Piano Score Research Articles

Kinesiology study of different fingerings of the same piano score. About twenty cases

Kinesiology study of different fingerings of the same piano score. About twenty cases

Trio pour piano, violon et violoncelle, op. 120 , and: Quatuor à cordes, op. 121 , and: La bonne chanson, op. 61 (review)

Gabriel Faure. Trio pour piano, violon et violoncelle, op. 120. Urtext d'apres Gabriel Faure OEuvres completes. Edite par = Edited by = Herausgegeben von James William Sobaskie. (Barenreiter Urtext.) Kassel: Barenreiter, 2010. [Introd. & editorial notes in Eng., Fre., Ger., p. iii-viii; score (p. 1-39) and 2 parts. ISMN M-006-53958-1, ISMN- 13/EAN 979-0-006-53958-1, pub. no. BA 7902. euro18.95. ] Gabriel Faure. Quatuor a cordes, op. 121. Urtext d'apres Gabriel Faure OEuvres completes. Edite par = Edited by = Herausgegeben von James William Sobaskie. (Barenreiter Urtext.) Kassel: Barenreiter, 2010. [Miniature score: Introd. & editorial notes in Eng., Fre., Ger., p. iii-xix; score, p. 2-30; ISMN M-006-20525-7, ISMN-13/EAN 979-0-006-20525-7, pub. no. TP 412. euro14.95. Four parts: ISMN M-006-53957-4, ISMN- 13/EAN 979-0-006-53957-4, pub. no. BA 7901. euro34.95.] Gabriel Faure. La bonne chanson, op. 61. Edition revue et corrigee. Paris: J. Hamelle, 2010. [Pref. in Fre., Eng., Ger., Spa., p. iii-vi; song texts in Fre., p. vii-xii; score (84 p.) and 7 parts. ISMN-13/EAN 9790230797436, pub. no. HA 9 743. euro89.60.] Faure's two last works, String Quartet, op. 121, and Piano Trio, op. 120, were composed between 1922 and 1924 and were left complete but unedited at his death. In these two elegant performing editions drawn Gabriel Faure OEuvres completes and produced by Barenreiter, editor James William Sobaskie has done an admirable job of annotating with articulation and expressive markings composer would likely have included himself had he lived to do so. Sobaskie's editing reveals hallmarks of a scholar who knows Faure's work very well, as well as ethos of composition for chamber music, particularly that for strings, of time in which works were composed. In his introduction to Piano Trio, Sobaskie situates it in its historical context, providing material Faure's letters to support idea that although work was initially proposed by publisher Jacques Durand in 1922, it also arose from an inner necessity (p. iii): Faure confessed to a fear of becoming bored without a compelling new project. The Piano Trio was just what he needed: once set on task, Faure completed three-movement work in just a few months, and it was premiered at a private recital in April of 1923. The work was immediately popular, running to several reprintings. Like much of composer's late works, it is highly lyrical, with long melodic lines stretched out over functional supporting harmonies. This edition of Piano Trio is based on the numerous revisions or small additions made at engraving stage preceding first or second edition or preserved in form of handwritten corrections in [Faure's] personal copies of his printed scores (p. iv). This meticulous attention to detail and Barenreiter's desire to create playable, practical means that added or altered markings are indicated in piano score by enclosure in brackets or by a small, unobtrusive slash through marking (such as a slash through a slur) that is neither distracting nor difficult to understand as an editor's annotation. The violin and cello parts do not have these indicia; players curious as to editorial changes in publication will want to consult score. The score and parts are beautifully engraved, well-spaced to allow for players' notes, and contain both measure numbers and rehearsal numbers. The violin and cello parts have useful cues, and layout has been executed to make for easy page turns during rests. While not a work for amateurs-the violin part contains octaves and some tricky chromaticism, cello part is frequently set in instrument's upper register, and pianist is called upon to perform some fairly intricate counterpoint-it is an essential piece for music libraries, particularly those serving communities with professional musicians or those in training. …

Image Sharpness versus Loss of the Frames. Readings of Textual Criticism in Mozart’s Church Music

