Serious Thoughts by V. Gerstein

[taylor6]

SERIOUS THOUGHTS by V. Gerstein

This piece is included in the DISCOVERING PIANO LITERATURE, BOOK 1, compiled by M'lou Dietzer (deceased), published by Alfred.

I need the nationality and lifespan dates of the composer.  I cannot find anything about him/her? 

Can someone help me? 

[lelle]

Looking in that book, they only write V. Gerstein (dates unknown) for his name and lifespan. It would seem to me that this information may be hard to come by or even lost, if even the publisher weren't able to put it into the score. I found a reference to a "V. Gerstein" in https://books.google.com/books?id=3fjQGJqPM_MC&pg=PA893&lpg=PA893&dq=%22v.+gerstein%22+piano&source=bl&ots=Bofz5n1lvw&sig=ACfU3U2Y3DppDs6qki7zV9Gq_VTj35nMyA&hl=sv&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi8z8a-oorvAhVDl4sKHadGBG0Q6AEwD3oECA8QAw#v=onepage&q=%22v.%20gerstein%22&f=false, which references this book https://books.google.com/books/about/From_Russia_for_youth_contemporary_piano.html?id=gq9xjwEACAAJ&redir_esc=y, so it may be a Russian composer from the 20th century.

[taylor6]

I don't know how you found that, but thank you so much.  He was listed in the Romantic Era of the book, so possibly he was late Romantic...they want dates of birth/death.  I may have to estimate at those.  I can't thank you enough!

[lelle]

No problemo! I just have a talent for google detective work Certain details of the writing combined with the programmatic title makes it seem likely to me that it was written sometime in the 20th century in a romantic style, possibly by a teacher for late beginner/early intermediate students.