
ence point for you as you pondered and
performed Beethoven’s solo piano works?
AB: Mozart was, like Schubert, predominantly vocal. A combination of singing
and speaking should inform any pianist,
even without words. I confess that, much
as I love Fidelio, it was never relevant in my
dealings with Beethoven’s piano works.
There already, as in his Cello Sonatas and
String Quartets, I found the whole range
of his music, including his ardent warmth
and that emotional territory that is encapsulated in the word dolce.
OB: Xenakis wrote: “Light is essential
in music.” Do you agree?
AB: In music, one has light, obscurity,
and all of the nuances between the two. In
the Adagio of Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 111
there is a variation in which shadow
unceasingly alternates with light. With
regard to piano sound, I generally prefer a
bright sound that is not obscured by a too
heavy left hand.
OB: What is the exact nature of your
relation with Frédéric Chopin?
AB: I admire Chopin and consider him
one of the great composers for the piano,
principally in the preludes and etudes, less
so in the sonatas. Given that he almost
solely concentrated on the piano and that
contrary to the majority of his great colleagues he produced practically no orchestral, vocal, or chamber music, he requires a
different pianistic approach.
Formerly, Chopin interpreters became
specialists; deservedly so, since their style
did not suit other music. When I was
young, two breeds of great pianists existed:
those who played a large central European
repertoire on the one hand, and the
Chopin interpreters on the other. I made
the decision to go where my talent pushed
me. Today, young interpreters do not need
to make this choice. The Chopin specialist
has disappeared and the music of Chopin
is a part of the “everyday” repertoire.
The Poetry of Alfred Brendel
rendel’s collected poems are published in a bilingual edition under
the title Playing the Human Game (Phaidon, 2010). The poems are
grouped under tantalizing titles such as “Angels and Devils,” “Gods and
Monsters,” “Buddhas and Santas,” “Spectres and Apparitions,” “Humans
and Phantoms,” “Masks and Music,” and “Sense and Nonsense.”
Personages appearing in the poems include Mozart, Salieri, Beethoven,
Brahms, Mahler, Einstein, Godot, the Three Tenors, a pianist with eleven
fingers, and, indirectly, Woody Allen. Murder, cannibals, beards, noses,
canned laughter, and the Big Bang are addressed poetically.
In his youth, poet W.S. Merwin was advised by Ezra Pound to learn a
foreign language and translate, in order for Merwin to practice and find
out what he could do with his own language. This statement is found on
the title page of Brendel’s poems: “English versions of the poems by the
author with Richard Stokes.” The implication is that the English renderings at times extend beyond translations and present altered or new
content. An obvious example of this is found in the poem “Otello.” The
German original mentions the actress Jutta Lampe and the actors Bruno
Ganz and Klaus Maria Brandauer. The English version changes them to
Helena Bonham-Carter, Anthony Hopkins, and Kenneth Branagh.
For those who read German, some alterations in the English versions
may seem too much of a stretch or even unreasonable. I think it prudent
to keep in mind that Brendel lived half of his life in Austria and half in
London, allowing him to tap into the culture and language, not to mention wit, of both environments.
As I read it, an editorial oversight on p. 509 omitted the last line of
the English translation of the poem “Brahms IV.” I shall take a stab at
finishing the translation as follows: “...into his beard which slowly turned
red.”
B
14
CLAVIER COMPANION
But this is no cause for Phaidon to blush. They are to be glowingly
thanked for sharing the poetry of Alfred Brendel in two languages. A
dose of Brendelian wit and wisdom is good for all of us!
—Richard Zimdars
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Isolde Ohlbaum
Alfred Brendel responds to the Proust Questionnaire
The Proust Questionnaire, designed to explore one’s inner personality, owes its name and popularity to the French writer Marcel Proust. As a
teenager, Proust answered a questionnaire in an English-language confession album belonging to his friend Antoinette Fauré. Alfred Brendel
answered the Proust Questionnaire for the June 2008 Le Monde de
musique, portions of which follow.
The principal traits of my character: Good sense and nonsense.
Skepticism. Good appetite.
Favorite qualities in a man: Humor; that he is worthy of confidence;
that he has a vision.
Favorite qualities in a woman: Humor; that she is worthy of confidence; that she possesses the feminine spark.
Favorite virtue: Decency.
What I appreciate the most in my friends: Their lasting affection;
their discretion.
My principal fault: Certain people would say, being the opposite of
Glenn Gould.
My favorite occupation: Viewing the films of Buñuel; being in love;
reading aphorisms.
My dream of happiness: A public that does not cough.
What would be my greatest misery? Listening to Puccini, Delius, or
Lehar.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Who would you like to be? Not Liszt or Busoni; they smoked cigars.
Where would you love to live? Not far from a good library, a little café,
a good restaurant, and a small but beautiful Romanesque church.
My favorite painters and composers: Neither Raphael, Rubens, nor
Renoir. Neither Rachmaninoff, Reger, nor Respighi.
My heroes in real life: My piano technicians.
My heroines in real life: I would be discrete on that point.
Historical personages for whom you have the most contempt: All
fanatics, be they political or religious.
My historical heroines: They are so numerous. Those widowed by war,
sexual slaves, suffragettes, abandoned mothers.
My favorite names: Charisma von Ausgespielt (S. J. Perlman); Ubu;
Vladimir; Estragon.
The military feat that I admire the most: The battle of Don Quixote
against the windmills.
The reform that I admire the most: The separation of church and
state.
The gift of nature that I would love to have: To sing simultaneously
like Callas, Domingo, and Fischer-Dieskau.
The present state of your spirit: Dada.
My motto: To be as simple as possible, but not too much so (Einstein).
CLAVIER COMPANION
15
Alfred Brendel in print and on DVD
The combination of Brendel’s performing, recording, and written contributions is
rare. (Only the work of Charles Rosen comes to mind as having similar breadth.) Alfred
Brendel on Music: Collected Essays (A Cappella Books, 2001) contains everything
published in Brendel’s first two books plus a few newer essays. Many older essays are
altered and expanded, making this collection the one to own.
Related to his writing is a new 2-DVD set titled Alfred Brendel on Music: Three
Lectures (Unitel Classica, 2010). The material in Brendel’s first two lectures, “Does
Classical Music have to be Entirely Serious?” and “Musical Character(s) as Exemplified
in Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas,” is taken predominantly from his published essays, with
the added bonus of Brendel performing the musical examples. The third lecture, “Light
and Shade of Interpretation,” is not based on previously published material. It offers
seventy-eight minutes of Brendel’s comments on topics including articulation, accentuation, phrasing, trills, ornaments, tempo, fermatas, and piano sound and balance.
Me of All People: Alfred Brendel in Conversation with Martin Mayer (Cornell, 2002)
contains a series of interviews about Brendel’s life and his thoughts on music, performance, and writing. Fascinating and learned, this book’s 320 pages offer an indispensable commentary on the post-World-War-II musical scene, placing it on the
superlative level of Sviatoslav Richter’s diaries and Joseph Horowitz’s Conversations
with Arrau. Here are brief comments from it on two topics:
New music: “When I say new music, I mean it—something that has not been
done before...I leave it to others who have talents I don’t possess which make it
easy for them to absorb this music better and faster than I could. I revere these
artists as heroes and heroines of the musical scene, artists who are rarely appreciated by a large public, or even noticed by name.” (p. 173)
Individuality: “However much I have remained an individualist, I very much
bewail the increasing obsession with self-fulfillment, which means that there is
hardly any more consideration for other people.” (p. 67)
—Richard Zimdars
RZ: In Me of All People you relate that you
accompanied Hermann Prey in Brahms’s song cycle
Die Schöne Magelone “through clenched teeth.”
Could you elaborate on this? Do any of the solo
piano works of Brahms provoke similar tension,
unconnected to their technical demands, in your
jaw?
Let me just say that I am better attuned to the
Lieder of Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann than
to those of Brahms or Wolf. Clenching the left joint
in my jaw has been a long-standing habit.
RZ: You’ve written with admiration about
Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Irmgard Seefried, Sena
Jurinac, Hilde Güden, and Christa Ludwig, the
great members of the Mozart ensemble at the
Vienna State Opera in the 1950s, to which I would
add Lisa della Casa. These ladies also sang in
Richard Strauss’ operas. Della Casa and Dietrich
Fisher-Dieskau formed an unforgettable pair in
Strauss’s Arabella. Were you drawn to the opera
house to hear them in Der Rosenkavalier? If not,
why not?
AB: Lisa della Casa certainly looked beautiful, but,
as a Mozart singer, never attracted me as much as the
others. I listened to many performances of
Rosenkavalier conducted by Clemens Krauss, Karl
Böhm, Carlos Kleiber, Karajan, Kempe, etc., but lost
interest in this work in my later years. Arabella has
never been one of my favourites. The works by
Richard Strauss I still admire are Salome and Elektra,
and his concluding ones; Metamorphosen, and Four
Last Songs, of which my preferred performances are
Schwarzkopf-Ackermann and Jurinac-Fritz Busch.
OB: Who is your favorite French composer?
AB: Hard to say. I adore Bizet’s Carmen. I also
adore Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit and L’Enfant et les
sortileges.
OB: Is there pornography in music?
AB: I suppose. (The Turangalila Symphony of
Messiaen?)
OB: Do you believe in the symbolism of tonalities?
AB: No.
16
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012
OB: What musical work would you have liked to have had
dedicated to you?
AB: “Zehn Märsche, um den Sieg zu verfehlen” (Ten marches in
order to miss victory). [From Mauricio Kagel’s radio play The
Tribune (1977), for political orator and loudspeaker, with march
music. The marches contain clumsy, asymmetrical rhythms, perhaps making them anti-march marches. An alternative translation
of the title that communicates this irony might be “Ten Marches to
Undermine Victory”.]
PERFORMERS
OB: You are in a taxi with Alfred Cortot. What transpires?
AB: That depends on if we speak of music or politics.
OB: You meet Wilhelm Kempff on a train between Munich
and Salzburg. About what do you speak?
AB: I ask him why he has not recorded Liszt’s Sonata in B
Minor or Variations on Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen.
OB: If Furtwängler returned to conduct for you on your birthday, what concerto would you choose?
AB: No concerto, but a program that contained Schubert’s
“Unfinished Symphony” and the “Great” Symphony in C Major.
RZ: Recently I saw a promotional brochure for an instrumentalist who is now attracted to conducting. His goal was “to reconstruct the inimitable characteristic of the unique performances
of Wilhelm Furtwängler, Willem Mengelberg, Otto Klemperer,
Bruno Walter, and Hans Knappertsbusch.” Could you please
comment on such a pursuit?
AB: I hope he is a comedian. If not, I would recommend some
psychiatric treatment.
PIANO
OB: How many pianos do you have?
AB: I have a Steinway B for personal practice, two Steinway
concert grands that I use in English halls, and a Bösendorfer from
the 1950s to remind me of my Viennese period.
OB: Do they have specific identities?
AB: They are voiced with care, hammer by hammer, including
the una corda pedal. None of them are machines that roar. They
have a good dynamic range without sounding strident. No register
must be too bright or unjustifiably dull.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Poetry Corner
Richard Zimdars, Editor
Who
like me
has found out
that noise improves the quality of life
will hardly fail to acknowledge their gratitude
to the Society for the Advancement of Clamour
Visits to construction sites, rolling mills and
Formula One races
as of course to the Niagara Falls
are bound to bring relief
to all those who suffer from silence
Pneumatic drills and chainsaws
can
for a small deposit
be hired
while recently
a number of obsolete howitzers
have become available
At a modest extra charge
Air Force planes
skimming the ground
will fly over the remotest valleys
In the Institute’s Marriage Council Bureau
men and women
leap at each other screaming
Rock musicians
at the nearby cemetery
are busy waking the dead
an enterprise from which
considering the overpopulation of the planet
we’d sooner distance ourselves
—Alfred Brendel
From Playing the Human Game: Collected Poems of Alfred
Brendel (Phaidon Press, $39.95), courtesy of Phaidon Press.
CLAVIER COMPANION
17
Poetry Corner
Richard Zimdars, Editor
The Coughers of Cologne
have joined forces with the Cologne
Clappers
and established the Cough and Clap
Society
a non-profit-making organization
whose aim it is
to guarantee each concert-goer’s right
to cough and applaud
Attempts by unfeeling artists or
impresarios
to question such privileges
have led to a Coughers and Clappers
initiative
Members are required to applaud
immediately after sublime codas
and cough distinctly
during expressive silences
Distinct coughing is of paramount
importance
to stifle or muffle it
forbidden on pain of expulsion
Coughers of outstanding tenacity
are awarded the Coughing Rhinemaiden
a handsome if slightly baroque appendage
to be worn dangling from the neck
The C & C’s recent merger
with the New York Sneezers
and the London Whistlers
raises high hopes
for Cologne’s musical future
—Alfred Brendel
From Playing the Human Game: Collected Poems of Alfred
Brendel (Phaidon Press, $39.95), courtesy of Phaidon Press.
To view a video clip of Mr. Brendel discussing his poetry
and the above poem, please visit our digital edition at
www.claviercompanion.com.
OB: Liszt compared his piano to a thoroughbred. And you?
AB: One finds good and bad horses. I also am acquainted with
those that are splendid. I try to avoid the bad ones, because the saying
that there are no bad pianos, only bad pianists, is a flagrant idiocy.
OB: Is it the piano that sings, or the pianist?
Certain pianos lend themselves better and more generously than
others to cantabile. But it is the pianist who makes the piano sing,
and it is not only a question of tone production or the pedals. It is a
total attitude of mind that includes declamation.
RZ: Andor Foldes stated that Wilhelm Backhaus, age 64 at the
time, told a journalist that he was busy adapting his technique to
the requirements of his age. In Me of All People you wrote about a
period of time in your early 60s during which you had pain in
your left hand, aggravated by an especially grueling tour of
Japan. You also mentioned a “famous sports doctor in Munich”
who eventually brought you relief. Could you describe the nature
of your injury and your successful therapy?
AB: I suffered from what is popularly called a tennis elbow, a
condition that is often caused by wear-and tear in the neck. After
pausing for a few months, it seems to have been Dr. MüllerWohlfart who got me out of it. Subsequently, I adjusted my repertory, shelving a few particularly athletic works like the Brahms
Concertos, the Liszt Sonata, and the Wanderer-Fantasy.
Fortunately, the piano literature is very big, and I enjoyed the
remaining years no less than the ones before.
MANAGEMENT
RZ: About 30 years ago in Kansas City I heard you play a
Haydn/Bartok recital that included Bartok’s Four Dirges and
Suite Op. 14. You closed with Haydn’s Sonata in C Minor, taking
all repeats and leaving the impression of having delivered a monumental work. The modest-sized hall held many unsold seats
that night. I’d hazard a guess that this program was not an agent’s
dream. Were there times that you and your management, or your
recording companies, disagreed about repertoire choices?
AB: One of the great advantages of my association with Philips
was that I was able to record only what I wanted to record. In the
recitals of my later decades I played the programs of my choice no
matter whether this meant a meager audience in Kansas City.
There are agents and record companies who do not treat their
artists like slaves—but maybe I am speaking about the past.
TAKING YOURSELF SERIOUSLY
RZ: You’ve written that you attempt not to take yourself too
seriously. Yet when I think of musicians I take seriously, you rise
to the top because you have taken your art so seriously with consistently wonderful results. Obviously, your work emanates from
yourself. Can you comment on what some readers might see as
an inconsistency between the serious, highly professional attitude you exhibit in your work and your statements about not taking yourself too seriously?
Believe it or not, there is quite a difference between the author
and his (or her) products, the artist and his art, the person and his
creations. Self-importance and a lack of self-irony fortunately are
not among the prerogatives of aesthetic or philosophic eminence. p
Olivier Bellamy is a journalist and classical music radio show host
working in France. Bellamy has written documentaries for television,
including one about opera soprano Renata Scotto and another about
jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater. His biography of Martha Argerich
appeared in 2010 and has been translated into German and Spanish,
but is not yet available in English.
Richard Zimdars is Despy Karlas Professor of Piano in the Hugh
Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia. Zimdars’ translations titled The Piano Master Classes of Franz Liszt and The
Piano Master Classes of Hans von Bülow are published by Indiana
University Press. His discography includes solo and chamber works by
Ives, Copland, Cowell, Rudhyar, and Harris. Albany Records recently
released his latest album with solo works of Persichetti, Druckman, and
Richter.
All photos courtesy of Colbert Artists Management and Ingpen & Williams Limited.
18
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012
MARCH/APRIL 2012
CLAVIER COMPANION
19
Clavier Companion Crossword
by Myles Mellor
Basically Beethoven
Across
1. Possible cause of B.’s death, based on
recent research
5. ____duke Trio, Op. 97
9. Czerny’s title for the B. Trio, Op. 70,
No. 1
14. Early church pulpit or rostrum
15. Formal party
16. “The Raggedy Man” poet
17. Require
18. Small sewing bag
19. Wrath
20. Candidate for 37A, perhaps
23. Luggage tags
24. Biblical animal
25. They can be found in this magazine
26. Banned pesticide
27. Syncopated pieces
29. West of Hollywood
32. New Zealander
35. Influence
36. This instrument plays B.’s only sonata
not for piano or strings
37. Still-mysterious dedicatee of a very
famous B. letter
40. Profound
41. Rest follower?
42. Notions
43. Place for B. to rest, at times?
44. Peter the Great, e.g.
45. “___ magic!”
46. That is to say
47. Outback runner
48. Halloween decoration
51. Groundbreaking B. Symphony and the
man who was removed from the title
page
57. Blood line
58. Official Pakistan language
59. Score unit for B.?
60. Position
61. Judge
62. Idiot, in London
63. Edison contemporary
64. Green areas
65. Move slowly
Down
1. Island west of Maui
2. Edit
3. Assists, as with a crime
4. Extinct bird
20
CLAVIER COMPANION
Solution on page 60
5. Elder discriminator
6. Evaluates
7. Popular sandwich choice
8. Testing of this from B. led to conclusion
in 1A
9. Best pianos for playing B.?
10. Suggests
11. 2001 Cliburn co-winner Kern
12. Perceived
13. Beginner
21. Rock bottom
22. Keen-eyed bird
26. Fall
27. T-square, for example
28. Goya’s “The Duchess of ____”
29. Impress
30. Geometric figure
31. Stopping points
32. Language for playing B. electronically?
33. Words to accompany IV-I
34. Sign
35. Legal prefix
36. Bricklayers’ equipment
38. Ornamental cup
39. Brightened, in a way
44. Harvest fly
45. Mosque priests (Var.)
46. Crucial
47. Concluded
48. Ivy university
49. Where B. lived upstairs, in a popular
kids’ film
50. Choppers, so to speak
51. It may be due
52. Habit
53. They lack refinement
54. Flower parts
55. Creme-filled cookie
56. Opposed
MARCH/APRIL 2012
A Place in the Sun:
Recent Editions of
Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas
by William Kinderman
22
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012
he central position of Beethoven’s piano sonatas
Further, Cooper’s edition is not so thorough as it appears.
in our musical life remains secure, to judge from
Although he often refers to Beethoven’s sketches and gives
the flood of new editions of these pieces to
detailed information about compositional genesis, he ignores
emerge in recent years. Students and teachers of
for example recent scholarship showing that Beethoven’s inithese indispensable works are confronted by
tial sketches for the E-Major Sonata, Op. 109, date from
choices, but there are no easy solutions, as the following com1819, and that the first sketches for the following A-flat
parison shows. For the purposes of this review I have comMajor Sonata, Op. 110, stem from 1820. Thanks to the interpared four recent editions:
net, and the excellent Digital Archives of the Beethoven-Haus
• The Alfred Masterwork Edition, edited by Stewart Gordon
at Bonn, any curious musician can test this part of Cooper’s
• The Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music version,
commentary at a moment’s notice. At the bottom of the third
edited by Barry Cooper
page of the “Wittgenstein” Sketchbook from 1819 held at the
• The Schirmer release of Beethoven’s sonatas including
Beethoven-Haus (preceding early sketches for the “Diabelli”
accompanying CDs, edited and recorded by Robert Taub
Variations on the next page), one finds Beethoven’s prototype
• The ongoing new Henle publications of the sonatas, editfor the lyrical theme of the finale of Op. 109, here labeled
ed by Norbert Gertsch and Murray Perahia
“Thema” and written in A major rather than E major. Excerpt
How valuable and authoritative are these editions? All of
1a provides my transcription of this sketch, and Excerpt 1b
them make claims to authority or novelty in different ways.
shows the final version of the theme.
They offer introductory commentary,
including selected and welcome illustraExcerpt 1a: Sketch for a “Thema,” Wittgenstein Sketchbook, p. 3, staves 13-14
tions drawn from Beethoven’s original
manuscripts. Closer inspection, however,
reveals some telling differences in
approach.
One obvious difference lies in the sheer
number of sonatas. The London edition
edited by Cooper trumpets “The 35 Piano
Sonatas” as title of the three volumes; at
the same time, he repeatedly stresses in his
introduction the importance of being true
Excerpt 1b: Sonata in E Major, Op. 109, III, mm. 1-8
to the composer’s intentions. Yet
Beethoven was sometimes quite particular
about which works were granted opus
numbers, and some of his impressive piano
works—such as the “Righini” Variations,
the C-Minor Variations, and the Andante
favori—were not given opus numbers
when published. Would Beethoven then
have wanted an edition to place his three
childhood sonatas—which were published
for him when he was twelve years old—together on the same
Resources such as the Digital Archives in Bonn deserve to
level with the thirty-two numbered mature masterpieces from
be more widely known, since it is now no longer necessary to
the Vienna period? It is entirely fitting to include these
have access to a good research library in order to gain ready
“Electoral” Sonatas from 1783 in a comprehensive edition, but
access to many primary sources for Beethoven’s piano music.
questionable to emphasize “35 Sonatas” as a selling point.
For example, one notable recent publication of the BeethovenMore irritating is the printing of the editor’s name at the head
Haus focuses on the composer’s largest single contribution to
of every single sonata, as if in an effort to claim possession or
the piano literature, the “Diabelli” Variations, Op. 120; the
seek merit through association, with the name “Beethoven”
recent acquisition of the autograph score of this work was
systematically juxtaposed with “Barry Cooper.”
enabled by a major fundraising drive supported by many dis-
T
MARCH/APRIL 2012
CLAVIER COMPANION
23
tinguished musicians. This handsome twovolume publication from 2010 provides a
color facsimile of the autograph score,
along with a reproduction of the first edition and extensive commentaries. The
Digital Archives at Bonn also provide
access to the fascinating sketchbooks in
which Beethoven worked on the Op. 120
Variations alongside other projects such as
the Missa solemnis and the Ninth
Symphony. Similar resources exist for some
of the piano sonatas, offering access to
Beethoven’s original handwritten notation
in his scores as well as to sketchbooks in
which he composed those pieces alongside
works in other genres. With this enhanced
access to sources, we are less dependent on
the judgment of any particular editor.
What kind of accompanying commentary is most useful in an edition of the
sonatas? Should it best be confined to
information directly bearing on execution,
such as phrasing and articulation, or should
it also provide information related to musical character, meaning, and context? Taub’s
commentary is mainly confined to the first
category; Cooper’s remarks often also
24
CLAVIER COMPANION
address the second. Especially fascinating
and relevant for the performer are the parallels between Beethoven’s two great middle-period sonatas—in C major, Op. 53,
and in F minor, Op. 57—and his contemporaneous labors on his opera Fidelio, a
work that shares the tonal symbolism of
these sonatas. Cooper’s comments in
regard to Op. 57, the “Appassionata,” that
“Beethoven, having sketched the dungeon
scene, decided that an instrumental exploration of some of its features would make
an excellent starting point for a sonata,”
raise an intriguing point that demands
more explanation.
If Florestan’s “God!—what darkness
here!” might serve as commentary on the
conclusion of the “Appassionata” Sonata,
the choral text “Hail to the day! Hail to the
hour!” at the end of Fidelio might also be
the motto for the jubilant coda of the
“Waldstein” Sonata. A pianist’s engagement with these works is enhanced by an
awareness of the opera, whose polarity of
tragic reality and redeeming deliverance is
felt in the sonatas, not least in the direct
connection of the contrasting middle
movements to the finales. An interpretative challenge facing the performer of these
works is how to convey the point of psychological transition to these final movements. In the Introduzione of the “Waldstein,” the long ascending progression
reaches high G, which then becomes the
peak of the finale’s main theme. Similarly,
at the end of the Andante con moto in the
“Appassionata,” an arpeggiated pianissimo
chord supplies as its highest tone the Dflat that would have belonged to the closing tonic chord, were it not subverted here
by the harmonic substitution of the rolled
diminished-seventh chord below it that
launches the transition into the tragic
sphere of F minor. Such a hybrid chord
requires delicate voicing, and the special
character of this particular sonority and of
the entire transition, which reaches the
beginning of the finale at the low F twenty-one measures later, can only be fully
grasped in the context of the work as a
whole.
Cooper’s musical judgments about individual sonatas are sometimes questionable.
In writing about the second movement of
Op. 110, the scherzo-like Allegro molto,
he rejects the connection to two Austrian
folk songs, finding that the “Munter”
(“lively”) designation of the first tune, with
its text “Our cat has had kittens,” does not
suit the “serious key of F minor” in the
sonata. Despite the presence of a minor
key, the humorous, burlesque character of
this music has been recognized and conveyed by leading pianists including, among
others, Alfred Brendel and András Schiff,
and in no way do the sources contradict
the impression that Beethoven here has
absorbed elements drawn from the pair of
folk songs into the music, thus lending a
quality of rustic humor to this Allegro
molto. Indeed, a further allusion to the second folksong in the double-diminution
passage of the second fugue in the sonata’s
finale makes clear its role as a source of raw
but vital energy that helps enable the affirmative conclusion following the second
“Arioso dolente” (“lamenting song”).
