Weekend Repertoire: Clouds

September 17, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Weekend Repertoire: Discovering Clouds from Four Roman Sketches, by Charles Griffes, 1915

I don’t know about you, but I am all about pieces that paint a picture or tell a story. If I can convey a beautiful scene or tell a great story, or just really relate to a piece of music, that is when I feel I can really play it well. (A good thought to remember when helping students relate to and interpret their pieces!) I once played a cool piece by Abel Decaux from a set entitled Clair de Lune (and don’t let the name fool you – it is as different than Debussy’s famous piece as they come!). The piece was called La Mer, or The Sea – and because of its crazy chromatic harmonies and dark feel, a friend told me that it reminded him of the ocean in Italy at night – and BAM, there was my picture to paint!

I first became familiar with the piece Clouds by Charles Griffes while working on a crazy enormous listening assignment for my piano literature class in college. I popped in the CD, and as the first beautiful chords rang out, I looked out my window just as the sun was rising and saw this:

(By the way, this photo definitely does not do the true view justice, as I just had a little point and shoot camera at the time – but still, you get the idea… right?)

This piece with its gorgeous yet interesting chromatic harmonies completely described the view I was seeing, as the clouds covering the sky turned pink and purple with the sunrise. Pretty cool. Although I have not learned this piece in-depth, whenever I play through it this scene immediately comes to mind and is the inspiration behind the music for me.

I have loved this piece ever since hearing it that day. It definitely is quite impressionistic (which I love), but he also put a very original twist on it with his crazy, somewhat oriental, harmonies. In Hinson’s Guide to the Pianist’s Repertoire, Hinson says this about Griffes: “Love of oriental subjects and a preoccupation with impressionistic techniques were the major influences on Griffes’ music.” You can definitely hear those influences in this piece.

A little about Charles Griffes – he was an American composer, born in New York in 1884, and died in 1920. His major piano works include a sonata (1912) and Four Roman Sketches (1915), from which the piece Clouds comes. Although he is a somewhat obscure composer, his works are definitely worth a listen!

This is pretty much the only recording of this piece I could find on YouTube or anywhere else, except for one other that I thought was just way too fast. Enjoy!

Do you have any similar experiences with pieces? Do you like to picture a scene in your mind when playing? How do you teach your students to “paint a picture” through their playing?

awesome intermediate duets

June 14, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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I love duets!

Sitting by yourself at the piano for long periods of time can definitely get lonely at times. Why not supplement your students’ repertoire with some wonderful duets? Not only will it add more peer interaction and fun into your studio, it will teach your students some valuable lessons about ensemble performance. I think summer is a great time for some fun duet recitals! You could pair up students of similar levels in your studio and have their lessons overlap by a few minutes in order for them to have time to practice the duets together.

I’d like to share with you some of my favorite intermediate-level duets. Enjoy!

The Legend of Pirate Pete by Kevin Olson

Very fun early-intermediate piece. Sounds very Pirates of the Caribbean-esque! haha.

Holy moly, look at all those pianos….this YouTube video is actually very impressive considering how many pianists were playing at once!

Big River Barn Dance by Carrie Kraft

This is a great duet, lots of fun, great for recitals! This is probably mid-intermediate. Here’s a video of me and one of my adult students performing this piece.

The All-American Hometown Band by Walter and Carol Noona

This is one of my all-time favorite duets! I learned this as teenager with my sister, and now my husband plays it with me as well! I actually once saw it played with the pianists sitting under the piano, facing the audience…

This is probably mid-intermediate level.

Here is a video of my husband and I performing this piece…

C.S. Theme and Variations by Randall Compton
(dedicated to Victor Borge!)

This is such a fun duet. It is based on Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, as well as another very familiar song…… 🙂

This is mid- to late-intermediate level.

Here is a great YouTube video I found.

Jamaican Rhumba by Arthur Benjamin, arranged for two pianos by Walden Hughes

Awesome two-piano duet. My sister and I once learned this, and I guess didn’t feel completely ready to play it at our recital, because we were very surprised and relieved when our teacher forgot we were supposed to play it and never announced it!! haha. score.

This is probably later-intermediate.

YouTube video of the piece:

So tell me, what intermediate duets do you love?

popular/movie songs I wouldn’t mind letting my students learn…

June 12, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Since I recently posted about pop music, I thought I’d put this out there –

Sometimes I hear a pop song or a song from a movie soundtrack and think, “hmmm, I like that – I wouldn’t mind if a student learned that song.”

I’m talking about piano pieces that you can actually maybe learn some good piano technique in, or that maybe sound a little classical-ish. The good thing about these is that they could be great motivation for students who may not be so into classical music…and possibly a way to start to “convert” them to classical music 🙂

most of the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack (although once you play one song you’ve played about half of them) 🙂

that one song (“Married Life”) from Disney’s/Pixar’s “Up” – the one that’s a waltz

Coldplay’s Postcards from Far Away

My Father’s Favorite from the movie Sense & Sensibility (great movie by the way :))

What else do you have to add to the list?

