In this concise and accessible volume, a noted keyboard artist and Bach specialist takes a fresh look at the performance of J. S. Bach's keyboard music. Addressing the nonspecialist player, Richard Troeger presents a wide range of historical information and discusses its musical applications. The author shares accounts of the musical styles Bach employed and the instruments he knew. In direct and pragmatic terms, he clarifies the importance of notational and style details as guides to the composer's intentions, particularly emphasizing changes in notational norms between Bach's time and the present. Troeger offers core information on dynamics, articulation, tempo, rhythm, ornamentation and accompaniment. He considers controversial issues as well, establishing the importance of the clavichord in Bach's milieu and examining the link between baroque music and rhetoric - a dramatic relationship that can bring great vitality to performance.

Grand Tours is a chronicle of the American visits of five charismatic pianists--Leopold de Meyer, Henri Herz, Sigismund Thalberg, Anton Rubenstein, and Hans von Bulow--during the late nineteenth century. Performing Beethoven and Chopin in gold-rush era California, these pianists introduced many Americans to the delights of the concert hall. With humor and insight, Lott describes the clash between the flamboyant, elegant, European pianists and American audiences more accustomed to circuses and rodeos than these "serious" entertainments. Lott also explores the creative and sometimes outlandish publicity techniques of managers seeking to capitalize on rich but uncharted American markets. The tours, which included almost a thousand concerts in more than one hundred cities in America and Canada, illustrate the rigors of the performing life, the wide range of nineteenth-century audiences and their gradual transformation from boisterous participators to respectful listeners, and the establishment of the piano recital as it exists today. With the colorful personalities of the pianists, the juxtaposition of high art and unsophisticated audiences, and the predilection of Americans to treat even the most serious subjects with humor, the book is illuminating and entertaining. The text is illustrated with ads, newspaper clippings, and correspondence that bring to life this collision of cultures.

This engaging book discusses the colorful personalities Land beloved music of the French romantic organist-composers. Michael Murray draws vivid portraits of Aristide Cavaille-Coll (1811-1899), the greatest and most influential organ builder of his time, and of seven oilier musicians with connections to Cavaille-Coll and to onc another: Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921), Cesar Franck (1822-1890), Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937), Louis Vicine (1870-1937), Marcel Dupre' (1886-1971), Jean Langlais (1907-1991), and Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992).

The book offers to lovers of French music and culture -- and especially to student organists -- details of these composers' lives and times and of their styles and techniques. Drawing on his personal acquaintance with Messiaen, Langlais, Dupre', and other famous contemporaries, and on period documents, original accounts, early recordings, and other primary sources, Murray examines the relationship between organ building and musical composition, the nature of romanticism and classicism, and the ever-perplexing question of composer versus interpreter.

This comprehensive method of music instruction enables the beginner to progress to an advanced stage of technical skill.

This book contains all the scales and arpeggios required for ABRSM's Grade 6 Piano exam. It covers all the new requirements from 2021.

Each piece in the Solo Books coordinates page-by-page with the Lesson Books, reinforcing newly learned concepts presented at the lesson. Includes adorable full-color illustrations that enhance each piece.

Mozart's emergence as a mature artist coincides with the rise to prominence of the piano, an instrument that came alive under his fingers and served as medium for many of his finest compositions. In Mozart's Piano Music, William Kinderman reconsiders common assumptions about Mozart's life and art while offering comprehensive and incisive commentary on the solo music and concertos. After placing Mozart's pianistic legacy in its larger biographical and cultural context, Kinderman addresses the lively gestural and structural aspects of Mozart's musical language and explores the nature of his creative process. Incorporating the most recent research throughout this encompassing study, Kinderman expertly surveys each of the major genres of the keyboard music, including the four-hand and two-piano works. Beyond examining issues such as Mozart's earliest childhood compositions, his musical rhetoric and expression, the social context of his Viennese concertos, and affinities between his piano works and operas, Kinderman's main emphasis falls on detailed discussion of selected individual compositions.