A nagging problem confronting all editors of Beethoven’s sonatas is the issue of
detached articulation. In the original
sources, Beethoven often employs vertical
strokes as well as dots to designate shorter
notes, and on occasion he insisted that
strokes and dots should be differentiated.
Yet editors of the sonatas have generally
avoided addressing this matter and have
usually rendered all detached notes uniformly as either dots or strokes. It is a positive sign that, of the four editions under
consideration, only Stewart Gordon succumbs to that older tradition; the other
editors make an attempt to differentiate
these important signs. Nevertheless, not
one of the editions in question rises to the
challenge of conveying a transition between
dots and strokes, as a series of somewhat
longer but detached notes grows into a texture of more pointed, heavier articulations.
A clear example where such a transition
has been specified by Beethoven in his
autograph score occurs in the opening variation movement of the Sonata in A-flat
Major, Op. 26, in bars 77-81 at the outset
of Variation II. As this variation unfolds
and gains momentum and intensity, with
wider intervals appearing in octaves in the
bass, Beethoven’s dots gradually evolve into
strokes, as makes perfect musical sense in
this context. Beethoven’s autograph score
for this sonata has long been available in
facsimile, having been published in 1894.
Nevertheless, the task of conveying such
evolving nuances in articulation in an edition of Op. 26 remains to be met. One
hopes that a future editor will rise to the
challenge!
The divergences of these editions are
well illustrated by the much-disputed passage just before the recapitulation of the
great “Hammerklavier” Sonata, Op. 106:
Beethoven probably intended A-naturals
there but neglected to include the needed
MARCH/APRIL 2012
natural signs. Stewart Gordon includes
natural signs in parentheses in the musical
text and remarks in a footnote that “those
who support playing A-sharps claim that
the originality of the progression is in
keeping with the composer’s daring.”
Cooper, more decisively, finds that “there
are no grounds for playing an A# except a
misguided devotion to Beethoven’s carelessness.” Taub, on the other hand, supports A# and plays the sharp in his accompanying performance on CD. His tempo
for this movement is faster than that usually taken, and Beethoven’s metronome
marking indeed indicates a very swift
tempo. However, this performance does
not rank with the best recordings of Op.
106. Its glassy brilliance does not make up
for a lack of nuance in character, voicing,
and dynamics. Gordon rightly comments
that the metronome indication is “much
too fast for comfort and clarity.”
The new Henle editions edited by
Gertsch and Perahia have been appearing
successively as issues of single sonatas or in
pairs, a format reminiscent of the way the
sonatas originally appeared in Beethoven’s
MARCH/APRIL 2012
lifetime. Whereas the first and early editions of Beethoven’s sonatas usually printed
the pieces in oblong format, these Henle
publications are in the familiar upright format, with more music in each page. The
edition of Op. 14 prints the two sonatas
together, as was done in the original edition of these works issued in 1799. The
editorial comments offered by Gertsch and
Perahia are concise and to the point, and
include in this instance information drawn
from Beethoven’s own arrangement of Op.
14, No. 1, as a string quartet. Especially
welcome are some of Perahia’s sensitive
observations about aspects of Beethoven’s
creative process, such as his remarks on
sketches for the first sonata in E major,
sources that point to subtle but readily
audible relationships among the three
movements. A nice enhancement to the
Henle edition of the “Tempest” Sonata in
D Minor, Op. 31, No. 2, is the inclusion of
a facsimile and transcription of Beethoven’s
draft of the beginning of this work in the
Kessler Sketchbook, accompanied by comments by Perahia. These Henle editions of
single sonatas or work-pairs lend them-
selves well to concentrated study, and will
prove practical to pianists when they
devote themselves to practicing a single
work. While keeping a comprehensive edition still within reach, the pianist can then
focus attention effectively on an individual
opus.
These new Henle editions inevitably
invite comparison with their predecessors
in the series as edited by B.A. Wallner,
those familiar blue urtext volumes already
in the possession of many pianists. The
comparison is revealing. Despite the diligence of Gertsch and Perahia, some details
in the Wallner edition are superior. For
instance, in the E-Major Sonata, Op. 14,
No. 1, second movement, there is a crescendo marking that every pianist has cause to
ponder. In the measure before the
Maggiore middle section, Beethoven designates a crescendo, although the bar in question contains only two notes: a high E following the pianissimo tonic chord in the
preceding measure, and another E two
octaves lower that acts as upbeat to the
beginning of the Maggiore. Part of the
expressive meaning of this crescendo sign
CLAVIER COMPANION
25
must be gestural and not literal, but the
placement of the symbol is crucial: does it
refer to the high E or not? In Wallner’s
edition, the cresc. is printed at the beginning of the bar and refers to the high note;
in the new Henle edition, the cresc. appears
later, and can refer only to the held but
decaying residue of sonority and to the following upbeat. In his edition, Cooper also
places the crescendo to the right, and he
comments that “some editors have moved
it [the crescendo sign] to the beginning of
the bar.” This is incorrect: the positioning
of the crescendo sign in the original print by
Mollo from 1799 is not on the far right,
but is left of center, and must be understood to refer to the high E. Only this
placement makes musical sense: with the
three quiet tonic chords closing the
Allegretto, the music has come to rest, and
a dynamic impulse then emerges with the
high E, marking an intensification.
In another important respect, the older
Wallner Henle edition is superior to the
new Henle editions and to all other editions under discussion here: the visual
appearance of the music itself, the
Notenbild. In their layout, the new Henle
prints are based directly on the older edition. If one contemplates the second
movement of the E-Major Sonata, Op.
14, No. 1, striking similarities of the two
editions are apparent. The measures are
distributed on the pages in the same way.
What is inferior in the newer edition,
however, is the quality of the printing
itself. The note heads are noticeably smaller and less distinct, as are the dynamic
indications and other signs. The headings
“Allegretto” and “Maggiore” are also more
lightly printed. The subtle touch in the
older edition of placing the editorial measure numbers inside circles has also disappeared. Placed on the music stand in front
of the player, the newer edition is noticeably harder to read, and hence inferior to
the earlier edition.
Yet the quality of music printing in the
new Henle edition remains on a higher
level than in the three comprehensive editions under consideration. In Cooper’s edition of the coda of the Largo e mesto in
Op. 10, No. 3, the measures with rapid figuration are spread widely across entire systems, with as many as seven bars crowded
into single systems nearby; this disrupts
the relationship between the musical symbols and their temporal meaning. Taub’s
26
CLAVIER COMPANION
Schirmer edition is particularly bad in this
regard. A mechanistic element has infiltrated Beethoven’s music here; the machine
world has conquered the artistic one, at
least as far as the layout and printing are
concerned. Whole notes occupying entire
bars are crowded together (as in Op. 31,
No. 2, first movement), destroying the
relation between the musical signs and the
time which they represent; upbeats are
crowded too close to the following bar
lines. Does this music not merit quality
typesetting? May pianists rise up against
this assault on their eyes and their sensibility! The cluttered appearance of many
pages is made worse by another tendency:
overfingering, an overabundance of repetitive and sometimes questionable numbers
spread mercilessly over the notes.
The basic problem with the layout is
simple: computer music programs are often
a poor substitute for traditional music
engraving, and publishers are too stingy
and editors too undiscriminating or hasty
(or perhaps sometimes powerless) to
improve matters. The same kind of technological advances that help give us valuable new access to Beethoven’s original
sources also tend to mangle the way his
notes are presented on the page.
In conclusion, pianists should keep space
for older editions beside the new ones, use
their access to resources like the
Beethoven-Haus Digital Archives to help
clarify questions about the musical text,
and beware of investing blind faith in any
one available edition of Beethoven’s
sonatas. p
The Beethoven Digital Archives in
Bonn are accessible to the general public.
To learn more, visit http://www.beethovenhaus-bonn.de.
Editions Discussed
Beethoven Klaviersonaten, ed. B.A.
Wallner. 2 vols. Munich: Henle, 1952,
1980.
Beethoven Klaviersonaten, ed. Norbert
Gertsch and Murray Perahia. Volumes
containing Op. 14 (2006), Op. 31 No. 1
(2004), Op. 31 No. 2 (2003), Op. 31 No. 3
(2004), Op. 101 (2007).
Beethoven Piano Sonatas, ed. Robert
Taub. 2 vols. New York: G. Schirmer, 2010
(includes CD recordings of all the sonatas
by Robert Taub).
Beethoven Piano Sonatas, ed. Stewart
Gordon, vol. 4 (Op. 79 to Op. 111). Los
Angeles: Alfred Publishing.
Beethoven: The 35 Piano Sonatas, ed.
Barr y Cooper. 3 vols. London: The
Associated Board of the Royal Schools of
Music, 2007.
References
Ludwig van Beethoven. The 32 Piano
Sonatas in reprints of the first and early editions, principally from the Anthony van
Hoboken Collection of the Austrian National
Library, with prefaces by Brian Jeffery.
London: Tecla, 1989.
Ludwig van Beethoven. 33 Variations in C
major on a waltz by Anton Diabelli for piano
Op. 120. Part 1: Autograph; Part 2: Facsimile
of the Original Edition (Dedication Copy)
and Commentaries. Bonn: Verlag Beethoven-Haus, 2010.
Beethoven’s Sketchbook for the Missa
solemnis and the Piano Sonata in E Major,
Opus 109, ed. William Kinderman. 3 vols.
Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois
Press, 2003.
Digital Beethoven-Haus Bonn (www.beethoven-haus.bonn.de); see Digital Archives:
Works by Ludwig van Beethoven and
Sketches by Beethoven with commentary
in English and German.
Kinderman, William, Beethoven. 2nd
expanded edition. New York: O xford
University Press, 2009.
Newman, William, Beethoven on
Beethoven: Playing His Piano Music His
Way. New York: Norton, 1988.
William Kinderman is Professor of Music
at the University of Illinois and recently
taught as DAAD Guest Professor at the
University of Munich. His books include
Mozart ’s Piano Music, Beethoven’s
Diabelli Variations, and Beethoven (all
with Oxford University Press), along with
many other studies. As a pianist, he has
recorded Beethoven’s last sonatas and
“Diabelli” Variations, which are available
through Arietta Records. Alfred Brendel has
described Kinderman as “a very rare bird” on
account of his ability to combine scholarship
and performance. Kinderman often gives lecture-recitals and has served in the juries of
international piano competitions. In 2010 he
was awarded a Research Prize for lifetime
achievement from the Alexander von
Humboldt Foundation.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
MARCH/APRIL 2012
CLAVIER COMPANION
27
Programs for students 2012
Multiple locations
The Alan Fraser Summer Piano Institute. Northampton, MA;
Ogden, UT; and Salt Lake City, UT. Pianist and pedagogue Alan
Fraser, author of The Craft of Piano Playing: A New Approach to Piano
Technique, leads a six-day intensive workshop offering daily full-length
lessons to every participant plus a daily group Feldenkrais lesson and
seminar-lecture. The course is oriented towards professional pianists,
teachers, and high school and university students, in the intermediate
to advanced range. Adult amateurs and auditors are also welcome.
Dates and tuition vary by location.
Visit www.pianotechnique.net/AlanFraserInstitute.
Clockwise from top left:
Southwesten Ontario
Suzuki Institute, SFA
Summer Camp,
Pianophoria,
Performing Arts
Institute
28
CLAVIER COMPANION
Alabama
Adventures in Music Camp, Birmingham. Piano and voice. Daily
from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Classes at Samford University include private lessons, music literature, ensemble, theory, and more. Session I: June 1822 (piano only). Session II: July 9-11 (piano or voice). Pianists must
have completed a minimum of three months’ instruction prior to
camp. Vocalists must be at least 10 years old and will attend ensemble
and stage technique classes. Enrollment is limited to the first registration deposits received. Grades 1-12. Tuition: $340 total (a $185 nonrefundable deposit due at registration, with the remaining $155 due on
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Summer Camps
Institutes
&
May 25 for June session and by June 22 for
July session.
Visit http://arts.samford.edu/prep_music.
All Aboard for Music Camp, Birmingham. A fabulous learning experience for
preschoolers! Ages 3-5 and six-year-olds
who have not attended the first grade.
Taught at Samford University by our experienced preschool faculty. Fee includes
tuition, all materials, daily snack, and a Tshirt. Activities include singing, movement, listening activities, crafts, instruments of the orchestra, learning centers,
music history, a guest artist, recreation, and
a daily snack. June 28-July 2. Tuition: $200
total (a $120 nonrefundable deposit due at
registration, with the remainder due by
June 8).
Visit http:/arts.samford.edu/prep_music.
California
California Summer Music, Rohnert Park.
Performance program open to pianists, violinists, violists, and cellists. Three-and-ahalf weeks of daily chamber music coaching, private instruction, and performance
opportunities in solo concerts, chamber
music concerts, and master classes. The
composition program features daily classes,
private instruction, and collaboration with
students from the performance program in
preparation for public performance at the
chamber music concerts. Average age range
is 13 to 26; however, exceptions are made
for younger and older students. July 7-30.
For application and tuition information
visit www.csmusic.org.
The Colburn Academy Piano Festival:
Highlighting Beethoven Piano Sonatas,
Los Angeles. Two-week summer program
of conservatory-level instruction for gifted
students. Culminates in a Beethoven
sonata marathon concert. Faculty members
include Hung-Kuan Chen, Gabriel Kwok,
Graham Scott, Ory Shihor, and guest artist
MARCH/APRIL 2012
2012 Directory
28 / Programs for students
40 / Programs for teachers
Jerome Lowenthal. Elementary through
high school, including graduating high
school seniors who have not entered college. July 1-14. Tuition with housing:
$2,600. Tuition only: $1,200. Need-based
financial aid available for students and parents. Limited to 30 participants. Early
application is strongly encouraged. Call
(213) 621-4795, or email theacademy@
colburnschool.edu for more information.
Music Academy of the West Summer
School and Festival, Santa Barbara.
Among the nation’s preeminent summer
schools and festivals for gifted young classical musicians. The Academy provides
these promising musicians with the opportunity for advanced study and frequent
performance under the guidance of internationally renowned faculty artists, guest
conductors, and soloists. Admission to the
Academy is strictly merit based, and
Fellows receive full scholarships (tuition,
room, and board). For more information,
visit www.musicacademy.org.
The pianoSonoma Music Festival,
Santa Rosa. Chamber music and piano for
serious adult amateurs of all levels. Private
lessons, coachings, classes, and performances with Juilliard faculty members and
graduates. Participants also work with our
Young Artists, current Juilliard students, or
recent graduates, collaborating with them
in chamber music, master classes, and public concerts. We encourage all members of
our program to use what they learn to
become cultural ambassadors for the arts in
their local communities. Chamber music
and piano: July 29-August 4. Piano:
August 5-11. Age 21 and older. Tuition:
$1,200. 10 maximum for piano session, 30
maximum for chamber music. 4 teachers.
Visit www.pianosonoma.org.
The MasterWorks Piano Festival
Summer Music West, San Francisco. Concentrated study of a variety of chamber
music through daily rehearsals and coaching. In three sessions: String and Piano
Academy, Piano Duo Academy, and
Chamber Music. Includes theory, ear training, sight reading, master classes, and performances. Faculty headed by Doris
Fukawa, Ensemble Coordinator. Additional sessions offered for composition,
musicianship, and voice. Ages 9-18 with 34 years of private instruction and strong
sight-reading skills. Admission by audition.
July 9-20, July 23-August 3. Tuition: $690$885 depending on session. 34-45 students
(8-12 are pianists), 13 teachers.
Visit www.sfcm.edu/summer.
University of Redlands Piano Camp,
Redlands. A one-week immersive camp for
intermediate and advanced piano students.
Fun classes, great teachers, exciting new
musical experiences: piano ensembles,
instrumental collaborations, composition/
improvisation, performance forums, multimedia training, music and dance, organ for
pianists, sight-reading skills, and more.
Check out the 2011 documentary video
“Playing for Keeps” at redlandspiano
camp.com. July 30-August 3. Middle and
high school; intermediate level and up.
Tuition: $225 before 6/1/12; $250 after
6/1/12.
Visit www.redlandspiano camp.com.
Colorado
The Lamont School of Music Summer
Pre-College Academy, Denver. Individualized curriculum, private lessons, chamber
music, master classes, theory, seminars, and
more in state-of-the-art facilities. Workshop topics include Alexander Technique,
Baroque style, careers in music, college
auditions, conducting, dance, improvisation, performance preparation, tips for
memorization, theatrical movement, warmups, and world music. The Academy also
CLAVIER COMPANION
29
Summer Camps
Institutes
&
offers opportunities to explore the city and
culture of Denver. Ages 14-18 (some age
exceptions). June 17-July 1. Tuition with
housing: $1,950. Tuition only: $1,450. 80
students, 35 teachers.
Visit http://du.edu/lamont/summeracademy.
The Well-Balanced Pianist, Lakewood.
Intensive program for a limited number of
participants to improve practice, performance, and teaching skills, through integrated focus on musicianship, healthy piano
technique, bodywork/movement, positive
mindset, and pedagogy, in a supportive,
interactive environment. July 18-24. All
ages and levels, high school and above.
Tuition with housing: $1,051-$1,999.
Tuition only: $895-$1,214.
Visit www.wellbalancedpianist.com/Colorado.htm.
Florida
F lorida Talent Education and Arts
Festival (formerly International Music
Festival), Central Florida. Lessons and
group classes in piano, strings, harp, flute,
guitar, organ; concerto auditions to play
U of Michigan Summer Harpsichord Workshop
with orchestra; enrichment courses in
music history and theory; jazz and classical
improvisation; chamber music, art, dance,
drama; concerts featuring faculty and students. For traditional and Suzuki students.
July 21-28 for teachers, July 22-28 for students. Visit www.intmusfest.org or email
[email protected].
Illinois
Exploring American Musicals,
Chicago. Students watch DVDs of musicals, select repertoire to play on piano and
sing, and attend a live musical. August
13-17. Ages 7-13. Tuition only: $235.
Attendants per session in 2010: 8. Visit
LakeShoreMusicStudio.com or contact
[email protected].
Illinois Summer Youth Music 2012,
Urbana. Coordinators Drs. Reid Alexander
and Christos Tsitsaros, and talented guest faculty. Offerings include private lessons, development of individual artistry, recitals, master
classes, electives including ensemble music,
accompanying, and beginning jazz improvisation. State-of-the-art facilities. Session 1, June
17-23: for senior high pianists, late-intermediate through advanced. Session 2, June 24June 30: for advanced junior high and senior
high pianists, intermediate through advanced.
Session 3, July 8-14: for junior high pianists,
early-intermediate through advanced.
Visit http://isym.music.illinois.edu/pre_college/ pre_college_piano.html.
Indiana
Butler Piano Camp, Indianapolis. A
comprehensive curriculum that includes
daily private lessons, master classes, theory,
history, ensemble, sight-playing. Optional
tracks in jazz piano, composition. Faculty
30
CLAVIER COMPANION
includes Kate Boyd, Anna Briscoe, and
Karen Thickstun. June 24-29. Ages 12-17,
all levels welcome, no audition required.
Tuition with housing: $435. Tuition only:
$335. Visit www.butler.edu/bcas.
Goshen College Piano Workshop and
Academy, Goshen. Four-day academy for
piano students ages 13-18 including minimaster classes, multiple performance
opportunities, and more. A highlight of
the week is preparing for the culminating
ensemble concert. Corresponding workshop for piano teachers features Jody
Graves, Jorge Muñiz, and Nicholas Roth,
who will also interact with academy students. Student workshop: June 18-21.
Teacher workshop: June 19-21. Each student participant brings two memorized
pieces to refine and perform. Tuition with
housing: $335. Tuition only: $115. 30 students, 20 teachers. Visit www.goshen.
edu/music/about/piano-workshop/.
Indiana University Jacobs School of
Music Summer Piano Academy, Bloomington. Residential program for serious
young pianists. Collective teaching system
offers private lessons, master classes, student
recitals, daily group classes, ensemble coaching, theory, supervised practicing, optional
Feldenkrais classes, and more! Core faculty
and distinguished guest artists. Concurrent
IU Summer Music Festival provides nightly
chamber and orchestral concerts. Grades 712 (younger students sometimes admitted).
June 17-July 7. Extensive application
process. Tuition with housing: $2,795.
Tuition only: $1,550. Visit www.music.indiana.edu/precollege/summer/piano/apply.s
html.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
The MasterWorks Festival, Winona
Lake. Open to any serious, motivated student desiring to develop and refine musical
skills in a positive, encouraging atmosphere. The piano program provides a
weekly private lesson from designated
piano faculty, opportunities for constructive
comments and performance analysis
through repertoire classes and master
classes with faculty and guest artists, and
numerous other performance opportunities. MasterWorks is an all-Steinway festival. June 17- July 15. Ages 14-26. Tuition
with housing: $3,070. 21 students, 3 teachers, plus 2 guest artists.
Visit www.masterworksfestival.org.
Iowa
Lutheran Summer Music Academy
and Festival, Decorah. A four-week residential training and performance program
for band, orchestra, choir, piano, and pipe
organ students of all religious backgrounds.
Individual lessons, chamber and large
ensembles, musicianship classes, and electives ranging from jazz ensemble to introduction to pipe organ. LSM Concert and
Recital Series features 50+ performances.
One internship is available to an undergraduate piano performance major. Students completing grades 8-12; see website
for audition information. June 24-July 22.
Tuition with housing: $2,995 (over 80% of
students receive significant financial aid).
162 students, 34 teachers.
Visit www.lutheransummermusic.org.
During this time, the workshops have
earned a reputation for producing the best
intensive programs for learning jazz
improvisation. Whether a beginning
improviser or a seasoned pro, you’ll leave
the workshops and seminars with tons of
new and exciting ideas about how to
improve your playing. All ages and abilities.
July 1-6 and July 8-13. 2-day session with
Jamey: June 30-July 1. 2-day bass/drum/
guitar session: June 30-July 1 and July 7-8.
Visit www.summerjazzworkshops.com.
Maine
Atlantic Music Festival: Piano
Institute and Seminar, Waterville. Fourweek program. Serious piano students will
be challenged and inspired through intensive private and chamber studies with
piano faculty, master classes with guest
artists, a series of performance seminars,
both solo and chamber recital opportunities, and the opportunity to participate in
the AMF concerto competition. Interested
students should submit audio or video
recordings of three contrasting works.
July 9-August 5. Tuition: $4,225 (4 weeks)
or $2,450 (2 weeks). 10-15 students; 7
teachers.
Visit atlanticmusicfestival.org/the-institute/programs/piano-institute-and-seminar.
Bowdoin International Music Festival,
Brunswick. Intensive conservatory-level
program. Collaboration with strings, harp,
guitar, composition, and woodwinds divisions. Solo and chamber study with
renowned faculty, multiple performance
opportunities in world-class recital hall, and
a premier concert series with guest and resident artists. Held in scenic coastal Maine.
June 23-August 4 (half sessions available).
Ages 13-30. Audition via recording. Tuition
with housing: $5,800 full session, $3,222
half session. For more information, please
visit www.bowdoinfestival.org.
Massachusetts
Berklee Piano/Keyboard Workshop,
Boston. If you are a piano/keyboard player
and are looking to develop your skills in
ensemble playing, improvisation, perform-
Kansas
International Institute for Young
Musicians, Lawrence. Internationally recognized course of study for talented young
pianists. Students work with renowned
master teachers in private lessons at least
twice a week. Students practice two-to-five
hours daily, take supporting music courses,
and perform in daily student recitals, master classes, and studio classes. Faculty
includes Leonard Richter, Steven Spooner,
Nancy Weems, Jack Winerock, and Fei
Xu. Two-, three-, and four-week sessions
available between July 8 and July 27. Ages
11-19. Tuition with room and board:
$2,450-$3,350. Scholarships available. 90
attendees. Visit www.iiym.com.
Kentucky
Jamey Aebersold’s Summer Jazz Workshops, Louisville. For almost 40 years,
musicians from all over the globe have
turned to Jamey Aebersold’s summer jazz
workshops to improve their jazz playing.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
CLAVIER COMPANION
31
Summer Camps
Institutes
&
ance, chord theory, and synthesizer technology, Berklee’s Piano/Keyboard Workshop is for you. Program features a wide
range of techniques and styles from jazz
and Latin through pop/rock/R&B. In
addition to the piano you will be able to
choose to focus on the synthesizer or
Hammond organ. August 21-24. Participants must be at least 15 years old by
August 21, 2012. Applicants are required
to have two years of playing experience.
Tuition with housing: $1,295. Tuition
only: $470. For more information, please
visit www.berklee.edu/summer.
Midsummer Adult Piano Retreat in
the Berkshires, Williamstown. The 7th
Annual retreat will be held at Williams
College, July 14-21. The weeklong workshop is open to teachers and adult piano
students at ALL levels and includes private
lessons, classes in Alexander Technique,
music appreciation lectures, collaborative
piano experiences, optional performance
opportunities in master class settings, and
a performance and master class by a featured guest artist. Also included are free
time for socializing and a field trip to
Tanglewood for a concert featuring pianist
Gerhard Oppitz playing Brahms. July 1421. Adults 21 or older. Tuition with housing: $1,400. For brochure, see website,
www.pianoretreat.wordpress.com or contact Alison Barr at [email protected] or
at 781-982-8920.
