Music Practice Commons^™

Martin Bresnick's “Bitter Suite” Duo For Violin And Piano, Xun Xu

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This document is intended to be a practical tool for those interested in performing, researching, and cultivating an acute understanding of Martin Bresnick’s Bitter Suite Duo for Violin and Piano. A composer working within varying neoclassical and modern idioms, Bresnick has merited many accolades, from the Rome Prize to a Guggenheim to the American Academy of Arts and Letters' first-ever Charles Ives Living Award.

The first movement of Bitter Suite was commissioned by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bresnick enjoyed composing this movement and was inspired to write three additional movements, transforming the commission …

Interpreting Jean Coulthard's Concerto For Piano And Orchestra (1963): A Pianist's Perspective, Jocelyn Lai

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Jean Coulthard (1908-2000) is recognized as one of Canada’s most prolific and important female classical composers in the twentieth century. She remained creatively active from her hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia, for eight decades, resulting in a catalog of over 350 works representing most classical music genres. Her music continues to be performed and recorded by renowned ensembles and soloists such as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, CBC Vancouver Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, Purcell String Quartet, pianists John Ogdon and Jane Coop, and contralto Maureen Forrester. Coulthard is known for her distinctive coloristic sonorities reminiscent of those in works by European composers …

Don't Lose Your Keys: Exploring The Transition From Harpsichord To Piano, Justice Post

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper explores keyboard technology in music from the Baroque era to today. Central focus is on the initial dominance of the harpsichord in Western music and how this shifted to the piano. Using this context of evolving instrumentation, the paper considers how this coincided with changing styles of music composition. Finally, the paper considers the question of how a keyboardist of today should handle music written in eras before the piano existed, and whether it is appropriate to perform harpsichord music using a modern piano.

Villa-Lobos’S Segunda Sonata-Fantasia For Violin And Piano: An Analysis And Performance Guide, Maira Braga Cabral

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study focuses on Villa-Lobos’s Segunda Sonata-Fantasia for Violin and Piano, written between 1913 and 1914. A brief biography of Villa-Lobos until 1915 provides the context of the period during which he composed the piece. Next, Villa-Lobos’s main influences are presented, a list that includes European nineteenth-century aesthetics, Impressionism, Brazilian popular music, Wagner’s motivic treatment, and Brazilian indigenous music. Next, the main compositional devices used by the composer are discussed, providing examples from the Segunda Sonata-Fantasia and from other pieces by Villa-Lobos. A structural analysis of the piece is presented, focusing on the form, thematic approach, and harmonic processes.

The …

Features Of The Performance Of Compositions By Romantic Composers In Uzbekistan ( On The Example Of Liszt's Creativity), Feruza Mukhamedova

Eurasian music science journal

Romantic art is a high example of lyrical-psychological, vital-truthful embodiment of the inner spiritual world of a person. The attraction to figurative concreteness, the desire to fill the sound of the piano with emotional warmth and intonation expressiveness, the colorful characteristics of different keys, characteristic of romantic composers, are fertile material for performers. It is difficult to count all the romantic composers of different national schools, who differ from each other in their original piano style, imaginative sphere and artistic thinking. Pianists of Uzbekistan, the most frequently performed such works of the romantics, as the piano concertos of F.Chopin, R. …

Influence And Innovation: Beethoven's Impact On The Sonatas For Piano And Cello By Mendelssohn And Chopin, Patrick T. Bellah

Dissertations, 2020-current

The bulk of the scholarship in this paper centers around Beethoven’s five sonatas written for piano and cello and how he established a new normal within the genre. This is evidenced by what are arguably the two most noteworthy sonatas for the same instrumental medium, written by Mendelssohn and Chopin, following Beethoven’s death. I posit that the five sonatas written by Beethoven establish a series of models upon which the latter two works by his successors are based.