Already the first, only sparse editions of Mozart’s Church Music brought about considerable changes within musical notation. In some cases the works have even been reduced to vocal parts along with piano score. Remote from the original text habits of performance practice developed, started to circulate and to strengthen. Compared with this the volumes of the (Old) Mozart Edition could hardly stand their ground in the 1870s and 1880s, so that on the basis of a (with regard to textual criticism) corrupt notation an autonomous Mozart- tradition in Church Music revealed itself and has been maintained by a long way up to the 20th century. By means of some smaller works of Church Music (the offertorios Misericordias Domini and Venite, populi , the motet Ave verum Corpus ) it will be shown how a process of alienation and reapproaching took place and why aspects of later reception shall be of some importance when editing musical works of the classical era. (Italian translation by Adriana De Feo).

A modular system generating Jazz-style arrangement for a given set of a melody and its chord name sequence

There are many music systems available on the market, such as systems for the automatic arrangement of music pieces given as note sequences for solo pianos into a piano score in a specific style. These systems, however, are usually designed to generate music by concatenation of existing arrangement patterns, so no one can expect that these systems will satisfy user requirements. We propose a system in which a given melody expressed as a note sequence is arranged into a modern Jazz-style score for the piano on the basis of the theory, a theory of harmony used in Jazz and popular music. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated by comparing the results obtained with the proposed system with those obtained using popular arrangement systems available on the market. Experimental results show that arrangement using the proposed system is significantly superior to arrangement using systems available on the market.

Paul Dukas' La Peri as Interpreted by Two Balletic Collaborators

Paul Dukas (1865–1935) had once mentally consigned his ballet, La Péri, to the funeral pyre.1 In the weeks leading up to its aborted premiere, Pierre Lalo recounts that the composer approached him for an honest assessment of his composition: “if you find that it is too bad . . . I will destroy the manuscript; it is all that it merits.”2 Against all odds, the curtain that finally rose on La Péri on April 22, 1912, turned Dukas’ reveries of ash into flame. La Péri, in piano score, was completed by March 1911.3 Gabriel Astruc arranged for Serge Diaghilev and Valsav Nijinsky to hear this version.4 With Diaghilev on board, the ballet’s premiere by the Ballet Russes was set for that same year,5 yet the venture was fraught with obstacles. Telegrams from Diaghilev highlight problems with unsigned contracts and impossible rehearsal schedules.6 Nijinsky was billed to appear in the star couple, along with Natasha Trouhanova.7 But both Nijinsky and Michel Fokine (whom Diaghilev had hired as choreographer) would agree to the project only if Dukas would serve as conductor.8 Diaghilev meanwhile failed repeatedly to persuade Trouhanova to sign her contract. Judging by Diaghilev’s telegrams, Trouhanova did not attend scheduled meetings, and it appears that she refused to sign her contract until she could be granted exclusive rights to perform La Péri elsewhere.9 In spite of setbacks, preparations for the performance went ahead. By May 1911, Leon Bakst had completed his designs for décor and costumes, and a photograph of Trouhanova wearing her costume appeared on the cover of Comœdia Illustré (June 1911).10 And yet, as Diaghilev reported in a May 22, 1911, telegram to Astruc and Bakst: “We have a fortnight till the Paris opening . . . I have still not received Trouhanova’s contract signed. . . . Obviously we can’t plan a work without the co-operation of its chief interpreter. . . . Now I am in a most embarrassing position with regard to Dukas.”11 Despite Diaghilev’s determination “to get Péri on,”12 the first staging of Dukas’ last large-scale work ultimately fell to the director of the Théâtre des Arts, Jacques Rouché.