Michigan
University of Michigan Summer
Harpsichord Workshops, Ann Arbor.
Two week-long harpsichord workshops,
the first on François Couperin, the second
on fundamentals of harpsichord performance and repertoire. Performance classes,
lectures, lessons (included in tuition).
Taught by Edward Parmentier. Couperin:
June 11-15. Fundamentals: June 18-22. No
age requirement. For intermediate keyboardists. Cost of tuition with housing:
around $700. Tuition only : $500.
Attendants per session in 2011: 12. Visit
www.umich.edu/special.
Western Michigan University Seminar
2012, Kalamazoo. Two-week high school
program with a PIANO component featuring private lessons and both solo and
duet study. Graded music theory and a
variety of elective classes included. Overall
program includes woodwind, brass, percussion, string, and vocal/choral. July 8-July
21. Tuition with housing and meals:
$1,095. Tuition with meals only: $895. 125
(12 piano) students, 35 (3 piano) teachers.
Visit www.wmich.edu/music-camp.
Minnesota
MacPhail Piano Camp I, Minneapolis.
Have you just started taking piano lessons?
Here’s your chance to be a part of a fun,
exciting piano camp for new students just
like you! Get to know other young pianists
your age while working with them in small
ensembles. Learn to create your own music
for the piano and for other rhythm instruments. Perform in a final concert for your
family and friends on the last day of camp.
Ages 7-10, 1 year of piano instruction
required. Tuition: $320. 12 students, 3
teachers. For session dates, see www.mac
phail.org.
MacPhail Piano Camp II, Minneapolis.
Join us for a week of musical games, piano
32
CLAVIER COMPANION
ensembles and making your own music.
You’ll find new ways to be creative at the
piano, learn new musical concepts, enhance
your rhythm skills—and make new friends
at the same time. Collaborate and perform
with other students in small ensembles.
Explore music history and the lives of
famous composers. Attend an off-site field
trip. Discover your inner composer and
hidden improviser. Share what you have
learned with your family and friends at a
concert on the last day of camp. Ages 1014; 2 years of piano instruction required.
Tuition: $370. 15 students, 3 teachers. For
session dates, see www.macphail.org.
MacPhail Advanced Piano Camp,
Minneapolis. Take your playing to the next
level at this intensive 5-day piano camp
designed for advanced piano students. Solo
and duo repertoire, master classes, listening
and literature classes. Gain valuable keyboard skills and theory through hands-on
classes and duo ensembles. All students
perform in a final concert in MacPhail’s
Antonello Hall. No audition required.
Students must submit a repertoire list from
the last two years to be admitted into the
camp. June 11-14. Ages 13-18. Required
repertoire level: Bach, French Suites;
Beethoven, Sonata in G Major, Op. 79; or
Chopin E-minor nocturne, Op.
Posthumous. Tuition: $425. 5 teachers.
Visit www.macphail.org.
St. Olaf Summer Piano Academy,
Northfield. Program includes daily master
classes, private lessons, piano literature
classes, and chamber ensembles. Performance opportunities and social activities are
offered in cooperation with the St. Olaf
Music Camp. June 17-23. High school
students who have completed grades 8-12.
By audition on CD or cassette only. Visit
stolaf.edu.
Young Artist World Piano Festival, St.
Paul. Ten-day residential program for
aspiring precollege classically trained
pianists. Master classes, performance
opportunities, competitions, musicianship
classes, and private lessons with exceptional artist faculty. Special guest Alessio Bax.
July 11-21. Ages 7 to 18. 2 performanceready pieces from classical repertoire
required. Tuition with housing: $1,295. 76
students, 8 teachers.
Visit www.wirthcenter.org.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Missouri
Windswept Music Conference, Liberty.
Strengthen the mind/body connection at
Creative Motion Alliance’s 62nd annual
conference. For professional musicians,
conductors, teachers, students, and amateur
music enthusiasts. Piano, voice, instrumental music, movement, independent study,
and more in a unique intergenerational
format. Master class coaching and conducting opportunities. Independent
recorder study, private lessons. At William
Jewell College. Credit available. Ages 12 to
adult. July 22-27. Adult tuition with meals:
$535 (short session $275); student tuition:
$400. Registration of $50 due by May 15.
40-60 students, 14 teachers.
Visit www.creativemotion.org.
New Hampshire
Plymouth State University Piano
Monster Festivals, Plymouth. Festivals
focus on ensemble playing in multipiano
ensembles and conducted digital keyboard
orchestras. Final concert. Specialty classes
including composition, Sibelius notation
software, pedagogy, conducting, theory,
piano technique and repertoire, improvisation, guitar, and percussion and vocal
ensembles. Conductors for all sessions will
be Susan Avery and Donna Smith. Junior
Piano Monster Festival (for students completing grades 5-8), June 24-27. Senior
Piano Monster Festival (for students completing grades 8-12), June 28-July 1.
Contact Dr. Carleen Graff at carleen@
plymouth.edu or 603-535-2313.
New Jersey
T he Golandsky Institute Summer
Symposium, Princeton. The aim of the
Golandsky Institute is to provide musicians
with a foundation that promotes full artistic expression with technical ease. The
Summer Symposium includes private lessons, master classes, interactive technique
clinics, workshops, lecture-demonstrations,
performance opportunities, and more. July
7-15, Open to all. Tuition with housing:
$1,675; Tuition only: $1,275. 120 attendees; 14 teachers.
Visit www.golandskyinstitute.org.
Borromeo, Brentano, and Shanghai
Quartets; pianists Robert McDonald and
Thomas Sauer; and violist Michael Tree.
Ages 18-29. June 11-August 6. Tuition
with housing: $700. 19 students; 15 teachers. Visit www.taosschoolofmusic.com.
New York
Crane Youth Music, Potsdam. Instrumental, choral, and piano tracks available.
July 1-14. Ages 12-18. Tuition with housing: $975. Tuition only: $670. 370 students, 40 teachers.
Visit www.potsdam.edu/academics/crane/cym.
Hudson River Pianofest, Nyack. Two
days of inspiring piano master classes,
workshops, student performances, and
concerts beside the idyllic Hudson River.
Presented by Nyack College School of
Music and featuring world-renowned
pianist Sergei Babayan with other eminent
artists and teachers. Open to professional,
student, adult amateur participants (reference required), and obser vers. earlyadvanced to advanced levels. Tuition and
meals: $200 for participants, $145 for
observers. Housing: $30-65 per night
(some river view units available). June 8-9.
Visit http://www.hudsonriverpianofest.org
Tel: 845-675-4MUS.
International Keyboard Institute and
Festival, New York City. Concerts, lectures, and master classes given by guest
artists and faculty, plus an internal competition. Intermediate level through postconservatory. Audition recording required.
Tuition with housing: $1,800. Tuition
only: $950. July 15-29. 120 students, 25
teachers. Visit www.ikif.org.
Meadowmount School of Music,
Westport. Seven-week summer music program for advanced players in violin, viola,
cello, and piano. Program includes private
lessons, chamber music coachings, master
classes, visiting guest artist presentations,
studio classes, concerts, and performances.
Founded in 1944 by Ivan Galamian,
attended by Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman,
Joshua Bell, and many more. June 23August 11. On-campus accommodations
available for students ages 13-30+.
Students under 13 must live off-campus
with a parent or guardian. Tuition with
housing: $ 6,200. Tuition only: $3,200. 223
students, 20 teachers. Visit www.meadowmount.com or e-mail [email protected].
Montparker Summertime Workshops,
Huntington. For teachers, serious piano
students, piano groups, or associations, in
Carol Montparker’s Huntington studio
(one hour east of NYC by train or car), or
upon request at your locale in NY, CT, NJ.
Concentration on works in progress, interpretation, technique, troubleshooting,
music as literature: the entire “pianist’s
landscape” (as recently presented in Ms.
Montparker’s ongoing series The
Composer’s Landscape at The Steinway
Piano Gallery of Long Island). Offered
June 20-August 30. Tuition varies according to size of group. Call 631-427-7556,
email [email protected], or visit
www.montparker.com.
Nazareth College Summer Piano
Camp, Rochester. Day camp offering participants private and group piano instruction and piano ensembles, along with
classes in music theory, sight-reading,
New Mexico
Taos School of Music, Taos. Celebrating its 50th season, Taos School of Music
is an intense chamber music program for
professionally oriented string and piano
musicians. Students study with worldrenowned faculty musicians such as the
MARCH/APRIL 2012
CLAVIER COMPANION
33
Summer Camps
Institutes
&
guided listening, rhythm and movement,
improvisation, and composition. For students entering grades 8 through 12. July 913. Participants should bring two prepared
repertoire selections. Tuition only: $275. 19
students, 6 teachers.
Visit www.naz.edu/music/summer-programs.
Pianophoria, New York City. Intensive
piano workshop for adults including private lessons, master classes, guest presenters, composer focus, bodywork and relaxation, how-to workshops, ensemble playing, and end-of-week recital in a friendly,
noncompetitive environment. July 16-22.
Age 18 and up. Tuition only: $900/$950.
12 attendees, 3 teachers.
Visit www.pianophoria.com.
PianoSummer at New Paltz. Now in its
18th year, PianoSummer is an international summer institute and festival dedicated
solely to piano music. Features an integrated approach to learning and performance
under the artistic direction of master
pianist and teacher Vladimir Feltsman. In
addition to private lessons with each
instructor, there are master classes, lectures
and demonstations, student recitals, festival
concerts, and the Jacob F lier Piano
Competition. All institute and festival
events are open to the public. July 14August 3. For age or performance requirements e-mail [email protected].
Tuition with housing: $1,550. 35 students,
10 teachers. Visit www.newpaltz.edu.
Stony Brook International Piano
Festival, Stony Brook. Unique program
designed for middle and high school students who are serious about piano study.
Supervised practice, five private lessons,
guest concerts, lectures and master classes,
miniature courses on related subjects, performance in New York City, recreational
activities, outreach performance.
Scholarships available. Ages 11-17. July 113. Admission by audition with CD due
April 1. Tuition with housing: $2,500. 10
students, 5 teachers. Visit www.sbif.org.
Summer Piano Institute at Ithaca
College, Ithaca. Nationally and internationally known Ithaca College piano faculty members provide daily lessons, workshops, classes, and supervised practice to
students ages 12-18. Residential and commuter students welcome. June 28-July 7th.
Visit www.ithaca.edu/gps/piano/.
Summit Music Festival, Purchase. A
three-week festival brings together an
international faculty of the highest caliber
with students from all over the world. July
22-August 12. Ages 14 and up. Tuition
with housing: $3,450. Tuition only :
$1,800. 225 students, 85 teachers. Visit
www.summitmusicfestival.org.
Teen Pianophoria, New York City.
Intensive piano workshop including daily
private lesson, master classes, piano ensemble, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, singing/musicianship classes, daily yoga stretches, and
outdoor recreation. End-of-session recital.
Inclusive and noncompetitive. June 25-July
6. Ages 12-18. Intermediate-advanced levels. Tuition only: $900/$950. 15 students, 4
teachers. Visit www.teenpianophoria.com.
North Carolina
Cannon Music Camp ASU, Boone.
Offers the most comprehensive course of
musical instruction in the Southeast, with
intensive college preparatory work in performance and music theory. Ensemble performance is stressed, and experiences in
orchestra, band, jazz, chamber music, and
choirs are provided. June 30-July 21.
Grades 7-12. Tuition: $1,395. Meal plans
offered at an additional fee. 200 students.
Visit www.cannon.appstate.edu.
Eastern Music Festival, Greensboro.
Selected students have the opportunity to
work with the world’s finest teachers and
performers, including Vladimir Feltsman,
34
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Awadagin Pratt, Alexander Toradze,
George Vatchnadze, Diane Walsh, and
William Wolfram. Private lessons, master
classes, chamber music studies, and a variety of performance and career-related seminars. Performance opportunities include
EMF’s Concerto Competition and Piano
Competition, weekly recitals, and off-campus events. Join us for an exciting five
weeks! Ages 14-22. Please see the EMF
website for audition requirements. June
23-July 28. Tuition with housing: $5,300.
20 students; 5 teachers.
Visit www.EasternMusicFestival.org.
UNCSA Summer Music Prog ram,
Winston-Salem. Designed for students of
varied levels. Private lessons, master classes, and chamber music along with opportunities for practice, performance, listening, and rehearsal. Faculty will be UNCSA
Artist-Teacher David Winkelman. June
24-July 13. Ages 14-18, acceptance by
recorded audition. Tuition with housing:
$2,752. Tuition only: $1,662. 72 students,
19 teachers. Visit www.uncsa.edu/summersession/music.htm.
Ohio
BGSU Music Institute Summer Camp,
Bowling Green. The 30th Annual Piano
Camp offers the opportunity to study
music in a stimulating environment under
the tutelage of BGSU piano faculty. The
intensive program includes private and
group lessons, master classes, ensemble
playing, solo recitals, guest artists, studio
classes, literature classes, duet classes, and
strategies for practice and performance.
June 17-22. Piano students entering grades
7-12 with at least 3 years of private
instruction. 40 students, 7 teachers. Visit
www.bgsu.edu/smi.
Neiman at [email protected] or Sean
Schulze at [email protected] or visit
www.cim.edu.
Piano Institute at Kent State
University, Kent. Highly intensive festival
for talented piano students offers a combination of lessons, master classes, and performance opportunities. Students from all
over the world are housed on campus for
eleven days of inspiration, learning, and
sharing. Students perform in final concert
at Severance Hall. Concerts of The
Cleveland Orchestra and Kent/Blossom
music, a theatre production, various recreational activities. July 15-25. Grades 7-12;
audition media (CD or DVD) must
include two contrasting pieces. Tuition
with housing: $1,385. 14 students, 5 teachers. Visit www.kent.edu/pianoinstitute.
Oregon
Portland International Piano Festival,
Portland. A summer program of Portland
Piano International (PPI) at the World
Forestry Center. Principle objectives of the
project are to offer a range of activities to
strengthen the skills of piano teachers and
piano students in our community and to
enhance their profession. July 10-15. Visit
www.portlandpiano.org.
Pennsylvania
T he Performing Arts Institute,
Kingston. International summer program
for serious high school musicians.
Beethoven Tour 2012
Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, and Austria
Exploring the world of Beethoven; discovering his Flemish heritage;
visiting his birthplace in Bonn; tracing his journeys in Bohemia;
studying his life and career in Vienna
Concerts, Lectures and Rare Excursions
CIM Summer Sonata, Cleveland. Twoweek program aims to provide the ideal
environment for young pianists. Private
lessons, performance classes, daily supervised practice. Group classes in theory and
ear-training, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, composition, and more. Special presentations.
Culminates with a performance by all participants. June 11-22. Ages 10-18. Students are required to audition in person, or,
if necessary, submit a DVD audition.
Campus dorm available at additional cost.
Tuition: $900 (plus nonrefundable $35
application fee). Limited to 20 students,
10-12 teachers. Contact Mary Ann GrofMARCH/APRIL 2012
July 27 - August 11, 2012
Some highlights of this exciting tour include
• Brussels-concert at the Musical Instruments Museum; Grand Place
• Day-trip to Bruges; Beethoven’s ancestry in Mechelen
• Rhine river cruise; Concert and visit of Beethoven museum in Bonn
• Concerts at the Karlovy Vary Beethoven Festival; excursion to Teplitz
• Vienna– Pasqualati and Heiligenstadt houses; Theater an der Wien;
composers’ graves at Zentralfriedhof; gala dinner at the Sacher Hotel
Price of $6095* USD includes round-trip airfare from New York City, hotels & two meals per day
*price may vary slightly due to currency fluctuations
For information, brochure, and reservations contact Dr. William Wellborn; TEL- (415) 503-6200 ext. 6618;
FAX- (415) 503-6299; EMAIL- [email protected]; WEB- www.williamwellborn.com
CLAVIER COMPANION
35
Summer Camps
Institutes
&
Offerings include chamber music, master
classes, academic music classes, solo
recitals, two orchestras, two choirs, wind
ensemble, jazz band, and jazz combos.
Instrumental, vocal, musical theater, and
jazz tracks available. June 24-August 5. (3and 6-week sessions available). Ages 1218. Entrance by audition. Tuition with
housing: $2,950 (3 weeks). Tuition only:
$1,125 (3 weeks). 249 students, 59 teachers. Visit www.wyomingseminary.org/pai.
Philadelphia International Music
Festival, Bryn Mawr College. Unique
opportunity to spend fourteen days
immersed in classical music education and
performance with members of The
Philadelphia Orchestra. Precollege students of all ages and skill levels from
throughout the U.S. and abroad. Private
lessons, master classes, faculty recitals.
Daily orchestra rehearsals, practice time,
and music education courses; optional
chamber music rehearsals, solo performance and competition opportunities, and
much more. The summer music program
includes full symphonic repertoire (at
appropriate junior and senior levels). June
16-29, or one-week program June 16-22 or
June 23-29. For more information, please
contact us at [email protected].
Summer trios Premium Program
(Chamber), Bryn Mawr. Unique one-week
chamber music program for adult amateur
or professional musicians to play their
choice of repertoire in ensembles of professional musicians. Faculty/student ratio is
1:1. Fee determined by the size of the
ensemble. Performance and recording
available. June 3-10. Ages 16 and older.
Tuition with housing: $2,700. Tuition
only: $2,520. 20 participants, 20 teachers.
Visit www.summertrios.org.
Summertrios Premium Program
(Concerto), Bryn Mawr. Unique five-day
program for any musician to perform a
concerto with a professional orchestra.
Conductors and composers also welcome.
All participants receive a demo recording of
the performance. Fee determined by the
size of the orchestra needed. June 10-14.
Open to anyone that is prepared to perform
a concerto. Tuition with housing (up to 29piece orchestra): $3,875. Tuition and meals
only: $3,695. Visit www.summertrios.org.
Summer trios Regular Program,
Chambersburg, Weeks 1 and 2. Unique
piano-centered, one week programs for
adult amateurs to play and be coached in
compatible chamber music groups.
Personalized scheduling and performance
opportunities available. Pianists choose
their own repertoire, and the Enriched
Program (playing with all professionals) is
available. Tapes are required for placement
only. Week 1: June 24-July 1, (strings and
piano); Week 2: July 1-8 (strings, winds,
and piano). Ages 16 and older. Performances are encouraged but not required.
Tuition with housing: $1,500. Tuition and
meals only: $1,320. 52 students, 15-22
teachers.
Visit www.summertrios.org.
South Carolina
Charleston Southern University
Summer Music Camp, Charleston. Band,
chorus, and piano camps. Weeklong nonstop mix of ensemble sessions, master
classes, private lessons, recreation, and
social activities. At Charleston Southern
University. June 17-22. Ages 10-18. Piano
campers must have studied for at least 2
years. Tuition with housing: $340. Tuition
only: $280. 140 students, 12 teachers. Visit
www.charlestonsouthern.edu/musiccamp.
36
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012
T he Southeastern Piano Festival,
University of South Carolina School of
Music, Columbia. High-level training for
pianists aged 13-18, with new and worldrenowned concert pianists and master
teachers. Advocates for new piano music
and explores different roles the piano plays
on stage and beyond. Daily lessons with
USC piano faculty, master classes, and up
to five hours of practice a day. Culminates
with the Arthur Fraser International
Concerto Competition. June 10-16.
Tuition with housing: $900. Tuition only:
$450. 20 precollege students (students may
not be 19 or have matriculated in a degree
program by June 17, 2012). For more
information, please visit http://sepf.
music.sc.edu.
Tennessee
Carson-Newman Summer Piano
Camp, Jefferson City. Held in conjunction
with C-N band and vocal camps.
Instruction in technique, literature, musicianship, theory, and ensemble playing.
Four half-hour individual lessons plus daily
master classes. Students also participate in
a mixed chorus. June 18-23. Grades 6-12;
must have played intermediate or advanced
literature. Tuition with housing: $400.
Tuition only: $330. 10 attendees, 2 teachers. Visit www.cn.edu/music/camps.htm.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Texas
American Festival for the Ar ts,
Houston. The Summer Music Conservatory offers focused, immersive training for
talented students in grades 4-12. Students
come from greater Houston and Southeast
Texas to study under working professional
musicians in an atmosphere of supportive
learning and camaraderie. Various programs offered from June 11 through July
21. Dates subject to change.
Visit www.AFAtexas.org.
Baylor University School of Music,
Waco. Musical activities for the week
include private lessons, master classes and
lecture-demonstrations with members of
Baylor piano faculty, theory class and computer theory drill, keyboard skill classes in
the Clavinova digital labs, videos of famous
artists, and student and faculty recitals.
June 25-30. Rising grades 8-12. Tuition
only: $335. 7 teachers.
Visit www.baylor.edu/busmc.
Keyboard Wellness Seminar, University
of North Texas, Denton. Lectures, private
lessons, master classes, concerts, participant
recitals, background in Taubman Technique, and opportunities to work in other
disciplines like Alexander Technique,
Developmental Fitness, T ’ai Chi,
Meditation, Heart Math and Freeze
Frame, and many more. July 27-August 3.
18 or over. Under 18 must be accompa-
nied by parent or guardian for campus
housing. Tuition for students with housing:
$1,075. Tuition only: $700 (limited number of work-study grants available to students). Tuition with housing for teachers:
$1,325. Tuition only for teachers: $875. 50
students, 11 teachers.
Visit www.KeyboardWellnessSeminar.com.
Piano Texas International Academy
and Festival 2012, Fort Worth. Hailed as
one of the top summer piano festivals in
the world, Piano Texas has been enriching
the lives of Fort Worth residents and visitors for over 30 years. For gifted pianists
up to age 27 years. Festival: June 7-July 1.
Young Artist Program: June 7-July 1.
Teachers and Amateurs Program, Session
I: June 14-24. Teachers and Amateurs
Program, Session II: June 21-July 1.
Visit www.pianotexas.org/.
SFA Piano Camp, Nacogdoches.
Intensive piano camp. Students will have
the opportunity to work closely with faculty
of international experience. Private lessons,
master classes, short courses on musical
topics, ensemble work, performances—and
the fun of getting to know new friends with
the same interests! Faculty will help pianists
improve the memorized performance piece
they bring to the camp and also work with
additional solo works or concerti that are in
progress. The beautiful SFA campus provides many recreational opportunities to
CLAVIER COMPANION
37
Summer Camps
Institutes
&
balance out the intensive week of piano
music! Grades 7-12. July 8-13. Tuition with
housing: $395. Tuition only: $275. Visit
http://music.sfasu.edu.
SMU Institute for Young Pianists,
Dallas. Intensive, performance-based experience. Private lessons, master classes, and a
variety of group experiences exploring keyboard skills, music theory and history, and
ensemble performance. Taught by SMU
faculty, graduate pedagogy students, and
guest artist/teachers. Audition required.
July 10-14 (optional competition Monday,
July 9). Students in rising grades 3-12 in
elementary, intermediate, and advanced
levels are placed in sections based on age
and audition recording. Tuition, elementary/intermediate: $375; advanced: $425.
Room and board (strongly encouraged for
all students Grade 8 and above): $300.
Visit http://www.smu.edu/muedworkshops. Contact Cathy Lysinger at
[email protected].
Vermont
Adamant Music School Traditional
Session, Adamant. The Traditional
Session has been held since 1942. Thirty
resident participants from all over the
world live at the school’s Vermont campus;
day students living in the local area are also
accepted. Participants receive private
coaching from a university-grade faculty.
38
CLAVIER COMPANION
Emphasis is on cooperation in a supportive
and noncompetitive environment. While
there are many opportunities for performance, it is not required. Fees are moderate,
and a limited amount of needs-based
financial assistance is available. July 16August 6. Visit www.adamant.org.
Washington
Cornish College of the Arts Summer
Piano Institute, Seattle. Intensive and
inspiring week of private instruction, master classes, workshops, and performances
designed to challenge and excite.
“European-style” piano institute especially
beneficial for young students. Repertoire
from Bach to Messiaen. Workshops topics
include competition preparation, repertoire
selection, new approaches to Bach, concerto playing, and more. All students receive
private instruction from Dr. Peter Mack
and Dr. Ivona Kaminska-Bowlby; final
recital. Ages 14-19. August 6-10. Tuition
with housing: $895. Tuition only: $395.
Limited to 14 participants. 2 teachers.
Visit www.cornish.edu/summer/courses/
piano_institute1/.
Wisconsin
Madison Early Music Workshop,
Madison. In 2012, MEMF will look back
to the early music of our nation, from the
early Colonists in the 1600s through the
Revolutionary Federalist era. Musical
compositions brought to this country from
Europe, instrumental discoveries from the
library of Thomas Jefferson, the traditions
of the New England Singing School developed by William Billings, Moravian Loud
Bands, and the musical inventions of
Benjamin Franklin will provide a rich tapestry of music from the United States. July
7-14. College students accepted (academic
credit available). Tuition only: $495. 100
workshop participants.
Visit www.madisonearlymusic.org.
Austria
Austrian International Piano Seminar
and Festival, Ebenfurth. Intensive study
and performance for advanced pianists
(14-adult). The program is also open to
teachers and nonperforming auditors.
Lessons, master classes, and student concerts, along with excursions to Vienna.
