Music travels across the past in the form of composers borrowing from each other. Such musical borrowings and quotations involve not only the use of melodic materials but also musical structures, texts, symbolism and other types of inspiration. The pre-existing musical idea being used is linked to a specific memory of a particular composer and time. The artistic allusions of composers connect the present and the past. Music also travels across the present and into the future. The outcome of contemporary composers borrowing from each other influences the present period and affects later composers' musical inspiration, i.e., it affects future composers, and therefore, the future. Composers frequently refer to melodies or musical idea from contemporaries and reinterpret them in their own compositions. This is largely because composers do not write in isolation and have been inspired and influenced by contemporary musicians and cultural contexts. However, these musical borrowings sometimes raise questions about the composers' creativity and authenticity. This is largely due to the nature of inspiration and imagination, which determines who or what is original. With this in mind, why do composers still borrow musical ideas despite the risks involved? In what ways do they overcome criticism and demonstrate the …

Unlike most other musicians, pianists need to play by memory during their recitals, juries, etc. Doing so can greatly influence the intensity and frequency of anxiety due to potential memory slips when performing. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between memory strategies, experiences with memory lapses, and performance anxiety among classical pianists. The specific aims of the study are to: (1) characterize demographics, performance practices, and memorization strategies used by college-level pianists; (2) assess experiences of performance anxiety and the influence of performance anxiety on memory lapses; (3) examine the relationships between demographics, performance practices, and memorization strategies; and (4) suggest various memorization strategies that might be useful intervention to overcome memory lapses. To examine participants' awareness and perception, a survey was conducted via invitation of participation from music schools and piano groups on social media, and the useable collected data came from 162 respondents. The results disclosed that pianists' awareness of memory strategies and performance anxiety were significantly correlated. It showed a relationship between knowledge of memory strategies and frequency of performance anxiety within their musical experiences.

In Chinese contemporary piano music, large-scale piano compositions featuring innovative polyphonic musical languages are rarely found. Chang-Lei Zhu's Ballade for Solo Piano represents his development of contrapuntal techniques passed on from J. S. Bach and Dmitri Shostakovich in their polyphonic works for solo keyboard or piano. This study focuses on an analysis of Zhu's Ballade as an idiosyncratic composition that makes a significant contribution to the Chinese contemporary piano music repertory. Comparative analysis is made of Zhu's Ballade and J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Books 1 and 2, as well as Dmitri Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues for Solo Piano, Op. 87. Zhu, a living Chinese composer born in 1976, uniquely writes the twenty variations of his Ballade based on the opening theme, a single melody in ten subphrases. This research lays out the close relationship of the opening theme with twenty variations in the Ballade. This study also illustrates how Zhu is an innovative voice in Chinese contemporary piano music literature. This comparative study constitutes the first scholarly study of Zhu's Ballade. Chapter 1 is an introduction to my comparative study. In chapter 2, comparisons on selected excerpts are conducted between Zhu's Ballade and J.S. Bach's WTC, Books 1 and …

Younghi Pagh-Paan is a female Korean-German composer. Although being a prolific composer, she has only twice composed for piano solo. Pagh-Paan's Mich Drüstet (I Thirst) is a piano solo work and based on the tragedy in Korea, the Jeju 4.3 Incident in 1948. Even though the Jeju 4.3 incident triggered mora than 30,000 casualties, I Thirst is the only music to commemorate the incident, as commissioned by the pianist Kaya Han. This study of I Thirst highlights her musical textures for the piano and elements she employs to express her thoughts about the event; for instance, Korean musical element, 12-tone techniques, and counterpoint. In addition, it addresses the need for the pianist to have background information about Jeju Island and the Incident by matching images with musical sections in order to achieve a deeper interpretation of Pagh-Paan's piano composition.

In the case of Concerto for Orchestra, Béla Bartók transcribed one of his most emblematic orchestral compositions to his own solo instrument, the piano. This transcription's primary function was to suffice for ballet rehearsal accompaniment for the choreography to be introduced alongside a performance of the orchestral work. György Sándor, Bartók's pupil and pianist, prepared the original manuscript for publication. Logan Skelton, pianist-composer, used this published edition as a point of departure for his own piano arrangement of the same work. György Sándor took an editorial approach to the score and followed the manuscript as literally as possible. On the other hand, Logan Skelton treated the same musical material daringly, striving for technical simplicity and a richer orchestral sound. The purpose of this study is to examine and identify the contrasting treatments pertaining to playability, text, and texture in the Bartók-Sándor edition and Skelton arrangement of the two movements, Elegia and Finale, of the Concerto for Orchestra piano arrangement.György Sándor took an editorial approach to the score and followed the manuscript as literally as possible. On the other hand, Logan Skelton treated the same musical material daringly, striving for technical simplicity and a richer orchestral sound. The purpose of this …