A modular system yielding jazz-style arrangement for a given melody and sequence of chord names

There are many music systems available on the market, such as ones for automatic arrangement of music pieces given as note sequences for solo piano into a piano score in a specific style. Those systems, however, are usually designed to generate music by concatenating existing arrangement patterns, so we cannot expect those systems to meet user requirements. This paper proposes a system that arranges a given set of melody expressed as a note sequence and a chord name sequence into a piano score in modern jazz style based on so-called ‘‘jazz theory.’’ The system is implemented in the classical theory of harmony and arrangement techniques described in jazz theory in a modular system. Proposed is a system that gives arrangement by integrating several modules according to structure of input music and user requirements. Performance of the proposed system is evaluated by comparing results given by the proposed system with those given by popular arrangement systems available on the market. Experimental results show that arrangement by the proposed system is significantly superior to arrangement by other systems available on the market. [Work supported by Academic Frontier Project, Doshisha Univ., Knowledge Cluster Project, MEXT, Grant-in Aid for Scientific Research (No. 16700154), MEXT, HRC, Ryukoku Univ.]

Ken Russell's The Debussy film (1965)

First telecast on 18 May 1965 as part of the BBC's Monitor series, The Debussy Film was Ken Russell's first fully-realized composer biopic—‘one of Russell's major contributions to the art of film b...

The Tchaikovsky Handbook: A Guide to the Man and His Music by Alexander s> Poznansky Brett Langston (review)

734 SEER, 82, 3, 2004 that an index of names would have been a useful addition. In the last resort, however, this is a valuablebook which deservesto be widely studied. Department of Comparative Literature KNUT ANDREAS GRIMSTAD Nonregian University ofScience andTechnology Poznansky,Alexander and Langston,Brett(comps). TheTchaikovsky Handbook. A Guideto theMan andHis Music. Volume i: 7hematicCatalogue of Works, Catalogue ofPhotographs, Autobiography; Volume 2. Thematic Catalogue ofLetters, Geneaology, Bibliography. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 2002. xli + 636 and xl + 832 pp. Notes. Illustrations. Musical extracts.Indexes. ?I03.oo and ?I03.00. CHAIKOVSKII,though verypopularwith concert goers, has not had the critical attention enjoyed by many great composers, and detailed studies of his life, for instance, have tended to concentrate on individual episodes, such as his marriage and, of course, his death. The Russian-American musicologist Alexander Poznansky himself has contributed serious research to the latter topic (see, for instance, SEER, 75, 1997, 4). In the present enterprisehe has collaborated with an Englishman in the task of producing a large-format encyclopedic handbook of the composer, aimed at righting the latter's perceived neglect hitherto.The tone of this ambitiousprojectis very personal in a numberofways,but in purelyinformationaltermsit isvaluable,especially in the byways of Chaikovskii's compositions. It is designed 'to serve the reference needs of [. . .] musicologists and musicians, music bibliographers and librarians, collectors and antiquarian booksellers, music critics and programmeannotators,and anyone who is fascinatedby Tchaikovsky'smusic and personality'(i, p. xv). The firstvolume begins with a ratherchatty Chronology: one of the items for September i876 refers to the composer's disastrous marriage plans, as follows:'Due to social and familypressures,and alarmedby learning that his brother Modest is also homosexual, he announces his decision to marry' (i, p. xxxv). After this come twenty-twoplates (mainlyof scores).Farthe largest section in the firstvolume is a Catalogue of Works,divided thematicallyinto twenty-three sections from Operas to Diaries. In the musical sections, the commentaryis not extensive, though informative,and musicalillustrations(in piano score)areprofuse,illustratingthe main (opening)themesof the relevant work.To takeas an example one of Chaikovskii'sbest knownworks,the Sixth Symphony, there are four musical examples; of the opening and the main themes of the first movement, and of the opening of each of the other four movements. These take up about three-quartersof a page, whilst the words, most of which concern the MS sources,comprise about one and a halfpages. Arguably more interesting to scholars are Chaikovskii's student exercises, arrangements,musicaljokes and album leaves, to say nothing of unfinished and projected works. Space is also given to description of the composer's writings, divided as follows: books (studies of harmony, I87I and I875), eighty-four articles, interviews, translations, poetry and juvenile works, notebooks (I876-93), and diaries (I873-91). Whilst the above is, of course, a REVIEWS 735 catalogue rather than an anthology, the Catalogue of Photographs not only describes but also illustratesthe 129 pictures;the generally splendid appearance of the volumes is slightlylet down here by the ratherdrab monochrome reproductions.Finally, there is a heavily annotated six-page 'Autobiography' (i 899). The volume ends with a series of Listsand Indexes: of worksby opus number; a chronological list of compositions (including unfinished and unrealizedprojects);an index of titlesand titlevariants;and a generalindex. The second volume contains a catalogue of letters, a genealogy, and a bibliography.The firstof these gives details of recipients, dates and places of writing, the language used and where each letter is to be found, as well as to where, if at all, it was firstpublished;a usefuladdition is an asteriskwhere the publication (in Polnoe sobranie sochinenii. Literaturnye proizvedeniia i perepiska, vols 5-17, Moscow, 1957-8I) was incomplete or censored. The genealogy seeks to provide information not only about Chaikovskii'snumerous relatives but also about the families of his brother-in-law,Lev Davydov, of Nadezhda von Meck, and of his wife Antonina Miliukova.Finally,the section on Catalogues and Bibliographies comprises catalogues, bibliographies, discographies, filmographies and videographies, chronologies and encyclopedias; that on Sources and Documents includes manuscripts,scores, literaryworks, correspondence , diaries and notebooks, memoirs, pictorial collections and sound recordings; the section on Appreciation is divided into collected essays, commemoration, and...