Concerts in the Austrian towns of Wiener
Neustadt, Ebenfurth, Neufeld, Traiskirchen, and Neuenkirchen. Concerto evening
with orchestra features the winners from
last year’s piano competition. Coaching for
piano, four hands also available. Faculty
Dr. William Wellborn (San Francisco
Conservatory of Music) and Prof. Adam
Wibrowski (Conservatory of Paris). July 521. Tuition with housing: $2,250. Visit
www.williamwellborn.com.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Piano Seminar (affiliated with the 37th
Classical Music Festival), Eisenstadt. Jane
Magrath, Director. Master classes, lectures,
recitals, and performances in the Esterházy
Palace. Trips to Vienna, Haydn’s home,
and more. Faculty includes Jane Magrath,
Alan Chow, Marialena Fernandez, and
Jeongwon Ham. Piano classes, practice,
and lectures at the Haydn Conservatory in
Eisenstadt. Advancing pianists, piano
teachers, collegiate/conservatory-level
pianists, young professionals, college teachers, and observers. Teachers may enroll as
performers, observers, or for private lesson
only. Minimum age 18 unless accompanied
by adult. August 2-13. Tuition with housing: $1,395. Visit cmf.ou.edu.
Canada
Southwestern Ontario Suzuki Institute (SOSI), Waterloo, Ontario. An annual six-day event. Stimulating and enjoyable
program in piano, violin, viola, cello, and
harp for junior to advanced students.
Complements regular lessons with the
home Suzuki teacher. Master classes, group
classes, ensembles, and more. New Early
Childhood Education program. Young
Artist Program moves toward traditional
music college/university instruction while
maintaining roots in traditional Suzuki
philosophy and pedagogy. Opportunity for
parents to share ideas and learn new skills
in working with their children. Outstand-
MARCH/APRIL 2012
ing teachers. Birth through teens. August
12-17. 267 students, 40 teachers. Please
visit www.mysosi.ca.
VCM Summer Piano Academy,
Victoria, British Columbia. Tailored
piano programs for all ages and levels.
Dedicated faculty will work with you to
improve practice efficiency, performance
ability, and musical understanding while
you develop friendships with other music
lovers. Programs include private lessons,
repertoire and technique classes, choir,
midday performances and lectures, ensemble, evening performances, and complimentary admission to faculty concerts.
Extras include practice super vision
(Grades Intro-8), sight-reading, ear training, concerto work with string quartet, and
chamber duos. July 2-13. Ages 6 to adult.
Tuition only: $330-$620. 60 registrants, 11
teachers. Visit ww.vcm.bc.ca.
Italy
SSMA (Sessione Senese per la Musica
e l’Arte), Siena. Piano coaching for qualified postgraduates, teachers, and students.
Performance practice in concerts in Italy
and Switzerland. Music is prepared for
public performance with well-known artist
faculty. Individual lessons, chamber music,
master classes, language and culture classes. Opportunities to perform in concerts in
formal and informal settings in various
towns. A CD or live audition in NYC is
required. College credit available. July 18August 19. Tuition with housing and
meals: $3,130. E-mail [email protected] or call 203-754-5741.
Zephyr International Chamber Music
Course and Festival, Courmayeur.
Coaching, rehearsals, master classes, and
15 public concerts in a magnificent alpine
setting. Internationally renowned faculty.
Limited to 30 students by audition.
Excursions to Mont Blanc and the Italian
Riviera. July 1-21. Ages 16-30. Advanced
level. Tuition with housing: $2,650. Visit
www.zephyrmusicfest.org or contact Mack
McCray at [email protected].
Spain
Gijon International Piano Festival,
Gijon. Set on the spectacular coast of
northern Spain, the Gijon Festival offers
advanced pianists the opportunity to participate in master classes, recitals, and individual instruction with internationally
renowned pianists Robert McDonald,
Marc Durand, Dominique Weber, Jose
Ramon Mendez and James Giles. Guest
artists Alexander Kobrin and Alessio Bax.
August 16-28. Advanced pianists 18 and
over. Tuition with housing: 900 EUR.
Tuition only: 650 EUR. 55 attendees, 7
teachers. Visit www.gijonpiano.com. p
CLAVIER COMPANION
39
Clockwise from top left: International Keyboard
Institute and Festival, BGSU Summer Music
Institute, Jerome Rose with Scholarship Awardees
at IKIF, Lutheran Summer Music Academy and
Festival, Carson-Newman Summer Piano Camp
Programs for teachers 2012
Multiple locations
Musikgarten: Early Childhood Music for Ages Birth to
Seven; Group Piano for Beginners from age 6. Nine locations: Atlanta, GA; Billings, MT*; Chicago, IL; Cincinnati,
OH; Dallas, TX*; Grafton, MA; Greensboro, NC*; Hockessin,
DE*; and Seattle, WA. Course emphasis is on pedagogy, child
development, music literacy, vocal and ensemble development,
and ear training. Group beginner piano classes also include
sight-reading, improvisation, and technique. July 8-August 10;
dates vary by location. College credit available. Tuition with
housing: $465-$1,080. Tuition only: $265-$580. For more
information contact Denise Wallington, 507 Arlington St.
Greensboro, N.C. 27406. Phone 800-216-6864, fax 336-2720581. E-mail [email protected] or visit www.musikgarten.org.
* Beginner Piano locations
The Alan Fraser Summer Piano Institute. See course
description in Programs for Students.
40
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Summer Camps
Institutes
&
California
The pianoSonoma Music Festival,
Santa Rosa. See course description in
Programs for Students.
Colorado
Robert Pace Comprehensive Musicianship Level I, Denver. Pedagogy course for
future and current teachers. Teacher
Training class for Level I: Pace philosophy,
methodology, materials, business practices,
child psychology, studio organization,
teaching techniques. Hands-on instruction, games as learning, improvisation, visits from local practitioners. Teachers from a
variety of teaching environments will benefit from learning how to teach conceptually and comprehensively with the keyboard as the means of instruction. July 2022. Tuition: $295. For more information
contact Kathleen Davis, 32601 Buffalo
Park Rd. Evergreen, CO, 80439 or
[email protected].
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Southeastern Piano Festival
The Well-Balanced Pianist, Lakewood.
See course description in Programs for
Students.
Florida
F lorida Talent Education and Arts
Festival (formerly International Music
Festival), Central Florida. See course
description in Programs for Students.
Illinois
Keyboard Oriented Music Games and
Improvisation, Chicago. A workshop for
piano teachers and general music teachers,
presented by Julie Lovison at The Lake
Shore Music Studio. Wed., August 8,
10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. Tuition: $75. Contact
[email protected] or 312-335-8426.
Visit LakeShoreMusicStudio.com.
Robert Pace Curriculum Teacher Training,
Chicago. Julie Lovison presents Robert
Pace curriculum and strategies for group
teaching and comprehensive musicianship
in the piano lesson. Sponsored by
International Piano Teaching Foundation;
completion earns IPTF Certificate. Level 1
and Music for Moppets: July 13-15; Level
2 and Kinder-Keyboard: July 17-19; Level
3: July 21-23. Tuition only: $295 any one
session; $550 any two sessions; $775 all
three sessions. Cost of materials added.
Attendance per session in 2010: 2. Contact
[email protected] or 312-335-8426.
Visit LakeShoreMusicStudio.com.
Indiana
Goshen College Piano Workshop and
Academy, Goshen. Three days of workshops and master classes by Goshen
College piano faculty and guest clinicians.
The 2012 workshop features pianists Jodi
Graves and Nicholas Roth as well as composer Jorge Muñiz. A corresponding academy for piano students ages 13-18 meets at
the same time. June 19-21. Tuition with
CLAVIER COMPANION
41
Summer Camps
Institutes
&
Eastern Music Festival
housing: $375. Tuition only: $190. 60
attendees. Visit http://www.goshen.edu/
music/about/piano-workshop/.
Kentucky
Jamey Aebersold ’s Summer Jazz
Workshops, Louisville. See course description in Programs for Students.
Massachusetts
Midsummer Adult Piano Retreat in
the Berkshires, Williamstown. See course
description in Programs for Students.
Michigan
University of Michigan Summer
Harpsichord Workshops, Ann Arbor. See
course description in Programs for
Students.
Minnesota
University of St. Thomas Summer
Workshops in Piano Pedagogy, St. Paul.
One week of workshop sessions led by
nationally renowned presenters. Past workshops have included “Bring Your Studio
Up to Tempo with Technology,” “Teaching
vs. Correcting: Every Teacher’s Dilemma,”
and “Preparing Students to Handle Stage
Fright.” August 6-10. Housing: TBA.
Tuition only: $45 per workshop ($25 per
workshop for University of St. Thomas
and ACTC students). Discounted registration for entire week and graduate credit
available. Visit www.stthomas.edu/music/
keyboard/summer.
Missouri
Windswept Music Conference, Liberty.
See course description in Programs for
Students.
New Hampshire
Piano Monster Festival Teacher
Seminar, Plymouth. Pedagogy and performance sessions especially for teachers.
Teachers may also perform in conducted
multipiano ensemble in the final Junior
Festival concert. Graduate or continuing
education units available. Contact Dr.
Carleen Graff at [email protected]
or 603-535-2313.
New Jersey
The Golandsky Institute Summer Symposium, Princeton. See course description
in Programs for Students.
Practical Piano Pedagogy, Kingston. A
hands-on seminar for piano teachers at
42
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012
SMU Institute for Piano Teachers (formerly National Piano Teachers
Institute), Dallas. Joint project of the
SMU Division of Music, Pender’s Music
Co., and the Frances Clark Center for
Keyboard Pedagogy offers an inspiring and
interactive program with teaching demonstrations, sessions about technolog y
(including distance teaching and streaming), and more. Presenters include Scott
McBride Smith and Robert Vandall. July
10-13. Tuition on or before May 1: $250.
After May 1: $295. Campus housing and
conference hotels available. Graduate credit available for additional fees. Enrollment
limited. Visit www.smu.edu/muedworkshops, or contact [email protected].
Vermont
Adamant Music School, Adamant.
Master classes and concerts. Behre Series
with André Laplante July 2-6. Behre
Series II with John O’Conor July 10-14.
Master class with John O’Conor July 1014, 2011. Master Class with Menahem
Pressler August 11-15.
Visit www.adamant.org.
Wisconsin
Madison Early Music Workshop,
Madison. See course description in
Programs for Students.
Austria
Austrian International Piano Seminar
and Festival, Ebenfurth. See course
description in Programs for Students.
Piano Seminar (affiliated with the 37th
Classical Music Festival), Eisenstadt. See
course description in Programs for
Students.
Canada
Southwestern Ontario Suzuki
Institute (SOSI). Waterloo, Ontario.
Courses to develop and enhance teaching
skills: Every Child Can!™ (all instruments); Suzuki Early Childhood
Education Stage 1, Piano Unit 3 of Suzuki
Piano School, Music Reading 2, Violin
Units 1-4 of Suzuki Violin School, Group
Class Techniques for String P layers,
Beyond Posture and F-Sharps, Alexander
Technique seminar. August 11-19. Courses
may be registered with Suzuki Association
of the Americas. 60+ attendees. Visit
www.mysosi.ca.
Italy
SSMA (Sessione Senese per la Musica
e l’Arte), Siena. See course description in
Programs for Students. p
44
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012
MARCH/APRIL 2012
CLAVIER COMPANION
45
Jazz & Pop
One of the world’s leading pedagogical
composers, Christopher Norton is the coauthor of the new series American
Popular Piano (Novus Via Music
Group), the author of the Microjazz series
(Boosey & Hawkes), and the author of
Christopher Norton Connections for
Piano (Frederick Harris). He was born
in New Zealand in 1953, began
composing at the age of 14, and, by the
age of 16, had an orchestral work
performed and broadcast.
He studied composition at York
University with Wilfred Mellers and
David Blake, writing a variety of pieces,
including choral works, orchestral pieces,
piano music, and musicals. While playing
in various bands, Chris started to
experiment with combinations of styles
that crossed the divide between his
classical background and more
contemporary popular styles.
In 1983, he began work on the Microjazz
series, which combined elements of the
jazz tradition with useful teaching
materials drawn from the classical
tradition. Since its initial publication, this
series has been expanded to include
virtually all major instruments, and sales
of this series have exceeded
one million copies.
Chris has lectured all over the world on
aspects of his work and likes to integrate
traditional teaching methods with aspects
of modern technology. He has also found
time to produce huge numbers of albums
for the gospel market, with releases
worldwide selling in excess of
one million units.
It’s Got That Swing:
Jazz & Pop
Christopher Norton, Editor
Playing Indie Pop
ndie Pop is a genre of rock music that emerged in the United Kingdom in the 1980s, characterized by upbeat, melodic progressions. This article will take you through the basics of
the indie pop style, beginning with simple structures familiar to all piano students.
Here is a scale of G major:
I
We can build three-note chords on each note of a G major scale, and the quality of each
chord is determined by the intervals (whole steps and half steps) from the bottom note:
We will start by using chords I, IV, and V in the key of G, voiced in the following way:
The main piece you will be playing has an eighth-note feel, but very syncopated. To prepare to play Indie Pop, you need to be able to tap quarter notes in one hand and eighth
notes in the other. Like this:
And now the other way round—tap eighth notes in your left hand and quarter notes in
your right hand:
46
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Now play the chords of G, C, and D in the rhythms written
above (at quite a steady speed). Like this:
In terms of inversions, the right hand chords are:
Ic
V
vib
IVc
G second inversion
D root position
Em second inversion
C second inversion1
Playing inversions means you’re able to play everything in a
“closed” position—no unnecessary leaps!
The end of the “bridge” after the verse is unusual in that the
chords and bass run in parallel motion—this is not uncommon in
pop playing:
and this:
To prepare to play your piece in Indie Pop style, play only staccato off-beats on beats 2 and 4 in your right hand. The chords now
change more quickly:
Now for your piece—it will take some getting used to rhythmically, but you have practiced most of the rhythms and it should be a
familiar style now:
The left hand will now play a riff—a catchy, repeated left hand
figure that can become a feature of a pop piece:
You do have to keep the eighth notes ticking away in your head
to play the left hand riff accurately. If you said the rhythm of the
left hand part aloud it would be:
ONE two-and three four-and (one) AND (two) three-andfour-and
© 2012 Boosey & Hawkes. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
To listen to an example of Indie Pop, check out “Here Comes
Your Man,” by The Pixies. p
The riff you’ve just played is played in the “introduction” of your
indie pop song. When we come to the “verse,” the following chords
are used:
To hear a recording of “Here It Is,” click on the player below.
In functional harmony terms, these chords are:
1
I
MARCH/APRIL 2012
V
vi
IV
The lower-case letters following the Roman numerals indicate root position or a chord
inversion. No letter assumes “a,” or root position; “b” or “c” indicate first inversion or second
inversion, respectively.
CLAVIER COMPANION
47
Repertoire & Performance
Putting It All Together:
Repertoire & Performance
Nancy Bachus, Editor
Nancy Bachus is a graduate of the
Eastman School of Music and has
taught for twenty-seven years at the
college and university level. She is the
author of Alfred Publishing’s “Spirit”
series: the Baroque, Classical,
Romantic, and Beyond the
Romantic Spirit piano anthologies,
and the Exploring Piano Classics
series, graded literature with a
cross-indexed technique book at each
level. Certified as a Master Teacher by
MTNA, she currently maintains an
independent piano
studio in Hudson, OH.
This issue’s contributors:
Jerry Wong holds the position of Associate Professor of Piano at Kent State
University in Ohio, where he is also
co-director of the summer Piano
Institute and a member of the
Kent/Blossom Music faculty. A
Steinway Artist, he has performed in
major concert halls, universities, and
festivals throughout the United States,
Europe, and Asia. In 2010, he released
a widely acclaimed debut CD on the
MSR Classics label featuring the music
of Sergei Prokofiev.
Hailed as “a marvelous pianist” by the
New York Times, Peter Takács has
established himself as a distinguished
performer, teacher, and lecturer.
Winner of the William Kapell
International Competition, he has
appeared in recital, chamber music, and
with orchestra, in the United States,
Europe, and Asia. He has given master
classes throughout the world, and has
been an adjudicator in many
prestigious international competitions.
His recording of the complete
Beethoven Piano Sonatas was released
on the Cambria label in July 2011.
48
CLAVIER COMPANION
A master class on three favorite
Beethoven sonata movements
he thirty-two sonatas of Beethoven
are often cited as the pianists’ New
Testament, with Johann Sebastian
Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier being the
Old Testament. These treasured works are
a staple in piano teaching studios throughout the world, and are also required repertoire in the most demanding international
piano competitions. A sonata or fugue first
studied in high school can be re-learned
and performed throughout a pianist’s lifetime, and the more it is studied, the more
riches that will be discovered.
The first Beethoven sonata I played was
the first movement of Op. 2, No. 1; and
like many, I studied and performed all
three movements of the “Pathetique”
T
Sonata during my senior year in high
school. The Op. 10 and Op. 14 sonatas are
also among the first taught to developing
pianists.
As teachers, we need continuous fresh
ideas for all the literature we teach frequently. Jerry Wong and Peter Takács, both
professors of piano, offer insights into
three first movements of Beethoven
sonatas; ones often presented in college
auditions: Op. 2, No. 1; Op. 10, No. 2; and
Op. 13 (“Pathetique”). I know their vast
experience teaching, performing, and hearing many student performances of these
works will be helpful to teachers in bringing their students to even higher levels. p
The yin and the yang of Beethoven:
exploring two contrasting early sonatas
by Jerry Wong
ertain repertoire remains “tried and
true” for developing particular
qualities in the early-advanced
piano student. Brahms’ Rhapsodies, Op.
79, for instance, enhance the dramatic spirit. Debussy’s Arabesques sensitize the
aspiring pianist to color and subtle pedaling. Bach’s Inventions aid contrapuntal
playing, while Chopin’s Nocturnes teach
the balance of voices and focus on
cantabile melody. The list of favorite teaching pieces goes on and on.
Two Beethoven movements I often hear
played by students in grades seven through
twelve are the first movements of the
Sonata in F Minor, Op. 2, No. 1, and the
Sonata in F Major, Op. 10, No. 2.
Studying them will aid early-advanced students in listening for motives and shaping
phrases, and it will also engage them in
wildly contrasting characters. I am con-
C
stantly charmed by the individuality and
imagination each student brings to these
pieces, and I am equally fascinated by the
regularity with which certain passages offer
the same challenges to all.
Op. 2, No. 1
Essential to the Allegro movement from
Op. 2, No. 1, is the understanding of the
opening right hand motive: the strong
impetus and direction of the ascending
arpeggio (see Excerpt 1). I find it helpful
to remove the student from the score and
explain the phenomenon that theorists
have called the Mannheim rocket, a fast,
ascending broken chord first used by the
eighteenth-century Mannheim, Germany,
court orchestra. Playing or listening to
similar motives from the first movement of
Mozart’s C Minor Sonata, K. 457, or his
Symphony No. 40 in G Minor (last moveMARCH/APRIL 2012
ment) can clarify this further. I ask students to play the opening
measure in the right hand, then skip to its transposition in the left
hand (see Excerpt 2). Although played in a lower register with a
different hand, the shape of the motive is the same. Looking at the
second theme (see Excerpt 3), it is a slightly inverted, legato variation of the opening motive, so the direction must remain intact. In
forward leading phrases like this, students must be cautioned not
to rush.
Excerpt 1: Sonata in F Minor, Op. 2, No. 1, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 1-2.
Excerpt 2: Sonata in F Minor, Op. 2, No. 1, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 9-10.
Excerpt 4: Sonata in F Minor, Op. 2, No. 1, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 33-36.
The development section of this sonata offers several challenges,
not the least of which is creating the appropriate sense of Classical
Era sturm und drang (storm and stress), with its dramatic intensity
and unrest. A listening assignment could include works such as
Mozart’s A Minor Sonata, K. 310; Beethoven’s “Tempest” Sonata,
Op. 31, No. 2; or his Symphony No. 5, Op. 67, to ignite the student’s tempestuous spirit.
In terms of physical coordination, mm. 73-79 can be the most
taxing of the entire movement (see Excerpt 5). By removing the
inner voice measured tremolo, pianists can hear and play the pitches with the longer note values as they trade sforzandos back and
forth (see Excerpt 6). It is equally helpful to isolate the measured
tremolo. When the eighth notes become comfortable and unencumbered by the quick movements between white and black keys,
the outer voices can be brought back.
Excerpt 5: Sonata in F Minor, Op. 2, No. 1, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 73-79.
Excerpt 3: Sonata in F Minor, Op. 2, No. 1, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 21-22.
The measure that follows the broken chord figure presents an
equally important issue of gesture and timing (see Excerpt 1, m. 2).
Since the dotted quarter is the longest note value of the bar, it
requires the most intensity. I have littered many student scores with
an added decrescendo from the downbeat through the rest of the
measure. An advocate of urtext scores, I put my decrescendo in
parentheses. Since the last note of the slur has a staccato dot, students often give a false accent. My commentary for this has
changed through the years from, “No bump or hit,” to “Please don’t
leave in an angry or abrupt manner!”
Mastery of classical style is as much about articulation as it is
about gesture and shaping of motives and phrases. In mm. 33-36
students do not always clearly show the contrasting articulations of
the left and right hands (see Excerpt 4). While the sweeping
downward scale of the right hand requires a connected, legato
touch, the left hand enunciates the offbeat sforzandos best when
played somewhat separated. Students frequently slur the quarter
note into the half note, thereby deflating the effect of the
sforzando. I challenge them to play one measure in the left hand
with a strong portato touch or slightly detached articulation, followed immediately by the same one in the right hand with a
smooth finger legato. Separate hands work is certainly not a
panacea for all musical or technical challenges, but can work wonders in a passage like this. Most importantly, it helps the student
“divide the ear,” so to speak, aiding the ability to listen for two
ideas at the same time.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Excerpt 6: Sonata in F Minor, Op. 2, No. 1, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 73-79, tremolo removed.
“The notes I handle no better than many pianists, but the pauses
between the notes—ah, that is where the art resides” said the legendary
pianist Artur Schnabel, a truth for all levels of study. The art found
in the silences at the close of this movement is striking. Far too
often, the delivery of a dramatic performance is short-changed by
sloppy pedaling or poor releases (see Excerpt 7). A rudimentary
CLAVIER COMPANION
49
lesson in conducting can help students have fun pretending to cue
an imaginary orchestra in this closing. I love the startled reaction
when asking a student, “How would you feel if one member of
your orchestra held the note too long on that last chord?”
Excerpt 10: Sonata in F Major, Op. 10, No. 2, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 47-50.
Excerpt 7: Sonata in F Minor, Op. 2, No. 1, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 146-152.
Op. 10, No. 2
The first movement of Beethoven’s Sonata in F Major, Op. 10,
No. 2, is as humorous and full of joy to me now as it was when I
first heard it as a boy. I tell students the opening can represent two
types of laughter: a large group of mixed voices saying, “Ha-ha!”
together on the chords, and a higher pitched giggle in the distance
on the triplet sixteenths (see Excerpt 8). Experimenting with ways
to make this phrase a conversation is part of a first lesson. Asking,
“Where is the strongest chord?” or “Who laughs the loudest?” can
aid the interpretation of this playful call and response.
Excerpt 8: Sonata in F Major, Op. 10, No. 2, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 1-4.
Creating a linear or horizontal feeling in the next phrase is also
essential to the first lesson on this sonata (see Excerpt 9). Although
all the pitches of the left hand chords cannot physically connect,
they must connect musically and interpretively. The shape or arch
of the left hand phrase must not be vertical or “clunky,” even
though it is a series of chords.
I often hear the, “Everything is sounding too nice” phenomenon
in performances of this movement. Haydn’s sonata in the same key
(Hob. XVI/23) has many similar humorous elements, but a distinct
difference is the rambunctious quality of Beethoven’s outbursts.
With unexpected leaps to extreme registers, sforzando markings,
and abrupt shifts to double forte, the roar of Beethoven’s laughter is
unmistakable. I once heard a highly refined, but almost too delicate, performance of this piece in a master class. Later, I asked the
student to imagine a nearby table at a restaurant having a bit too
much fun. “Can you be a little rowdy, just like the folks at the next
table?”
As teachers, we may find ourselves muttering under our breaths,
“Oh no, not this again,” since we know the parts of a piece that
repeatedly challenge students. Measures 95-98 of the development
can send students into a fit of rhythmic spasms (see Excerpt 11). It
is easy to misread the triplet sixteenths for “regular sixteenths” or
the “regular sixteenths” for triplet sixteenths. I have found the
rhythm becomes quickly ingrained in the muscles and ear by mastering a particular exercise. The left hand plays constant eighth
notes alone, rewriting the part to maintain a steady pulse (see
Excerpt 12). With this human metronome, the right hand is
added. As both parts lock into place, the left hand plays what was
originally written.
Excerpt 11: Sonata in F Major, Op. 10, No. 2, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 95-98.
Excerpt 9: Sonata in F Major, Op. 10, No. 2, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 5-8.
Excerpt 12: Sonata in F Major, Op. 10, No. 2, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 95-98, practice rhythm for left hand.
Another phrase that often causes difficulty for even the most talented student is mm. 47-50 (see Excerpt 10). A secure fingering in
the right hand is essential when moving through these intervals.
Additionally, playing the passage with your eyes closed can increase
a kinesthetic sense of keyboard choreography. Some students are
surprised to discover the left hand thumb remains on a G throughout the entire phrase. “That pitch can be your anchor,” are encouraging words!
50
CLAVIER COMPANION
Op. 2, No. 1, and Op. 10, No. 2, can feel like the yin and the
yang, or polar opposites of early Beethoven. One is brimming with
passion and drama, while the other is irrepressibly funny and lively.
