Written late in his life, J. S. Bach's The Art of Fugue has long been admired-in some quarters revered-as one of his masterworks. Its last movement, Contrapunctus 14, went unfinished, and the enigma of its incompleteness still preoccupies scholars and musical conductors alike. In 1881, Gustav Nottebohm discovered that the three subjects of the movement could be supplemented by a fourth. In 1993, Zoltan Goencz revealed that Bach had planned the passage that would join the four subjects in an entirely unique way. This section has not survived, but, as Goencz notes, it must have been ready in the earliest phase of composition since Bach had created the expositions of the first three subjects from its "disjointed" parts. Goencz then boldly took on the task of reconstructing the original "template" by putting together the once separate pieces. In Bach's Testament: On the Philosophical and Theological Background of The Art of Fugue, Goencz probes the philosophic-theological background of The Art of Fugue, revealing the special structures that supported the 1993 reconstruction. Bach's Testament investigates the reconstruction's metaphysical dimensions, focusing on the quadruple fugue. As a summary of Zoltan Goencz's extensive research over many years, which resulted in the completion of the fugue, this work explores the complex combinatorial, philosophical and theological considerations that inform its structure. Bach's Testament is ideally suited not only to Bach scholars and musicologists but also intellectual historians with particular interests in 18th-century religious and philosophical ideas.

This book presents figured harmony as a form of aural training. It seeks to make the student more keenly aware of chord-relationships as actual sound. It will increase the student's power to form an inward realization of what a page of music is going to sound like without having actually heard it.

Recent scholarship has vanquished the traditional perception of nineteenth-century Britain as a musical wasteland. In addition to attempting more balanced assessments of the achievements of British composers of this period, scholars have begun to explore the web of reciprocal relationships between the societal, economic and cultural dynamics arising from the industrial revolution, the Napoleonic wars, and the ever-changing contours of British music publishing, music consumption, concert life, instrument design, performance practice, pedagogy and composition. Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) provides an ideal case-study for continued exploration of this web of relationships. Based in London for much of his life, whilst still maintaining contact with continental developments, Clementi achieved notable success in a diversity of activities that centred mainly on the piano. The present book explores Clementi's multivalent contribution to piano performance, pedagogy, composition and manufacture in relation to British musical life and its international dimensions. An overriding purpose is to interrogate when, how and to what extent a distinctive British musical culture emerged in the early nineteenth century. Much recent work on Clementi has centred on the Italian National Edition of his complete works (MiBACT); several chapters report on this project, whilst continuing to pursue the book's broader themes.

With Contemporary Piano: A Performer and Composer's Guide to Techniques and Resources, Alan Shockley provides a comprehensive resource for composers writing music that uses extended techniques for the piano, and for pianists interested in playing repertoire that makes use of techniques and/or implements unfamiliar to them. Shockley explains dozens of ways to prepare a piano without damaging the instrument, how to notate every standard technique and many, many obscure ones, and the specific geographies of every common concert hall piano. This will be the standard reference for pianists touring and playing inside-the-piano repertoire, and for composers at all levels of familiarity with the piano hoping to understand the mechanical miracle that is the modern piano.

Growing up in Huntsville, Alabama, during the first quarter of the 20th century, Alabama-born organist and composer Lee Orville Erwin, like many of the 20th century s great American composers, spent time studying in Paris. From 1930 until 1931 Erwin studied in France with organist Andre Marchal and the harmony teachers Jean Verd and Nadia Boulanger. This formative experience greatly shaped his compositional style and aesthetic. Upon returning to the United States, Erwin began his lengthy career in radio and television working with Arthur Godfrey. In 1967, Erwin was commissioned by the American Theater Organ Society to compose organ music for the Gloria Swanson film Queen Kelly. It was this film that led his career back into the consoles of the great American theater organs. He toured extensively, playing thousands of concerts of organ music during silent film showings. He thus ushered in the silent film revival, continuing the genre of live music performance accompanying film. Erwin, believing that cue sheets originally compiled for these films during the silent film era were full of the musical cliche s of the 1920s, composed new scores to over 100 silent films. An American Organist in Paris presents Lee Orville Erwin's letters from France to his family in 1930-1931. In these letters, Erwin recounts his daily experiences and encounters with some of the 20th century's greatest musicians and teachers. He writes of his lessons with Marchal, Verd, and Boulanger and dinner parties with Olivier Messiaen. Erwin's letters not only provide the singular experiences of a young musician but also reflect the common experiences shared by the multitude of American composers who studied in France during this time. These letters are extensively footnoted to provide clarity and background information of the locations and personalities discussed. A biographical chapter on Erwin, which outlines his extensive musical career and impact on the silent film music revival in the 20th century, is also included. This book will serve as a unique glimpse into the life of one of America's most prolific composers for the theater organ.

