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Piano Lessons is Noah Adams's delightful and moving chronicle of his fifty-second year--a year already filled with long, fast workdays and too little spare time--as he answers at last a lifelong call: to learn to play the piano. The twelve monthly chapters span from January--when after decades of growing affection for keyboard artists and artisans he finally plunges in and buys a piano--through December, when as a surprise Christmas present for his wife he dresses in a tuxedo and, in flickering candlelight, snow falling outside the windows, he attempts their favorite piece of music, a difficult third-year composition he's been struggling with in secret to get to this very moment. Among the up-tempo triumphs and unexpected setbacks, Noah Adams interweaves the rich history and folklore that surround the piano. And along the way, set between the ragtime rhythms and boogie-woogie beats, there are encounters with--and insights from--masters of the keyboard, from Glenn Gould and Leon Fleisher ("I was a bit embarrassed," he writes; "telling Leon Fleisher about my ambitions for piano lessons is like telling Julia Child about plans to make toast in the morning") to Dr. John and Tori Amos. As a storyteller, Noah Adams has perfect pitch. In the foreground here, like a familiar melody, are the challenges of learning a complex new skill as an adult, when enthusiasm meets the necessary repetition of tedious scales at the end of a twelve-hour workday. Lingering in the background, like a subtle bass line, are the quiet concerns of how we spend our time and how our priorities shift as we proceed through life. For Piano Lessons is really an adventure story filled with obstacles to overcome and grand leaps forward, eccentric geniuses and quiet moments of pre-dawn practice, as Noah Adams travels across country and keyboard, pursuing his dream and keeping the rhythm.
The "story of a child prodigy caught in a grotesque pattern of exploitaiton and abuse, her oppressor, her father, whose controlling passion was money, not music. After fleeing from her father and growing up in unhappy obscurity, Ruth Slenczynska has become again a remarkable and now mature pianist." Pub W.
Whereas Schumann composed the Album for the Young for children, his Scenes from Childhood (Kinderszenen) are reflections of childhood for adults. Like many of his character pieces, Schumann notes that the 13 selections in this set were composed before their titles were assigned. Palmer's scholarly edition includes a table of suggested tempos for the works taken from early editions and from the recorded performances of various artists.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) was the last compositional prodigy to emerge from the Austro-German tradition of Mozart and Mendelssohn. He was lauded in his youth by everyone from Mahler to Puccini and his auspicious career in the early 1900s spanned chamber music, opera, and musical theater. Today, he is best known for his Hollywood film scores, composed between 1935 and 1947.
(Guitar). The edition Schumann for Guitar is an interesting attempt to transfer Robert Schumann's romantic, lyrical music to the guitar. As a consequence, new tonal possibilities present themselves for the guitar repertoire, particularly in view of the fact that Schumann himself never composed an original piece for guitar. This volume naturally contains pieces from the famous piano cycles Album fur die Jugend, Kinderszenen and Albumblatter, but also some lieder like Mondnacht and Im wunderschonen Monat Mai. Special highlights of the volume are the original Schumann transcriptions by Francisco Tarrega (1852-1909) which prove that guitarists studied Schumann's music as early as the 19th century. Schumann for Guitar is ideal for concerts and music lessons, but also for private music-making. The pieces are of easy to intermediate technical difficulty so that even amateur guitar players will enjoy the pieces!
Illuminating and challenging, this collection of essays should appeal to both the specialist and the music lover. Brendel provides not only stimulating reading but an insight into the exceptional mind of a great pianist. The essays cover the mid 1950s to the mid 1990s.
In this collection of essays, the author describes fundamental principles of human learning in the context of teaching music. Written in a conversational style, the individual essays outline the elements of intelligent, creative teaching. Duke effectively explains how teachers can meet the needs of individual students from a wide range of abilities by understanding more deeply how people learn. Teachers and interested parents alike will benefit from this informative book.