As a teacher who hears both works with some frequency, I welcome the challenge of solving old problems in new and creative
ways. The process leaves me refreshed and inspired. p
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Practicing and performing the first movement of
Beethoven’s “Pathétique” Sonata, Op.13
by Peter Takács
he “Pathétique” Sonata (Grande Sonate pathétique, Op. 13),
composed in 1799, is justifiably one of Beethoven’s most
famous and often-performed works. The title is derived
from the Greek word “pathos,” defined as “a quality that causes
feelings of pity or compassion.” It is significant that Beethoven seldom applied titles to his sonatas, the only other one being “Les
Adieux” (The Farewell), Op. 81a. In Op. 13, the C-minor key, the
Grave introduction, the use of silence, sudden accents and subito
dynamics, the dissonant harmonies rich in diminished seventh
chords, the explosive Allegro di molto e con brio, and breathless,
almost operatic second theme duet, all contribute to the dramatic
and deeply felt character of the first movement. In this article, I
offer some ideas for projecting the powerful character of this
movement in performance, as well as some practice and fingering
suggestions. (Note: all measure numbers, as well as the text for the
musical examples, are based on the excellent Henle edition.)
To hear Peter Takács play this movement, click on the player below.
T
Grave
Tempo
The best way to feel the solemn pulse of this Grave introduction
is to count it in eight beats per measure, with a tempo of 54 to the
eighth note.
The fp chords
Start with the hands close to the keys, and quickly thrust upward
into the keys with the wrists. This will produce the properly explosive fp effect of this dramatic opening. In his excellent new edition
for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music,
Beethoven scholar Barry Cooper recommends depressing the pedal
before playing the chord, then gradually releasing it to dampen the
sound, which will help approximate the shorter decay of sound in
the eighteenth-century fortepiano.
Dotted rhythms
In French overture style, dotted rhythms were often double-dotted for a solemn, fateful effect. I wouldn’t go that far here, but it is
important to feel “short-long” (pah-pom) as a single unit (for a
similar effect, listen to the Marcia funebre in the third movement of
the Sonata in A-flat, Op. 26, or the Maestoso opening of the Sonata
in C Minor, Op. 111). This applies also to the last note in mm. 1, 2,
133, and 134, which should belong to the next fp downbeat.
Excerpt 13: Sonata in C Minor, Op. 13, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 1-2.
Emphasize the major seventh dissonance between the hands (Eflat to D) on the third beat of measure two. This creates harmonic
tension that is then resolved, and is a signature of Beethoven’s
“pathetic” style. (See later discussions of mm. 6, 133, and 297.)
Mm. 4, 10: Playing the fast scales
Allow a good amount of space between the high A-flat and low
B-flat in m. 4. The fast scale passages are written in groups of 64th
and 128th notes, with a sextuplet and septuplet in m. 10, but I
think it would be pedantic to play these in a mathematical way;
rather, they should be approached in fantasia style, feeling a natural
accelerando and crescendo to the end. At the end of m. 4, there
should be a small ritardando to prepare for the subito p in m. 5.
Mm. 5-8: Dramatic dialogue
Play the right hand octave melody expressively, shaping to the
third beat, and the left hand accompaniment portato, following the
changes in voice leading. The ff chords should interrupt abruptly,
suggesting a struggle between two characters, one pleading pathetically and the other threatening (like the dramatic dialogue in the
second movement of the Fourth Concerto). Note again the minor
ninth dissonance on the third beat of m. 6 (G to A-flat).
Mm. 9-10: Closing cadenza
After releasing the left hand chord on the downbeat of m. 9, hear
the tied F in the right hand by itself before continuing. Be sure to
wait through the end of the bar—it will seem long! Keep enough
volume in m. 9 so that m. 10 sounds like an echo, and give a small
accent on the downbeat C, reminiscent of the sf on the previous
downbeat F octave. Show the difference between the deceptive
cadence in m. 9 (question), and the cadential 6-4 chord on beat
three of m. 10 (resigned answer). Hear the tied high E-flat after
releasing the left hand chord before starting the chromatic scale,
making sure the left hand chord on beat four coincides with the D
in the right hand scale. A suggested fingering is in Excerpt 14.
Excerpt 14: Sonata in C Minor, Op. 13, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, m. 10.
Shaping phrases
In order to create the proper “pathetic” effect, all measures with
dotted rhythms should be shaped to the long note (usually the
third beat), and then resolved to the fourth beat. This makes sense
both rhythmically and harmonically (see Excerpt 13).
MARCH/APRIL 2012
CLAVIER COMPANION
51
The fermata A-flat should be quite long, because once you play
the last B natural (equal to an eighth-note in the new tempo), the
rocket is launched!
Excerpt 18: Sonata in C Minor, Op. 13, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, m. 57.
Allegro di molto e con brio
Tempo
The best tempo to create electric excitement in this Allegro is
152 to the half note, but it can be played at 138 if the breathless
character is maintained. Avoid making a crescendo in the first four
measures—save it for the chords in mm. 5-8.
Mm. 11-18: Fingerings and practice suggestions
Excerpt 15: Sonata in C Minor, Op. 13, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 11-15.
Mm. 93-112: Rotations
The staccatos on the strong beats mean quick little accents with
the fifth finger in both hands, played with rotational flicks (there is
a smaller rotation for the inner interval). Practicing in groups starting on the beat (upper brackets) will help define each shape, while
starting on the second eighth going to the next beat (lower brackets) will emphasize the shifts between positions (see Excerpt 19).
Excerpt 19: Sonata in C Minor, Op. 13, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 93-94.
A suggested fingering for the rising intervals in the right hand is
included in Excerpt 15.
A good way to practice them is in groups (as suggested by the
brackets), with quick shifts before stopping in the new position.
This will give a good feel for the intervals and the quick movements needed to get from one position to another. It might be
helpful to practice these rising sections playing quarter note octaves
in the left hand to define the exciting pulse; later, when playing the
broken octaves, the quarter-note pulse can still be felt in the lower
note.
Mm.113-117: Fingerings (see Excerpt 20)
Excerpt 20: Sonata in C Minor, Op. 13, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 113-117.
Mm. 29-31: Fingering (see Excerpt 16)
Excerpt 16: Sonata in C Minor, Op. 13, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 29-31.
Mm. 133-136: Transition to development
The G-minor key is even darker than the opening C-minor,
with another major seventh dissonance, (B-flat to A) on the third
beat of m. 133. Savor the amazing modulation in the third bar,
going from G-minor to E-minor with a single chromatic slide in
the left hand (C to B-natural)!
Mm. 137-194: Development
Mm. 51-90: Second theme
Keep your left hand low to give the right hand room for the
leaps. Again, practicing groups (in brackets) and quick shifts is a
good way to teach arm patterns and movements (see Excerpt 17).
Excerpt 17: Sonata in C Minor, Op. 13, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 51-56.
Here there are finally crescendos in the rising theme—use them to
dramatic effect! Shape the pairs of mm. 140-141 and 146-147 to
the downbeat of the second bar, reminiscent of the expressivity of
the opening measures, but in an agitato context this time. In mm.
149-166, strongly emphasize the two-note groups in the left hand,
to sound like the cello section of the Berlin Philharmonic! In mm.
157-158, clearly articulate the three-note slurs, with the third note
as well as the next downbeat staccato.
Mm. 174-179: Fingerings
The right hand trill in m. 174 can be a quintuplet fingered 3-53-2-3. Suggested fingering for mm. 175-179 in the right hand passage follows (see Excerpt 21).
Excerpt 21: Sonata in C Minor, Op. 13, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 175-179.
All the ornaments (mm. 57-58 etc.) can be played as triplets on
the beat, with fingers 2-3-2-1, lightly accenting the first note to
emphasize the two-note slur (see Excerpt 18).
52
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Mm. 187-194: Fingerings (see Excerpt 22)
Excerpt 22: Sonata in C Minor, Op. 13, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 187-194.
Mm. 295-310: Coda
Of all the Grave sections, this one is the most “pathetic.” Instead
of fp on the downbeats, there is now silence, as if sensing that the
end is near. The dissonant chord on the third beat of m. 297 (major
seventh A-flat to G, similar to the one in m. 2) should sound particularly disperato. Play the last four eighth-notes in m. 298 softly
and hesitantly, heightening the suspense before the final Allegro.
There should be a sense of suppressed excitement in the four-bar
rising line, avoiding crescendo until the half-note chords. Play the
final five ff chords dryly and explosively, without ritardando.
Beethoven repeats the ff on the last two chords, meaning they
should sound rinforzando. Keep the drama alive through the final
fermata bar, bringing this powerful movement to a riveting close. p
MARCH/APRIL 2012
CLAVIER COMPANION
53
Counterpoint
The World Around Us:
Counterpoint
Helen Smith Tarchalski, Editor
Helen Smith Tarchalski teaches in her
independent studio in Maryland and
on the faculty of Anne Arundel Community College, and has taught at the
U.S. Naval Academy. She is a graduate
of Peabody Conservatory and holds the
MTNA Master Teacher Certificate.
Her students have been featured performers with the National Philharmonic Orchestra and at the Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts Terrace
Theater. She has authored articles and
entries for textbooks, has performed
and presented workshops and master
classes throughout the U.S.,
and serves as a clinician for
Frederick Harris Music.
This issue’s contributor:
Seymour Bernstein, internationally
known pianist, teacher, composer,
writer, and lecturer, has won innumerable prizes and grants. His concert
career has taken him to the Americas,
Europe, and Asia, where he has
appeared in solo recitals and as guest
artist with orchestras and
chamber music groups.
Many of his compositions are on the
best-seller list. His books With Your
Own Two Hands, Monsters and
Angels—Surviving a Career in
Music, 20 Lessons in Keyboard
Choreography, Musi-Physi-Cality,
and Chopin—Interpreting His
Notational Signs have been hailed as
“landmarks in education” and are
translated into German, Japanese,
Chinese, Korean, and Russian. All of
his works are published by
MANDUCA MUSIC
PUBLICATIONS in the
United States.
On December 18, 2004, Seymour
Bernstein was awarded an honorary
degree, Doctor of Music, from
Shenandoah University. Dr. Bernstein
maintains a private studio in New
York City and is a faculty member of
New York University.
54
CLAVIER COMPANION
Opus 111: A revelation
by Seymour Bernstein
No one questions that Beethoven’s controversial choices in his work are appreciated as
groundbreaking. But nearly anyone would
question a choice made by a young pianist to
deviate from instructions printed in urtext
scores. As a young student, celebrated pianist
and best-selling author Seymour Bernstein
made that conscious choice in a passage of
Beethoven’s Sonata Opus 111—a choice met
with understandable disapproval by
Bernstein’s teacher. But a gift that Bernstein
received years later revealed a surprising discovery. His instincts compelling him to stray
from the score in Beethoven’s monumental
work were validated.
To our knowledge, the information in
Bernstein’s accounting of an editorial marking
in Opus 111 is reported here for the first time.
Perhaps only Beethoven will ever know the
answer to whether he is the mystery editor in
the manuscript described by Bernstein, and
perhaps Beethoven’s communication truly
transcends the written page.
t is commonly agreed that Beethoven’s
last piano sonata, Op. 111, is among
the monumental achievements of all
time. Since its publication in 1823, its profound message has inspired creative figures
in all the arts. It would be difficult, for
example, to find a more dramatic account
of Op. 111 than that given by Dr.
Kretzschmar, the eccentric and inspirational musicologist in Thomas Mann’s
novel, Doctor Faustus.
I first began to study Op. 111 when I was
twenty-five years old. I was a pupil of
Alexander Brailowsky at the time (his only
pupil), and bravely decided to play it for
him at one of my lessons. No sooner did I
announce to my maître what I intended to
play, than he fairly exploded at me in his
thick Russian accent: “No! You must not
play this sonata until you are fifty!”
Although I had practiced it diligently and
felt thoroughly prepared, Brailowsky refused
to hear it. Fortunately, I had other works
ready to perform for him at that lesson.
I
Is twenty-five, or sixteen, or even twelve
too young to play late Beethoven? I believe
it all depends on our genetic programming,
and the kind of talent we have. The notion
of having to be a particular age to play certain repertoire is, in my opinion, an antiquated pedagogical theory. Beginners at the
piano must certainly adhere to sequential
steps that build a foundation for the future.
But I believe that a pianist of twenty-five
who has already performed many times in
public should be free to choose his own
repertoire. I have met some teachers who
believe, for example, that pianists ought not
to tackle late Beethoven sonatas unless they
have studied and performed the earlier
ones, beginning with Op. 2, No. 1. As I
have discovered during my own teaching
career, there is a tendency among some
teachers to pass on to their students their
own strengths and weaknesses, as parents
might do with their children. At twentyfive, I was not experienced enough to
account for Brailowsky’s pronouncement of
having to be fifty to play Op. 111; nor
would I have dared ask him to explain why
he thought that. I only remember being
perplexed, more so because a year earlier, I
had played Beethoven’s Op. 110 for him,
and the Bagatelles, Op. 126, which he had
admired tremendously. Of course, Op. 111
is one of the most difficult pieces in the
repertoire, and Brailowsky may have been
acting like a protective parent in forbidding me to study it too early in my career.
It is also possible that the work was not in
his repertoire. In terms of repertoire choices, Brailowsky had gone his own way when
he was around twenty-five. His forte was
the romantic period, with a special affinity
for Chopin. He was the first pianist to perform the complete Chopin cycle in public,
a feat that he repeated ten times around
the world. He was a great pianist, and I felt
deeply privileged to study with him. At any
rate, the incident with Op. 111 taught me
a lesson: from that time on, I restricted the
repertoire I brought him to works from the
MARCH/APRIL 2012
romantic period, and continued to work on late Beethoven by
myself.
In 1958, I was awarded a Martha Baird Rockefeller grant to
study in London for six months with the late Sir Clifford Curzon,
and, subsequently, to make my debuts in five European capitals. Sir
Clifford, revered by most musicians, was an artist whose interpretations of a large and varied repertoire were nothing short of transcendental. To my good fortune, he had planned to perform Op.
111 as part of his recital in New York City the following year. He
was, therefore, eager to work on it with me.
Nothing escaped Sir Clifford’s ears or eyes. Not surprisingly,
then, he stopped me at once when he saw me divide my hands on
the opening octaves of Op. 111 (see Excerpt 1).
Excerpt 1: Sonata in C Minor, Op. 111, Mvt. 1, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 1-2. R.H./L.H. indications at the beginning by
Seymour Bernstein.
“Laddie,” he said sarcastically, “one day you’ll come crawling to
the keyboard if you continue to facilitate passages between your
hands.” (Years earlier, at Fontainebleau, France, he had observed
and criticized my hand divisions, which I call “swindles,” when I
played Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto for him at a master class.)
“Beethoven specifically wrote those octaves to be played with the
left hand alone in order to create a tension between the tones of
the diminished seventh interval.” “But Clifford,” I protested (as
soon as I arrived in London, Sir Clifford, who was Mr. Curzon at
the time, insisted that I call him by his ‘good Nordic name’), “I’ve
tried playing those octaves with my left hand, but I invariably slip
off the F-sharp. I am aware of the tension in that diminished seventh interval, and I thought that I had simulated it even using two
hands.” “Simulation, Laddie, is merely what the word implies,” he
said, with an air of annoyance. “I don’t wish to discuss this any further. Let’s get on with the lesson.”1
This wasn’t the only time that Sir Clifford expressed his annoyance with me. Nor were his criticisms confined to musical matters
alone. On the one hand, he could be tender, generous, and almost
embarrassingly complimentary. On the other, an innocent remark,
or even the way I dressed, would unpredictably ignite his temper.
There were times when I found his behavior unacceptable. Yet, I
decided that the musical nourishment I received from him overrode all personal considerations.
My relationship with Sir Clifford spanned some twenty years.
During that time, I was his official accompanist when he practiced
his concerti in Steinway’s basement during his biannual visits to
New York City. He loved to play the role of the student, and often
urged me to give him my opinion about interpretive issues. Suffice
it to say that I was privy to some of his best playing, the sort of
playing that one rarely hears. Like many purists, he didn’t always
practice what he preached, and occasionally divided his hands to
facilitate certain unruly passages. Each time I caught him doing
this, I jokingly admonished him, as he had done to me years before
in London. He always enjoyed such moments of humor.
To return to the lesson on Op. 111, matters went surprisingly
well until I came to the cresc. in measure 118 of the second movement. See the first arrow in Excerpt 2.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Excerpt 2: Sonata in C Minor, Op. 111, Mvt. 2, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 113-119. Arrow inserts by Seymour Bernstein.
This cresc. appears in all the urtext editions currently available.
Five measures before this cresc., the right hand trills ascend in a
crescendo to the far reaches of the treble, and the bass enters on an
explosive B-flat at the sf and descends to a low F deep in the bass.
The ever-widening intervals created by contrary motion between
the bass and treble continue right through to measure 119. By the
time one arrives at the tied high B-flat in the right hand, and the
low F in the left (marked in Excerpt 2 with the vertical doubleheaded arrow), the bass and treble finally come to rest five-and-ahalf octaves apart. For a brief moment, the hands and arms remain
outstretched, as though in a position of supplication. The first time
I encountered this moment in Op. 111, I wondered whether
Beethoven intended to simulate a crucifixion. Whatever his intention, this passage has always aroused feelings of grief and resignation within me. Because of these feelings, the very last thing I want
to do is to make a crescendo. On the contrary. While my arms and
hands are pulled away from my torso, and remain outstretched, my
instinct is to make a diminuendo. Yet, around the time of my lessons with Sir Clifford, making a diminuendo invariably triggered a
sense of guilt within me for disobeying Beethoven’s indication. I
rarely disregard a composer’s marking, unless I suspect an editorial
mistake.
I knew, of course, that avoiding the cresc. would not sit well with
Sir Clifford. “Laddie,” he began acerbically, “there’s a cresc. marked
there. And you made a diminuendo.” I explained to Sir Clifford my
feelings about this passage, such as I described above. “But
Laddie,” he implored, “you can’t ignore Beethoven’s indication. You
don’t have to make an exaggerated crescendo, but you have at least to
keep up the sound, and not go to the opposite extreme.” “Clifford,”
I replied as humbly as I could, “I know that I’m naughty and disrespectful to Beethoven, and to you as well, but I simply can’t make
that crescendo.”
Sir Clifford heatedly admonished me for being so stubborn. Yet,
a moment later, he reverted back to the patient master in discussing the rest of the movement. Although he was peeved at me,
something in his manner told me that he admired my conviction,
and even my refusal to obey his suggestion.
Sir Clifford Curzon was undoubtedly the greatest teacher I ever
had. Except for occasional intervals of conflict, we enjoyed a close
and inspirational relationship until his death in 1982.
After my debuts in Europe, I returned to my New York City
apartment and discovered a mountain of mail waiting for me.
Conspicuous in the batch was a large, beautifully-wrapped package, which I opened at once. Its content made me gasp in amazement; for there was the facsimile of Beethoven’s autograph of Op.
111, a gift from my late friend Sheila Aldendorff. One glimpse of
this wonderful gift, and I placed all other responsibilities on hold. I
sat down and with mounting wonderment turned the pages of the
facsimile until I found measure 118 in the second movement. As
though to delay my curiosity, the pagination was such that the
ascending trills appeared at the bottom of a page, the final measure
of the page coinciding with measure 117 in the urtext score (see
Excerpt 3, next page).
CLAVIER COMPANION
55
Excerpt 3: Facsimile of the autograph of Beethoven’s Sonata in C Minor,
Op. 111, Mvt. 2, m. 117.
My heart quickened as I turned the page to examine measure
118. What I saw caused my mouth to fall open in utter astonishment: the cresc. that had occupied my thoughts for so long and the
indication p beside it were not there. A closer look revealed
smudges and a leftover dash, suggesting that those indications had
been erased. The first arrow in Excerpt 4 points to the spot where p
and cresc. ought to have been; the second arrow points to a telltale
dash—probably a remnant from a series of dashes after the word
cresc.
my opinion about such symbols in my book, Chopin—Interpreting
his Notational Symbols (Manduca Music Publishers, 2005); research
has led me to conclude that hairpins, beginning with late Haydn,
indicate tempo fluctuations. In many cases, they have a double
meaning. I therefore believe that the hairpins in the bass and treble, measures 116-117, mean to broaden the tempo at the widest
opening of the hairpin, and then gradually return to the tempo
while making a slight diminuendo. The fact that Beethoven inserted
the word “diminuendo” in measure 119 (see Excerpt 4) seems to
prove that the closing hairpins in measures 116-117 have a meaning beyond diminuendo. Whatever the truth is, my feeling is
unchangeable: I will always make a diminuendo as I rise to the high
B-flat, and continue growing softer thereafter until I reach
Beethoven’s p at measure 120.
Excerpt 5 is my interpretation of measures 117-119. Since the
piano indication at measure 118 has been erased from the autograph, I have taken the liberty of placing a marking of mf here. In
addition, and with apologies to Beethoven, I replaced his piano
indication in the bass, measure 117, with mf.
Excerpt 5: Sonata in C Minor, Op. 111, Mvt. 2, by Ludwig van
Beethoven, mm. 113-123. Dynamic markings in mm. 116-119 by
Seymour Bernstein.
Excerpt 4: Facsimile of the autograph of Beethoven’s Sonata in C Minor,
Op. 111, Mvt. 2, m. 118. Arrow inserts by Seymour Bernstein.
My first thought was that my friend Sheila Aldendorff had
erased the word and the p from the facsimile, knowing that I
refused to make that crescendo. I immediately phoned her, thanked
her profusely for the gift, and asked if she had, indeed, erased those
marks from measure 118. “Of course not,” she said defensively.
As I continued to practice and perform Op. 111, it increasingly
“You never discussed that issue with me. I don’t know what you’re
stirred “the innermost recesses of my soul,” to quote Aristotle. Yet,
talking about.”
the level of my performances disappointed me. Once on the stage,
When I hung up the phone, I traced my finger over
I felt unworthy, unable to reach its lofty heights, and
the area where the p and cresc. should have been. The
invariably I fell prey to anxiety. Finally, seventeen years
page was smooth. So Beethoven himself, or else someafter I had first begun to study Op. 111, I performed it
one in his circle of acquaintances must have erased
in Alice Tully Hall in 1969, the year that the hall
those marks in his manuscript. At that point, I felt
opened, and this time I felt that my playing of it was at
goose bumps mounting on my skin. Finding confirmaleast acceptable, if not perfect. That I was able to lose
tion of an instinct was, for me, comparable to experimyself in the second movement, even in such an aweencing a revelation. I lost no time in phoning Sir
inspiring new venue, was a breakthrough for me.2 As I
think about it now, I might as well have been the student
Clifford in London to tell him of my discovery. He was
in Eugen Herrigel’s book Zen in the Art of Archery (New
utterly amazed.
York, Vintage Books, 1971), who, after years of training
The erasure in the autograph would seem to indicate
Seymour Bernstein
with his Master, finally learned to breathe properly: “I
that Beethoven did not want a p and a cresc. at measure
learned to lose myself so effortlessly in the breathing that
118. Yet questions remain that challenge this assumpI sometimes had the feeling that I myself was not breathing but—
tion. For one thing, Beethoven is supposed to have corrected the
strange as this may sound—being breathed.” Similarly, that afterfinal proofs of his last three sonatas. If it was Beethoven who erased
noon on the stage of Tully Hall, I had the feeling that the notes of
the cresc. and p from the autograph, did he then carelessly forget to
Op. 111 and the spirit of Beethoven himself were informing me of
delete those indications in the proofs? If so, this merely lends cretheir secrets, and guiding my hands on the keyboard. I was, in a
dence to the suggestion that composers are the very last people who
sense, being played. p
ought to be trusted with proofreading their scores. It is also possible
that Beethoven changed his mind, and opted for the cresc. and p after
When Sir Clifford performed Op. 111 at Hunter College the following year, he was magall. To compound the mystery, it is known that at least two other
nificent, save for one detail: in playing the opening octaves with his left hand alone, he slid
manuscript copies of Op. 111 existed and have been lost. Perhaps
off the F-sharp, thus creating a cacophony of sound that visibly upset him. “Stubborn
one of those manuscripts postdates this particular autograph, and
man,” I thought to myself. “I told you so!”
contains those indications.
This live performance is now part of my 2-CD package entitled Retrospective (Manduca
Music Publishers, 2005).
In measure 117, sf appears two times, along with a p in the bass
Facsimile excerpts © 1952, C. F. Peters. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
and two closing hairpins. As to the closing hairpins, I have given
1
2
56
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Rhythm
Bruce Berr has been an independent teacher and university professor
of piano and pedagogy for a long
time. He is known nationally as a
clinician, educational composer and
arranger, and author on a wide
variety of topics related to teaching,
music, and piano. His column on
personal observations, “ad lib,”
appears regularly in American
Music Teacher magazine,
and he has been editor of the
Rhythm department for Keyboard
Companion and Clavier
Companion since 1997. Explore
his website at BruceBerr.com.
This issue’s contributor:
Pascal Wetzel was born in 1948 in
Paris, France. He studied jazz piano at
the Centre d’Informations Musicales
in Paris. In the early 1980s, while
playing with jazz bands, he began to
transcribe the music of pianist Bill
Evans. Subsequent studies in arranging
and composition were at the Grove
School of Music (Los Angeles, USA). In
1989 he published his first book of Bill
Evans transcriptions, The Artistry of
Bill Evans. After moving back to Paris,
he taught at the Institut Art Culture
Perception and published three more
books of transcriptions with The Richmond Organization. He continues to
transcribe, sometimes on commission,
the works of many artists. He currently
teaches piano in a Paris suburb where
he lives with his wife and
two daughters.
