Tag: piano

  • BBC Radio 3 to Premiere ‘Unknown’ Brahms

    In an age when one might think we have discovered most of the treasures of the musical world – that there is nothing new to find – it is exciting to learn that musicologists still come across hidden delights. Conductor and musicologist Christopher Hogwood made an exciting discovery while looking through a music collection in…

  • What was Innovative about Debussy’s Approach to Pianism?

    ~ I’m digging up previous things I’ve written: here is something from 2003 ~ ‘Debussy, like Chopin and Beethoven before him, created his own piano’[1], but before he could develop his own brand of pianism, however highly influenced, he was to master the styles of his predecessors. These predecessors were far reaching, ranging from Couperin…

  • Composing Across the Spectrum

    -Below is the text of the article that appears in the current issue of EPTA’s Piano Professional- Nothing can be more satisfying in the early stages of a new composition with a pupil than exploring scores. For me, all composition should start with research; listening to similarly scored pieces, exploring a particular composer in depth…

  • Day Three in the “Loony Bin”

    Kenneth mentioned at the start of the week that Craighouse – where the piano course is held – was originally a mental health institution and in fact the very same institution that housed Wilfred Owen and Sassoon. It also seems a rather fitting place to be undertaking an intensive piano course where my sanity and…

  • Does harmony fuel the emotional energy of a song?

    As I sit on the 188 reading the recently penned lyrics for “Notice Me” I immediately heard a melody; perhaps this is due to the quality of the lyric rather than the speed at which my creative process works. Nevertheless I started to think how much the harmonic content of a song increases the power…