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The current ATCL syllabus for piano performance includes the following choices from Debussy Preludes Book 1:

Debussy from Preludes for Piano book 1:

- Voiles (no. 2)

- and/or Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir (no. 4)

- and/or La cathédrale engloutie (no. 10) .

I am taking this to mean that I could do just Voiles (no2) from this list following the 'and/or' logic ! (or even all three pieces if desired)

Can I just check with anyone who has also looked at this list that I understand it right ?

That's how I'd understand it.

Just make sure your pieces fit into the time criteria for the exam.

Time consideration might have to be one of the main criteria depending upon what else is chosen for the examination. On a traditional recording:

"Les sons et les parums tournent dans l'air du soir 3' 39"
"Voiles" = 4' 20"
"La cathédrale engloutie = 6' 21"

So using the and/or criterion, it could be as little as 3' 39" or as much as 10' 41" for Debussy. It depends, therefore, on total time and also balance of repertoire styles.

Regards,

Hi Fellow ATCL hopeful


Thats How I understand it: i have a similar issue - doing the Prelude and/or Sarabande from Pour le piano. Planning to do both, actually.


You can ask them, if you are not certain


If I may ask : When are you planning to sit the exam?

Thanks for all the responses.

The timing point about the Debussy pieces is interesting but I am planning to do just the Voilles piece (plus other things of course)

Hi almo82....I'll be honest and say I have had a lazy year on the piano so my plan is to work hard for say three months on a program and then try and project when would be a realistic time to sit the exam. Some years back in my cello days I sat dipABRSM performers. A pianist friend convinced me I was 'more than ready' etc etc and what with having achieved
138 at grade 8 some years earlier I was so over-confident in thinking i'd 'walk' the diploma.....guess what.... I failed .............very demoralising, time consuming, and let's face it ., alot of money..............so I'm being very cautious this time.

FYI my planned program for ATCL is :

Bach : Prelude and Fugue in F# minor 3:51
Beethoven : Sonata in E flat op27 15|09
Chopin: Fantasy Impromptu 6:18
Rachmaninoff : Prelude in E flat from op 23 3:12
Debussy: Voiles 3:12 (amazing coincidence !)
Moszkowski : Etincelles 2:49



Timings are off Spotify ( a very good way of building your self a play-list and reviewing the overall program). Comes to 34 minutes.

An ambitous program, I know, but I'd rather be playing pieces I really like - it will take as long as it takes !

Good luck with it!
I'm curious how you failed previously despite being confident you'd pass? Did you have a bad day or was your interpretation or technique to blame? I've been reading on a different forum how dipabrsm are considered harder to pass than atcl. (I realise it was cello for your dip)

I think looking back now that it was my technique that was not good - the written report said technique was failing to let good musical ideas through. If i had say recorded my playing and/or done a few private performances first i would have been more aware of that. Cello is a VERY difficult instrument to perfect,.,,,,part the reason i went back to piano..

Piano i find much more 'conciliating' .... more rewarding .... I feel more SECURE playing it.

That said I will put some performances on to the public before doing ATCL (one professional music friend of mine says I should just do the performances and forget expensive bits of paper !!!!!!)

One local, highly respected piano pedagogue and international performer said that one should have a minimum of seven public performances of the examination repertoire before a major piano examination.

Regards,

"One local, highly respected piano pedagogue and international performer said that one should have a minimum of seven public performances of the examination repertoire before a major piano examination. "



Interesting idea !

Not sure I could get seven different places to perform.
Perhaps one or two at home, one at a venue, and make a few recordings

Hi Tim,

I agree: being in a similar position to you - i am constantly looking for performance opportunities.
One thing I learned is that the exam requires endurance: it is one thing to play a number of pieces. It is quite another to play all of them in sequence, with no breaks, while maintaining focus and musicality throughout the performance. .

I never performed in public prior to my performance diploma (many, many, many years ago) but what I did was to put myself through several 'mock exams', where I set the situation up (together with my prepared spoken introduction) and then play my pieces as if I was doing the exam, while recording myself using my portable radio-cassette recorder (yes, there used to be such things.......). Occasionally a friend would sit in to listen, and of course I did the whole thing for my teacher too. I also use a stop clock to check that my timing for the whole thing fitted the exam's stipulations. Under stress/excitement, I tend to play fast music faster and slow music slower......

These days, I'm actually performing in solo recitals, so I do the same 'rehearsal' several times during the week or so prior to each recital, though in the privacy of my home and with only the birds outside the window listening. (They do enjoy my music ). The rehearsals are invaluable for checking my memory (of course, teaching diploma exams usually don't require playing from memory) and where I'm liable to falter under pressure, and also to ensure that the order I'm planning to perform them is a logical one (more than once, I changed the order, or even substituted a piece after such a 'rehearsal').

To the original question - Trinity has the following in their FAQs:

3.1.13 Some of the pieces in the repertoire list have ‘and’ or ‘and/or’ written by them – does that mean I have to play all the pieces in that group?

Where the syllabus says ‘and’ both works need to be played. Where it says ‘and/or’ any combination of these pieces could be chosen.

Good luck for your exam!