58
CLAVIER COMPANION
The Heart of the Matter:
Rhythm
Bruce Berr, Editor
How do you decipher rhythms
when transcribing the
recordings of Bill Evans?
have been a devotee of the music of
jazz pianist Bill Evans since my early
teenage years. I own many of his
recordings and have listened to them
numerous times over the decades, constantly hearing new things in them. I also
was fortunate to hear him perform live on
campus when I was a college student in St.
Louis in the 1970s—a marvelous experience.
One of my favorite Evans recordings is
“Danny Boy” from the 1962 album
Empathy. It’s a subtle yet colorful and
arresting interpretation of the well-known
Irish folk song still known as
“Londonderry Air.” The recording takes
delightful harmonic twists and turns while
expressing introspective aspects of the tune
that just never would have occurred to anyone, except Bill Evans.
For years I searched in music stores for a
transcription of this splendid recording so I
could savor it at the piano. Although I had
done transcriptions of other people’s jazz
recordings while in high school, I didn’t
feel brave enough to undertake this project. I just didn’t (and still don’t) trust my
ear to be fine enough to discern Evans’
voicings—let alone trying to notate the
delicately pliable rhythms.
Last year I came upon the website of a
piano teacher in France, Pascal Wetzel,
who has done many transcriptions of Bill
Evans’ recordings. The website (pascalwetzel.com—click on the British flag for
English) is mainly a tribute to the work of
Bill Evans and the love that Pascal has for
that music. I sent him an email, inquiring
into his work. Through his response, I
learned that even though he has completed
a huge number of transcriptions and does
have several books of them published by
Hal Leonard and TRO—The Richmond
Organization, the vast majority of them
have not been published due to copyright
I
and licensing complexities. He also wasn’t
optimistic that those legal knots would be
untangled anytime soon. Since he doesn’t
have rights to the Evans performances,
unfortunately his unpublished transcriptions can’t be sold or given away.
I told him about my fondness for the
“Danny Boy” recording. To satisfy my
curiosity about the nature of his transcriptions, he sent me a short excerpt from that
piece. What a revelation it was to play
through a partial score of “Danny Boy.”
Pascal’s transcription looked a lot simpler
on the page rhythmically than how I had
thought it would, yet when I played what
was there with slight rubato, it sounded
virtually the same as the recording! I was
astounded that he not only had accurately
perceived all those luscious voicings of
Evans’ harmonies (he doesn’t have perfect
pitch, just a great ear and tenacity fueled by
passion), but also his notation of the
rhythms captured the underlying elegance
and simplicity of the music. Anyone who
could pull off such a reverse-engineering
feat must himself possess a high level of
musicianship.
Instead of merely transcribing a performance of a piece, he succeeded in notating the
essence of it, something which most composers strive for as well. All of this reminded me about the inherent and considerable
shortcomings of music notation if not
approached from an aesthetic perspective.
Composers are always acutely aware of this,
but performers who don’t compose can
insidiously lose sight of it if not vigilant.
I asked Pascal if he would share with us
how he approaches transcribing. I assumed
that such an essay would provide insights
into the core nature of rhythm, harmony,
and musical form, as well as the limitations
of music notation of any style. His article
does that and more—in short, it provides
fodder for strategizing how we can help
MARCH/APRIL 2012
students (and ourselves as pianists) bridge
the gap between the cold blueprint on the
page and what needs to happen for that to
become alive again, as it once was in the
composer’s imagination.
Even though Pascal has some command
of English as a second language, I gave
him the option of writing in his native
French so he would be comfortable working out his ideas. He accepted, and I then
translated and edited his essay. I received
invaluable corroboration (and a few correc-
tions) with the translation from two
friends and former college piano students,
Annie Artinian and Clarice Assad. Both
are multilingual, yet neither claims English
as her native tongue. Un grand merci à
toutes les deux! p
From sound to idea to symbol
by Pascal Wetzel
or more than thirty years I have
devoted myself to the transcription
of piano jazz, par ticular l y the
music of the great pianist Bill Evans,
whose music I especially love. Therefore,
over time I have acquired specialized
experience.
Transcribing a piece for piano as faithfully as possible is generally a long, tiring,
and rather challenging job. Each one
requires one to two weeks (or even more),
depending upon the length of the recording and the difficulty of transcription. The
process, therefore, requires careful reflection. W hen I consider transcribing a
recording, I always ask myself first, is it
really worth the effort? Criteria that I consider, besides the overall quality of the
arrangement, are the interest and beauty of
the piece, and how successfully the
improvisation develops the melodic ideas,
as well as the perfection of its form. If
there have been several recordings, I must
also be convinced that the specific one I
transcribe is the best one. It must be a
high-level musical performance without
any weaknesses, worthy of staying with
posterity in notated format. To be fair to
Bill Evans, I also must decide, would he
have approved my choice? But quite often
I fall in love with a particular interpretation. Then I don’t hesitate; I feel “obliged”
to transcribe it—in order to understand
what it is truly made of.
When the music follows a steady tempo,
with a well-trained ear and modern means,
we can achieve great precision in the transcription of pitches played (knowing which
key was pressed) and rhythms (when and
how long the key was depressed). But the
real difficulties of transcribing a jazz piece
begin when the music is played rubato. It
alters the tempo and the length of the
notes—accelerating, slowing down, broadening, yet the flow of the notes remains. It
is as if each phrase breathes in a particular
way on its own. The difficulty in transcribing such a performance is that one’s frame
of reference needs to be both rhythmic and
musical. Most of the time, an improvising
F
MARCH/APRIL 2012
soloist in jazz is not playing from a fully
notated score that he scrupulously follows,
a situation which is different than that of a
classical musician. The transcriber may be
dealing with two different situations:
1. The rubato involves the presentation
of a tune and its chord changes (the
“head”), or the improvised solo on the
harmonic structure of the head. In that
case, there is a reference structure, such as
the standard thirty-two measures with a
given melodic line and its basic chord
changes. The interpreter has often created
and memorized, in advance, an arrangement of the head, with a particular harmonization and rephrasing of the melody.
2. The rubato is part of a totally free
improvisation, or a section added by the
pianist (introduction, interlude, or coda).
It may have been arranged in advance by the
pianist, but its underlying construction can’t
easily be discerned by the transcriber because
there is no reference structure. In this case
transcribing is clearly more difficult.
Transcribing the rhythm in Situation 1:
The head and its improvisations
A new transcriber’s first temptation is to
notate the duration of each sound as accurately as possible so that the score will
faithfully represent a “flash photograph” of
the musical idea. I discovered very quickly
that this approach led to tremendously
complicated writing, with incessant meter
changes. This tore apart the tapestry of the
music as it had been played; the intertwining of harmonic structure and melodic
clarity were completely disconnected.
For instance, the notes and chords that
should logically be placed on strong beats
might end up being placed on weak beats,
thus being misplaced in relation to the bar
lines. This possibly leads to rhythmic notation that is too complex or unclear. Even
worse, the score is then devoid of any
coherent legible form. Ironically, the individual parts can be “precise,” yet the whole
can still be absolutely wrong! A sum of the
small partial “truths” can lead to a big “lie”
because this approach applies a metronomic framework to a situation which is not
metronomic. However, without reference
to a regular steady tempo, there really is no
objective truth, so rhythmic notation
remains relatively subjective. Therefore, the
same passage with complex rubato would
be transcribed differently by different people. Notation might then cease to serve its
purpose, because it is supposed to represent
the musical thoughts of Bill Evans—
always extremely clear with a sense wellinformed by structure. It therefore started
to seem obvious to me that the “original
score” which I was trying to construct
needed to be much, much simpler than the
too-conscientious notation of the “realization” of the recording.
An additional idea helped me confirm
this strategic conclusion. If you were to
transcribe a recording of, say, a Chopin
Nocturne with the highest rhythmic precision of the performance by the pianist,
would this represent the original score?
Probably not—it would be distorted.
However, since the pianist did play
Chopin’s score accurately, note for note
(which after all is the source of the musical
ideas), and yet still made it live and
breathe, obviously he “interpreted” what
was written and made it come back to life.
I decided therefore to give preference in
my transcriptions to this “original pure
idea” rather than its “concrete realization”
with rubato built in. Put differently, I try to
put myself in Bill Evans’ place—he always
seemed to have present in mind the structure of the theme he was improvising on. I
try to imagine an ideal original score, stylized by the recording studio (a bit like a
posed photograph rather than a candid
one), where everything on that score is in
its place, not only to capture a succession
of notes, but most importantly the aesthetic
idea which organizes them. In order to do
that, it became obvious that I had to
respect the structure of the theme and its
harmonic rhythm as projected by the
pianist. I decided, therefore, to notate in
CLAVIER COMPANION
59
this frame of mind, never losing sight of
one definite and logical aspect of the form:
the number of measures needed. Then the
task is easier because all that remains is to
add the notes to the canvas.
Once the structure and meter are ascertained (the latter is easy because Bill Evans
generally played in either 4/4 or 3/4), I can
begin the process of transcribing. I proceed
section by section, writing down the succession of the main melodic and harmonic
notes, including bass lines and chords,
without concern for their length. Only
after that do I try to organize everything
rhythmically. It’s necessary to decide where
the beats are in each phrase, then the bar
lines. Without the landmark of a steady
tempo, it is never very easy.
Correctly writing down notes that are
supposed to be on the beats is essential; a
mistake in this area will make the phrase
sound wobbly. To do this, it is necessary to
trust in my musical sense and intuition.
The main indications I use are the melodic
outline of the phrase and its relationship
with the harmony, as well as climaxes and
accents. I use the metronome very little
unless a phrase is apparently played in
tempo and I wish to confirm that.
There is a characteristic often heard in
the phrasing of experienced jazz musicians:
they tend to use whichever subdivision of
the beat—eighth notes, sixteenths,
triplets—will best project the “breathing”
of the phrase in a proportional way. Again,
I need to use my own musical judgment to
discern these differences. Attentive listening can spot possibly stable areas versus
sections that have slight changes in the
beat: accelerando, ritardando, ritenuto,
allargando, etc. I notate these with adjusted
note values (longer or shorter), and try to
have them conform with the most plausible rhythms in that context. Occasionally, I
must also provide verbal annotations (such
as “ritard”).
If I can’t define a melodic line in a natural way with the original chosen meter, I
am obliged to change the meter to convey
the phrase in a simple way. At times, Bill
Evans would play a 3/4 phrase in the middle of a 4/4 section, or vice versa. But I
come to this conclusion as a last resort; I
don’t like to possibly overdo this because I
want the score to be as homogeneous as
possible.
Transcribing the rhythm in Situation 2:
A complete improvisation
Since it does not have a reference structure, it is necessary to discern its form first,
as much as that is possible. As in much
classical music, the harmonic content is
60
CLAVIER COMPANION
decisive in defining the form; chords play
an important role in the overall rhythmic
organization as well.
A simple example: when I hear ii-V-I
(such as Dm7, G7, and Cmaj7 in the key
of C), I first test a standard format where
the I chord lasts twice as long as ii or V
and is on a strong beat (assume 4/4):
1-measure long: Dm7 G7 Cmaj7 /
2-measures long: Dm7 / G7 / Cmaj7 / / /
4-measures long: Dm7 / / / G7 / / /
Cmaj7 / / / Cmaj7 / / /
I proceed by perceiving the chords in
each phrase: checking for the functions of
basic harmonies (subdominant, dominant,
tonic), passing chords (such as tritone substitutions and secondary dominants), and
the number of melodic notes that separate
them. I form ideas about harmonic and
melodic rhythm, as well as feeling where
downbeats (and thus bar lines) occur.
Certainly there is an arbitrary aspect to my
choices, but, after all is said and done, I
must trust in my musical sense. Once a
section is written down, I play it at the
piano to confirm and verify the validity of
my notation.
A constant in my approach to transcribing is the search for simplicity and clarity—never making something complicated
if it can be made simple. For instance, in
regards to Bill Evans’ eighth notes, given
their huge variety, precision has limits. It is
practically impossible to render them with
absolutely true rhythmic accuracy; they can
be triplets, duplets, equal, unequal, in every
possible way. It would be much too complicated to notate them exactly, however
interesting that might be. My notation is
therefore slightly simplified. I always try to
avoid useless complications, especially
Crossword
Solution
Puzzle on page 20
those that won’t improve the rendering of
the score and thus would work to the
detriment of clarity.
With the same concern for simplicity,
my scores generally do not contain all possible nuances of notation (symbols as well
as verbal annotations). I don’t think it is
necessar y to provide a multitude of
extremely detailed indications on interpretation, for two reasons:
1. The transcription of jazz comes from
a recording. If the player of the transcription first listens attentively to the recording, it reveals the slightest playing nuances,
including touch. This is a huge advantage.
Unlike the situation with most classical
music, we have the recording of the original interpretation by its creator—it is an
ideal “road map.” It is therefore necessary
and desirable to use it. As a pianist, I cannot imagine learning a transcription of Bill
Evans without carefully referring to the
original recording. Interpreters of a jazz
transcription must also use their ears, just
as the transcriber did!
2. Music notation is very precise about
which notes to play (“what?”) but much
less so about their execution (“how?”). For
that, it would be necessary to comment on
almost ever y note in detail, which is
impossible. Interpretation and expressiveness are “values added” by the musician.
We can learn from the conductor of a
classical orchestra about what must be
accomplished to meet the needs of a score.
An interpreter—that term is significant—
cannot limit himself to rendering the score
merely accurately, he must make it come
alive. During a master class given by the
Hungarian pianist Györg y Sebök in
Amsterdam, a student wanted to know
how best to play a passage in the finale of a
Beethoven sonata, “When I play it exactly as
written, it doesn’t sound convincing.” Sebök
told him not to be afraid to var y the
rhythm minutely in order to give it meaning, “Beethoven was a great genius, but even
Beethoven couldn’t write anything between a
thirty-second and a sixteenth note; there is no
musical notation for it. So this is an approximation. You can slow down slightly and then
speed up slightly” (from The Piano Shop on
the Left Bank by T.E. Carhart, Vintage
U.K.).
A score is the translation of sounds and
their durations into written form.
Therefore, it is inherently formulaic and
limited. It does, however, act as a basic scenario which can be realized in different
ways. This explains how the pianist
Christian Zacharias can put on a single
CD twenty different performances of the
same Scarlatti sonata! p
MARCH/APRIL 2012
MARCH/APRIL 2012
CLAVIER COMPANION
61
Adult Piano Study
It's Never Too Late:
Adult Piano Study
Michelle Conda, Editor
Michelle Conda is the Coordinator of
Secondary Piano and Piano Pedagogy
at the Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music. She also teaches
an adult piano class for the university’s
Communiversity program. She received
her Ph.D. from the University of
Oklahoma. Adult learning is her focus,
as she heads the Adult Learning
Committee for the National Conference
on Keyboard Pedagogy.
This issue’s contributor:
Jill Dew is a native of Chattanooga,
TN, where she received her B.M. and
B.A. at the University of Tennessee.
She then moved to the Cincinnati area,
where she earned an M.M. at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (UC-CCM). She has
been to the VoiceCare Network in
Minnesota for the past twelve years,
studying student-based vocal pedagogy.
She apprenticed with the Michigan
Opera Theatre in Detroit, and has
studied with John Wustman, Martina
Arroyo, Italo Tajo, Mignon Dunn, and
John Alexander, among others. She has
sung in Eastern Europe and across the
United States. Locally, she has performed with the Cincinnati Opera,
May Festival, Vocal Arts Ensemble,
Musica Sacra, and the Cincinnati
Camerata. She is a voice teacher, both
in her studio in her home and on faculty at UC-CCM Preparatory
Department, where she is the head of
the voice division. She teaches privately, one-on-one, as well as adult
voice classes at UC-CCM. Currently,
she is studying piano with Michelle
Conda to help her achieve her life-long
goal of becoming an accomplished
accompanist.
62
CLAVIER COMPANION
The trapeziectomy diaries:
Recovering from arthritis
J
ill Dew is one of my favorite people.
You can’t help but love her charisma
and her enthusiasm. She is a superb
singer and vocal coach who loves her students. She also loves playing the piano,
sometimes in tearful wonder of the instrument and her accomplishments. Then she
was robbed. Robbed by the effects of
arthritis.
Jill is not naïve—arthritis is an inherited
gene in her family. Her hips and her hands
seem to be the most affected. Jill is a positive person who believes in shaping her
own destiny. I wasn’t surprised when Jill
decided to have a trapeziectomy in order to
reclaim her piano playing.
The trapezium is one of the carpal bones
in the hand, located at the base of the
thumb. A trapeziectomy is the complete
removal of the trapezium bone. The space
where the bone was removed is filled with
scar tissue that performs as the trapezium.
A trapeziectomy is recommended if the
joint above or below the trapezium is
affected by arthritis.
Jill had trapeziectomies in both hands.
The white dot is where the trapezium is
located.
We chronicled the operations through pictures and through Jill’s diary.
Arthritis does not need to result in the
end of piano playing. In fact, Jill’s new
flexibility has resulted in a vastly improved
pianist. There are “tricks” that speed recovery. Certain finger exercises are extremely
helpful in regaining flexibility, others send
up red flags.
The following article is the first of a
two-part series on Jill’s trapeziectomy. This
article focuses on her operation and recovery. The next article will offer advice to
teachers and students going through this
process. p
My trapeziectomy
by Jill Dew
hree years ago, I noticed my hands
hurt when I played for any length
of time. Big knots had begun to
appear at the base of each thumb. These
knots were sensitive; whenever I accidentally hit them, they would almost take my
breath away, they hurt so badly. At first, I
had to touch them for pain to occur; eventually they hurt all the time.
The next thing I noticed was my reach
was shortening; originally, I could reach a
tenth with one hand. My teacher said I
have small hands, so I was always proud I
could cover so many keys. But now, playing
an octave was hard to do.
The evil villain arthritis had placed a
T
huge roadblock in the path to my ultimate
goal—to become an accomplished accompanist for my voice students. I knew something had to be done. I went to the internet, spending hours learning about arthritis
in the hands. This is when I learned about
the “trapezium.”
Would I need a trapeziectomy? I went to
my family doctor, who recommended an
orthopedic surgeon specializing in hands—
Dr. Due. I took this as a positive sign
because my last name is “Dew.”
W hen I met with Dr. D ue, I was
relieved to find out he was a pianist as well.
He understood where I was coming from,
what I needed my hands to do, and what
MARCH/APRIL 2012
my fears were. He explained to me that if I
wanted to continue playing the piano, the
operation was the only way to go. He
explained that arthritis on the trapezium
would continue to deform the other bones
in my hand to the point where my thumb
would be pushed under the palm. It would
become like a flipper, as I would only be
able to move the first joint.
No power octaves with that kind of
hand! I said, “Let’s go. What do I have to
do?”
Since my right hand was worse than my
left, he decided to operate on that one first.
Because I teach, I chose to have the operation in early June. This gave me three
months to recover before I had to teach
again. I was cutting it close—Dr. Due told
me not to expect my hand to be back to
normal for six months. Always the optimist, I decided to go by the web’s estimate
of three months. I figured I would be good
(enough) to go back to work in September.
The plan was to do the other hand the following year.
It took months of preparation to master
the art of living with only one usable hand.
Being right-handed, I knew I would be at
a great disadvantage. In January, I started
writing with my left hand. It was a humbling experience, being unable to write
better than a second-grader. Things I had
always taken for granted became real challenges. Imagine having to relearn how to
brush your teeth, button clothes, work zippers, open jars, or just get the toothpaste
on the toothbrush. I gave up trying to
straighten my hair—I couldn’t use the
curling iron with one hand.
I developed a Zen approach to it all. I
learned to do what I could and accept
those I could not. It was a hard way for me
to deal with my control issues, but I took it
for the lesson it was. And I found out it’s
amazing what I could do when I put my
mind to it.
At my teacher’s suggestion, I kept a
diary of both trapeziectomies. Below are
excerpts concerning my second operation.
Jill’s arthritis diaries
Pre-surgery
Because I’m sixty, I was required to take
a physical to see if I can withstand the doctors going in and car ving on me. It ’s
annoying, but nothing painful. The guy
that draws the blood is done before I even
have time to flinch. Nice. Plus, he’s easy on
the eyes.
Ten days before surgery I quit my daily
doses of N-SAIDs (I take prescription
Etodolac)—something about effects on the
blood. Wow! All the little arthritis spots
that run throughout my body jump out.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Those little pills were wonderful for controlling pain! I miss them! Still, I suck it up
and do what the doctors tell me to do. I
keep thinking, “Power octaves, power
octaves.”
The surgery
When I come out of surgery, my hand is
all bound up in nice clean gauze with only
my fingertips showing. They look like little
Vienna sausages. The nerve block I was
given during surgery killed the pain for
twenty-four hours. I highly recommend
this. That nerve block is a wonderful thing.
After the surgery
Week One
Wednesday, 6/15
High on pain meds, slept, watched television. A good friend comes over to stay
with me. This is important, as I am totally
wiped out from the meds.
I’m pretty useless—I can’t do much of
anything. Thank heavens I thought ahead
and cooked and froze meals in preparation
for this endeavor. I also lined someone up
to clean the house for the week. My poor
husband Jim is bringing me food and carryout when he gets home from work, not
that I am very hungry. Wish I had lined up
someone to stay with me the whole week.
We will survive.
The nerve block wears off about noon.
I’m one of the lucky people. I was told a
block usually lasts eight-twelve hours. The
lucky few will feel the effects for twentyfour hours. Woo-hoo.
Pain sets in, but so do the meds. Thank
goodness for modern pharmacology.
Thursday, 6/16
Going to physical therapy. I am already
moving my fingers! If there is one thing I
learned from the first surgery, move your
fingers as soon as possible! Those tendons
tighten up quickly. Having said that, don’t
over-do. Tendonitis is a painful thing in
itself.
I now have a new BFF (Best Friend
Forever)—Meg, the Physical Therapist. I
will see her twice a week until it is deemed
I can come once a week.
Meg takes off the wrapping and shows
me the head of the temporary pin (looks
like the head of a hatpin) that’s holding my
bones in place while the scar tissue fills in
the hole left by the bone removal. She
shows me how to clean the area by pouring
a little hydrogen peroxide on it, and then
wiping it with a Q-tip. I feel nothing
except a little coolness.
She also shows me how to rub the scar
with Neosporin to desensitize the area. It’s
pretty tender at first (really tender, actually),
Placement of temporary pin
but, after about a minute of her rubbing it,
I am able to tolerate the pain. She tells me
to do this for five minutes, four times a day
and that I won’t hurt anything by doing
this. The purpose is to desensitize the area
and make the skin flexible. I say, “Yes,
Ma’am.” As I said, Meg is my new best
friend.
Meg makes me a removable splint. It
begins about two inches from my elbow
and goes to the base of my fingers. My
thumb is covered up to the base of the tip.
Removable splint
And, yes, still high on pain medications.
So what do I do? I take my son Brian out
to lunch. He laughs at me because I’m so
goofy, but I don’t mind—how could I? I’m
on those meds.
Saturday, 6/18
The pain is subsiding, so I don’t need
the medications so much today. Still sleep
and watch television. Thank goodness
we’ve got a big flat-screen—my second
new BFF.
Monday, 6/20
It’s back to the therapist. I see Lauren,
my third new BFF. She says the rubbing is
working and to keep it up. Yay for small
victories!
Week Two
Thursday, 6/23
Back to see Meg. Everything’s fine with
my hand. She makes me an exercise splint
and shows me how to work my thumb—
CLAVIER COMPANION
63
top two joints only. I also work my fingers—make a fist, straighten one finger at
a time—up and down, up and down.
Those tendons get tight fast.
Friday, 6/24
Starting to get tired of television.
Reading is a little tough, though, because I
can’t hold a book and turn pages. Heavy
sigh.
Sat, 6/25
A little diversion today. It’s the annual
picnic for my science club, a lovely collection of mathematicians, chemists, engineers, etc. I make green bean casserole. It
was pretty easy for me to do. Jim just has
to open all the cans for me.
This is a tiring, but fun day. It is my first
time driving, no problems; the car handles
well. It’s good to get home, though, and
get back on the couch.
Week Three
Tuesday, 6/28
Grocery day! Going to the grocery store
has become a highlight of the week. It’s
just long enough to spend out of the house
without becoming too tiring.
I still can’t do much with the hand
because the scar tissue is still filling in and
firming up. It doesn’t hurt, and that’s good.
Week Four
This is the last week before the pin
comes out. The weeks have become routine: groceries on Tuesday, physical therapy
on Thursday, lunch with friends scattered
throughout.
The big difference this week is (wait for
it)—I start my piano lessons back up.
Granted the left hand might as well be
dead to me, but I figure I can use this time
wisely. All this is very exciting, and I’m
glad to get back into action—anything to
get me up off that couch.
Week Five
Wednesday, 7/13
Big doings today:
• Off to the doctor’s to get the pin out.
• To physical therapy for my first real
exercises. These have to do with mobility;
no strengthening ones yet.
• Piano Lesson
The physical therapist is starting to get
me to move the thumb more. She gave me
an exercise splint so that I could move the
tip of the thumb without moving where
the scar tissue is attached. She gave me
some “putty”—stuff that reminds me of
Silly Putty. I wrap it around my fingers and
try to spread the fingers out. Then, I try to
collapse the putty with the fingers. I’m not
64
CLAVIER COMPANION
engaging the thumb yet. I also flatten it on
the table and push, and then pull it with
each finger. This is tedious, but I know it is
strengthening my fingers.
Throughout the past week, it has been
difficult to practice as much as I wanted.