The Technic is Fun series offers piano students a series of graded studies for the development of technic, style, and musicianship. These studies reinforce the technical requirements found in method books and in standard piano repertory. The etudes found in this series not only build technic and musicality but have been carefully selected to provide refreshing recital repertoire as well as to develop a strong musical and technical foundation.

In Sonata Fragments, Andrew Davis argues that the Romantic sonata is firmly rooted, both formally and expressively, in its Classical forebears, using Classical conventions in order to convey a broad constellation of Romantic aesthetic values. This claim runs contrary to conventional theories of the Romantic sonata that place this nineteenth-century musical form squarely outside inherited Classical sonata procedures. Building on Sonata Theory, Davis examines moments of fracture and fragmentation that disrupt the cohesive and linear temporality in piano sonatas by Chopin, Brahms, and Schumann. These disruptions in the sonata form are a narrative technique that signify temporal shifts during which we move from the outer action to the inner thoughts of a musical agent, or we move from the story as it unfolds to a flashback or flash-forward. Through an interpretation of Romantic sonatas as temporally multi-dimensional works in which portions of the music in any given piece can lie inside or outside of what Sonata Theory would define as the sonata-space proper, Davis reads into these ruptures a narrative of expressive features that mark these sonatas as uniquely Romantic.

In 2007, the great Bach scholar Anne Leahy died at the age of 46. She was a leading light in Bach studies and lecturer at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) Conservatory of Music and Drama. Posthumously edited by renowned Bach scholar Robin A. Leaver, Leahy's dissertation research forms the basis for this original study of the preludes to Bach's Leipzig chorales. Originally composed in Weimar and later revised in Leipzig, Bach's compositions have been a source of some puzzlement. As Leahy notes, "the original intentions of Bach and the possible purpose of this collection might be regarded as speculative." Working from available sources, however, she argues that through the careful examination of the links among the music, hymn texts, and theological sources some answers may be had. From Bach's personal and deep interest in Lutheran theology to his enormous musical passion, Leahy considers closely a series of critical questions: does the original manuscript for the chorales simply reflect a random gathering of compositions or is there a common theme in setting? How critical is the order of the chorales and what is the theological significance of that order? Were the chorales a unified collection, and if so, which parts were to be included and which not? Indeed, were the chorales themselves part of a possibly larger corpus? As Leahy makes evident, there are no simple answers, which is why she considers critical the relationship the texts of the hymns to the chorales and to one another, outlining a theological pattern that is vital to fully grasping the guiding philosophy of these compositions. J. S. Bach's "Leipzig" Chorale Preludes: Music, Text, Theology is ideally suited for Bach scholars and those with a general interest in the intricate connections between text and music in the composition of religious music.

Anton Rubinstein, a seminal figure in Russian music, was not only a great pianist but also a monumental influence in Russian music education. Rubinstein is responsible for laying the groundwork for Russia's tertiary educational system for the training of musicians and for establishing the use of Western structural forms in Russian music. He later became the foundation director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Detailing Rubinstein's pianistic and conducting repertoire, this work provides insight into Russian nineteenth-century performance practice, and the biography presents a sober assessment of Rubinstein's place in history. The author has researched valuable Russian sources to make this assessment of Rubinstein available in English and has provided informative guidelines for further research.

In attempting to reinstate Rubinstein as an important figure in the history of Russian and international music, this study makes available to conductors and musicologists updated information on an important nineteenth-century music figure and an aspect of Russian music that has either been forgotten or ignored. Researchers and scholars will appreciate the annotated thematic catalog that includes all of Rubinstein's many works for piano, the extensive repertoire lists, and the extensive bibliography.

Play 10 favourites from the critically acclaimed musical Hamilton. This collection features carefully-crafted piano solo arrangements from the music penned by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Including Burn, Helpless and My Shot, all the pieces are fun to play and faithful to the original performances. The show debuted on Broadway in August 2015 to unprecedented advanced box office sales and has become one of the most successful stage musicals ever.

