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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: £12 (or £2 per stage) Purpose: Provide beginner musicians a practical book to learn classical improvisation using the Partimento method. For over a century, classical improvisation has been a lost skill, until now. During the 17th-19th centuries, improvisation […]

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Historical Performance

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 of choice (Rowland, 1993, p.13). There were two distinct schools of piano building – English and Viennese – and it was only late in the […]

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. Partimento can act as a scaffold to train improvisation (Callahan, 2017, p. 196). Improvisation is an admirable goal in and of itself and produces valuable […]

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Historical Performance Music Analysis

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 English Love Lyrics’. This opus, and Op. 25 were “no more than loose collections of solo songs written by Quilter over a period of seven […]

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 and associated issues for maximal success of both teacher and student. This is not an all-encompassing, nor prescriptive outline of piano teaching. However, it provides […]

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 “alternating strophic-variation set in six parts” intended to be a movement of a sonata (Sisman, 1993, p. 193). This was later changed to a reprise […]

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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 conquest, the maid of Donna Elvira. To be successful in this latest exploit, he must lure Elvira away. Don Giovanni and Leporello exchange outfits and […]