My right hand isn’t as strong as I would
hope, and I was only able to work about
twenty minutes a day. I suspect sitting
around being medicated is making it difficult to practice. It’s amazing how having
an operation on one hand affects the whole
body. But that’s all right. Baby steps, baby
steps.
Week Six
I ask Meg some questions when I go to
see her for physical therapy.
Jill: What do you find that surprises
people about this operation?
Meg: Two things really. First, that it
takes quite a while to recover—twelve
weeks MINIMUM. And second, that this
is a “salvage” operation. Things will not go
back to normal. You have to take care of
yourself forever after this surgery; this is
not “100% cure.” Stay smart. You do not
have a “bionic thumb” now.
Jill: Are there options in case I mess up
anyway?
Meg: Yes. There’s something called
“Ligament Reconstruction and Tendon
Interposition” or LRTI, for short. This is
an operation where the doctor removes a
tendon from the forearm and uses it to
rebuild ligament support for the thumb.
This does not affect any movement in the
arm or wrist. If this operation doesn’t
work, then there’s bone fusion.
Jill: Have you ever had patients that
“ blew” out their scar tissue from the
trapeziectomy?
Meg: Yes, there was one woman who
tried to do too much way too soon. She
thought everything was “back to normal”
and she could get on with her life without
any changes.
Jill: Then what advice would you give to
prevent the same happening in someone
who’s had this surgery?
Meg: I’d tell you the following:
(1) Break up your work sessions.
(2) Don’t over-do it.
(3) This is a very common procedure
that has very good results—if you’re sensible.
(4) The therapy is not difficult—you just
have to be consistent.
(5) NO piano playing till eight weeks
MINIMUM.
(6) You can begin your full practice
schedule after six months.
(7) For the rest of your life: be SMART
about practicing. Take those breaks.
(8) If it hurts the next day, you practiced
too much. Slow down.
(9) And for you, your biggest problem
will be you’ll want to do more than you
can, and you can end up having another
surgery because you messed yourself up.
Week Seven
Michelle and I start working my fingers
this week. We begin by playing on the outside of the hand, engaging the fifth finger.
I roll the hand as I hold down the key. The
wrist is stiff and the tendons don’t want to
stretch. This exercise allows the finger to
work without requiring much movement
on its part.
Week Eight
I see Doctor Due this week to get his
input.
He thinks everything is going quite well.
He says I can start practicing piano with
the left thumb, paying attention to the
pain level. “Your thumb will let you know
immediately when you’ve done enough,”
he says with a small chuckle. Nice. It’s
good to have a doctor with a sense of
humor.
Seriously, though, I ask him about the
operation and its success rate. He says, “If a
patient doesn’t wait too late, the success
rate is very high. This operation has been
around for a long time, and there was a
time in the past when doctors would
replace the bone with spacers, but eventually these would fail. Why not go to the
final solution first, and let the scar tissue
fill in and support the thumb? With care,
this will fix the problem permanently. You
have to remember we’re replacing bone
with scar tissue, which, while very strong,
is not bone. You can tear it if you abuse it,
so you have to be moderately aware of
what you’re doing. Having said that, it
takes a lot of abuse to tear it out.”
So it’s back to more strengthening exercises for the fingers with the Physical
Therapist. I’m continuing on “range of
motion” exercises for the thumb. I’ve also
started a fun exercise in physical therapy.
Remember “LiteBrites” from when you
were a kid? Well, I get to play with one—it
takes about twenty minutes start to finish.
First I take a peg out with one finger and
the thumb, roll the hand out to make sure I
have it; then I put it into the pegboard.
Then I take another peg, out, using a different finger. I do this over and over, using
all the fingers. When I finish, I get to
reverse the process and take the pegs out
one by one, making sure to roll the wrist
each time. It’s amazing how truly difficult
this can be. I have to laugh at myself. It’s a
humbling experience.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Week Nine
The physical therapist has given me a
new toy to work with: the Jux-a-cisor. The
purpose of the tool is to get the washer
from one end to the other, holding the
elbow at the side and maintaining a firm
grip on the handle, so that only the wrist
moves. I liked it so much, I went on the
Internet and bought one. I’ll probably use
this every day until I quit playing the piano
or die—whichever comes first.
Then it’s practice, practice, practice. My
left hand is getting stronger and stronger.
It’s hard to remember the physical therapist’s advice and not over-do.
Jux-a-cisor—notice the washer by the handle.
This week, Michelle comes up with
some exercises involving gentle use of the
fingers. Oddly enough, when I spread my
hand, my thumb felt great—just a little
stiff but no pain—but the left side of my
hand hurts when I stretch out my fifth finger. A puzzlement, indeed.
This is about enough for me. I can’t really play repetitive notes yet, but just holding
down a note is all the work I can do for
now. Baby steps, baby steps.
Week Ten
I’m starting to see students again. I can’t
really play a lot, but I can play some. It’s
good to hear my students a cappella, which
turns my liability into an asset.
Week Eleven
My fingers are becoming more flexible.
My hand doesn’t hurt as much as before,
but there is still residual pain under my
fifth fingers. I’m beginning to suspect
working on the computer may be part of
the problem. Michelle says as much at my
lesson.
Week Twelve
Okay! This is the week I can begin to
pinch (gently) with my thumb. It’s been a
tough past three months, not being able to
MARCH/APRIL 2012
close a Zip-lock bag, work a button or zipper, open a jar, or hook ladies’ underwear—
anything involving grasping and holding.
Tr y functioning without using your
thumbs. You will quickly understand why
humans rule the world instead of dogs!
I have been given the go ahead to play
the piano with my left hand. We begin!
Week Thirteen
I pulled out “Helft mir, ihr Schwestern”
from Schumann’s Frauenlieben und Leben.
Since my goal is to accompany my students, I wanted to see how things stood.
This can be a daunting piece to play, so I
am using it as a measure of my progress.
Interestingly, and very pleasantly surprising, I played it better than I’ve ever played
before! I lay this to the work I’ve been
doing with some finger exercises, including
“The Little Pischna.” I can’t really play
much with the left hand yet, but the right
hand is much smoother and freer than I’ve
ever played before. I look forward to further progress.
Week Fourteen
Remember the warning about not overdoing? Guess what—I didn’t heed it and
now my fifth finger is suffering. I have to
watch out and not really exercise it this
week. I tried to give my hands some time
off and not practice as much, but now that
school is in session, I’ve been playing for
my students. Slow. Slow.
take a full six months for the scar tissue to
set in the space left by the missing bone.
But what a wonderful Christmas present
I’ve given myself—Power Octaves!
My Definition of Trapezium: a little bone
that causes big problems for piano players
when it is attacked by arthritis.
My Definition of the result of a
Trapeziectomy: A life-saving operation that
gives back the ability to play scales, arpeggios,
power octaves—and dreams. p
Barely a mark left!
Aftermath
It’s been four and one-half months since
the surgery. I ended the physical therapy at
week fifteen, and was sent on my way like
a fledgling being pushed out of the nest.
I also had my last visit with Dr. Due. He
said I was fine, and to keep doing my exercises. The thumb is still tight; when I
spread my hand I feel tightness at the base
of the thumb. He said this was fine; it was
the scar tissue and tendons doing their job.
If it were loose, that would mean the operation was a failure and it would have to be
repeated.
As if my body wants to remind me not
all is perfect, I found out that arthritis
(again!) is the cause of the pain at the base
of my fifth finger. There’s a little bone
called the pisiform that floats above the
wrist. Of course, mine doesn’t float anymore—arthritis has fused it with the bone
next to it. The doctor says he can cut it out
if I want. After going through all this, I’m
in no mood to be carved on any time soon.
He says he could give me a shot of cortisone and see if that helps. I’ll go that path.
I know that my thumb will get stronger
and more flexible with each day. It will
CLAVIER COMPANION
65
First Looks
Susan Geffen is a managing editor of
Clavier Companion. She is active as an
educator, adjudicator, presenter, panelist,
and writer. She is a specialist in Recreational Music Making and has also worked
as a composer’s assistant and
orchestral score proofreader.
This issue’s contributors:
Stephanie Bruning is Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at Morgan State University
in Baltimore, MD, where she teaches
courses in piano, pedagogy, and accompanying. She frequently performs, adjudicates,
and conducts master classes around the
country and also specializes in Native
American-influenced piano music from the
early twentieth century.
Vanessa Cornett-Murtada is the Director
of Keyboard Studies at the University of St.
Thomas in Minnesota, where she teaches
courses in piano and piano pedagogy. She is
an international clinician and performing
artist and works as a performance coach
and certified hypnotherapist for musicians
struggling with performance anxiety.
Carmen Doubrava is an active adjudicator, accompanist, teacher, and performer
who has performed in Texas, Michigan,
New York, Colorado, Wisconsin, and at the
U. S. Department of State. She lives in
Carrollton, Texas, and has been featured in
articles in Keyboard Companion,
Clavier, and The Dallas Morning News.
Jeongwon Ham has won top prizes at
numerous international and national piano
competitions, including the
Bartók/Kabalevsky International. She has
performed in many European countries, Asia,
and the United States. She obtained degrees
in both the U.S. and Germany and is on the
piano faculty at the University of Oklahoma.
Sue Collier Lewis currently serves as a
preschool workshop clinician for Alfred
Publications and as a preschool music education consultant for the NAMM Museum
of Making Music in Carlsbad, California.
She is a former music education consultant
for Yamaha Music Education and owned
two music schools in the Dallas area.
Additional contributors listed on the next page
66
CLAVIER COMPANION
First Looks
Susan Geffen, Editor
New Music, CDs & DVDs, Pupil Saver, News & Notes
Closer look
Worth a look
(S5-6) Figures: 17 Choreographic Etudes
for Piano by Falko Steinbach.
Falko Steinbach’s Figures:
17 Choreographic Etudes, is
the third volume of a threevolume set. The preface
explains that the first volume, Finger Paintings, contains studies for students at
the beginner level, and the
second volume, Moving, is for intermediate
students. This third volume contains works
that are suited for more advanced pianists.
Teachers and students will want to read the
foreword written by Dr. Günther Noll,
which describes the background, overview,
significance, and technical emphasis of this
third volume.
The “Figures” are atonal pieces that use
contemporary compositional techniques.
Most of the etudes are in either free or sectional form. They are anywhere from twoto-seventeen pages long and vary in performance duration from 1'20'' to 7'21.'' In
the “Explanations” and in each etude,
Steinbach provides very detailed performance instructions for some of his nontraditional notation directions such as knocks
on “the outside of the piano,” methods of
playing glissandi, muted attacks, and ways
to play designated black or white keys.
These instructions are essential to understanding the composer’s musical intention
when studying and performing this set;
unfortunately, this information is not
translated into English (although the preface and composer’s biography are).
The etudes vary in mood and character.
They are reflective, calm, somber, lyrical,
dissonant, humorous, and spirited. Etudes
Nos. 1, 6, 9, and 13, for instance, are more
sophisticated in sound and style. Steinbach
indicates “slow,” “free,” or “slow and free”
for a calm, reflective, and evocative mood,
allowing pianists to focus on sound, time,
and acoustics and to take a broad interpretative perspective. Yet he also gives explicit
instructions on playing certain notes,
chords, and figurations. For example, in
Nos. 6, 9, and 13, he instructs pianists to
play three different types of glissandi: first,
a glissando on the keys, strings, and key
surfaces (a clicking glissando) with both
fingernails and fingertips of specific fingers; next, a cross-glissando (the right hand
ascends from the low register and the left
hand descends from the top register before
the hands cross in midregister and continue gliding toward opposite ends of the
instrument); and, finally, a combined glissando (played by fingernail first, then by
the fingertip), played senza pedale.
Steinbach also gives instructions on performance gestures in Etude No. 14: “Let
the hands be on top, long” or “Put the
hands slowly on the lap,” followed by “suddenly” on forte chords at the end of the
piece. While these slow pieces are atmospheric, Etudes Nos. 7 and 10 are humorous and witty, and the etudes Nos. 3, 4, 11,
12, 14, 16, and 17 can be described as lively, rhythmic, and energetic.
The set also focuses on various aspects of
finger technique. For example, articulations
and finger independence are addressed in
Nos. 5, 8, 9, 11, and 15. Steinbach uses
release technique in Etudes Nos. 5 and 9;
the chords are played together and some
keys are released while the other keys are
held through. Fast figurations and trill-like
patterns for improving fine-finger dexterity
are employed in Nos. 8, 10, 15, and 17.
Double thirds and fourths, as well as other
harmonic intervals, are presented in more
challenging etudes such as Nos. 2, 11, 16,
and 17. Other techniques explored in this
set are repeated notes (Nos. 4 and 16),
hand alternation (No. 5 and 12), and hand
crossings (No. 7).
Throughout, the etudes present substantive technical challenges. The composer,
who is also a renowned pianist, provides
fingerings that help pianists play with
loose wrists and hands without losing fine
control of the fingers. Steinbach’s fingerings make playing the etudes more effortless and thus more enjoyable. However,
some etudes include technical challenges
such as chords that encompass ninths and
tenths in opening sections (No. 2) and in
slow sections (Nos. 1, 8, 13, 15, and 17).
Pianists with small hands may find these
nearly impossible to play because breaking
MARCH/APRIL 2012
the large chord would change the music’s
texture and mystic atmosphere.
Figures are highly creative and beautiful
compositions that are well worth studying,
teaching, and performing. In particular,
they may be highly motivating for students
who are more perceptive to sonorities, colors, and mood in music. (Verlag Edmund
Bieler in Köln, 2008, 124 pages. $41.50)
—Jeongwon Ham
New music
(S1) Johann the Cat by Mary Leaf.
Once again Mary Leaf
offers a melodious and
appealing piano solo perfectly suited for the fourto-five-year-old beginner.
Apparently Johann, named
after J.S. Bach, is the handsome, friendly orange tabby
whose photos are shown on the cover of
this piece. With words to sing that would
motivate almost any young student, Johann
the Cat relates Johann’s joy in listening to
young pianists practice each day.
One way to introduce this piece would
be to sing the words of the melody (thus
suggesting how phrases would eventually
be played), discuss the pictures of Johann,
and then engage the student in some “cat
talk.” Written in Middle-C position, the
melody moves from right hand to left, utilizing skips in each hand. The piece
includes accidentals, a left-hand two-note
chord, a fermata, and a repeated section.
This is one of those simple pieces you find
yourself humming away from the piano,
and your students should have a “purrfectly” wonderful time playing this charming
little piece. (FJH, $2.95) S.C.L.
✔(S3) Musical Snapshots, Books 2-3 by
Martha Mier.
These stylish pieces help
bridge the gap between
method book pieces and
classical literature. The
compositions cover a wide
span of the keyboard, are
fairly substantial in length,
and offer students many
types of music to enjoy.
The “musical snapshots”
featured in Book 2 come
from the United States
(ragtime), Japan, Egypt,
Hawaii, France, Spain, and
Scotland. This volume features Spanish Suite in three movements:
“Gypsy Guitars,” “Spanish Romance,” and
“Flamenco Dancers.” These pieces in the
MARCH/APRIL 2012
collection are not difficult, but they sound
difficult for the level: students will be
motivated as they play a variety of rhythm
patterns using dotted notes, triplets, syncopations and toss off fun piano moves
including rolled chords, hand-over-hand
playing, and short runs.
In Book 3, the “snapshots” represent
Russia, Hungary, Ireland, America (jazz),
Argentina, Samoa, and Spain. My favorite
composition in the two volumes is the
American Jazz Suite. Mier is excellent writing in this genre—students will sound like
real jazz musicians with the exciting syncopated melodies and runs. This book contains longer runs and more rhythmic complexity than the second volume.
The levels indicated on the covers are
intermediate for Book 2 and intermediate/late intermediate for Book 3. For the
first time in a while, I was surprised to find
that these pieces may be on the easy side of
these levels. The keys, rhythms, and time
signatures are relatively simple to play and
understand, and most of the pieces have
only one sharp or flat. The time signatures
are usually 4/4, 3/4, or 6/8. In Book 3,
Mier combines 2/4 and 3/4 in one piece
and 3/4 and 6/8 in another. Good books
for any teaching library! (Alfred, $6.99
each) L.Z.
(S3) Majkapar: Easy Piano Pieces by
Samuel Maykapar, ed. Ágnes Lakos.
The works of Samuel
Maykapar (1867-1938)
appeal to piano students of
all ages. This too-often
neglected Russian composer (whose name I am
spelling Maykapar for the
purposes of this review)
studied piano with the legendary Theodor
Leschetizky and eventually became a music
professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He composed almost exclusively for
piano, and took special pleasure in writing
miniatures for young people.
The easiest pieces for children are found
in Opp. 28 and 33. The composer’s style is
characterized by interesting harmonies,
exciting rhythms, and the use of imaginative textures to develop a strong piano
technique; students who show a fondness
for the miniatures of Burgmüller or Bartók
often enjoy playing Maykapar.
This edition from Budapest contains
twenty intermediate-level pieces. Teachers
will appreciate a diversity of pieces which
help strengthen finger technique (Toccatina) and spotlight melodic voicing (“Little
Romance”), asymmetrical meters (“Cradle
Song”), and a variety of articulations. Some
works, such as Waltz, Tarantella, or
Guide to new music
reviews
Grade levels
1 Beginning: five-finger patterns and
simple rhythms
2 Easy: scales and simple syncopation
3 Intermediate: beginning
counterpoint and complex rhythms
(Bach notebooks, Bartók Mikrokosmos
I-II)
4 Late intermediate: technical and
rhythmic sophistication (Bach
inventions, Bartók Romanian Folk
Dances)
5 Difficult: for competent pianists
(Mozart sonatas, Brahms Rhapsody,
Op. 79, No. 2)
6 Very difficult: for advanced pianists
(Chopin etudes, Beethoven Sonata,
Op. 57)
Categories
S-Solo, E-Ensemble
Quality rating
Reviewer’s Choice: music that may
become part of the standard repertoire
Check-rated ✔: repertoire that is
highly recommended
Kristin Elgersma holds a D. M. and M.M. in
Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Northwestern University and has been on faculties at
Northwestern, the Interlochen Arts Camp, and
Chicago’s Merit School of Music, among others.
In the fall of 2010, she joined the faculty of the
University of Idaho Lionel Hampton School of
Music as Assistant Professor of Piano.
Susan Osborn is on the keyboard skills faculty
of Northwestern University and teaches
private and group piano at Interlochen Arts
Camp and Northwestern Music Academy. Dr.
Osborn holds degrees from Smith College,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
the New School for Music Study, and
Northwestern University and is a
photographer and docent for the
Chicago Architecture Foundation.
Lynette Zelis is the owner of Noteable Notes
Music Studio in Wheaton, Illinois, where she
teaches private and group piano lessons and
maintains studios for nine other teachers. She
was one of only five teachers in the country to
win the 2001 Group Piano Teachers Award
from the MTNA and the National Piano
Foundation.
CLAVIER COMPANION
67
1203Clavier_nxtbook.qxd
2/21/12
9:44 AM
Page 68
Scherzino, are written in popular styles,
while others, like “Dance of the
Marionettes,” “Poor Orphan,” or “Stormy
Flood,” are more programmatic. All the
pieces in this set fit small or medium
hands.
The editor includes a variety of helpful
fingerings, pedal marks, and suggestions
for the redistribution of notes between the
hands. The major flaw of this edition, particularly since translations of the various
titles often vary from edition to edition, is
that the pieces lack opus numbers.
Unfortunately, not even the multilingual
title translations (English, German,
French, and Hungarian) help correct this
problem. Nevertheless, this edition is an
eclectic collection of both familiar and
lesser-known works, all of which are excellent teaching pieces and student-friendly
“pupil savers.” (Editio Musica Budapest/
Hal Leonard, $14.95) V.C.M.
✔(S3-6) Symmetrical Warm-Ups: Short
Daily Exercises to Build Flexibility and
Strength by Christos Tsitsaros.
This is an interesting
collection of well-thoughtout warm-up exercises for
the serious pianist. In a
highly intelligent preface,
Tsitsaros emphasizes the
importance of soundly
warming up. Citing an article by Christine Zara, he builds an argument for warming up at the piano versus
performing stretches that, done incorrectly,
can actually cause harm. With this collection of short, progressively more difficult
exercises, the student is able to focus on
gentle and focused ways to warm up.
Throughout the book, Tsitsaros takes a
scholarly approach to his subject, emphasizing the importance of coordinated hand
and arm motions and connected full-body
motion. An interesting discussion of
Chopin’s unfinished Sketch for a Method
points out the common overemphasis of
the thumb, which should serve only as an
auxiliary to the other four fingers of the
hand; therefore, it is best placed on the
very edge of the white keys. Tsitsaros also
cites Heinrich Neuhaus’s The Art of Piano
Playing as a guide to graceful, coordinated
playing, and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s
Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard
Instruments as a guide to fingering.
The author suggests ways in which to
use these warm-ups, a good portion of
which are written in a comfortable contrary motion. He gives examples of warmups that can be combined within a practice
session, as well as ways in which to practice
them.
68
CLAVIER COMPANION
He directs the pianist to play “in a mildly slow tempo, piano to mezzo forte, with
clear and slightly exaggerated hand
motion,” or “Mezzo-forte, legato, at a moderate tempo, somewhat reducing the hand
travel.” Within the book’s sixty-nine pages,
there is a wide choice of patterns, some of
which—even the short ones—take some
thought to comprehend or transpose. But
the sounds prove interesting, and the patterns are comfortable. Once familiar with
content and format, one can use the book
in a flexible manner, taking advantage of
the varying lengths and levels of these
exercises. (Hal Leonard; $8.99) S.O.
✔(E3) The Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues,
arranged by Jason Sifford, and Symphony
No. 5, Opus 67, First Movement by Beethoven, arranged by Valerie Roth Roubos.
As piano teachers, we are
always delighted to find
pieces that our students are
excited about playing. Even
better are those that motivate while building solid
physical and musical skills.
These two new pieces from
the FJH Piano Ensemble
Series do just those things.
Students will be thrilled to
play these familiar tunes
with their friends, and
teachers will love the
expertly crafted, musically
interesting arrangements.
In The Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues for
two intermediate-level players at one
piano, Jason Sifford sets a well-known
American folk song against the bluesy
motor rhythm of cotton mill machinery.
This tune has been famously arranged for
concert performance by the contemporary
American composer Frederic Rzewski, and
this easier version (whether intentionally or
not) recalls many of the same sounds, patterns, and syncopations of Rzewski’s more
advanced work. In Sifford’s version, the
players pass the melody back and forth,
with harmonies and countermelodies that
fit well in the hand. There are many repetitive musical patterns to ease the learning
process, but enough new motives to prevent monotony. This piece is fun to play,
with a dramatic finish that would be a
great ending to a student recital.
And what pianist doesn’t secretly dream
of performing Beethoven’s Fifth? By
arranging this famous symphony for three
players on one piano, Valerie Roth Roubos
has given intermediate players a chance to
sound like a full orchestra. The arrangement is very well done: all of the important
voices are included and the cuts are well
chosen. Roubos includes the entire exposition, then skips to the coda, which is also
presented in full. Technically, each part is
fairly simple, but, as always with ensemble
playing, the difficulty lies in counting, balance, reading two hands in the same clef
(for the high and low parts), and staying
out of the way of the other two players.
Highly recommended. (FJH, $3.50 and
$4.95) K.E.
✔(E3-4) Fanfare Allegro by Robert D.
Vandall.
As musicians, some of
our richest musical experiences occur in chamber
music settings, and we want
to introduce our intermediate students to this fulfilling genre. Often, however,
it can be a challenge to find a suitable
composition for them. Robert D. Vandall
composed just such a piece when he wrote
Fanfare Allegro, commissioned by MTNA
in celebration of its 2011 Year of
Collaborative Music.
Fanfare Allegro is an effective trio for
trumpet, trombone, and piano. Its A section is filled with rhythmic energy, syncopation, and repetition. Equally written
parts pass melodies between the instruments while providing appropriate intermediate-level challenges: syncopations that
require subdividing, endurance work for
the brass players, and meter changes from
4/4 to 2/4. Additionally, plenty of articulation and dynamic detail allow the group to
delve into polishing as a unit. The lyrical B
section provides nice contrast, with a simple melody that requires some careful intonation work for the brass players. This section in particular hands off melodies
between players skillfully and offers duets
that will require careful listening for
ensemble and balance.
Fanfare Allegro lasts about three minutes
and would make a wonderful contest or
performance piece. Its catchy contrasts and
energetic rhythms will be a lot of fun for
both performers and audiences. (Alfred
Music Publishing, $6.99) S.B. p
MARCH/APRIL 2012
CD & DVD
Reviews
Steven Hall, Editor
Steven Hall has a wide range
of performing experience as an
orchestral soloist, recitalist, and
chamber musician throughout
the United States, Europe, and
Taiwan. A German reviewer
wrote, “He proved that he need
not fear comparison with the
greatest in his field.” He has released two compact discs
on the ACA label. Hall received his D.M.A. in Piano
Performance from the University of Southern
California as John Perry’s teaching assistant. He is a
founder and faculty member of the Brandeis Piano
Conservatory in Dallas, Texas. He is President of
BPC Recording Company and is the Vice-President of
the Dallas Music Teachers Association.
This issue’s contributors:
Pianist Sang Woo Kang performs and teaches
throughout Asia and the U.S. as a soloist and chamber
musician. Currently he serves as Assistant Professor of
Music at Providence College, Rhode Island.