Art song in the United States, 1759-1999: an annotated bibliography

This fourth edition of Art Song in the United States, 1759-2011 covers songs for solo voice and piano by American composers from the mid-18th through the early 21st centuries. The book is structured as an annotated bibliography with approximately 2,850 numbered entries listed alphabetically by composer and title and indexed in various ways to help teachers and singers locate the particular song they require for practice or performance. This edition adds eleven years' worth of new works, anthologies, and collections (about 450 new entries), reflecting the relatively recent outpouring of song compositions by American composers and a wealth of new song anthologies and collections. This bibliography features information on each song or song cycle or set. Users will find critical data on the poet, publisher and copyright date, key, vocal range, vocal tessitura, meter(s), tempo, length, difficulty of vocal line and piano score, most suitable voice type, mood and subject of the text, and brief description of the vocal line and piano score. It also includes commentary on special difficulties for performers and possible uses of the song in programming. In addition, individual titles of composite works are given, and those that appear in collections are indexed to the list of collections in the front matter. Composer, poet, special characteristics/subject, and title indexes-and even discographic lists recordings where available-all aid researchers in finding songs. The primary audiences for this bibliography are voice teachers and singers in search of appropriate art songs for their students or themselves, as well as libraries with collecting interests in music and American literature.

The Earliest Giselle? A Preliminary Report on a St. Petersburg Manuscript

There are many spectacular treasures in the archive of the Theater Museum in St. Petersburg, but few perhaps are more revealing than a pair of hand-annotated nineteenth-century scores of Giselle. One is a manuscript rehearsal score, called a repetiteur, annotated measure by measure in a very neat hand with descriptions in French of the action of both acts. The other is a printed piano score; its annotations, which cover only the first act, are also in French, although written in a different (and somewhat less tidy) hand. The words used in both scores are nearly the same. The annotations in these scores, which are little known in the West, can contribute truly fresh information to our overall understanding of Giselle and also give us a far fuller picture of the relationship of mime and dance as it existed in the Romantic ballet. Moreover, dance historians and choreographers should be aware that Giselle was by no means the only ballet to have been recorded in this manner, and that a good many such scores have survived and are awaiting discovery in archives and private collections, as annotated repetiteurs were apparently frequently created and disseminated in the nineteenth century. Written for one or sometimes two musicians to play during rehearsals (a solo violinist or perhaps a cellist and violinist), annotated repetiteurs were intended to

Discrepancies between published piano scores and composers' recorded performance—Data obtained by a computerized FFT transcribing device

The differences between published piano scores and recordings of the same music performed by its composers are presented. In order to demonstrate objectively such discrepancies, recorded performances of Debussy, Rachmaninoff, and Gershwin were transcribed by a personal computer (NEC-9801) using the fast Fourier transform. In order to verify the findings, the data obtained from Debussy's “La plus que lente” was reproduced on an electronic piano via a computer. The most outstanding differences ascertained were as follows. (1) Notes not written were played. (2) Notes written were omitted. (3) Notes to be played simultaneously were played separately. (4) Tempo and rhythm differed from those indicated on the score. As well as an analysis of the performances of the composers themselves, the FFT transcribing technique can be applied to the analysis of jazz and other music forms of irregular tempo, such as various types of non-Western music. In addition, the results of the FFT analysis can contribute to the fields of musical education, musicology, and so on.

