Piano Works Research Articles

The Principles and Techniques of Artur Schnabel’s Performance of the Piano Sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven

The piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) represent the highest achievement of the First Viennese School in modern piano performance. The complexity and depth of the stage interpretation requires the study of the composer’s music based on its performance specifics. The study of the features of the piano sonata works by Beethoven on the example of performances by Artur Schnabel, one of the most prominent pianists of the twentieth century, will enrich modern knowledge about the style of Beethoven’s piano works. The objectives of the paper are to characterize the genre and stylistic features of Beethoven’s sonata works and to study the performing features of the German composer’s sonatas in Schnabel’s interpretation. Rationalistic approach is not typical for Schnabel’s interpretation of Beethoven’s sonatas. On the contrary, his performance has romantic features in terms of strength and depth of feeling but is classical in terms of the proportionality of expressive means. His performance impresses with its philosophical orientation and epic spirit. What is especially important to him in the musical composition is an individual approach to the intonation of recitatives, cadences, syncopation, and those stylistic components of playing that form an original interpretation of Beethoven’s music. Schnabel embodies Beethoven’s concepts on the basis of integrity, starting from the epic characteristics of Beethoven’s work

Soirée for one person: а microcosm of Florent Schmitt’s “Musiques intimes”

Statement of the problem. The creative activity by Florent Schmitt (1870–1958) took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when such stars of French music as C. Debussy, M. Ravel, and later the composers of the French “Six” group shone brightly. Therefore, Schmitt’s work remained in their shadow – among the performers of his piano works you will not find “big” names like V. Horowitz or G. Gould; nevertheless, in the last decade, the composer’s opuses have been increasingly included in the repertoire of foreign pianists. For example, Vincent Larderet (France), Ivo Kalchev (Bulgaria), Biljana Urban (Netherlands), and Edward Rushton (UK/Switzerland) are among them. The challenges of today are best suited to expanding the usual established horizons of Ukrainian performers, actualizing the need to pay attention to the work of lesser-known but no less interesting artists, among whom Florent Schmitt takes a worthy place. Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. For a long time, anyone interested in the work by F. Schmitt faced a lack of resources. The scarcity of written materials about the composer is as surprising as it is disappointing. Moreover, almost all existing studies are published only in French, which makes research difficult for those who do not speak the language. In the first half of the twentieth century, a number of significant books were published, fully or partially devoted to the work of F. Schmitt (Ferroud, 1928; Aubert, Barraud, Pignari-Salles, 1937; Coeuroy, 1922; Dumesnil, 1946), most of which have long been out of reprint. Changes in the cultural context, traditions, perception and understanding of music, scientific approaches, and research quality requirements do not allow a modern scholar to rely exclusively on old publications. Besides, the composer’s piano music is not considered in detail, but is only included in a panoramic overview of his heritage. The absence of domestic research prompted the author of the article to delve into the French master’s heritage. The purpose of the article is to expand the horizons in the study of F. Schmitt’s piano works, to reveal the prerequisites and analyze the facets of his introspective expression on the example of the first book of the cycle “Musiques intimes” (“Intimate Music”) op. 16. The cultural-historical, structural-functional and comparative methods of analysis were used. Research results and conclusion. The program names of the pieces, landscape sketches, rich coloristic harmony, use of ostinato techniques, shimmering arpeggiated figures in the texture, etc., indicate the considerable influence of F. Schmitt’s compatriots music – C. Debussy and M. Ravel. The presence of sincere emotionality and poetry of expression, improvisation, and “through” dramaturgy resemble the ways of thinking of F. Chopin and R. Schumann. Nevertheless, a detailed analysis of the first book of “Musiques intimes” makes it easy to notice the characteristic features that will become a kind of “idioms” of textures, complex rhythmic patterns and an “orchestral” approach to the instrument, which are not aimed at external affectation, but create a feeling of being present on a secret excursion into the world of impressions and emotions close to the composer. Through the images of nature, the contemplation of which promotes communication between the individual and himself, the French artist introduces the listener to his personal space, opens personal boundaries, that in this case can be perceived as an invitation to a private intimate soirée with Maestro Florent Schmitt.

