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Joined: Feb 2015
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What books would you recommend in the following categories? - Books about music (not strictly piano music)
- Biographies of great musicians
- Books you think every aspiring pianist should read
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Joined: Feb 2019
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Are you asking that for your own usage or is that a general question to launch a thread (or both) ?
Blüthner model 6
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Are you asking that for your own usage or is that a general question to launch a thread (or both) ? Both. I was looking for interesting books for myself and thought maybe I'd ask here but it may be interesting in general to know what books people read and recommend.
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Joined: May 2001
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I think there have been several threads in the past with long lists of recommendations in each category. They may have even been archived.
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"Music, rich, full of feeling, not soulless, is like a crystal on which the sun falls and brings forth from it a whole rainbow" - F. Chopin "I never dreamt with my own two hands I could touch the sky" - Sappho
It's ok to be a Work In Progress
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"Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould," by Kevin Bazzana. An excellent biographical overview, studded with serious, deep musical analysis by somebody who knows his business.
Chickering & Sons Patrician 5’ 8.5” (174 cm) Aeolian-American Corp. East Rochester, NY
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Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians is a gem and a classic
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Thank you so much for these recommendations!
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Brahms biography by Jan Swafford is incredible, as is Chopin’s biography by the same author.
Lisa Chief Cook & Pot Scrubber @ Cunningham Piano Club 🎹 Cunningham Studio Grand & Yamaha CLP645
“There is in all times a secret union of kindred spirits. Bind closer the circle, that the truth of art may shine forever clearer, spreading joy and blessing through the world.” R. Schumann
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Brahms biography by Jan Swafford is incredible, as is Chopin’s biography by the same author. Hi Lisa! I found the Brahms biography by Swafford, but couldn't find a biography of Chopin by that author. Are you sure it's Swafford? There are many biographies on Amazon, but if there's a specific one you've already read and liked, I'd rather place that one on my wish list. Thank you!
Talão Yamaha U3 and Kawai MP11SE My piano journey (playing since July 2019) 10 weeks into Duane Shinn's 52-Week Crash Course
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Brahms biography by Jan Swafford is incredible, as is Chopin’s biography by the same author. Hi Lisa! I found the Brahms biography by Swafford, but couldn't find a biography of Chopin by that author. Are you sure it's Swafford? There are many biographies on Amazon, but if there's a specific one you've already read and liked, I'd rather place that one on my wish list. Thank you! Chopin at the Boundaries by Jeff Kallberg is a very interesting book (a set of 7 articles), more focused on the personality of Chopin and the relationship to his compositions. It is not really a bio per se, though there are many elements of his life.
Blüthner model 6
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Brahms biography by Jan Swafford is incredible, as is Chopin’s biography by the same author. Hi Lisa! I found the Brahms biography by Swafford, but couldn't find a biography of Chopin by that author. Are you sure it's Swafford? There are many biographies on Amazon, but if there's a specific one you've already read and liked, I'd rather place that one on my wish list. Thank you! The new (2018?) Chopin Biography is by Alan Walker. Sam
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Although not necessarily for pianists, I think every musician can benefit by some familiarity with Slonimsky's Lexicon of Musical Invective.
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Joined: May 2015
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Although not necessarily for pianists, I think every musician can benefit by some familiarity with Slonimsky's Lexicon of Musical Invective. Here’s the preface A supermarket tabloid of classical music criticism."―From the new foreword by Peter Schickele. A snakeful of critical venom aimed at the composers and the classics of nineteenth- and twentieth-century music. Who wrote advanced cat music? What commonplace theme is very much like Yankee Doodle? Which composer is a scoundrel and a giftless bastard? What opera would His Satanic Majesty turn out? Whose name suggests fierce whiskers stained with vodka? And finally, what third movement begins with a dog howling at midnight, then imitates the regurgitations of the less-refined or lower-middle-class type of water-closet cistern, and ends with the cello reproducing the screech of an ungreased wheelbarrow? For the answers to these and other questions, readers need only consult the "Invecticon" at the back of this inspired book and then turn to the full passage, in all its vituperation. Among the eminent reviewers are George Bernard Shaw, Virgil Thomson, Hans von Bülow, Friedrich Nietzsche, Eduard Hanslick, Olin Downes, Deems Taylor, Paul Rosenfeld, and Oscar Wilde. Itself a classic, this collection of nasty barbs about composers and their works, culled mostly from contemporaneous newspapers and magazines, makes for hilarious reading and belongs on the shelf of everyone who loves―or hates ―classical music. With a new foreword by Peter Schickele ("P.D.Q. Bach").
"Music, rich, full of feeling, not soulless, is like a crystal on which the sun falls and brings forth from it a whole rainbow" - F. Chopin "I never dreamt with my own two hands I could touch the sky" - Sappho
It's ok to be a Work In Progress
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An old book passed to me from someone who used to be in my music group. It's an old book by CPE Bach on keyboard playing translated into English from German. ![[Linked Image]](https://forum.pianoworld.com//gallery/42/full/16066.jpg) A while ago found another book on keyboard playing by Terry Burrows. It's printed in 2001 with some printing errors. Not sure if there is a more recent printing. ![[Linked Image]](https://forum.pianoworld.com//gallery/42/full/16067.jpg)
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Joined: Feb 2022
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An old book passed to me from someone who used to be in my music group. It's an old book by CPE Bach on keyboard playing translated into English from German. ![[Linked Image]](https://forum.pianoworld.com//gallery/42/full/16066.jpg) A while ago found another book on keyboard playing by Terry Burrows. It's printed in 2001 with some printing errors. Not sure if there is a more recent printing. ![[Linked Image]](https://forum.pianoworld.com//gallery/42/full/16067.jpg) I also advise you to pay attention to the site https://edubirdie.com/examples/sociology/ where you can find a lot of useful information about sociology as a science, sociological research in the field of music. Very good advice, thank you!
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Chopin at the Boundaries by Jeff Kallberg is a very interesting book (a set of 7 articles), more focused on the personality of Chopin and the relationship to his compositions. It is not really a bio per se, though there are many elements of his life. The new (2018?) Chopin Biography is by Alan Walker. Sam Thank you Sidokar and Sam for the recommendations.
Talão Yamaha U3 and Kawai MP11SE My piano journey (playing since July 2019) 10 weeks into Duane Shinn's 52-Week Crash Course
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Georges Cziffra Cannons and Flowers: The Memoirs of Georges Cziffra
David Byrne How Music Works
Abram Chasins Speaking of Pianists
Daniel Barenboim/Edward Said Parallels and Paradoxes
Heinrich Neuhaus The Art of Piano Playing
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Voicing
by Senahoi - 05/22/22 01:42 PM
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