In The Craft of Piano Playing, master pianist Alan Fraser offers readers an original and comprehensive approach to piano technique, offering over 100 illustrations and a series of unique exercises to guide the reader. Drawing on his many years as a performer and teacher, his long-standing collaborations with pedagogue Phil Cohen and virtuoso Kemal Gekich, and his professional training in the Feldenkrais Method, Fraser introduces his truly innovative piano technique by * Teaching how to move your hands with greater sensitivity, power, and accuracy, and honing the skeletal alignments to help you access your innate, structural potency; * Linking your physical technique to musical expression, creating an "absolutely natural way of moving at the piano that is powerful, flexible, and musical" (Piano News, Germany); and * Keeping your hands healthy while avoiding the threats of tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, focal dystonia, and RSI. This revised second edition joins the DVD of the same name, his study guide, and his latest book, Honing the Pianistic Self-Image, in Alan Fraser's growing line of piano pedagogical materials. This edition includes new chapters, such as "Arm Rhythm" and "The Body's Support of Natural Finger Shape," updated material reflecting evolutions in Fraser's technical and pedagogical thinking, a "cleaner and leaner" literary style, and more extensive, better-organized tables of contents, with cross-references to corresponding chapters in the DVD. For more information please visit www.maplegroveproductions.com, www.craftofpiano.com, or www.alanfraser.net

Johana Harris was a musical prodigy who began her education in her native Canada, then moved to New York at the age of 12. The youngest student ever admitted to the Juilliard Graduate School of Music, Harris was destined for greatness on the world stage. However, exploitation by her mother and then by her husband Roy Harris, coupled with the prejudice shown women during the mid-20th century kept her from achieving that pinnacle. Johana Harris: A Biography brings to light the life of an unheralded musical genius, as well as providing new information on her husband Roy Harris, about whom very little is known. This revealing look at the lives of two important musicians who were referred to in the middle years of the last century as "Mr. and Mrs. American Music" is the first book published about these two people.

The Recital Books congratulate students for a job well done by providing correlated repertoire to their Lesson Books that are based on concepts they've already learned. As a result, the pieces are quickly mastered. Included are such familiar favorites as "Clementine" and "Arkansas Traveler," and originals with a classical feel like "Divertimento in D" and "Rondo."

This piano course has been specifically written to help students progress through the tricky intermediate stages of learning the piano. Through carefully chosen repertoire, quick studies, key technical information and musicianship activities, students will develop the skills that they require. Note-reading will be improved, technique developed and a greater understanding of style and music theory will be gained. The Intermediate Pianist Book 2 is suitable for Grade 4 level pianists and forms part of the Piano Trainer series.

Dynamic Group-Piano Teaching provides future teachers of group piano with an extensive framework of concepts upon which effective and dynamic teaching strategies can be explored and developed. Within fifteen chapters, it encompasses learning theory, group process, and group dynamics within the context of group-piano instruction. This book encourages teachers to transfer learning and group dynamics theory into classroom practice. As a piano pedagogy textbook, supplement for pedagogy classes, or resource for graduate teaching assistants and professional piano teachers, the book examines learning theory, student needs, assessment, and specific issues for the group-piano instructor.

Carl Czerny, a student of Ludwig van Beethoven, who then taught Franz Liszt, combined his ability to analyze technique with his years of teaching experience to create exercises that increase the technical ability of the piano student. In this 80-page edition, his pieces systematically introduce notes of various time-values and other musical principles in similar order. The book's many exercises are preceded by invaluable reference materials. In the second half of this volume, the exercises move into a more difficult study of such things as turns, trills, arpeggios, phrasing and more.

Beethoven's piano sonatas are a cornerstone of the piano repertoire and favourites of both the concert hall and recording studio. The sonatas have been the subject of much scholarship, but no single study gives an adequate account of the processes by which these sonatas were composed and published. With source materials such as sketches and correspondence increasingly available, the time is ripe for a close study of the history of these works. Barry Cooper, who in 2007 produced a new edition of all 35 sonatas, including three that are often overlooked, examines each sonata in turn, addressing questions such as: Why were they written? Why did they turn out as they did? How did they come into being and how did they reach their final form? Drawing on the composer's sketches, autograph scores and early printed editions, as well as contextual material such as correspondence, Cooper explores the links between the notes and symbols found in the musical texts of the sonatas, and the environment that brought them about. The result is a biography not of the composer, but of the works themselves.