The Academy Award winning film Shine made pianist David Helfgott a household name. While purporting to be a true story, the movie is actually full of fabrications. Now for the first time, Margaret, David Helfgott's eldest sister, who knows him better than anyone from their early years, sets the record straight. Dispelling the many untruths propogated by the movie, Margaret tells the real story of her extraordinary brother, of a life, a career, and a legacy that will remain foever...Out Of Tune.

You can now teach yourself to play the piano, even though you have never taken a lesson. Teach yourself to play the piano and progress at your own pace! Covers the basic fundamentals of piano playing in a concise and logical fashion. Its appealing music will encourage you to play every day. Features: Rhythms made simple; How to form the most important chords; Finger aerobics help to make playing easier; Techniques of playing with feeling and expression; Step-by-step approach to learning the entire keyboard; Letter-notes provide and easy introduction to reading music. The Enhanced CD for this book contains great audio accompaniments you can play on your stereo and doubles as an interactive and fun multimedia learning tool that works on any Windows-compatible PC. The song player shows you exactly how each song should be played, lets you customize the audio levels, adjust playback tempo, and even record your own performance! CD-ROM is for Windows & Macintosh.

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."

Born in Wisconsin in 1919, Wladziu Valentino Liberace began his career as a performer at roadhouses, bars, stag parties, afternoon teas, and dances in the Milwaukee area. Television brought him to stardom in 1952, when The Liberace Show was watched by more than 35 million people each week. His television exposure led to one of the most lucrative concert, nightclub, and recording careers in history. His death from AIDS in 1987 continued the perpetual speculation about his personal life. This book charts the always controversial life and career of Liberace, from his birth in America's heartland to his death as one of the most flamboyant entertainers of his generation. A short biography and chronology present his life in capsule form and give full attention to the scandals that plagued his career. The chapters that follow detail his work in film, television, radio, recordings, and concerts. Each entry provides fascinating information about his performances, and an annotated bibliography describes sources for additional information.

The harpsichord was the standard keyboard instrument for three centuries before the invention of the piano. It enjoyed a revival in the second half of the twentieth century, but because of the interruption in its history as a more regularly used instrument, many details about its construction are lacking. In The Harpsichord Stringing Handbook, Thomas Donahue integrates available historical evidence and modern physical principles-from both musicological and scientific literature-to provide practical quantitative information about the stringing of this instrument. The Harpsichord Stringing Handbook covers the composition and properties of iron and brass wire, the interrelationship of frequency to string length, safety factors involved with stringing, the scaling of string lengths, the calculation of diameters, and the determination of the transition from iron to brass in mixed-strung instruments. Supplemental topics include the elasticity and plasticity of wire, inharmonicity, tension and stress, and the interpolation of string lengths. Additional material includes data on selected historical harpsichords, absolute diameters of historical gauge numbering systems, a generated list of tensile strength values for historical wire, and sizes and tensile strengths of currently available wire. This book offers specific guidance for instrument makers, restorers, curators, technicians, musicians, kit builders, wire manufacturers, and acousticians, filling in critical details that historical treatises and surviving instruments may not clearly address.

It's never too late to play piano is perfect for those who wished they'd learnt to play the piano when they were younger, or those who wish they hadn't given up. At last a truly grown-up approach to learning the piano! Pam Wedgwood, author of many popular piano series, takes you through the rudiments of piano technique and music theory in her own friendly style that's guaranteed to get results. The book is organized into clearly structured progressive units with a fabulous array of music to get you playing straight away, including Pam's own jazzy pieces, plenty of well-known classics and a smattering of pop and show tunes. Help and information is included at every step with top playing tips, technical boxes, fact files, general advice noticeboards, crosswords, recommended listening and boxes of fascinating musical history. The accompanying CD is packed with over 90 backing tracks as well as interactive activities to help you practice optional extras such as a teacher's accompaniment parts can be found below! This is an extensively revised and updated new edition for a new generation of beginners - proving it really is never too late! The ground-breaking It's never too late... Series gives adults the opportunity to learn the piano with a method devised especially for them. This best-selling tutor breaks the learning into manageable chunks, features accompanying CDs, and is packed with irresistible music and fascinating information - all the motivation needed to make learning fun!