Chapters two and three of this document are separated into subsections that detail the plausibility of Beethoven’s influence through circumstantial evidence, musical …

Performing Rhythmic Dissonance In Ligeti’S Études, Book 1: A Perception-Driven Approach And Re-Notation, Imri Talgam

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Interpretive approaches to the Études have been limited by Ligeti’s choice of notation, which creates several layers of difficulty in the presentation of complex rhythms. In order to resolve some of these difficulties, this dissertation includes a complete re-notation of four Etudes, using a methodology based on research in cognition and perception of rhythm.

Based on this new score, the notion of rhythmic dissonance is developed as an analytical tool to investigate in-time perception of rhythmic complexity, drawing on existing work on metric entrainment and metric dissonance. Different compositional strategies for the production of rhythmic dissonance are shown to have …

Chihsuan Yang Interview, Omar Dyette

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Winner of the 3Arts Award in 2015 and the 2016 Camargo Foundation Fellow in France. Chihsuan was born and raised in Taiwan and moved to the United States at the age of 15. Being a Classically-trained violinist/pianist her whole life, Chihsuan acquired the skills to expand horizons beyond tradition, and it also granted her fluency in the universal language of music. As an eclectic and versatile violinist, erhu player, and pianist, actively engaged in the music scene around the globe, Chihsuan’s body of work spans across a multitude of genres and reaches beyond borders. Chihsuan has performed with a …

Vital Performance: Culture, Worldview, And Romanticist Performance Practice With Application In Franz Liszt’S Consolations And Années De Pèlerinage Première Année, Andrew John Snedden

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis examines issues of historical performance in the piano music of Franz Liszt, positing cultural exegesis as an overlooked source of evidence. Philosophical biases underlying mainstream C20th performance approaches (and their inhibiting potential) are discussed. A detailed reconstruction of Romanticist style is made with attention to primary sources, including historical recordings. A nomenclature for score annotation and an analytical paradigm for identification and application of Romanticist performance characteristics are proposed. These are experimentally applied, referencing exegetical insights, in Liszt’s Consolations and Années de Pèlerinage: Première Année through annotated scores and studio recordings on an 1860’s Érard grand

"Werke Für Klavier Zu Vier Händen" By Franz Schubert, Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2013, Su Yin Mak

Performance Practice Review

Su Yin Mak discusses Bärenreiter's 2013 edition of Schubert's work.

Schubert, Franz. Werke für Klavier zu vier Händen, Band III, ed. Walburga Litschauer (Nos. 2-5) and Werner Aderhold (No. 1); Urtext of the New Schubert Edition, BA 9645. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2013.

ISMN: 9790006539871.

"Beyond The Score: Music As Performance" By Nicholas Cook, Aron Edidin

Performance Practice Review

Aron Edidin reviews and discusses Nicholas Cook's 2013 work. Cook, Nicholas. Beyond the Score: Music as Performance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN: 978-0-19-935740-6.

"Off The Record: Performing Practices In Romantic Piano Playing" By Neal Peres Da Costa, William Kinderman

Performance Practice Review

William Kinderman discusses and reviews Peres Da Costa's 2012 work.

Peres Da Costa, Neal. Off the Record: Performing Practices in Romantic Piano Playing. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

ISBN: 978-0-19-538691-2

Tracing The Development Of Vivaldi's "L' Estro Armonico" Concerto No. 8 In A Minor Through J.S. Bach And Samuil Feinberg's Keyboard Transcriptions: Exploring The Possibilities Of A Modern Authentic Performance, Andreas Xenopoulos

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

This document explores the development of the Concerto No.8 in A minor from the collection L’Estro Armonico by Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) through the transcriptions by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) and Samuil Feinberg (1890–1962). Feinberg was a Russian and Soviet pianist, composer and piano pedagogue, highly influenced by the teaching of Franz Liszt and the principles of the new, modern ‘piano school’ during the end of the 19^th century. Biographical information about Samuil Feinberg along with the influences Franz Liszt had upon piano education in Russia and the Moscow conservatory in particular is offered. Two comprehensive comparisons between the two …

"After The Golden Age: Romantic Pianism And Modern Performance" By Kenneth Hamilton, Robert Winter

Performance Practice Review

Winter reviews and critiques Hamilton's work.