Liszt and Musorgsky. The Genuine and False Documents of the Relationship between the Two Composers

Quoted bv N. Findeizen: V. V. Bessel. Petersburg 1909, pp. 35-37. My acquaintance with Fr. Liszt grew out of the poliev of our publishing house. I went to Weimar for the first time on the advise of Musorgsky and C. A. Cui to show him the piano scores of the operas, Dargomizhsky's Stone Guest and Cui's Wtlltam Ratcliff, which had just come off the press. In order to make the text of The Stone Guest intelligible to him, a German or French translation had to be added (Ratcltff was published with both Russian and German texts). Then WI. P. Musorgsky, who had mastered the German language, undertook to interline Bodenstedt's translation of The Stone GZuest, which seemed quite close to the original version hy Pushkin, and gave me this copy for Liszt. Arriving in Weimar, I decided to keep this copy as a token of memory, and make another copy of it fol Liszt: and I actually accomplished the task within one night. During the day I callecl on Liszt who received me very cordially, I might say kindly, took from me both piano scores andl requested me to come again at 9 o'clock on the following day. By mistake I arrived at the Gartenhouse svhere he lived by 8 o'clock. The house or rather villa surrounded by plants in which Liszt had the whole upper floor to himself stands in the vicinity of a beautiful court park on the edge of the town. Approaching the house, my attention was caught bv the sounds of a piano; I sat down on a bench and listened for an hour to the parts of the two Russian operas he took the greatest interest in. When the clock in the tower of a nearby church struck nine, I went up the stairs. The servant of dark skin from WIontenegro (who was to steal from him later on) showed me up in a kindly manner to the maestro (he was generally addressed as Meister or Herr Doctor). Liszt came to meet me and spoke about The Stone Guest in the tone of the most sincere rapture and praised Ratcltff extensively too.-If I were still the conductor of the theatre here, I would present here both operas without delayhe said resolutely and with eonviction. He suggested that I call on Hans von Bulow who was holding the office of eourt opera eonduetor in Munich at the time and tell him that I was visiting him on his advice and handing him over the piano seore of Ratcliff . . . When I was saying good-bye to Liszt, he asked me to eall on him in Weimar whenever I was to visit GEermany.

REVIEWS OF MUSIC

Journal Article REVIEWS OF MUSIC Get access Britten Benjamin, Quatre chansons françaises; Phantasy in F minor, for string quintet; Three Divertimenti, for string quartet; Russian Funeral, for brass and percussion; Reveille, for violin and piano; Young Apollo, Op. 16, for piano and string orchestra; Men of Goodwill: Variations on a Christmas Carol, for orchestra. ( Faber Music, London, 1982, score £8.00, piano score £3.95; 1983, study score £3.95, parts £8.50; 1983, study score £4.50, parts £8.50; 1981, score £4.95, parts £5.95; 1983, £2.95; 1982, score £10.00; 1982, score £5.95.) STEPHEN BANFIELD STEPHEN BANFIELD Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Music and Letters, Volume 67, Issue 2, April 1986, Pages 218-b–220, https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/67.2.218-b Published: 01 April 1986

REVIEWS OF MUSIC

Journal Article REVIEWS OF MUSIC Get access Friedrich Cerha, Baal: stage-piece in two parts after Bertolt Brecht's Baal. Piano Score. ( Universal,Vienna, 1979, £22.50.) ALFRED CLAYTON ALFRED CLAYTON Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Music and Letters, Volume 65, Issue 4, October 1984, Pages 425-b–427, https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/65.4.425-b Published: 01 October 1984