Piano Star Duets is an exciting book of 26 duets at early beginner to Grade 2 level, containing fun new compositions and arrangements in a variety of styles by leading educational composers. All pieces have been tried out - and approved! - by children. This collection will capture the imagination of young pianists everywhere as they are introduced to the joy of ensemble playing. Key features: * New compositions and arrangements from 13 leading composers * Duets in a variety of configurations - for two pupils of a similar standard, for pupil-teacher, or pupils of different standards - plus some trios * A wide range of musical styles, from traditional melodies to jazzy and pop-style pieces * Varied techniques, introduced progressively * Fun musical games and top tips for duet playing

American organist David Craighead's influence in the United States and abroad is widespread and extensive: 37 years as professor of organ at the Eastman School of Music, 48 years as church organist at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Rochester, New York, and 64 years performing in over 275 cities as a concert organist. His name has become synonymous with excellence in organ pedagogy and performance in the 20th century. In David Craighead: Portrait of an American Organist, Tandy Reussner presents the full story of the artist's life, told with quotes and anecdotes from Craighead himself as well as from his fellow colleagues and former students. Reussner references historical events in the framework of Craighead's life, from changes in pipe organ construction to the riots of the 1960s, to provide the full context of a musician in 20th-century America. The book also contains facsimiles of musical examples, personal memorabilia, letters, and recital programs. Additional reference information includes a complete listing of his recitals from 1942 to 1998, a comprehensive list of his repertoire, a full discography, and a unique compilation of photos.

This lavishly illustrated book treats the history of the piano from its invention in 1700 to the present in terms of its technology. Looking at the technologies of design, materials, and manufacture, and focusing its description on specific existing pianos, it describes the changes in pianos from the earliest days to contemporary instruments. This revised edition incorporates the results of recent research that increases knowledge of the work of Bartolomeo Cristofori, the inventor of the piano; changes perceptions of how eighteenth-century pianos were made and used; adds to the available information about the important contributions of the Steinway Company; and describes the most recent changes to the piano. The first edition of this book received the Otto Kinkeldey Award of the American Musicological Society as the best musicological book in English published in 1982-83. Reviews of the First Edition "If you have ever looked under the lid of a piano and wondered about the technical how and why of it all, this is the book to sate your curiosity. . . . Good's vigorous prose breathes life into the technology . . . and brings forward the people involved, with humor and sensitivity." -Los Angeles Times "This is a fine book. Accurate technical description, an abundance of photographs and drawings, and a very readable text complement a provocative thesis." -Technology and Culture "Intriguing reading. It turns out that the story of the piano and its evolution . . . is rife with human interest, at least when Good relates the details." -Keyboard

Isolde Ahlgrimm (1914-1995) was an important pioneer in the revival of Baroque and Classical keyboard instruments in her native city, Vienna, and later, throughout Europe and the United States. She trained as a pianist at the Musikakademie in Vienna under the instruction of Viktor Ebenstein, Emil von Sauer and Franz Schmidt. In 1934 she met the musical instrument collector, Dr Erich Fiala, whom she married in 1938. His activities opened up the world of early instruments to her. Using a 1790 fortepiano by Michael Rosenberger, Isolde Ahlgrimm began her career as a specialist on early keyboard instruments with the first in her notable series of Concerte fA1/4r Kenner und Liebhaber, given in Vienna's Palais Palffy in February 1937. Ahlgrimm's career as a harpsichordist also began in 1937, when a new instrument was commissioned from the Ammer brothers in Eisenberg, Germany. In 1943 Ahlgrimm performed her first all-harpsichord programme, which consisted of the Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach. From 1949 to 1956, she devoted herself to performing and recording nearly all of Bach's harpsichord music for the newly-founded Dutch label, Philips, presenting her new approach to the harpsichord to a wider audience. Ahlgrimm's performances of Baroque music represented a radical departure from the distinctly twentieth-century interpretations by the much more famous Wanda Landowska and her followers. Most obviously, Ahlgrimm's harpsichord performances eliminated frequent registration changes (her instrument had hand stops rather than pedals to change registers), and largely eschewed the massive ritardandi and other anachronistic performance practices that were hallmarks of Landowska's essentially Romantic style. Ahlgrimm researched and emphasized rhetorical traditions on which the music was based. This became more pronounced throughout the course of her later performing, writing and teaching career, and it was the beginning of an approach to the performance of eighteenth-century music which was later further developed by Gustav Leonhardt, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and their students. Peter Watchorn provides an engaging study of this pioneer, and argues that Isolde Ahlgrimm's contribution to the harpsichord and fortepiano revival was pivotal, and that her use of period instruments and the inspiration she instilled in younger musicians, including Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt, has been almost entirely overlooked by the wider musical world.