Puerto Rican born Jesus Maria Sanroma (1902-1984) was one of the leading pianists in the United States. After graduating from the New England Conservatory, he embarked on an enviable concert career as official pianist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, as well as soloist with other leading American orchestras. He was an accompanist, a recording artist, and a teacher, and he also stimulated and commissioned composers to write new music, fueled by his eagerness to present it to the general public. Jesus Maria Sanroma: An American Twentieth-Century Pianist is the first biography of this talented performer and one of the first books written about a native Puerto Rican classical musician. The book depicts many facets of Sanroma's life: his youth in Puerto Rico; his training at the Conservatory and abroad; his amazing concert career and collaboration with first-class musicians, conductors, and composers; his historical performances and recordings; and the zenith of his musical life when he returned home. Alberto Hernandez provides abundant information about Sanroma's life, career, and professional relationships, uniquely documenting the pianist's close association and collaboration with Paul Hindemith, Serge Koussevitzky, Walter Piston, Nicolas Slonimsky, Vladimir Dukelsky, Mrs. Edward MacDowell, Arthur Fiedler, William Primrose, and many others. Two appendixes offer the complete sound archives and a list of Sanroma's impressive orchestra repertory, making this book a valuable reference as well as an informative read for music lovers and students of American and Latin American history.

As his mother was dying, Philip Kennicott began to listen to the music of Bach obsessively. It was the only music that didn't seem trivial or irrelevant, and it enabled him to both experience her death and remove himself from it. For him, Bach's music held the elements of both joy and despair, life and its inevitable end. He spent the next five years trying to learn one of the composer's greatest keyboard masterpieces, the Goldberg Variations. In Counterpoint, he recounts his efforts to rise to the challenge and to fight through his grief by coming to terms with his memories of a difficult, complicated childhood. He describes the joys of mastering some of the piano pieces, the frustrations that plague his understanding of others, the technical challenges they pose, and the surpassing beauty of the melodies, harmonies and counterpoint that distinguish them. While exploring Bach's compositions he sketches a cultural history of playing the piano in the twentieth century. And he raises two questions that become increasingly interrelated, not unlike a contrapuntal passage in one of the variations itself: What does it mean to know a piece of music? What does it mean to know another human being?

A very popular middle C approach that develops in a methodical manner. Not only a treat to the ear but the illustrations are a delight to the eye!

Bastien Piano Basics is suitable for children aged 7 upwards.

The course uses a gradual multi-key approach, with reading beginning in the C five-finger position.

This method with an ideal pacing ensures success for young beginners.

This book contains nine pieces from ABRSM's Grade 1 Piano syllabus for 2021 & 2022, three pieces chosen from each of Lists A, B and C. The pieces have been carefully selected to offer an attractive and varied range of styles, creating a collection that provides an excellent source of repertoire to suit every performer. The book also contains helpful footnotes and, for those preparing for exams, useful syllabus information. The enclosed CD features inspiring recordings of all 30 pieces on the Grade 1 syllabus, performed by Nikki Iles, Dinara Klinton, Robert Thompson and Anthony Williams.

This book contains nine pieces from ABRSM's Grade 6 Piano syllabus for 2021 & 2022, three pieces chosen from each of Lists A, B and C. The pieces have been carefully selected to offer an attractive and varied range of styles, creating a collection that provides an excellent source of repertoire to suit every performer. The book also contains helpful footnotes and, for those preparing for exams, useful syllabus information. The enclosed CD features inspiring recordings of all 30 pieces on the Grade 6 syllabus, performed by Yulia Chaplina, Mei Yi Foo, Nikki Iles, Dinara Klinton, Charles Owen, Robert Thompson and Richard Uttley.

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.

Following methods known to have been adopted by Bach himself, the exercises provided in chorale harmonization are graded in such a way as to encourage the student to develop both technique and imagination within a closely-defined framework. The instrumental counterpoint section is based on Bach's two-and three-part Inventions. By close analysis the author helps the reader to recognize the procedures Bach adopted in various musical situations. The exercises are taken largely from Bach's keyboard works.