Annie Lin, an active collaborative pianist, has
appeared on more than 100 CDs. A cofounder of the
Brandeis Piano Conservatory in Dallas, Texas, she has
performed solo, duo-piano, and instrumental concerts
throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
Laura Melton is Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at
Bowling Green State University. A frequent recitalist
and clinician throughout North and South America,
Asia, and Europe, her recent CD recordings are on the
Naxos and Albany labels.
Denise Parr-Scanlin is an Assistant Professor of
Piano at West Texas A&M University and teaches at
the Lutheran Summer Music Festival. She has
performed in the U.S., Europe, and Asia and recorded
Sam Jones’s Sonata for Cello and
Piano for Naxos Records.
Stephen Pierce is Assistant Professor of Piano and
Piano Pedagogy at the University of Northern
Colorado. He has performed in the Czech Republic,
Canada, the U.S., and South Africa, and has published
in Clavier Companion and Music Research Forum.
Roberta Rust enjoys a global career as classical pianist
and pedagogue. She serves as piano department head
at the Conservatory of Music at Lynn University in
Boca Raton, Florida.
Steinway Artist Sin-Hsing Tsai is U.C. Foundation
Associate Professor of Music at The University of
Tennessee at Chattanooga and has performed in Asia,
Europe, and North and South America.
To link directly to the respective websites of these
recordings, please click anywhere on the text of the review.
70
CLAVIER COMPANION
French Impressions
Joshua Bell, violin
Jeremy Denk, piano
Sony Classical 82026
[Total Time 67:14]
Long Duo: Concertos
for Two Pianos
Beatrice Long, pianist
Christina Long, pianist
Sono Luminus
DSL-92129
[Total Time 68:37]
Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk demonstrate their
unparalleled collaborative “sixth sense” in this passionately nuanced interpretation of three major
French sonatas by Saint-Saëns, Franck, and Ravel.
In this first commercial recording made in Phoenix’s
acoustically superb Musical Instrument Museum,
the Saint-Saëns opens the disc with sumptuous
lyricism and fiery dramatic moments extraordinary
in their balance and pacing. Denk’s exquisite support is phenomenal (especially in terms of his pedaling and voicing): the piano expertly surrounds the
violin with a perfect complementary texture.
Particularly striking is the fact that the pair’s musical ideas are so well intertwined throughout the CD.
The pair sounds like a single entity that possesses
masterful interpretation and a fresh approach. Color
and spontaneity reach their pinnacle in the blues
movement of the Ravel, in which the musical personalities are revealed in a sensual and kaleidoscopic display. L.M.
Hats off to the Long Duo in this disc of these
rarely heard two-piano concertos. The Eski şehir
Greater Municipality Symphony Orchestra is a fine
Turkish ensemble under the engaging and wonderfully collaborative conductor Patrick Souillot. The
Concerto in E Minor by Dana Suesse, a four-movement work marked by cinematic sentiment,
receives its world-premiere recording. Harl
McDonald’s balanced three-movement concerto (in
its first recording since 1937) offers a melancholic
theme and variations before closing with the
crowd-pleasing “Juarezca,” a Mexican dance. The
Vaughan-Williams is a rescoring of his Piano
Concerto in C Major. The hauntingly honest music
with its refined craft and a deeply touching slow
movement makes one wish this work were performed more often. The Long Duo is superb: the
seamless playing is never overbearing in these rarities of the repertoire, but is ever buoyant, beautiful,
and precise. R.R.
Sprezzatura
Shelly Tramposh, viola
Cullan Bryant, piano
Ravello Records
RR7818
[Total Time 60:38]
Charles Ives: Four
Sonatas
Hilary Hahn, violin
Valentina Lisitsa, piano
Deutsche Grammophon
CD 477 9435
[Total Time 66:26]
Ravello Records is an eclectic contemporary
classical label specializing in orchestral, chamber,
and experimental music. This chamber CD delivers
a wide spectrum of energy, imagination, nuance,
and lyricism by violist Shelly Tramposh and pianist
Cullan Bryant, whose remarkable playing further
illuminates the duo’s collaboration. World-premiere
recordings include Chihara’s Sonata for Viola and
Piano (a three-movement work with a jubilant finale
celebrating the composer’s miraculous recovery
from a long illness) and Siskind’s Etwas für
Bratsche (etwas rasch!). The double meaning
behind rasch in Siskind’s title yields a frenetic work
unique to the viola oeuvre, and Tramposh delivers
impressively. Britten’s complex composition
Lachrymae, Op. 48 is based on two Dowland songs
and is treated with love and solemnity. Hindemith’s
Sonata for Viola and Piano (1939) beautifully highlights the tightly woven ensemble skill. Two thumbs
up for this remarkably effective and enjoyable contemporary classical collection! A.L.
The commercial success of superstar violinist
Hilary Hahn allows her to record increasingly
adventurous repertoire. Hahn’s newest recording
with pianist Valentina Lisitsa features Ives’s quirky
and sometimes gnarly sonatas for violin and piano.
There is remarkable playing here, including some
extraordinarily quick and exciting tempi (sample “In
the Barn” from Sonata No. 2 or the second movement Allegro from Sonata No. 3). The ensemble is
excellent: Hahn and Lisitsa react to and challenge
each another throughout. Hahn’s usual technical
brilliance and musical polish also are on display.
Unfortunately, the recording is let down by an overly
violin-heavy sound, and, at times, inexplicably subdued playing from Lisitsa. In the lengthy piano
interludes of Sonata No. 3, for example, Lisitsa
sounds pale and distant. Still, there is much to
admire here, as both players revel in Ives’s eclectic
juxtaposition of dissonance with folk song and
hymn tunes. S.P.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Weiss-Kaplan-Newman
Trio: Brahms and
Smetana
Yael Weiss, piano
Mark Kaplan, violin
Clancy Newman, cello
Bridge Records 9362
[Total Time 65:45]
Tragedy links this pair of piano trios. News of
Robert Schumann’s suicide attempt reached
Brahms while working on Op. 8, and he completed
the work amid the ensuing distress. Smetena’s only
piano trio was composed in the aftermath of his
daughter’s death. Here, Brahms’s revised version
(1889) is presented in a muscular performance that
is often thrilling in its drive and in its treatment of
rhythmic complexities. One among the many
moments to savor is the exquisite balance between
cello and piano in the dark registers of the third
movement’s second theme. The Smetena receives
a similarly effective dynamic performance. A more
tempered work, it is not without its surprises,
including a Chopinesque piano cadenza in the first
movement. The trio plays together with elan, producing a tight, clear ensemble. Liner notes—
refreshing for their novelty and personal insights—
consist mainly of excerpts from the performers’
taped discussions about the trios. D.P.S.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Persichetti and Pupils
Richard Zimdars, piano
Albany Records
TROY1310
[Total Time 76:32]
Zimdars deserves high
praise for his convincing performances of piano
works by Persichetti and pupils Marga Richter and
Jacob Druckman, and his profound expression is
supported by his clear understanding of structure.
In Richter’s sonata and Persichetti’s Ninth Piano
Sonata, Zimdars weaves rich sonorities into witty
passagework, conveying ferocity and reticence with
equal confidence. He captures the mesmerizing
simplicity of Richter’s Remembrances, and her
pointillistic Eight Pieces becomes attractive lyricism.
Similarly, Persichetti’s Winter Solstice exploits the
warmth and dignity of its disjunct and angular
melodies. Druckman’s Seven Deadly Sins is a masterwork of musical illustration, Zimdars portraying
each sin with vivid imagery. The bombastic “Pride”
is followed by a driving “Envy” and screaming
“Anger,” while a laid-back “Sloth” contrasts with
unrelenting “Avarice”; the emotionally satisfying
“Gluttony” and sensual “Carnality” close the set
with dramatic effect. This unique CD is the ultimate
recording in which imagination, artistry, and logic
meet. S.H.T.
The Pleasure-Dome
of Kubla Khan
Solungga Fang-Tzu Liu,
piano
Centaur Records
CRC 2971
[Total Time 75:18]
Liu showcases the enigmatic Griffes’s most
noteworthy piano compositions and pays tribute to
an overlooked body of work. From the highly
Impressionistic Three Tone Pictures (with its shimmering “The Lake at Evening”) to the Roman
Sketches, the incredibly versatile Liu captures the
composer’s unique musical language, with its blend
of French, Russian, Asian, and even literary influences. Her thoughtful interpretations capture the
sublime and ethereal as well as the majestic and
ornate, culminating in The Pleasure-Dome. With its
force and power, this is a masterpiece not to be
missed: Griffes successfully evokes Coleridge’s
“sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice,” and
Kubla Khan’s attempt to “rebuild” the essence of
dreams through “music loud and long.” Ultimately,
Liu has masterfully led the listener through a sensory experience not unlike a luxuriant tapestry of
sound. S.W.K. p
CLAVIER COMPANION
71
News & Notes
Clavier Companion’s digital edition
Clavier Companion has been pleased to offer free access to its
digital edition during the past year. Beginning with the May/June
issue, a login will be required to read new digital editions of the
magazine. Existing print subscribers will continue to enjoy free
access, and they will log in with information easily found on the
mailing label. Digital-only subscriptions will also be available for
purchase. The digital edition will continue to include every page of
the print magazine as well as a multitude of extra digital content
and features.
Bach in the Pacific Northwest
The lineup for the 2012 Oregon Bach Festival includes keyboardist Angela Hewitt, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, and the
pop orchestra Pink Martini. The festival, which runs June 29-July
15, hosts concerts in its home city of Eugene as well as in Portland
and five other cities in the state.
Prominent works featured will be Bach’s St. Matthew Passion
(with four accompanying lecture-concerts), conducted by the festival’s artistic director Helmuth Rilling; the “Goldberg” Variations,
performed by Hewitt; four Bach choral motets; and four Bach keyboard concerti. Other concerts will present works by Debussy,
Mendelssohn, and Michael Tippetts, and one evening performance
will focus on the tango.
For more information, visit oregonbachfestival.com.
A little Sondheim, anyone?
Stephen Sondheim fans, rejoice! Pianist Anthony de Mare has
commissioned thirty-six prominent composers to participate in
Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim for the Piano.
Each composer has created a piano work based on a Sondheim
song. Composers involved in the project include Steve Reich, Jake
Heggie, William Bolcom, Gabriel Kahane, Frederic Rzewski, and
Thomas Newman.
De Mare will be performing Liaisons in New York, San
Francisco, Fort Worth, and several other cities. For more details,
visit www.anthonydemare.com/liaisons/home.html.
In the shadow of a giant
The first Kindle Single written by a classical musician has
arrived. Pianist Jonathan Biss, who is recording the thirty-two
Beethoven sonatas for Onyx Classics, is the author of Beethoven’s
Shadow. The single is an account of Biss’s experiences recording the
sonatas and also includes the pianist’s reflections about the recording process and his examination of other artists who have recorded
the thirty-two.
Kindle Singles are essays, memoirs, or other short forms that
commonly run between about 5,000 and 30,000 words. Beethoven’s
Shadow runs approximately 19,000 words and is available at amazon.com. p
Apps
Students needing extra interval work? Parents needing something for the kids to do in the car? Music
Intervals, a free application, might be worth a try. The
app features both training and game modes that
accommodate students at several levels and is available for Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPod, and iPad. For more information,
visit http://www.foriero.com/pages/music-intervals-page.php.
Like us on
Facebook!
www.facebook.com/ClavierCompanion
72
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Pupil Saver
Track down some excitement
The Hunters by David Carr Glover (Alfred)
is an exciting solo that will certainly perk up
the intermediate-level student. It contains all
of the elements of a scale, arpeggio, and
cadence routine, but in the form of a riveting,
flashy solo.
The A section incorporates the A-minor
and E-major five-finger patterns and chords.
Students also learn to keep a consistent pulse
when switching from sixteenth notes to triplets. A crescendo leads to
an unexpected measure in 7/4 with a descending hand-over-hand
arpeggio, as seen in measures 4-7.
The B section is quite a contrast from the showy first section.
Beginning at measure 9, the left hand has an ostinato pattern in the
lowest register of the piano while the right hand brings out a slowmoving melody.
Students may think this section will be easy when they see its
page of quarter notes and whole notes, but it takes energy to maintain quiet staccato, and good control of arm weight to make the
melody sing.
The A section returns before the piece ends with a six-measure
coda that sounds impressive but is easy to play. Rhythm patterns
from the A section reoccur in measures 37-40.
The Hunters has been a hit with students for more than forty
years and still sounds fresh and exciting today. It is an excellent
piece for festivals and auditions and a terrific workout for any student. p
—Carmen Doubrava
Got a Pupil Saver? If you are interested in submitting
your Pupil Saver for consideration, please contact Susan
Geffen at m.editor@claviercompanion.
74
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Keyboard Kids’ Companion
Created by Teachers
Approved by Kids
Meet the composers
Born: April 23, 1891
by hearing Charles
Birthplace: Russia
Gounod’s Faust and
Died: March 5, 1953
Alexander Borodin’s
Some favorites by Prokofiev:
Prince Igor. ProkoPeter and the Wolf, The Love for
fiev’s compositions
Three Oranges, Piano Concerto Op.
include works for
26, No. 3, Piano Sonata No. 7
solo instruments,
Serge Prokofiev was born on
voice, and orchestra.
April 23, 1891 in Russia. Serge’s
He also wrote music
mother was his first piano teacher.
based on children’s
She taught him about music when Prokofiev at age ten, stories, including
he was very young, and she began in St. Petersburg with Cinderella, The Ugly
his formal piano lessons when he his first opera, The Duckling, and his
was seven. He loved listening to his Giant.
own original story,
mother play the piano. Serge tried
Peter and the Wolf.
to stay awake at night so that he
Many classical
could listen after he had gone to bed.
music artists, film stars (including
Serge was accepted to the St.
Sean Connery, who played James
Petersburg Conservatory when he
Bond in many films), rock musicians,
was thirteen—the youngest student
and members of Prokofiev’s family
ever admitted. He studied for ten
have served as narrators for recordyears at the Conservatory, and on
ings of Peter and the Wolf. This
the day before World War I began,
beloved story introduces children to
the orchestra and is one of the most
Serge Prokofiev graduated with three
popular compositions of all times.
diplomas and the Anton Rubinstein
Prokofiev wrote the music and the
prize: the highest prize awarded by
story for the Moscow Music Theatre
the Conservatory to a student pianist.
for Children in 1936. He completed the
He and the other lead competitor
entire work in one week!
played chess—a favorite activity for
Prokofiev had two sons, Sviatoslav
Prokofiev—for many hours as they
and Oleg, and grandchildren. He travwaited for the judges’ decisions on
eled widely, spending many years in
the Anton Rubinstein prize.
London and Paris, and he toured the
Prokofiev kept musical journals
United States many times. He eventuwhile he was growing up. He carefully
ally returned to Russia. Much of
wrote down and saved many musical
Prokofiev’s life was difficult because
ideas. Later, he referred to these
of the politics in Russia, which was
notebooks for ideas in his composiunder Communist rule. The Communtions. He completed his first opera at
ists wanted to control everyone, even
the age of ten after being inspired
Serge Prokofiev
composers. The Communist leaders
didn’t like his music, but Prokofiev
still wanted to compose music his own
way. Not even the instant success of
Peter and the Wolf was enough to
make the Communist leaders happy
for very long. Everyone thought that
it would be a day of celebration and
freedom for Prokofiev and the whole
Russian musical world when the dictator Joseph Stalin died. Sadly,
Prokofiev died in Moscow on March 5,
1953, the same day reported as
Stalin’s death. Happily for us,
Prokofiev’s music lives on, and it is
performed in concerts around the
world more than ever!
Many thanks to Prokofiev’s grandson , Serge Prokofiev, Jr., for his
assistance with this article and for
photo reprint permission.
Review Quiz
1. Prokofiev loved to compose,
play piano, and play the game of
________________________.
2. He was born in ______________ and
also lived in _______________ and
_____________________.
3. Prokofiev was accepted to study
at the ______________________________when he
was only thirteen years old, the
youngest student ever to be
accepted.
4. He wrote music based on famous
children’s fairy tales, but his most
famous composition, ________________________,
was written for his own original story.
History in 1891
Check out other cool events that happened in the birth
year of our featured composer, Serge Prokofiev!
• Telephone connection between London and Paris
opens
• Thomas Edison patents motion picture camera
• First official basketball game played (by students at
Springfield College)
• Carnegie Hall (called Music Hall) opens in New York
with guest conductor Tchaikovsky
76
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Advertiser Index
3-D Piano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
www.3-dpiano.com
Hal Leonard . . . . . . . . . inside front cover, 7
www.halleonard.com
Piano Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
www.pianoexplorer.net
The Achievement Program . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
www.theachievementprogram.org
Alan Fraser Summer Piano Institutes. . . . . 37
www.piano-institute.alanfraser.net/
Harmony Road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
www.harmonyroadmusic.com
Piano Steps to Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
www.pianostepstosuccess.com
Hutchins & Rea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
www.hutchinsandrea.com
Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
www.alfred.com
Indiana University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
www.music.indiana.edu/precollege/
Piano Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
www.pianostreet.com
A Piano Teacher’s Legacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
FrancesClarkCenter.org
Bärenreiter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
www.baerenreiter.com
Baylor University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
www.baylor.edu/music
summer
Int’l Keyboard Institute & Festival . . . . . . 45
www.ikif.org
Red Leaf Pianoworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
redleafpianoworks.com
Beethoven Tour 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
www.williamwellborn.com
John B. Sanders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Kapok Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
www.kapokpress.com
Blair School of Music-Vanderbilt University 9
blair.vanderbilt.edu
Keyboard Wellness Seminar . . . . . . . . . . . 34
www.keyboardwellnessseminar.com
Sheet Music Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
www.sheetmusicplus.com
SMU Institute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
smu.edu/muedworkshops
Boyer College of Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
www.TaubmanSeminar.com
Keys To Imagination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
www.keystoimagination.com
Southeastern Piano Festival . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
sepf.music.sc.edu
Burt & Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
www.burtnco.com
KITS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
www.keynotetheory.com
Steinway. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . back cover
www.steinway.com
Clavier Companion Digital Edition . . . . . . 75
www.claviercompanion.com
Lee Roberts Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
leerobertsmusic.com
Stony Brook Int’l Piano Festival. . . . . . . . . 44
www.sbipf.org
Clavier Companion Collegiate Writing
Contest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
www.claviercompanion.com
MTNA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
www.mtna.org
Music Educators Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . 74
www.musicedmarket.com
Taubman Piano Seminar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
taubman-institute.com
Crane Youth Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
www.potsdam.edu/academics/
crane/cym
Music for Young Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
www.myc.com
Depauw University School of Music . . . . . 41
www.depauw.edu/music
Music Perceptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
www.musicperceptions.com
Eastman School of Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
www.esm.rochester.edu
MusicBag Press. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
www.musicbagpress.com
EPTA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
www.epta-europe.org
MusicLearningCommunity.com. . . . . . . . . 35
www.MusicLearningCommunity.com
Faber Piano Adventures . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-11
www.pianoadventures.com
Nat’l Federation of Music Clubs . . . . . . . . 21
www.nfmc-music.org
The Frederick Harris Music Co., Ltd. . . . . . 3
www.frederickharrismusic.com
Frustrated Accompanist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
www.frustratedaccompanist.com
Nazareth College Department of Music . . 34
www.naz.edu/music
The Golandsky Institute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
www.golandskyinstitute.org
The Novus Via Music Group . . . . . . . . 16-17
www.NVmusicgroup.com
The New School for Music Study . . . . 61, 78
www.nsmspiano.org
Post-Graduate Fellowship at the New School for Music Study
Seeking applicants for the Post-Graduate Fellowship at the New
School for Music Study (Kingston, NJ). This fellowship includes
teaching piano lessons, observing and assisting group classes, and
working closely with a teaching mentor to learn the effective teaching
practices of the New School. Position is filled for the academic year,
August 2012 through June 2013. Applicants must be highly committed to the piano teaching profession, with a Master’s degree in piano
pedagogy and a minimum of 2 years prior teaching experience.
78
Pianofonics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
www.pianofonics.com
CLAVIER COMPANION
UMKC Conservatory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
conservatory.umkc.edu
UNC Greensboro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
performingarts.uncg.edu/focus
University of St. Thomas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
www.stthomas.edu/music
Virginia Waring Int’l Piano Competition . 19
www.vwipc.org
Well-Balanced Pianist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
www.WellBalancedPianist.com
Yamaha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . inside back cover
www.yamaha.com
Yellow Cat Publishing, LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . 44
www.yellowcatpublishing.com
Young Artist World Piano Festival . . . . . . . 32
www.wirthcenter.org
Experience teaching with the Frances Clark Library for Piano
Students is desirable. For application information email Sara Ernst,
Administrative Director, [email protected].
John B. Sanders
Google John B. Sanders, “ The Down-ups Method of Piano
Technique: Rudiments and Theory,” (Isabella Vengerova method) for
favorable review and ordering. $15.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Whether you are a seasoned professional or new
teacher, membership in Music Teachers National
Association is an essential part of your professional life.
Since 1876, MTNA has been the foremost leader in
empowering the music-teaching professional
by providing valuable resources and networking
opportunities for its members.
Writers are free to choose any topic relating to
the field of piano pedagogy and write a 1,500
word article. Submissions must be received by
June 1st, 2012. A panel of professionals will evaluate submissions based on content, originality,
value to the profession, and writing style.
Submissions should include contestant’s full contact
information, university and degree program, and major professor. Submit articles using 12-point, Times New Roman font with double spacing. Submissions may be sent
electronically to [email protected]. For complete contest rules and regulations,
please visit www.claviercompanion.com.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
CLAVIER COMPANION
79
Questions & Answers
Louise L. Goss
Success with transfer students
Q. I feel quite successful with students I start from the
beginning, but I really need help with students who transfer to me from another teacher. Most of them are poor
readers, have no sense of rhythm, have developed almost
no technical control, and don’t know how to practice.
What do you do with them?
these gaps are filled in. Here the word “review” is helpful. Review
is generally accepted as part of the educational process. Transfer
students almost always recognize the need for review. This type
of review should not be done with music the student has studied
before. Instead, find some material at an easier level, call it
“review,” and use it as an opportunity for real teaching.
Sight-Reading is also a generally accepted term, and most piano
students recognize the need to increase their sight-reading skills.
A. Your challenge begins with getting acquainted with them as
Calling easier music “sight-reading,” can make it possible for you
people and analyzing what they know and the level of music they
to work at real teaching, filling in those gaps.
can play. This works best in the context of an informal interview;
Getting a broader background is a third category transfer stuif the student is younger than ten, I always include the parent.
dents accept as necessary and desirable. Let’s say, for example,
The interview should have three goals:
that one of the pieces the student played at the interview was
1) Get acquainted. Ask about family, school, interests and
Haydn’s Sonata in C Major (Hob. XVI: 7).
hobbies, musical activities (does the student
The performance may have been insecure
play another instrument or sing in the choir?),
and unmusical, but amazingly enough, the
and the kind of music the student likes best.
One taste of
student likes it. Here’s your chance to fill in
2) Discover what the student knows.
mastering the music
the background, assigning easier Haydn
Hear the student play some music that was
pieces in which to do some real teaching.
studied with the prior teachers, and have the
and playing it
student sight-read. Discover as much as possiSuggest that to increase the student ’s
beautifully goes a
ble about how the student was taught, what
enjoyment and understanding of the
she knows, and what she can do on her own.
Haydn Sonata, the student needs much
long way toward
3) Find out what the student has played.
more experience with the music Haydn
creating a strong
Learn as much as you can about her repertoire
wrote.
(method books, composer collections, sheet
Of course it will have to be at an easier
desire for more.
music, supplemental materials, etc.) as a basis
level, but the German Dances, Minuets
for determining where your new lessons
and Contre Dances are so easy and delightshould begin.
ful that success is almost assured. With this
In addition to these “dos” for the interview, there are some
simpler Haydn, it is possible really to teach, to insist on high perequally important “don’ts.” Don’t imply, by what you say or even
formance standards, and to create a situation in which the student
by the look on your face, that the former teaching was poor. And
has the experience of mastering the music and playing it beautidon’t blame the student’s lack of success, even in your own mind,
fully. One taste of that goes a long way toward creating a strong
on previous study materials. I know of no music or method so
desire for more.
bad that it can be the cause of poor teaching.
It has always been my experience that getting transfer students
It is important to include in the student’s first assignments at
to their proper level, by hook or crook, is well worth it. Once they
least some of the music she was already studying, even if you
have experienced playing really well, with complete accuracy, condon’t like or approve of it. There must be some pieces, somewhere
trol and security, and have had a real musical experience, they will
in the music that was brought to the interview, that you can use
never be content with anything less. The result is a gradual willand from which the student can learn. The new student must
ingness to study music at a level commensurate with their abilifeel, from her first lesson with you, that she is going forward with
ties. When this has been accomplished, the students may be said
her new teacher, not going back. Your job as the new teacher is to
to be truly transferred. p
go on with new material, and to fill in gaps, all at the same time.
But the filling in of gaps must be done with materials and subjects the transfer student will understand and perceive as reasonLouise L. Goss is a co-founder, along with Frances Clark, of The New
able. Sometimes your choice of words when describing activities
School for Music Study in Princeton, NJ. She is an author and editor of
can make a big difference in the student’s perception.
The Music Tree series and the Frances Clark Library for Piano StuFor example, if a transfer student is a poor reader, with careless
dents. She is Chair Emerita of the Board of Trustees of the Frances
habits and low performance standards, you can’t go forward until
Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy.
80
CLAVIER COMPANION
MARCH/APRIL 2012