The logic of forming a musical text in a solo piano-jazz improvisation by M. Petrucciani on the theme of T. Monk’s “’Round Midnight”

Statement of the problem. Due to the natural tendency to constant renewal, the phenomena that arise in the field of jazz music-making, cause special scientific interest. The jazz art of the second half of the 20th century is represented by numerous names of bright musicians who formed the latest approaches to improvisational art in their creativity. One of such musicians was an unique pianist of Italian-French origin – Michel Petrucciani (1962–1999). The study of his heritage provides opportunities to reveal some aspects of modern jazz art, which are genetically related to the embodiment of the traditions of Western European music-making in piano jazz, and also to mark the vectors of its further evolution. Nevertheless, M. Petrucciani’s solo piano creativity is not studied for a present time. Some English-, French- and German-language articles, films and interviews with the musician are represented, mainly in online-resources. These works have mostly biographical direction and contain brief information about pianist’s aesthetic views and preferences, his creative achievements, and the state of his health, since the artist suffered from a rare congenital disease all his life. Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purpose of the study is to reveal the specifics of the structural and compositional logic of jazz improvisation on the popular theme of T. Monk’s “’Round Midnight” interpreted by M. Petrucciani, in the context of solo piano creativity of the latter. The solo piano work of M. Petrucciani, who without exaggeration can be called one of the outstanding musicians of the last century, has not yet been subject to scientific analysis in domestic musicology, which determines the innovative focus of this study. A set of research approaches – historical-genetic, comparative, hermeneutic, traditional methods of musicological analysis – contributed to the disclosure of the chosen topic. Research results and conclusion. In the course of the research, genetic, genre, structural, intonation, rhythmic, textural and other features inherent in the theme “’Round Midnight” were revealed in the context of compositional and piano-improvisational style of T. Monk – a progressive musician-innovator, one of the inspirations of the bebop style, as well as a conclusion about the features of individual interpreting the theme by M. Petrucciani was justified. M. Petrucciani in the improvisation on T. Monk’s “’Round Midnight” theme demonstrates self-own unique bright improvisational style, talentedly combining virtuosity with intonation meaningfulness and accuracy of phrases, with expressiveness of a musical statement that has a philosophical undertone, and the academic traditions of music-making, learned during his studies, with American and Western European jazz ones. The variety of methods of melodic-harmonic, textural, dynamic development used by the pianist testify not only to the musician’s desire to demonstrate virtuoso mastery of the instrument, but also contribute to the realization of the unique concept of the work.

Mysterium Corpus: The Solo Piano Music of Alexander Scriabin

This article introduces the Mysterium corpus, the complete published oeuvre of Alexander Scriabin’s 207 solo piano works, and makes the corpus available in Humdrum’s kern format. Scriabin’s music presents distinct challenges, specifically in relation to his use of complex rhythmic and metric explorations and the idiosyncratic ways in which he notated his compositional ideas. While this sidetdataset is focused on Scriabin, the methodological challenges explored in the article may shed light on the encoding process for other related late-tonal and early post-tonal repertoires. As such, this article provides a case study of methodological considerations involved in systematically translating messy musical notations into a symbolic encoding of the musical data. Finally, this article provides descriptive statistics of the corpus, especially focusing on Scriabin’s treatment of meter and two harmonies (i.e., the dominant-seventh chord with lowered fifth, and the “Mystic” chord), and discusses the applicability of the Mysterium corpus for future research.

Performing Piano Works Inspired by Folk Dances: “Wu Kui” and “My Spirit Is Dancing”

The piano work "Wu Kui" (1983) was composed by Chinese composer Zhou Long, inspired by the Manchu folk dance "Da Wu Kui," and "My Spirit is Dancing for Solo Piano" (2010) was composed by Malaysian composer Yii Kah Hoe, inspired by the Balinese baris dance. Both piano works are based on folk dances and use Western compositional techniques to innovate the language of folk music. The author takes these two piano works inspired by folk dances and analyses the performance difficulties of these two to enable the performer to better interpret the piano works and make the performance more convincing.

