Historical and Technical background: Classical and Romantic Pianos
Course Introduction / Historical Background
Reading: Oxford Music Online, article entitled Pianoforte, sections I.5–I.10)
I mentioned that I would share a reading list with you–Here’s a link to a list of excellent books. Also see Burge, David. Twentieth-century piano music. Schirmer Books, 1990. [regrettably out of print. Republished for a while bby Scarecrow Press, but now out of print there, too]
Chopin (1810–1849): Mazurkas, Polonaises (We’ll do Ballades, and Etudes next week)
Listening:
A minor, Op. 17 no. 4 (1833)
C# minor Op. 30 No. 4 (1837)
A-flat major, Op. 41 no. 3 (1839)
C# minor, Op. 50 No. 3 (1842)
Rubinstein
F-sharp Minor, Op.44 (1841)
Polonaise-Fantasie in A-flat Major, Op.61 (1846)
Ohlsson
F major, op.38 (1839)
F minor, op.52 (1842–3)
Bolet
Etudes Op. 10 (1830–2) and Op. 25 (1835–7)
Op. 10:
No. 1 in C Major
No. 3 in E Major
No. 5 in G-flat Major
No. 8 in F Major
No. 11 in E-flat Major
Op. 25:
No. 1 in A-flat Major
No. 5 in e minor
No. 6 in g# minor
No. 10 in b minor
No. 11 in a minor
Gavrilov
Reading: (This seems like a lot, but you can skim much of it, and figure out which bits are most important to the music we are looking at! Learn how to skim! There won’t be that much reading later in the semester, when the music becomes more “difficult”.
Jonathan Bellman: “Middlebrow Becomes Transcendent: The Popular Roots of Chopin’s Musical Language,” from Chopin and His World, ed. Bellman and Goldberg, Princeton University Press, 2017, pp. 147–170.
John Rink: “Chopin and Improvisation,” from Chopin and His World, ed. Bellman and Goldberg, Princeton University Press, 2017, pp. 249–270.
Eric McKee: “Dance and the Music of Chopin: The Polonaise,” from Chopin and His Word, ed. Bellman and Goldberg, Princeton University Press, 2017, pp. 187-230
David Cartledge 