The Piano Player: Wintertide Collection presents 20 seasonal and wintry pieces of classical music, specially arranged for intermediate solo piano. Contents include Carol Of The Bells by Mykola Leontovych, Sleigh Ride by Leroy Anderson, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Sinfonia from Christmas Oratorio by J.S. Bach. The cover features Edward Bawden's watercolour Great Bardfield, 1955, and a double-side colour print provides the full artwork as a beautiful collectible. With its gorgeous presentation, superb musical selection, adept pianistic arrangements and helpful fingering, it is very easy to recommend this publication to late intermediate and more advanced players everywhere.The Wintertide Collection really is a fabulous gift, and one that will bring joy for many winters to come! Andrew Eales, November 2023, pianodao.com

The 60 exercises by C. L. Hanon, The Virtuoso Pianist, are a classic textbook of technical training widely used by piano students, teachers and professionals.

However, in the hundred years or so that have elapsed since these exercises first appeared, the technical demands made on students and pianists have enormously changed and developed.

Therefore, the famous two-piano team of Gold and Fizdale has attempted to bring Hanon's exercises up-to-date. It is hoped that Hanon Revisited will serve students and pianists as a preparation for the increasingly complicated technical requirements of present-day piano performance and study.

Encore is the official collection of best-loved ABRSM piano exam pieces, selected from syllabuses of the past few decades. Pianists will find an appealing mix of repertoire, while teachers can be confident that the perfect balance of content has been selected at every level. Book 3 features 19 popular pieces at Grades 5 and 6. Have fun exploring modern favourites and timeless classics, like Satie's Gymnopedie No. 1, or Of Foreign Lands and Peoples by Schumann. Footnotes provide background information, a summary of the key skills that each piece develops, and new ideas for exploring the music. Perfect for learners exploring repertoire for the own-choice piece in ABRSM's Performance Grade exams Whether you're working through our exams, playing informally, or planning a performance, Encore is full of music you'll want to play again and again!

Charles Ives' massive Concord Sonata, his second sonata for piano, named after the town of Concord in Massachusetts, is central to his output and clearly reflects his aesthetic perspective. Geoffrey Block's wide-ranging account of the work thus provides an ideal introduction to this fascinating composer. This handbook discusses the Sonata's reception history and its compositional genesis, as well as providing a detailed account of the work's thematic content, its use of borrowed material, and the degree to which the program is influenced by the Concord Transcendentalists.

The ABRSM's popular and well-established Manual of Scales, Arpeggios and Broken Chords is now published in a new modern edition. Still containing all the standard scale and arpeggio patterns, it has been enlarged to include whole-tone scales, augmented arpeggios and additional broken chord patterns. Ruth Gerald, formerly Head of Keyboard Studies at the Royal College of Music and a senior ABRSM consultant and examiner, has written an informative introduction, which includes some technical guidance and practice suggestions. This new edition with its clear page layout and accessible structure is an excellent resource for all pianists.

The concept of stylus phantasticus (or 'fantastic style') as it was expressed in free keyboard music of the north German Baroque forms the focus of this book. Exploring both the theoretical background to the style and its application by composers and performers, Paul Collins surveys the development of Athanasius Kircher's original concept and its influence on music theorists such as Brossard, Janovka, Mattheson, and Walther. Turning specifically to fantasist composers of keyboard works, the book examines the keyboard toccatas of Merulo, Fresobaldi, Rossi and Froberger and their influence on north German organists Tunder, Weckmann, Reincken, Buxtehude, Bruhns, Lubeck, Bohm, and Leyding. The free keyboard music of this distinguished group highlights the intriguing relationship at this time between composition and performance, the concept of fantasy, and the understanding of originality and individuality in seventeenth-century culture.

Begins with a review of the concepts presented in Level 2, then introduces new pieces and lessons in new keys to prepare the student for more advanced studies. Includes a "Just for Fun" section and an "Ambitious" section for the student who will devote a little extra effort toward learning some of the great masterworks that require additional practice.

Now in paperback! Hugely popular in the 19th century, and starting to regain popularity now, the literature for multiple pianos is relatively unknown. J.S. Bach began the history of keyboard music for three or more players around 1730; Mozart contributed to the literature. Other important composers_Czerny, Moscheles, Smetana, Glazunov, Rachmaninoff_continued the tradition for particular pianists and occasions. Louis Moreau Gottschalk used a large number of pianos and pianists for his popularly acclaimed 'monster concerts' in the Americas. By the early 20th century, a mass of transcriptions and arrangements had accumulated. Later in the century, such important 20th-century composers as Ives, Stravinsky, Antheil, Orff, Dallapiccola, Milhaud, and others composed original works for the medium. Includes a comprehensive bibliography with an illustrative, detailed guide to the catalogue. Cloth edition originally published in 1993.

