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Announcing, ‘Partimento: A Beginner Method for Classical Improvisation’
Title: Partimento: A Beginner Method for Classical Improvisation Author: Connor Gaydon Release Date: February 2023 (eBook) Price: £14 (or £2 per stage) Purpose: Provide beginner musicians a practical book to…
18th Century Pianos: Design, Style, Music
Although the earliest pianos were invented at the beginning of the eighteenth-century, it was not until the 1780s that the piano began to usurp the harpsichord as the keyboard instrument…
Review: The Pianist’s Guide to Historic Improvisation by John Mortensen
“If I have one regret about my traditional education, it’s that it wasn’t traditional enough. We have forgotten that in the eighteenth century – those hundred years that form the…
Chapter 3: A Case for Partimento Pt. 2 – Improvisation
The Benefits of Improvisation A linguistic parallel may be applied to outline the relationship of different musical fields of study. When learning a foreign language, a student may be taught…
Chapter 3: A Case for Partimento Pt. 1 – Music Theory
Reform needs to occur in musical theory and improvisation pedagogies. I posit that Partimento can be used as a method in which to holistically integrate compartmentalised aspects of music education.…
Wuthering Heights (1939): How the Soundtrack Influences Our Perception of the Narrative
The music for Wuthering Heights (Wyler, 1939) was led by “arguably the most influential music director in Hollywood”, Alfred Newman (Cooke, 2008, p. 103). He was an American-born composer at…
Analysis: Schubert D. 899 No. 1 ‘Impromptu in C Minor’
The first set of Impromptus (D.899) was written in the penultimate year of Schubert’s life, the summer of 1827. It was Schubert’s publisher, Haslinger, who titled this set of piano…
Historical Performance: Brahms Op. 117 No. 1 by Adelina de Lara (1951)
The recordings made by Adelina de Lara, Ilona Eibenschütz and Etelka Freund are interesting case studies to consider. These are women whose professional performing careers were “curtailed by marriage” (Kim,…
Historical Performance: Two Recordings of Quilter, Go, Lovely Rose
1934 Mark Raphael – Voice; Roger Quilter – Piano 2014 Mark Stone – Voice; Stephen Barlow – Piano Go, Lovely Rose is the third song in Quilter’s Op. 24 ‘5…
Piano Teaching: Requirements, Realities, Aspirations
The profession of piano teaching encompasses a broad range of talents and skillsets requisite for effective dissemination of knowledge. I shall speak of the necessary qualities for teaching, practical considerations…
Chapter 2: Issues with Classical Pedagogy – Examinations, Theory Harmony, Improvisation
There are institutional, individual and perceptual issues at all levels of classical music. The rectification of these issues may lead to a keener understanding of music theory, and a proliferation…
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Partimento
The history of Partimento and its usage is a much-developed area of scholarship. In this chapter I have dealt with what the Partimento tradition was, and what partimenti are. Studying…
Aesthetics: Considerations For the Determination of Musical Value
Stecker (2003, pp.322-323) calls for further research to uncover an evaluative model, where “various prima facie considerations are all relevant to, but do not entail, a particular assessment”. He mentions…
Così Fan Tutte: Context, Philosophy and Musico-Dramatic Relationships
Così fan tutte was composed during somewhat of a compositional drought for Mozart. He had written only 4 major works in 1789, the year prior to the premiere of this…
Analysis: Haydn Andante and Variations in F minor, Hob XVII:6
Written in 1793 in Vienna “between his two stays in London” (Ax, 2012), the ‘Andante with variations in F minor’ “underwent several revisions” (Sisman, 1993, p. 193). It was an…
Analysis: Don Giovanni no.15, trio ‘Ah! taci, ingiusto core’
We join Donna Elvira in Act II at her balcony, scorning herself for still loving the notorious philanderer, Don Giovanni. Meanwhile, the Don has set his eyes on his next…