Topic: Two excellent collections of short pieces that are not especially difficult (Read 1647 times)

bartolomeo_ · on: June 11, 2006, 02:02:45 AM

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Repertoire Forum Discussion of Which Pieces Are The Hardest Or At Least Will Prove To Me That I'm Good Enough to bring you this news item.

I was browsing at a bricks-and-mortar music store the other day and happened across two excellent collections of short piano pieces. The pieces, while not beginner fare, are generally not especially hard, and they are all short 2-3 minute minor pieces (minor as in less important rather than meaning in a minor key).

The first is "Quiet Classics," published by Kjos in 2002, 104 pages. Organized into four sets of approximately 30-40 minute duration, the book is intended for use in providing background music. Each set includes a mixture of widely played (Fur Elise, Moonlight sonata 1st mvt, C maj prelude from WTK) and lesser known pieces and concludes with a final piece that is somewhat longer and more impressive. It is printed in a readable yet reasonably compact format with five systems to the page, with a plastic coil binding so that it will stay flat and allow page turns to be made easily. The page breaks are located thoughtfully so that they can be made without assistance and while preserving continuity.

Anyone who has spent hours fussing around putting set lists together and organizing sheet music into binders and so on should be able to appreciate the value of such a collection.

Also picked up the much older "Masterpieces of Piano Music," published by Carl Fischer in 1918 and still in print. It is a collection of shorter pieces (most around three pages) spanning the history of piano writing up to the time of its publication. The 528 page volume is densely set with 6 or 7 systems per page. Like so many older publications, it's a lithographed copy of an earlier edition that had been hand engraved, so the quality of the printing suffers. Yet it's still readable, and the folks at Carl Fischer are printing it in a very usable binding that stays flat, with leatherette covers. There is some overlap in content with "Quiet Classics" -- but the real value is that there is an excellent collection of shorter pieces from the classical and romantic era from a wide variety of composers. The editing is typical of the era, characterized by overediting and little faithfulness to the original sources. But that's not the value of such a collection, it's the variety that makes it worthwhile.

Anyway, either of these would make excellent additions for the library of anyone seeking a broader selection of short pieces whether for sightreading, enjoyment, or expansion of this area of their repertoire.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled discussion of Which Piano Pieces Are Almost As Hard As Rach 3.

Piano Forum

Topic: Two excellent collections of short pieces that are not especially difficult (Read 1647 times)

bartolomeo_

Two excellent collections of short pieces that are not especially difficult

dorfmouse

Re: Two excellent collections of short pieces that are not especially difficult