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Hi all. I ' ve been asked recently by my teacher about xxth century easy-intermediate works. She is well into ocntemorary music but says that it ' s usually technically demanding. She s trying to put together a set of contemporary works that would apply to not so advanced students.
Suggestions? Please bear in mind she is after contemporary composers, 2nd half of the century, thus Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Bartok, Rach, etc , don t apply.
Liebermann and Auerbach come to mind. And my publisher has published a series of contemporary works for intermediate level students by a variety of different composers including Ninov, Rahbee, Diemer, Applebaum and others.
Another friend of mine has done a number of workshops on this topic (and published an article or two I think.) I'll see if I can dig up her notes later tonight.
"If we continually try to force a child to do what he is afraid to do, he will become more timid, and will use his brains and energy, not to explore the unknown, but to find ways to avoid the pressures we put on him." (John Holt)
Did he write anything at the intermediate level, though? Everything I've heard is fairly advanced.
"If we continually try to force a child to do what he is afraid to do, he will become more timid, and will use his brains and energy, not to explore the unknown, but to find ways to avoid the pressures we put on him." (John Holt)
Maybe... Some of those pieces are harder than others, but I think most of them should be fairly manageable. But then again it was composed in the early fifties, so it's not really that contemporary anymore.
I have an ice cream. I cannot mail it, for it will melt.
Dr. Richard Crosby's "By the Waters of Memory" is a great piece that doesn't look too difficult.
I know this composer very well, I've heard him play the piece, and I've read through it myself. It's very pretty. http://prairiedawgpress.com/piano.html
I'm sorry that I don't have a sound file or score to show you, but if you'd like, I can P.M. you his e-mail address and you can ask him more about it. He'd be delighted to talk to anyone who wants to play his music!
Well my teacher is very keen on "modern" repertoire. She plays a lot of 20th century, and has premiered many new works.
She keeps telling me she d like to be able to introduce newer music to students earlier than they are usually exposed to it. Bear in mind that in spanish conservatories, Debussy was part of "Modern" repertoire (officially) up to a few years ago.
OSK, i will give her that link and see what she says.
Seriously! No, i am not at a conservatory, i'm a total beginner and take lessons. But a good friend of mine plays at my place sometimes, and i was looking at her scores (she finished her studies about 10 yrs ago, 10 years degree , not sure how that equates in us or the uk ...
Anyway, since you asked ... i just found a rep list of the 7 th year in her copy of Debussy's Suite Bergamasque ... there 5 type of pieces, Etudes, Counterpoint, Classical, Romantic, and "Modern". The following are under the latter category, check this out!
I vaguely recall that there is a collection of contemporary works (published in the last 10 years) and possibly sponsored by Carnegie Hall or Steinway that are only easy short works by some great contempoary composers specially written for this collection. he idea of the collection was to have works accessible by non advanced pianists.
The book you're referring to the Carnegie Hall Millenium collection, but I can assure you that they are by and large NOT easy-intermediate in difficulty. The only one I would put into the intermediate category is Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's "Lament". The others are at least advanced-intermediate in both technical and musical demands, and 2 - 3 of them (Babbitt, Chen Yi, Rzewski) are just flatly advanced.
For your technical level, a far better choice would be Maurice Hinson's "Anthology of 20th Century Piano Music", which correctly indicates "Intermediate to Early Advanced Works by 37 Composers." It has quite a number of rarely heard accessible and attractive pieces.
Robert Starer has written a lot of really nice music that's in the early intermediate category. I've also got some Jeno Takacs, Lowell Liebermann, and Ernst Krenek here.
I know Benjamin Lees has written piano music, but I am unsure if it's very easy.
Pianist and teacher with a 5'8" Baldwin R and Clavi CLP-230 at home.
