19th-Century Variations for Piano

SKU: PR.110418370

ISBN 9781491135075. UPC: 680160686247.

Composed as an organ solo by the 17-year-old Ives for his own performance purposes, the beloved Variations on America is a treat for any occasion, whether a holiday concert, a serious recital, or other special event. Danny Holt’s transcription for Piano, Four Hands adds a dazzling new option to play at home or on stage, taking best advantage of Ives’ tremendous contrasts in color, dynamics, and texture.
Composed when Charles Ives was a teenager, Variations on “America” is both a convenient introduction to Ives’ body of work, and an early example of his iconoclastic musical voice and creative genius. Just a few years after composing this piece, Ives would leave home to study music at Yale. But until then he had been taught by his father, George (who had been a bandmaster in the Civil War). George subjected the young Ives to experiments such as singing a song in one key while being accompanied in another, or arranging for two marching bands to converge on a town center, with the resulting cacophony that ensued.The Variations exemplifies an early period of experimentation in Ives’ work, spurred on by the unusual pedagogy of his father. The piece is particularly notable for its use of bitonality in the two interludes, subtly foreshadowing more well-known examples by Stravinsky, Bartók, and others by approximately two decades.The bitonal interludes were so ahead of their time, in fact, they were omitted from the first copy that was submitted to a publisher in 1892. (Alas, the piece was rejected even despite these “shocking” elements having been left out, and it wasn’t published until more than five decades later.) There is some ambiguity about when exactly Ives added the interludes into his manuscript copy, though ample evidence suggests he had performed the piece with the interludes around the time he notated the piece in 1891-92. In any case, in light of this piece and his other polytonal explorations from the last decade of the 19th century, it seems fair to give Ives credit for being a pioneer in this area!This arrangement for Piano, Four Hands, closely follows Ives’ original version for organ, setting aside William Schuman’s popular adaptation for symphony orchestra and William Rhoads’ band transcription of the Schuman orchestration. Pianists will find that the piece translates well to the instrument. Ideally, the choreography and logistics of elbow-to-elbow four-hands playing approximates the wild joy one gets from watching an organist play the piece (e.g., the elaborate pedal part in the final variation).In preparing this publication, attention was paid to details in the dual Critical Editions (Presser 443-41003) of both Ives’ manuscript edition and the 1949 publication edited by organist E. Power Biggs (who is credited with discovering what had been a long-lost, forgotten work.) But as with much of Ives’ output, attempting to create a true ‘urtext’ score is a futile endeavor, and especially with a piece such as this one – in which Ives incorporated improvisation in live performance – seems unnecessary anyhow. True die-hards are of course encouraged to consult the critical editions and even find inspiration in the orchestrated version. Generally, performers are advised to be wild, have fun, and not to be too rigid in their interpretive choices.Dynamics in this arrangement mostly follow the organ score closely. Pianists will use good judgment about pedaling throughout, which should be straightforward and intuitive. Courtesy accidentals have been provided frequently – without parentheses – balancing the need for extra clarity in the context of Ives’ murky musical language, and a desire to avoid unnecessary clutter.A few notes that might inform interpretive decisions:mm. 15-16: There are inconsistencies here between Ives’ original manuscript and the 1949 Biggs edition, regarding the top voice in m. 15, beat 3 (C# vs. Cn) and m. 16 (D Major vs. D Minor).mm. 76-84 & 143-146: In both Interludes, Ives emphatically notates extreme dynamic contrast, in order to highlight the bitonality. Although it may seem counterintuitive (or even a misprint, as has apparently been misconstrued by some), performers are urged to follow the composer’s marking!m. 109: Two-note slurs have been added here for clarity and consistency with other similar passages, though they do not appear in either the original manuscript or Biggs.m. 112: The last two eighth notes of Primo appear as 16ths in the original manuscript.mm. 183-186: The original manuscript has a slightly different bass line.mm. 184 & 186: Primo gestures have been re-written to be slightly more idiomatic for Piano, Four Hands.m. 186: The breath mark at the end of this bar does not appear in either the manuscript or Biggs, but is an editorial suggestion – aside from being appropriately dramatic, it will indeed be necessary in a reverberant hall!I would like to thank Steven Vanhauwaert, the other half of my piano duo, 4handsLA, for his input on early drafts of this arrangement.— Danny Holt, April 2022.

SKU: BR.EB-4342

ISBN 9790004162873. 9 x 12 inches.