Piano Concert by Y.N. Hummel No. 2 in a Minor Op. 85 in the Context of Biedermeier's Art of "Light" Pianism of the First Half of the 19th Century

The purpose of this study is the analysis of Y.H. Hummel's Second Piano Concerto from the perspective of Biedermeier's positions of "light" ("diamond") pianism of the Restoration era, which deployed saving the spiritual foundations of Rococo in the conditions of secularised art of the post-Vienna school. The methodological basis of the research is the intonation approach of the school of B. Asafyev in Ukraine, which is embodied in the works of D. Androsova, O. Markova, O. Muravska, L. Shevchenko and has direct implications for the institutions of Chinese musicology (see the works of Ma Wei, Wu Golin, others). The specifics of the methods of historical-descriptive, musicological analytical, cultural, stylistic comparative, interdisciplinary approach make up the specifics of the research apparatus of the author of the essay. The scientific novelty of the work is revealed in the fact that, for the first time in Ukrainian and Chinese musicology, the so-called Concerto of Y.H. Hummel is analysed in the light of the positions of Biedermeier's "diamond" pianism of "light play" in the continuation of Mozartianism in piano works (based on the works of D. Androsova and L. Shevchenko) and in the development of the concept of neo-symbolism of post-avant-garde modernity according to O. Markova in relation to the performing revival of Hummel's heritage. Conclusions. Piano concert by Y.N. Hummel's A-moll op. 85 is marked by the advantages of pianistic lyrical flourishes over the manifestations of theatrical drama. The predominance of the lyricism of piano flourishes feeds the positions of romanticism against the background of Biedermeier's ideal expressive instructions, inspired by religious sobriety and, like Rococo art, addressed to the ideal aspirations of the soul and a harmonious worldview. In the Concerto, we rely on Mozartian tectonics (the theme of the soloist in the second exposition, mainly a compensatory function of the orchestra), the structure is dominated by exposition, which "washes away" the sonata relations. The predominant position of "piano lyricism" of ultra-fast finger "small technique", the presence of genres (signs of march, nocturne, anthem) in the expressiveness of themes, "obliteration" of tempo-textural contrasts between the extreme and middle parts of the cycle are evident. The features of crescendoing drama with increasing movement intensity from the beginning to the end of the concert cycle in a two-phase (Parts I-II-III) presentation of energy accumulation are revealed, which corresponds to the two-phase nature of the early Christian liturgy honoured by the Biedermeier culture.
 Keywords: piano Mozartianism, pianism, "easy", "diamond" playing style, musical genre, style in music, concert.

THE CREATIVE THINKING DEDUCTION OF TRADITIONAL CHINESE PIANO MUSIC ELEMENTS - TAKING CULTURAL WORKS FROM DIFFERENT PERIODS IN HISTORY AS THE MAIN LINE

In the 70 years since the founding of China, piano music has undergone a unique process of development. In the early years of the founding, piano composers tended to favor folk material, focusing on nationalization and mass. This study explores multiple stages in the evolution of creative thinking about traditional elements of Chinese piano music, using the cultural lineage of piano works from different historical periods as the main thread. Among them, the first stage is 1949-1966, the seventeen years of unprecedented prosperity of piano creation in the early years of the founding of the country. To make piano music more accessible to the masses, the subjects of piano works had regional and mass characteristics, the melodies tended to be folk materials while not using overly complex musical language and the melody was served by form, weave, and harmony. The second stage was from 1967 to 1977, the decade of the Cultural Revolution. Although the subject matter could only be pianistic adaptations of model operas, revolutionary songs, and traditional instrumental pieces, it prompted composers to dig deeper into the musical language and explore the perfect use of folk music patterns, traditional branching vocal weaves, and nationalized harmonies in the piano. The third stage is 1978-2019, the period of diversified development. A variety of modern Western music genres influenced Chinese piano music composition. Composers used and modernized ethnic materials to varying degrees, resulting in different approaches to ethnicized subject matter. Non-traditional tonality and dissonant acoustics are two of the main characteristics of the musical language at this stage. Nationalization and modernization are explored in Chinese piano works in multiple ways, with remarkable achievements.