The Antebellum "Piano Girl" In The American South, Candace Bailey

Performance Practice Review

Throughout the nineteenth century, the education of young gentlewomen almost always included music lessons, with piano lessons being the most frequently recommended. The social context for these young women pianists, “piano girls,” has been described in several modern works, particularly since Arthur Loesser’s seminal work Men, Women, and Pianos: A Social History.1 In the 1980s, Judith Tick made the term “piano girl” a familiar one in musicological studies, and since that time the idea of the piano girl and her role in society has been explored by others.2 Most of these studies describe the social phenomenon of the piano girl, …

"Beethoven The Pianist" By Tilman Skowroneck, William Kinderman

Performance Practice Review

William Kinderman discusses and reviews Skowrowneck's 2010 work.

Skowroneck, Tilman. Beethoven the Pianist. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

ISBN 978-0-521-11959-7.

"The Fortepiano Writings Of Streicher, Dieudonné, And The Schiedmayers: Two Manuals And A Notebook, Translated From The Original German, With Commentary" By Preethi De Silva, Roland Jackson

Performance Practice Review

Roland Jackson reviews and critiques De Silva's 2008 work.

De Silva, Preethi. The Fortepiano Writings of Streicher, Dieudonné, and the Schiedmayers: Two Manuals and a Notebook, Translated from the Original German, with Commentary. Lewiston, Queenston, and Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2008.

ISBN: 978-0-773-44874-2

News From Cart, Deborah Nemko

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

"Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Music For Solo Keyboard." Trevor Stephenson, Fortepiano, Marischka Olech-Hopcroft

Performance Practice Review

Olech-Hopcroft reviews and critiques Stephenson's recording of Mozart Keyboard Music.

"Makers Of The Piano, 1700-1820." By Martha Novak Clinkscale, Malcolm S. Cole

Performance Practice Review

Cole reviews Clinkscales 1993 book.

Enrique Granados And Modern Piano Technique, Carol A. Hess

Performance Practice Review

Discusses parallels between Granados's approach to piano technique and that of Ludwig Deppe and Tobias Matthay, two pioneers in the reshaping of pianistic principles that took place at the turn of the century. Despite his relative isolation in Barcelona, Granados pursued strikingly modern ideas in piano playing, including principles of weight and relaxation, avoidance of finger-lifting, and preoccupation with fine gradations of tone. Primary sources include the composer's diary, treatise on pedaling, and the detailed memoirs of one of his students.

Pedaling The Piano: A Brief Survey From The Eighteenth Century To The Present, Sandra P. Rosenblum

Performance Practice Review

Before World War II, most composers notated relatively few pedal indications, usually to create unsuspected effects. Mutations (Veranderungen) on the early pianos and the uses of hand stops, knee levers, and pedals are discussed based on information from extant instruments, composers' autographs, and comments in tutors by such teachers as Johann Milchmeyer and Louis Adam. Pedaling techniques and uses of the damper, una corda, and sostenuto pedals on the changing instruments of the 19th and 20th c. are described, with particular attention to compositions of Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy, Villa-Lobos, Boulez, Cage, and Stockhausen.

"Beethoven On Beethoven: Playing His Piano His Way." By William S. Newman, Barry Cooper

Performance Practice Review

Cooper discusses and reviews Newman's 1988 book.

"Performance Practices In Classic Piano Music" By Sandra P. Rosenblum, A. Peter Brown

Performance Practice Review

Brown discusses and reviews Rosenblum's 1988 book.