Whereas in past decades Urtext editions with assorted aspirations and readings by various editors were the primary points of departure in addressing Beethoven's piano sonatas, today it is more often the question of what significance so-called instructive editions have in the history of interpretation, what additional benefit is generated from them, and wherein lies their legitimacy. Unlike his teacher Hans von Bulow in his edition of the sonatas, Lamond did not allow any intervention in the music text per se. His indications give instead interpretive approaches, additionally inspiring today's musicians in the realization of the musical composition. By the beginning of the 20th century he was a successful and celebrated pianist, concertizing in the US and across much of Europe. He repeatedly caused a stir with his Beethoven projects such as performing sixteen sonatas as well as the Diabelli and Eroica variations within four days at the Queen's Hall in London (1925). Dating from this period is also his edition of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas that first appeared from Breitkopf & Hartel in 1923. Frederic Lamond thus epitomizes Beethoven interpretation. Even today his name is still associated primarily with Beethoven. The present ,,Instructive Edition of Beethoven's 32 Piano Sonatas is a part of the ,,Breitkopf Originals series on the occasion of Beethoven's 250th Birthday in 2020. Apart from the established Urtext editions, this reissue opens up a fascinating view on the interpretation- and performance practice of one of the most important Beethoven interpreters in the 19th and 20th century.

The Scotsman and his Beethoven - The 32 Piano Sonatas in the Instructive Edition, edited and supplied with fingerings by Frederic Lamond.

SKU: HL.49045817

ISBN 9790001165587. UPC: 841886032019. 9.0x12.0x0.158 inches.

In the 19th century nationalist themes came into fashion. Composers drew on songs and dances from their native lands, working them into paraphrased adaptations, potpourri arrangements and sets of variations or incorporating folk elements from various cultures in their compositions. Flautist Wilhelm Popp (1828-1902), who wrote music for his instrument at every level of difficulty, also took up this popular trend. In this collection seven of his easily playablecompositions have been chosen with musical links to different European countries. Here again Popp shows his ability to distil the essence from musical styles and fashions of his time, setting lyrical and virtuoso passages so well for the instrument that their effectiveness far outweighs any difficulties. The popularity of his pieces for tuition purposes, school concerts or youth music competitions remains undiminished to this day. This edition is essentially based on the first printed versions of these pieces - with just a small number of printing errors and inconsistencies corrected without comment.

SKU: YM.GTP01096650

ISBN 9784636966503.

15 famous melorides by Composers from the end of 19th to eary 20th century arranged for children. The purpuse of this book is NOT to study piano technique, but to touch the sound of each era through the historical masterpieces.
15Shou Lai Zi 19Shi Ji Mo 20Shi Ji Chu De Zhu Ming Xuan Lu . Ben Shu De Mu De Bing Fei Gang Qin Ji Qiao Jiao Xue . Er Shi Yong Er Duo Qu Qin Shen Gan Shou Mei Ge Shi Qi Yin Le De Te Dian .

Debussy: 1. La fille aux cheveux de lin; 2. Cortege from Petit Suite; 3. Arabesque No.1; 4. Reverie; Clair de lune from Suite bergamasque Rachmaninoff: Prelude Op.3/2; 6. Piano Concerto No.2 Op.11 - 1st movement; 7. Symphony NNo.2 Op.27 - 3rd movement; 9. Vocalise Op.34/14; 10. 18th variation from Rapsodie sur un theme de Paganini O.43 Ravel: 11. Pavane pour une infant defunte; 12. Jeux d'eau; 13. Alborada del gracioso from Miroirs; 14. La Valse; 15. Bolero.

SKU: SU.90110060

Text: Leo Lionni.

This CD Sheet Music™ collection brings together over 570 works for solo and duo piano (including concerto reductions) by both familiar and lesser-known 19th century Russian and Eastern European composers. Works include: Balakirev (Islamey, Rèverie), Borodin (Petite Suite), Dussek (Six Sonatinas, Partant pour la Syrie), Dvorák (Silhouettes, Slavonic Dances, Legends, Mazurkas, Poetic Tone Pictures, Humoresques), Janácek (On the Overgrown Path, Zdenka Variations, Collected Moravian Dances), Moszkowski (Spanish Dances, Fifteen Études de Virtuosité), Mussorgsky (over 20 works including: Pictures at an Exhibition, Duma, Intermezzo in Modo Classico), Rimsky-Korsakov (Six Variations on B-A-C-H, Capriccio Espagnole, Sheherezade), Rubinstein (Ondine, Kamennïy-ostrov, Lezghinka), Scharwenka (Polish National Dances, Scriabin (over 50 works including: Piano Sonata Nos. 1-10), Poème-Nocturne, Preludes, Impromptus, Mazurkas), Smetana (over 30 works including: Louisiana Polka, Album Leaves, Wedding Scenes, Czech Dances Books I&II), Tchaikovsky (over 30 works for solo piano & piano four hands including: Album for the Young, The Seasons, Grand Sonata in G, Dumka, Scherzo à la Russe, Swan Lake, Sleeping BeautyThe Nutcracker, The Nutcracker Suite, Piano Concerto Nos. 1&2), and more Also includes composer biographies and relevant articles from the 1911 edition of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians 4000+ pages [2 CDR Set]

Please note, customers using Macintosh computers running macOS Catalina (version 10.5) have reported hardware compatibility issues with this product. If you encounter these issues, we recommend copying the entire contents of the disk to a contained folder on a thumb drive or other storage device for use on your Mac.