Twentieth Century Piano Music

*Notice: This is a 2 day event from 9am - 5pm on each day
A study and journey through numerous pathways into Twentieth-Century Piano Music; an exploration of harmonic landscapes, style, national influences, musical structures, and the place of melody.
This two-day event comprises six sessions, each looking at the various routes and pathways taken by a group of Western composers who wrote for solo piano in a world in which cinema, music-theatre, symphonic music, and a wide range of popular styles co-existed. The objective is to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the musical worlds in which these brilliant and innovative composers made their unique contribution to the world of the piano.

Info: Schubert and Brahms were influential throughout the nineteenth century as composers who perceived a deeper expressive capability for the piano in their solo writing and in their partnering of solo singer and piano.

We shall look at Schubert and Brahms and take their approaches to piano writing - using harmony, melody, and textures as a starting point for a journey that leads towards new-found harmonic landscapes and in which greater exploration of texture and tonal colours define the work of others. We shall look at Granados’ Goyescas Number 4, The Maiden and the Nightingale, and the inspiration of visual arts.

Info: This session is devoted entirely to Debussy and his visual connections with nature, the idea of mood, characterization of people, and imagination. We shall look at texture, tonality, pedaling, and tonal colour. In particular, we shall look at the 1st book of Preludes, Numbers 7, 8, 10, 11, and 12, to gain a deeper insight into the style and unique compositional building blocks of Debussy’s work.

Info: Cultural dimensions and influences play a large part in how a composer writes, and we shall look at Bartók and Albéniz in this session. Hungary and Spain, whilst both being European, represent countries that are less associated with earlier piano composition. We shall look at tonality, rhythm, the use of the piano in a percussive context, and the influence of folk styles. From Bartók’s Book 6 (the final book) of Mikrokosmos, we shall study Numbers 140, 141, 142, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, and 153. We shall study the five movements from Albéniz’s piano collection España.

Info: The idea of post-tonal harmony and how composers seek to create their own sound world is explored here with Shostakovich (the principal Soviet composer) and Leonard Bernstein (American symphonic and stage composer, pianist, and conductor). We shall study the 24 Piano Preludes of Shostakovich and the 13 Anniversaries of Bernstein.

Info: Two South American composers who are less familiar in the Western learning repertoire are Alberto Ginastera and Heitor Villa-Lobos. Their individual ideas on style, harmony, rhythmic, and nationalistic influences will be studied in Ginastera’s Opus 2 Danzas Argentinas and Villa-Lobos’s 18 Pieces for Piano.

Info: The final session looks at quite unrelated but influential composers — namely, Kabalevsky, Paul Hindemith, and Michael Nyman. We shall look at totally contrasted ideas about how the piano can be used to inspire young learners compared with academic interest and the use of the piano in contemporary times in film scores. We shall conclude our two-day course of study by dipping into Kabalevsky’s Opus 39 set of 24 Children’s Pieces, Paul Hindemith’s Ludus Tonalis, and Michael Nyman’s piano music from film scores.

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Host or Publisher Yamaha Music Singapore