Repertoire versus what YOU want to play - especially as you grow old.

[mrcreosote]

I'm 63 and started at 6 and never played professionally.  A church performance a few times when young and then nothing but the occasional public piano like in a restaurant or hotel and then the family get togethers.

My current rep consists of encores and ONLY pieces that inspire me.

This trajectory started about when I was 50 when I actually started memorizing again (quit memorizing before I was 10), I've now found my self wallowing in Prokofiev - like an infant with a new rattle.

But what happened - how did I end up here?  I started with Bach and Beethoven, then moved on to Chopin and ended in Rach's camp for decades.  It was a progression.  Rach offered so much more than the earlier composers.  I was a "Rach guy."

But now I've gotten a taste for Prokofiev and I can't see myself looking back any more (except still for some Rach).  But P is just too beautiful and flat out precocious - finally, something for a starved (and bored) pallet.

I appear to have evolved myself through the ages of classical music.  People talk about Hanon and about it's universal value.  I think Hanon is something that is done at a certain phase of one's development and after that no more.  Everything has it's place in evolution.

And what really catches my eye is watching some young virtuoso playing the Chopin with all the showmanship feeling and then watch them play P's Sonata 7 and you can see genuine magic and joy in their faces.

A liberation from the rules and form pounded into our minds our entire life?

Perhaps this is my unique experience.

Ironically, a musician is supposed to have a well-rounded rep which includes music from all the ages and for me that rally sucks.  And frankly, I think it's the same with the audiences - they've heard it all a million times and while they respect it and applaud, it's the same old.  But when they hear the Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Debussy, and newer composers, it makes them sit up and listen because it's new, it's different, ...interesting, .... just flat out yummy.

But then a guy from the Navy Band said, "You can only stretch a crowd so far." 

Then there is the Darker Side of human evolution:  Oldies and Doo Wop!

Eww...

[ted]

I am much the same, except that I have more or less completely substituted creation for repertoire of any sort.

Most older musicians and pianists seem to become progressively rigid and hidebound in taste until nothing satisfies except the same music, hagiolatrously repeated day in and day out. At about fifty-five, finding myself no longer moved by either classical or jazz, I chose to create my own music via the medium of recorded improvisation, hundreds of hours of it. I am now sixty-nine, and getting further away from common practice every day. I am lucky enough to have owned a Virgil Practice Clavier for almost fifty years, which renders Hanon and the like superfluous, at least for the techniques I require.

If my music did not constantly reach out for new ideas, if my musical landscape were not expanding, not filled with surprise and delight, not wholly dynamic and unpredictable, I would rather work in the garden than play the piano.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I can see the merit in exposing younger pianists to as many different styles as possible in order to broaden their spectrum of musical influences and experiences. Once a musician has become 'formed', however, I see little point in wilfully broad repertoire, and you should play what you enjoy. Ironically it would appear many big name musicians self-limit too: for example you don't see Schiff playing Liszt.

I once gave a public recital at which, due to the importance of the event, I incorporated some mainstream repertoire. Never again. I wasn't comfortable with it, knew I was betraying my musical persona by doing so, and did not enjoy that experience. From then on, I have played what I want to. Convention be damned.

[mrcreosote]

Right on guys,

And Ted, you are right, if I had to play "old stuff" - I'd just quit playing. 

Old People listening to Oldies sends me running for the exits!  (I can't stand to be around the typical old person.)

It's all about New Things and Moving Forward.  I guess that is Desire, Lust and Passion - those are sins, right?

[ted]

It's all about New Things and Moving Forward.  I guess that is Desire, Lust and Passion - those are sins, right?

I completely agree about the dynamic nature of music and its evolution. I feel that music is an abstract mapping of the whole human psyche, which includes desire, lust and passion, of course, among thousands of other things. However, I would have to disagree that these three particular emotions are necessarily involved; they are creative options just like any other mental association. Speaking for myself, my music has no connection with these three qualities, and in any case, whether or not people regard those feelings as wrong neither interests nor concerns me. I do not see how music can possibly possess moral attributes at all, either good or bad, it is just abstract sound, and any meaning is imposed at will by the mind of the listener.

So in music, and indeed art of any sort, "Do (and play, and think) what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law". How can it possibly be otherwise ?

