ATCl Diploma balance

[rajochowdo]

Ok, so i have:

Bach prelude and fugue in d minor WTC 1 no.6
Beethoven Pathetique (:/ yes i know, overplayed, but who doest love it ?)
Chopin Ballade 3 in Ab

Im looking for a final piece from 20th century. NOT DEBUSSY cuz debussy was cutting it a bit close to the romantic period and died a bit too early. Any ideas anyone?

[prestoconfuocco]

You can take something by Bartok or Ravel or Prokofiev, though I think Debussy is certainly a 20th century composer. (He is just as progressive as other 20th century composers, and most of his works were published in that time.)

[thorn]

I can understand where you're coming from r.e. Debussy. For me, Suite Bergamasque, Pour le piano and La plus que lente are Debussy before he became anything special. But if you chose one of the Preludes on the syllabus they definitely count as non-Romantic.

What do you think of Messiaen? The Vingt Regards are tricky but there's the Blackbird piece on ATCL if I remember correctly?

When I did DipABRSM I played the Sculthorpe Night Pieces which are also set for ATCL. There are five of them and it will take a couple of days max to learn the notes, but they are quite difficult to pull off well. In total they last about 7 minutes so count as something substantial.

[iansinclair]

Oh yes - Messiaen wrote some really wonderful things.  Not particularly easy, I might add... but not that often heard (does everybody play Debussy?)(except me...)

[thorn]

I love Debussy, however I don't think his piano music became anything special until after Ravel's Jeux d'eau appeared in 1901. My personal thing with Debussy is that I have played everything he ever wrote (including making transcriptions of his orchestral music), despite perhaps not having the proper technique at the time. So now when faced with a choice between starting new music or restarting a Debussy piece and undoing all the bad technique I tend to opt for the former...

[symphonicdance]

Even if you have Debussy, it's still a balanced programme.

You actually have plenty of choices to become your 4th one, and 5th one, and 6th one.  I played works of 6 different composers for my ATCL, but indeed 4 different composers will be quite sufficient to demonstrate a balanced programme.

I suppose you aren't going to make repeats in your Pathetique.  So, you are recommended to double check your total playing time.