Thank you for all the thoughts and suggestions on the topic of playing the piano orchestrally.
I have looked closely at the article “thinking orchestrally” by Logan at the link Piantissimo gave in his reply 5. Very interesting. The suggestion of transcribing orchestral music on the piano sounds like a good idea. It does presuppose previous knowledge of the various C-clefs and transposing instruments which is no mean feat in itself. Should anyone wish to give this a try, rather than start on the subject of Logan’s article (Frank Martin’s Etude for 2 Pianos), it might be more fun to have a look at something like Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker suite. The orchestral score is available for free at :
https://partitions.metronimo.com/Suite_de_Casse_Noisette%2C_Op__71a-723.html or try
https://www.lespartitions.info/gratuites/piotr-ilitch-tchaikovski-rwicomp-17.html.
There exist several versions of some of the suite on the piano that might serve to compare with your own efforts. Try
https://www.rowy.net/frByComposer16f05e0c991c9fd240d60ac209b3ba44.html.
There are also available many duets on the piano of orchestral scores ranging from Brahm’s Hungarian Dances, Grieg’s Peer Gynt, Ravel’s Mother Goose, and so on to arrangements of symphonies of Beethoven for the more advanced. A duet might be a way of introducing the orchestral version of the same music to students who might not otherwise be listening to orchestral music.
For anyone who wishes to learn the different clefs used by transposing instruments, there is a very good book available where you learn by heart to recognize 4 strategic notes spread out over the staff and then by learning to read the notes directly above and below them or at a distance of a third, you finally acquire mastery. The method is useful for interested adolescents or adults but obviously not for very young beginners. The book is published in French but the note reading exercises do not require knowledge of the language and the progression is extremely well planned. The book is called Manuel Pratique pour l’étude des clés sol fa ut by Georges Dandelot, Editions Max Eschig. There exist 2 versions of the book, the original and the revised, both available at the music store. I would advise avoiding the revised edition, at least initially. The original version saves a lot of time and effort.
For anyone who wishes to hone their ears by learning to recognize visually and aurally musical intervals, there is a very good 3 book series where each interval is approached first from a sensorial basis, then from graphic representation on the staff, then from systematic practice and finally from improvisation and repertoire. The method once again is useful for interested adolescents or adults but obviously not for very young beginners. It is published in French but the exercises do not require knowledge of the language to learn. It is called Lire la Musique par la Connaissance des Intervalles by Marie Claude Arbaretaz published by Chappell. Once the exercices have been gone through and studied by piano students on their instrument, they can be redone to learn to hear the intervals with the timbre of other musical instruments.
It is possible these books exist in English translation.
The Compleat Conductor by Gunther Schiller might make good reading for anyone interested in a conductor’s point of view. I suggest a visit to Tim Reynish’s site which discusses score study for conducting at
www.timreynish.com/score_study.htm. There is an interesting article by Scott Price on piano transcription at
https://www.music.sc.edu/ea/keyboard/PPF/2.2/2.2.PPFe.html. These are just a few of many possibilities.
I find the preface that Ralph Kirkpatrick wrote to his edition of 60 sonatas by Scarlatti published by Schirmer very enlightening. He has written in 10 pages a condensed version which represents a credo for any musician, pianist or otherwise. “A performer must be able to marshal the spontaneity of his sensations into a consistent ordered performance which he can produce at any time and under any circumstances. To this end, he must sense what elements of a piece are fixed and unchangeable in their relationship to each other, what is basic syntax and structure, and what is mere rhetorical inflection, what can be improvised and altered from performance to performance. Only by this security in relation to basic musical elements can he achieve true freedom and spontaneity in performance. The ability to make departures depends on a thorough knowledge of what one is departing from.” He then deals with : Fingering, Technical Problems, Ornamentation, Phrasing, Melodic Inflection, Harmonic Inflection, Tempo and rhythm, dynamics and finally Expressive Character. What is really revealing is his last sentence in the preface : “If I have been able to answer for myself the questions in the preceding pages, is it surprising that I need to ask very few questions concerning expressive character ?”
Charles Rosen in his book Piano Notes, the Hidden World of the Pianist published in paperback by Penguin writes : “To a greater extent than any other instrumentalist the pianist enters into the full polyphonic texture of the music”.
And “The danger of the piano and its glory, is that the pianist can feel the music with his whole body without having to listen to it.” Food for thought ?
Kind regards,
Guermantes
Topic: Playing the piano orchestrally