CARL CZERNY AND FERDINAND BEYER IN INITIAL PIANO EDUCATION REVIEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON EDUCATIONAL APPROACHES

The piano is one of the few polyphonic instruments in the world that requires a high level of coordination in both hands. For this reason, besides the composers writing works for the introductory piano, the piano methods of Carl Czerny and Ferdinand Beyer, two composers who only focused on piano education, are still used today. However, the technically different approaches of both composers to piano education constituted the basic building block of this work. First of all, Ferdinand Beyer's educational perspective was formed with the information compiled from the sources obtained as a result of the researches and comments on the composer's basic piano method. Evaluation in terms of school and expectations at the beginner piano level and an observation about the achievements of the students were included in the study. In the second part, examinations on Carl Czerny's initial piano method and the composer's technical point of view are given with examples on the research and work mentioned in the previous section. Finally, the data obtained in both sections were collected and comparisons were made in the last section, and as a result of the comparisons, results were written on their suitability for students both technically and musically.

Exploring the Modern Chinese National Music Style Reflected in Zhang Zhao's Piano Work "Pi Huang"

In today's increasingly emphasis on cultural identity, ethnic music as an important research carrier will receive more attention in future research. With the progress and development of society, Chinese ethnic music is constantly updated and developed. Zhang Zhao's piano works emerged in this context, providing good reference and inspiration for the development of Chinese ethnic music with its innovation and uniqueness. Therefore, studying Zhang Zhao's ethnic piano works is of great significance for the development and promotion of modern Chinese ethnic music. Currently, the relevant research on Zhang Zhao's piano works mainly focuses on the creative techniques, performance skills, ethnic music culture, aesthetic thinking and other aspects, while there are few studies on exploring the reflection of his works on the modern Chinese ethnic music style and argumentation through work analysis. This project will analyze Zhang Zhao's representative piano work "Pi Huang" to explore the reflection of modern Chinese ethnic music style in the work.

A Study on the Application of Folk Song Style in Chinese Children's Piano music

With China's economic development and emphasis on quality education and art education, the cultivation and education of children's music literacy has been widely popularized in every family, and the piano, as an important music education tool, plays a vital role in children's music cultivation and the development of comprehensive ability. In the context of the development of piano music in China, Chinese children's piano works have a unique and important position in piano teaching. In this paper, we will discuss the importance of Chinese children's piano works in piano teaching, the correlation between folk song style piano works and children's piano teaching, and discuss the important role and influence of folk song style piano works in children's piano teaching, as well as put forward corresponding teaching methods and strategies.

Exploring the Characteristics of the Musical Composition of Guangxi's Modern Piano Work "The Dance of the Bronze Drumn"

"The Dance of the Bronze Drumn" is a piano work with Guangxi's national characteristics. The composer, Wu Liyun, is a teacher of the Composition Department of Guangxi Arts University. This work combines the ethnic characteristics of Guangxi Dong tones and modern compositional techniques, fully utilizes modern non-harmonic phonemes in the form of different rhythms and speeds, so that the piano timbre presents the image of different brass drums. This paper discusses the musical creation characteristics of the work as well as the piano playing techniques by analyzing the musical characteristics, compositional techniques and musical structure of the work.

Borys Kudryk’s Piano Compositions for Young People in the Context of Music Culture of Galicia in the First Third of the Twentieth Century

The purpose of the study is to reveal the artistic and aesthetic, cognitive and didactic values of Borys Kudryk’s piano music for young people in the context of the creative achievements of the Galician compositional school of the first third of the 20th century. The research methodology is based on the following methods: retrospection, comparison, systematisation, analysis, and generalisation.The scientific novelty of the obtained results is that for the first time the piano heritage of Borys Kudryk is considered in the axiological perspective of the contribution of his works to the regional pedagogical repertoire for piano.Conclusions. The article proves the statement: the piano music of Borys Kudryk is marked by a certain eclecticism, it is more imbued with the achievements of past eras than the contemporary art world. Nevertheless, the artistic, aesthetic, cognitive and didactic value of the analysed works of the composer for young people lies in their ideological, semantic and figurative-emotional content, which is determined by the range of genre rhythmic intonations inherent in the Galician socio-cultural environment of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and assimilated according to the author's preferences. Taking into account the achievements of the world musical culture in this field, rethinking this material through the prism of national song sources and local musical traditions, B. Kudryk presented works that tend to classicist stylistics and partially to neoclassical and post-Romantic ones. They occupy a distinctive niche in the diversity of Galician piano literature, which in the first third of the 20th century professed the principles of training young musicians who would not only master the instrument with dignity, but also respect national and universal artistic values, grow up to be emotionally sensitive and intellectually rich people. Key words: Borys Kudryk, piano works, works for young people, music culture of Galicia.