Improve your sight-reading! Piano Grade 1 (Early Elementary) is part of the best-selling series by Paul Harris, guaranteed to improve your sight-reading! This workbook helps the player overcome problems by building up a complete picture of each piece, through rhythmic and melodic exercises related to specific technical issues, then by studying prepared pieces with associated questions, and finally by 'going solo' with a series of meticulously graded sight-reading pieces. This edition now includes supporting audio available online for students to check their performances against. The Improve your sight-reading! series will help you improve your reading ability, and with numerous practice tests included, will ensure sight-reading success in graded exams.

Join the superhero world of Lang Lang and come on a piano adventure with The Lang Lang Piano Method Level 2. Level 2 builds on the first book by introducing: eighth notes (quavers) simple hands together and thumb-under technique. The five progressive books in The Lang Lang Piano Method provide a unique and imaginative way for complete beginners to learn the piano with the world's most successful concert pianist, Lang Lang. There's plenty to play all around the keyboard right from the start. Fun, imaginative pieces develop the left and right hands equally and supporting audio features exclusive performances by Lang Lang of the concert pieces. Musicianship is developed through theory pages and listening to exclusive performances by Lang Lang of piano classics for children. "I've written The Lang Lang Piano Method to inspire today's kids with my passion for the piano." Lang Lang

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.

In lucid and engaging style, Stinson explores Bach's 'Great Eighteen' Organ Chorales - among Bach's most celebrated works for organ - from a wide range of historical and analytical perspectives, including the models used by Bach in conceiving the individual pieces, his subsequent compilation of these works into a collection, and his compositional process as preserved by the autograph manuscript. Stinson also considers various issues of performance practice, and provides the first comprehensive examination of the music's reception, its dissemination in manuscript and printed form, and its influence on such composers as Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms.

This volume contains valuable practice material for candidates preparing for the ABRSM Grade 5 Piano exams. The book is written in attractive and approachable styles and representative of the technical level expected in the exam.

Clark provides an extensive survey of the keyboard culture of the young American nation. Written in straightforward, accessible style, the volume covers the period 1787-1830. Clark's unusual organization of the music by genre . . . reveals the wide expanse of the early musical output. . . . This volume belongs in every academic library and on the shelves of all pianists interested in US national musical heritage. Clark's `overriding wish is that some of this music will be played and heard again.' This reviewer heartily concurs and applauds this book as a solid cornerstone upon which his wish may be built. Choice ... a thoroughly excellent piece of scholarship. Professor Clark has a truly encyclopedic command of the literature, analytical expertise, and a clear and engrossing prose style. The book captures one's interest quickly and never becomes slow or pedantic. American Organist The Dawning of American Keyboard Music covers the subject very completely and it will be a standard reference tool for those who love early American music. American Music Teacher This work concerns the rapid growth of keyboard composition in the United States from its beginnings in the 1760s until 1830. Nearly all of the more artistic compositions are described, focusing on those available in moderns editions and reprints; for the rest, there are over 200 examples from music extant only in their original sheet-music copies. The first part of the book is organized by genre, with chapters on the sonata, the rondo, variations, the medley, and battle music. Later chapters are devoted to organ music and to a detailed account of English and American pianoforte tutors, including the varying realizations of ornament signs. The work's formal chapter treats the Bohemian immigrant Anthony Philip Heinrich (1781-1861), whose avant garde compositions are still incomprehensible to many people. The volume concludes with a bibliography of literature on the subject and music editions and with indexes of names, titles, and subjects. The specialized focus of this account supplements the more general histories of early American music. Citations are made to the standard bibliographies of early printed music; complete bibliographical descriptions, including library locations, are furnished for the rest. This volume will appeal to historians of American music and keyborad music and to keyboard performers.

Now you can have over 100 of the most useful chords right at your fingertips. This chart gives you all the basic chords in every key. Each chord is shown in standard music notation and as an easy-to-read piano keyboard diagram. Fingerings are given for each chord. Also included is a clear description of inverting chords.