Brahms's Pianos And The Performance Of His Late Works, Camilla Cai

Performance Practice Review

Brahms's late piano works (opp. 116-19) reveal his sensitivity to the characteristics of conservative, late 19th-c. pianos. A more accurate understanding of Brahms's performance indications and special piano textures would lead to performances relevant to his own playing style.

Volume 69, Number 04 (April 1951), John Briggs

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Dilemma in Detroit: Survivors of the Detroit Symphony Support Themselves with Odd Jobs and Look for a Successor to Sponsor Henry Reichhold

Zoltan Kodaly was my Teacher

How to Teach Adult Beginners

Music Has No Short-Cuts: Solid Careers Emerge Only for Unhurried, Systematic Training (interivew with Joseph Fuchs)

It's Free—It's Fun—It's Forum!

More About the Pharyngeal Voice: Widely-Used Method in the Golden Days of Italian Bel Canto

Class Piano Teaching Gets Results . . . A Successful Teacher Reveals the Formula She Has Developed Through Years of Trial and Error

Sing with Your Fingers

Volume 68, Number 03 (March 1950), John Briggs

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Richards Strauss . . . Conducting is a Difficult Business

Modern Piano Musical Metaphysics . . . Its Cause and Cure

How to Build a Voice Psychologists

Evaluate Music

So You Want to be a Piano Teacher

Structure of Music Clarence Dickinson—Pioneer of Church Music

Let's Simplify the Liebestraum Cadenzas Master Lesson on Brahms' Intermezzo in E-Flat Major, Op. 117,

No. 1 Musical Medicos

For TV Thrillers

Volume 17, Number 10 (October 1899), Winton J. Baltzell

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Ages of One Hundred Famous

Singers

On Program Printing

Unprofessional Advertising

Dumb Pianos

About Tuning

How Leschetizky Teaches Memorizing

Little Knowledge

First Step in the Instruction of Young Children

To a Piano (poem)

Mechanical Music

Honesty in Advertising

Actual Effect of Music Upon an Imagination

Types of Teachers, or Mayburn's Madness

Music or Notes?

Development of the Artistic Sense

Lost Ideals

Value of the Musical Magazine

How to Memorize

What Makes Music Successful?

Studio Experiences: Experiences with the Pedal

Uninterested Pupil

Conservatory and Private Teaching: Another Phase of the Subject

Musical Don'ts

What are Musical Clubs For?

Volume 16, Number 01 (January 1898), Winton J. Baltzell

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Suggestions for the Musical Youth

How Shall We Teach Notation to Beginners

The Gospel of Work

Musical Memory in Its Relation to Pianoforte Playing

How to Make a Living

Problem of American Teaching

Song Writers of the Day

One-Sided Musicians

Nothing But a Name!

Success is the Reward of Toil

Musical Listener

Sight-Reading

Art of Self-Criticism

Helpful Letters to Young Musicians

Cost of Study Abroad

Factors of Musical Expression

Sight-reading in Pianoforte Instruction

Why Do You Take Music Lessons?

Principles of Musical Pedagogy

Thoroughness in Primary Work

Music Education

Moral Influence of Music

Convenient Maxims, Formulas, etc. for Voice Teaching …

Volume 15, Number 09 (September 1897), Winton J. Baltzell

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Would-Be Paderewski

Music No Hindrance to Getting On

Some Don'ts for Students Who are Going to Germany to Study Music

Playing in Public

From Recent Programmes

Neglected Essential: Music and Languages

Self-Exaltation

Time Values

Flowers by the Wayside

Not Yourself, But Your Art

Four Stages of Student Life

Physical Exercises an Aid to Artistic Piano Playing

How a Pupil Rose to Success

Should Piano Students Attend Piano Recitals?

For the Student's Encouragement

Reading New Music

Extracts from Reinecke's Hints to Music Students

Materials and Workmanship

Ear Training

Study on Phrasing

Reed Organ as an Aid in Piano Instruction

Musical Listener …