Noted organist and scholar Anthony Hammond tells the full story, for the first time, of one of the great organists of the twentieth century. Described by his teacher Marcel Dupre as "a phenomenon without equal in the history of the contemporary organ," Pierre Cochereau is considered one of the twentieth century's greatest French organists.This book tells, for the firsttime, the full story of of his extraordinary life and glittering, worldwide career. In 1955 Cochereau was appointed Organiste Titulaire at Notre-Dame de Paris, where he restored the cathedral's musical glory and oversawa far-reaching and controversial transformation of its organ. As a recitalist, he toured South America, Australia, Asia, Canada, and Europe in addition to twenty-five tours of the United States. He was the first western organist to perform in the former Soviet Union., played with many major orchestras under the batons of distinguished conductors, participated in numerous music festivals in Europe, made over eighty recordings, and was one of the founders of the Chartres International Organ Competition. He was honored several times for his achievements, including being named an Officer of the Legion of Honor (1978). A tireless campaigner for standards in music education, Cochereau also served as director at many of France's prominent conservatories, including Le Mans, Lyons, and Nice, which under his directorhsip became one of the leading music schools in France. Biographer AnthonyHammond draws from a variety of of prominent primary sources, notably Marcel Dupre's papers in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, but also from Cochereau's surviving family and friends, and uses recordings and previously overlooked archive films in the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel, France to construct this definitive account and critical appraisal of one of France's most distinguished organists. Anthony Hammond is an English concert organist, improviser, and musicologist who specializes in French Romantic and twentieth-century organ music.

The twentieth-century revival of early music unfolded in two successive movements rooted respectively in nineteenth-century antiquarianism and in rediscovery of the value of original instruments. The present volume is a collection of insights reflecting the principal concerns of the second of those revivals, focusing on early keyboards, and beginning in the 1950s. The volume and its authors acknowledge Canadian harpsichordist Kenneth Gilbert (b. 1931) as one of this revival's leaders. The content reflects international research on early keyboard music, sources, instruments, theory, editing, and discography. Considerations that echo throughout the book are the problematics of source attributions, progressive institutionalization of early music, historical instruments as agents of artistic change and education, antecedents and networks of the revival seen as a social phenomenon, the impact of historical performance and the quest for understanding style and genre. The chapters cover historical performance practice, source studies, edition, theory and form, and instrument curating and building. Among their authors are prominent figures in performance, music history, editing, instrument building and restoration, and theory, some of whom engaged with the early keyboard revival as it was happening.

This volume considers the influences and development of the English organ sonata tradition that began in the 1850s with compositions by W. T. Best and William Spark. With the expansion of the instrument's capabilities came an opportunity for organist-composers to consider the repertoire anew with many factors reinforcing a desire to elevate the literature to new heights. This study begins by examining the legacy of the keyboard sonata in Britain and especially the pedagogical lineage that was to be seen through Mendelssohn and ultimately the early organ sonatas. The abiding influence of William Crotch's lectures are studied to illuminate how a culture of conservatism emboldened the organist-composers towards compositions that were seen to represent the ideals of the Classical era but in a contemporary vein. The veneration of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven is then examined as composers wrote "portfolio" sonatas, each with a movement in a contrasting style to exhibit their compositional prowess while providing repertoire for the novice and connoisseur alike. Finally the volume considers how the British organist-composers who studied at the Leipzig Conservatorium had a direct bearing on the furtherance of an organ culture at home that in turn set the ground for the seminal work in the genre, Elgar's Sonata of 1895.

This set of three organ improvisations, each based on a liturgical text, is written in a quintessentially English style: largely diatonic but not unremittingly consonant, flowingly melodic, texturally rich, and steered away from predictability by constantly varying bar- and phrase-lengths. Organists will find this a usefully versatile set of voluntaries, or an unusual and rewarding recital piece.