[kitty on the keys]

    What a great topic! Yes I find myself going towards pieces I want to play.....and they seem not as difficult to learn. I know some excellent pianist.....and we chat at the gym...another place for tips on pieces. I want to play the Prokovief 3rd sonata and Ravel Toccata. My 89 yo mother is a riot....she cant stand old people....loves to chat with younger people on current events....they just love her....except the old ones...lol.
     Learn what pieces makes you happy.....even if it is the standards....I might even take a look at the Kasputain etudes....sorry for the spelling. I enjoy the Prokovief 7th.....last movement rocks!

Keep discovering pieces!

Kitty

[dogperson]

I studied piano as a child, and of course, was exposed to many composers.  But as a returning adult student after a many decade gap, I realize that I can't really understand, and play well, the music of many composers at this point in my life.

Much to my piano teacher's original consternation, I am now concentrating on the three composers I love:  Chopin, Mozart and Debussy---- with a little Rach and tangos thrown in.  Do I appreciate Bach, Beethoven, and all the other greats?   Absolutely.....  I just am not 20 years old, and don't believe in spreading myself too thin at this point in my life.  I don't want to be a 'master of none'.  Even within these composers, I play what makes me happy, not necessarily what is expected.

Will these choices change?  Who knows.  Maybe when (and if ) I feel a level of accomplishment with these current choices.  My teacher finally understands this perspective.... and so, here I am to stay for awhile in a narrow perspective...  happily so.

At this age, I can't imagine spending a lot of time learning repertoire that doesn't make me smile.

[outin]

While there are composers I never seem to get tired of working with such as Scarlatti, Franck and Scriabin, at the same time I am like a kid in a candy store finding pieces from unfamiliar composers that I absolutely have to try... Too much to do and too little time. So everything that I really don't care for as music has to go, no matter how great, educating or groundbreaking it's supposed to be.

[dogperson]

I studied piano as a child, and of course, was exposed to many composers.  But as a returning adult student after a many decade gap, I realize that I can't really understand, and play well, the music of many composers at this point in my life.

Much to my piano teacher's original consternation, I am now concentrating on the three composers I love:  Chopin, Mozart and Debussy---- with a little Rach and tangos thrown in.  Do I appreciate Bach, Beethoven, and all the other greats?   Absolutely.....  I just am not 20 years old, and don't believe in spreading myself too thin at this point in my life.  I don't want to be a 'master of none'.  Even within these composers, I play what makes me happy, not necessarily what is expected.

Will these choices change?  Who knows.  Maybe when (and if ) I feel a level of accomplishment with these current choices.  My teacher finally understands this perspective.... and so, here I am to stay for awhile in a narrow perspective...  happily so.

At this age, I can't imagine spending a lot of time learning repertoire that doesn't make me smile.

Forgot to include this repertoire-- wonderful, little-known works I have picked up from Visitor's helpful posts 

Thanks again, Visitor! 

[indianajo]

So much I want to do, so little time to get it done.
I've got a couple of envelopes of names of pieces I want to play some day, heard on the radio or something.  Two or three hundred of them anyway.  I've got maybe one to forty years left, depending on injury from  accidents or actual illness.  I just went on my retirement stipend two months ago, there should be so much more time, but the physical plant around here is deteriorating faster than my body. 
What I actually practice is Scott Joplin, because if I don't stretch my muscles and use them they turn to mush.  Composers I've actually attempted in the last year include Modest Moussorgski, Peter Tchaikovsky, J. S. Bach,  George Winston, Sergei Lyapunov,  John P. Sousa, Clarence "Pine Top" Smith, Elton John, Dion Delmucci, and Bob Seger.  Not mention all the composers and lyricists collected in various Protestant Hymnals.  Then there was that Christmas album we tried that included a lot of the pop Christmas songs, too.  Yes, I confess, I like pop too.  Blue Christmas and Holly Jolly Christmas got applauded by the charity dinner crowd. Chestnuts Roasting on the fire, I had to have a friend write up the lyrics since I hashed them up so much from memory. 
Well, back to the 88 key board. 

[visitor]

Forgot to include this repertoire-- wonderful, little-known works I have picked up from Visitor's helpful posts  

Thanks again, Visitor!  

anytime!