An Unfinished Piano Concerto by Mendelssohn

AS a composer of concertos, Mendelssohn is remembered today for his Violin Concerto in E minor, Opus 64, of 1844, two piano concertos, Opera 25 and 40 from 1831 and 1837, and a few shorter concert pieces for piano and orchestra. The appearance of the first few volumes of the new Leipzig Mendelssohn edition has focused renewed attention on four early concertos from the 1820s, two in D minor for violin, and violin and piano, and two in A flat and E major for two pianos.' Quite unknown in the Mendelssohn literature, however, is an incomplete piano concerto in E minor, which survives in a bound volume of Mendelssohn autograph miscellany in the Margaret Deneke Mendelssohn Collection at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Bearing the shelfmark b. 5, fols. 88-100, the concerto comprises six loose bifolios and one separate folio measuring roughly 9 x 12. On these are recorded thirteen pages of piano score for the first and second movements and nine pages of incomplete orchestral score for the first movement. Though unsigned and undated, the manuscript bears in the upper right corner of the first page the letters H.D.m., an abbreviation for Hilf Du mir, which Mendelssohn habitually inscribed when beginning a new composition (see Plate I). The handwriting is without doubt that of Mendelssohn, as a cursory comparison with signed autographs quickly attests.2

COLLECTED EDITIONS

Journal Article COLLECTED EDITIONS Get access Albinoni, Tomaso, Complete Edition of his Instrumental Music, ed. by Walter Kolneder: Concerto, Bb major, for violin and string orchestra, Op. 9/1. Score and piano score. Concerto, F major, for two oboes and string orchestra, Op. 9/3. Score and piano score. Sei Sonate per violino e basso continuo, Op. 4/1–3. ( Eulenburg, Zürich, 1973.) MICHAEL TALBOT MICHAEL TALBOT Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Music and Letters, Volume 56, Issue 1, January 1975, Pages 89–91, https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/56.1.89 Published: 01 January 1975

The Piano Music

With the exceptions of Bartók and Messiaen, modern European composers have not shown a particular preference for the piano as the natural vehicle for major works. It has been left to American composers to continue writing works for the piano with the same confidence as the nineteenth-century masters. The list is impressive, ranging from Ives's extraordinary sonatas to Elliott Carter's fine Concerto, via Piston, Sessions, Barber, Cowell, Foss and Copland. The reasons for this American dominance in modern piano literature are complex, although the purely economic factor, that it is cheaper to perform a piano work than an orchestral one, probably influenced Ives's and Copland's generations. To this must be added the use of the piano in jazz, that peculiarly American phenomenon. Indeed the piano, in its more percussive vein, seems to be the quintessential sonority of American music. Looking at Copland's work we can see that piano sound clearly influences the nature of his orchestrations, as it did Ravel's. Some works began life as piano scores (the ballet Billy the Kid for instance), most of the orchestral works include a piano, and many use typical piano gestures—the opening of El Salón México for example. Conversely Copland's piano writing, like that of Beethoven, is influenced by the sounds of the orchestra, although never to such an extent that it prevents truly pianistic writing. The piano works are brilliantly realized in terms of the instrument and are virtuoso pieces, particularly in their rhythmic and sonorous subtleties.

SOLO SONGS

SOLO SONGS Get access Coke, R. Sacheverell, First Vocal Concerto, Op. 25, for soprano and orchestra. Piano score. ( 1970). Griesbach, Karl–Rudi, Hoher Himmel, song–cycle for high voice and piano. ( Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig, 1969, 90p.) Wynne, David, 6 Chân i Denor a Thelyn (6 Songs for Tenor and Harp). ( University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1970, 75p.) M. W. M. W. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Music and Letters, Volume LII, Issue 1, January 1971, Pages 102–103, https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/LII.1.102 Published: 01 January 1971

Dramaturška in kompozicijska zasnova Kogojeve opere »Kar hočete«

Dramaturška in kompozicijska zasnova Kogojeve opere »Kar hočete«

VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA

Journal Article VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA Get access Egon Wellesz, Concerto, Op. 84. Facsimile score, and violin and piano score. ( Heinrichshofen, Locarno; Hinrichsen, London, 1962.) I. K. I. K. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Music and Letters, Volume 44, Issue 4, October 1963, Page 415, https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/44.4.415 Published: 01 October 1963