Analysis of Performance Skills and Teaching of Liszt’s Eleventh Hungarian Rhapsody

Hungarian Rhapsody is the Liszt’s piano work with the most national emotion and national characteristics. Taking the Liszt’s eleventh Hungarian Rhapsody as the research object, this paper focuses on analyzing the creation background, national characteristics, and playing skills of it, and discusses the training methods based on some playing skills and difficulties.

Https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=50463761

The article deals with the issues of the modern piano repertoire of the outstanding composer Chu Wanhua. The author of the article dwells on the issues of combining traditions and innovations in his piano compositions. The folklore tradition occupies the most important place in his work. The author of the article says that the problem of the relationship between the composer and folklore is becoming more acute and relevant today. Also, as early as the 1960s, Chinese composers began to actively study and use modern writing techniques, such as atonality, twelve-tone technique, experimental avant-garde, etc. The rejection of the traditional foundations of the musical language, combined with at least some tangible elements of folklore material, made it possible for the listener to identify the musical content of the work. Despite the complex musical language and techniques, such works made it possible to associate them with one or another national tradition. The piano work of the Chinese contemporary composer Chu Wanhua in a special way reveals the synthesis of traditions and innovations in music.

WAYS OF FORMING PERFORMING STYLISTICS IN THE HISTORICAL DYNAMICS OF CHINESE PIANO ART

The article is devoted to the understanding of the problems faced by the performer of the works of Chinese composers. The lack of performance analysis of such works complicates their understanding and full implementation on stage. The purpose of this study is to identify the universal mechanism of piano interpretation of program pieces by Chinese composers, which functions in the entire variety of author's styles. At the same time, the issue of performance stylistics of piano works by Chinese composers appears in all its problem complexity: from understanding the figurative sphere, issues of pianistic implementation to the stylistic authenticity of performance. The process of formation of performance style in the works laid down by composers during the development of piano art in China is considered. A key role in the formation of the performance style of Chinese pianists was played by the activities of luminaries musicians who demonstrated the universality of musical creativity. The creative-aesthetic and didactic principles acquired by these musicians in different schools affected the manner of their individual writing, which, in turn, influenced the performance style of their works. Specific performance formulas of playing, uncharacteristic for European art sound coloristic techniques on the piano require the pianist to be able to choose a fingering that provides pianistic comfort and contributes to actual intonation and construction of melodic lines. The constant updating of the musical language of many piano works by Chinese authors allows talking about the continuous process of evolution of the national performing style.

Melody Master Tchaikovsky: Analysis of Ethnic Colors in the Piano Suite "Four Seasons"

Tchaikovsky was a great musician in Russia during the Romantic period. Due to his melodic works, he was known as the "master of melody" in Russia and received an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. His creative genres cover a wide range of opera, dance, symphonies, concertos, and piano works. His music incorporates the characteristics of folk songs and his works reflect the oppressive psychology of the Russian people under the Tsar's rule, as well as their longing and longing for a better life in the future. He is committed to revealing the conflicting emotions within people's hearts. His later works are full of strong dramatic conflicts, his own thoughts on life, and fiery emotional colors. This article takes Tchaikovsky's piano suite "Four Seasons" as the text, and analyzes the ethnic characteristics of Tchaikovsky's works from the perspective of ethnology, using acoustic methods. The aim is to clarify the ethnic colors in "The Four Seasons" and reveal the profound ethnic connotations in Tchaikovsky's music works by utilizing elements such as harmony and melody.