Intermediate Repertoire that Motivates

June 10, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Choosing fun-to-play repertoire at appropriate levels for your intermediate students can make a huge difference in their overall progress and enjoyment of piano lessons – and hopefully keep them playing for years to come! I think that choosing repertoire can be one of the hardest things we do as teachers. If you choose repertoire that is boring, too easy and not fun, the student will not practice it. If you choose repertoire that is too hard, the student will get discouraged. The trick is to find pieces which are fun and exciting to your students, and that are challenging but not too challenging…..this can be a difficult task!

Probably the best way to improve our repertoire choices for our students is to become familiar with more repertoire yourself! Listen to it, sight read it, get a feel for the difficulty level and the concepts and techniques that are utilized in each piece. You will then be better able to match the right piece with the right student!

Here are a few great intermediate pieces off the top of my head that students love to play and that are great teaching pieces. Keep in mind that some of these are early intermediate while others are late intermediate levels…and some of them are much easier than they sound!

Bach
Prelude No. 1 in C Major from the Well-Tempered Clavier – listen

CPE Bach
Solfegietto – watch

Beethoven
Sonatina in G Major – listen
Fur Elise (a must-learn for many students!) – listen

Chopin
Prelude No. 4 in E minor – listen
Prelude No. 15 in D-flat Major – listen
Prelude No. 7 in A Major – listen
Nocturne in E minor, Op. 72 No. 1 – listen

Clementi
Sonatina Op. 36 No. 1 in C Major – listen
This piece actually has an awesome second piano part, making it so fun for recitals – here

Debussy
Reverie – listen
Dr. Gradus ad Parnassum – listen

Elmenreich
Spinning Song (a classic favorite of many piano students!) – listen

Grieg
Wedding Day at Troldhaugen (hearing this piece takes me back to performance classes in high school…) – listen

Haydn
Gypsy Rondo (from Piano Trio in G, arranged for solo piano by Louis Kohler) – watch

Khatchaturian
Toccata (this is a great recital piece because it is so showy, and is easier than it sounds – I think it’s a great piece for a teenage boy who needs a little motivation!) – watch

Lecuona
Mazurka Glissando (ok I LOVE this piece and am not even sure where you can find it, but I played it in junior high. It is easier than it sounds, once you get the glissandos down, and is quite the show-stopper!) – watch
holy cow check this version out (this pianist takes more liberties, I love it! This is such a great performance)

MacDowell
To a Wild Rose, from Woodland Sketches (beautiful yet simple piece!) – listen

Satie
Gymnopedie 1 – listen

Schumann
Traumerei – watch

Sinding
Rustles of Spring – listen

Tchaikovsky
Sweet Reverie – listen

Please pretty please share some of your intermediate repertoire favorites! 🙂

Introducing the Four Musical Periods

June 3, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Here’s a fun way to get your students listening to classical music and to introduce the four musical periods (don’t miss more ideas on introducing the musical periods here) –

Have your students listen to George Rochberg’s Sixth String Quartet (Variations on Pachelbel’s Canon in D). I love this piece – it introduces each musical period by playing Pachelbel’s Canon in each style. It starts out Baroque, and then segues into Classical, Romantic, then Modern, and then eventually makes its way back to Baroque. Check it out!

Teaching Music Appreciation

June 1, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Aside from producing talented, well-rounded pianists, shouldn’t our whole goal in teaching be to instill in our students an appreciation for and a love of music?

Most of my students have not been on the serious, college piano major track. Don’t get me wrong, I have had a few students who were amazingly talented and were very dedicated to their piano study, who I would not be surprised to see studying piano in college someday. They always practiced diligently, truly progressed week by week and played more challenging classical repertoire (which was such a joy to teach!). However, the majority of my students up until now have not been like that.

What is it that is important to give to our students who may not become super talented concert pianists or piano majors? I believe that one of the most important things you can leave with your students is a love and an appreciation for music and music-making. Give them a great, positive experience. Give them the tools they need to become proficient pianists, and give them the experiences needed to gain an appreciation for good music.

I want my students to be able to sit back and listen to a piece of music, and recognize the beauty in it. I want them to want to listen to piano music, and to really appreciate it. I want them to realize that classical music is fun and amazing, that the piano is a beautiful instrument and that music can be so powerful.

I want them to hear a piece and be inspired by it. I want them to come to me and say, “I heard this piece and really want to learn it!!” This is a piece I heard performed live by Leon Fleisher, and was so awed by it that I had to learn it. I opened my senior recital with this piece…

I hope that we can all strive in our individual studios to really instill a great appreciation for music in each of our students.