Chamberity as a manifestation of the romantic reflection of Mykola Lysenko’s piano work

Chamberity as a manifestation of the romantic reflection of Mykola Lysenko’s piano work

THE REFLECTION OF SOCIALISM REALISM IN RUSSIAN MUSIC IN THE MUSIC IN THE CHINESE PIANO CONCERTO “THE YELLOW RIVER”

After World War II, the socialist camp opposed capitalism, and socialist realism became the official art school and style of socialist countries in the Soviet Union. This article analyzes how the realistic music style of the 19th century Soviet Union was inherited and developed in the 20th century, thus forming a music style that can be called “socialist realism”. This style had a profound impact on the development of Chinese piano music in the 20th century, including the creation of the Yellow River Piano Concerto by six Chinese composers, including Yin Chengzong, which is one of the typical music works of socialist realism style and the product of a specific historical period. It uses a revolutionary musical language, filled with inner passion and motivation. The paper applies the historical-structural approach, as well as the method of analysis of musical works and structural analysis of musicological literature published in Chinese and Russian on the subject of research. This article aims to reveal the significant impact of Russian and Soviet music styles on the development of Chinese piano art. The author concludes that due to the “socialist realism” style, the Yellow River piano works have a strong appeal and revolutionary nature, inspiring people to participate in national struggles and becoming a model of piano music at that time.

FROM THE FILES OF FELIKS HALPERN, A MUSIC CRITIC (1866-1942)

Feliks Halpern is considered one of the most important music critics who worked in d in the first decades of the 20th century. Apart from that he was an active pianist, piano teacher and composer of piano works, regular and cabaret songs. He was part of ds musical life as concert lecturer and member of numerous representative bodies. Titled Professor, he enjoyed respect in the towns music community.The article includes a few new facts and corrections related to the biography of Feliks Halpern. The main part of the discussion is devoted to his activity as a music critic. The text reports on the previous studies on his achievements which were conducted by Hanna Pitkowska-Baszczyk and Aneta Stawiszyska and which covered the publications in the ds press from the second and third decades of the 20th century. Then it analyses the articles printed in the 1930s. Based on archive music criticism texts, it singles out the views of Feliks Halpern on the topic of the role and function of music criticism, it follows their transformations and the way they were expressed. The author of the present article indicates a noticeable transformation of Halperns attitude as a reviewer: from a very firm stance during WWI, with polemical verve being a result of his belief that music criticism had a mission, to the impression-based reporting on musical life in the last years before WWII with a tinge of reflection or humour. Calling Feliks Halpern a chronicler of those times does not fully reflect the nature of his activity and achievements because he was not only a vigilant rapporteur, inquisitive commentator, and an active participant of concert life, but also thanks to his profession he had an opportunity to influence the musical community and the society, which he did many times. Even a preliminary look at his work of a music critic allows to conclude that it meets all functions attributed to that field: informing, commenting the reality and inspiring to ask questions and solve problems.

Razak Abdul Aziz’s Pepatah Episodes: Re-Imaging the Malay Proverbs through Piano Music

Proverb sits under the umbrella of figurative language and is used to sweeten speeches. In Malay, pepatah is the equivalent of this form of figurative language. Razak Abdul Aziz, a Malaysian composer, selected a set of Malay proverbs and adapted them into his piano work, Pepatah Episodes. The composer follows the tradition of piano programme music that uses figurative language elements championed by composers such as Alexander Scriabin, Claude Debussy, and Maurice Ravel. This paper aims to investigate the pepatahs chosen to be paired with the written music, expounding the programme in the movements for piano. Using the programme music analysis framework by Burkholder et al. (2014) and Kregor (2015), the finding shows that the composer chose the pepatahs for one of the three (3) portrayals: (i) imageries in the pepatah (ii) imageries in the meaning, and (iii) imageries in pepatah and meaning. The programme analysis shows that from the nine (9) movements written for piano, four (4) movements portray imageries in the pepatah, three (3) movements portray imageries in the meaning, and two (2) movements portray imageries in the pepatah and meaning. Razak Abdul Aziz challenges the conventions of programme music by having the pepatah set after the music is written, demanding the performer to read it aloud before performing and having the portrayal of the pepatah in the mentioned ways. This provides a different perspective for other composers to produce works using similar frameworks and scholars to analyse musical works.