Piano teachers tend to approach pedagogy by treating technical studies and repertoire as separate parts of the curriculum, often using etudes by Charles-Louis Hanon, Josef Pischna, and Carl Czerny to build the student's technique. Yet, although these methods are popular, pedagogues disagree about their value. In any case, many pieces suitable for intermediate pianists integrate technique and musicality, such as Friedrich Burgmüller's 25 Etudes, Op. 100, Muzio Clementi's Preludes and Exercises, Op. 43, and Ignaz Moscheles's 24 Etudes, Op. 70. Although these exercises can indeed build technique through intermediate-level recital pieces, many similar piano works from the Russian school are rarely used, and yet they could better serve students who will eventually move on to the advanced Russian piano repertoire. This paper provides a pedagogical guide for introducing technical skills through various levels of the Russian piano repertoire. The guide focuses on technique in the context of musical expression, especially tone production, wrist motion, and finger technique, progressing systematically through elementary, intermediate, and advanced Russian piano pieces, composed in a Romantic style—both elegant and rich with melody and expression. The repertoire used as examples should develop the finger technique as well as the musicality of the student. The examples come …

Belgian composer Joseph Jongen (1873-1953) was an eclectic composer who successfully maintained his own unique musical vocabulary—particularly in his piano compositions. Jongen composed very little between 1940-1941—the period in which he and his family fled to the countryside of Mazères, France, living as refugees for several months before returning to Sart-lez-Spa, Belgium, due to the outbreak of WWII. Reflective of this time in his life, Vingt-quatre petits préludes dans tous les tons pour piano, op. 116 is composed in a particularly intimate and despairing way. Through a complete Schenkerian analysis and outline of the musical framework of op. 116—Jongen's last collection of piano pieces—this dissertation sheds light on the technique, imagination, and uniqueness of Jongen's WWII-period piano compositions. More specifically, this research outlines the deep-level tonal and formal structures, investigates the cryptic semantic meaning and intimate personal expression, and defines the aesthetic achievements of Jongen's Twenty-four Little Preludes in All Keys for Piano, op. 116.

Unsuk Chin (b.1961), a Korean-born woman composer, was a student of Gyorgy Sandor Ligeti (1923-2006). Chin's work reflects the influence of Ligeti but also undeniably has its own style. This study investigates the six piano etudes so far published from 12 Piano Etudes (1995-2003) by Unsuk Chin and compares them with Ligeti's piano etudes to highlight the influence of the teacher on the student and to aid pianists in facing the unique technical challenges posed by both sets of etudes. The practice guide provided in this study for each specific technical difficulty requires a degree of patience from a student which, if followed, will enhance the performance.

Colombian composer Jaime León (1921-2015) is known for his art songs. Most of the current scholarly literature about León defines him as a nationalist composer even though a majority of his songs do not appear to have nationalist traits. This document examines a representative selection of León's songs divided into three categories: songs influenced by the bambuco (the Colombian genre most present in his songs); songs whose text refers to Colombian culture; and songs without Colombian elements present in their text or music. After examination of these songs, my conclusion is that León, rather than being nationalist, was a cosmopolitan composer who used national elements as rhetorical tools in an isolated and experimental way.

This study uses Bergson's concepts of duration and spontaneous (now termed episodic) memory to reveal how musical material in Rachmaninoff's Prelude Op. 32 No. 10 in B Minor (1910) turns back on itself in recurring remembrances of its own past, bringing the listener out of ordinary time; a process that mirrors themes both from Rachmaninoff's life, and Arnold Böcklin's Die Heimkehr, the painting that inspired this piece. Time perception slows or even suspends when one reflects on the past, either a personal past or the historical past. Musical material in the Prelude undergoes analogous time warps. In conversation with Bergson's ideas, this study illustrates the unique temporal qualities in the musical language of the Prelude, for which standard forms of analysis fail to completely capture the essence. The overall aim is to demonstrate Rachmaninoff's idiosyncratic approach to piano writing, which many have discredited as anachronistic. This study suggests a new methodology – Bergsonian musical analysis – with which to understand the concealed innovations in Rachmaninoff's piano idiom. This study of Rachmaninoff's B Minor Prelude builds on publications concerning other Bergsonian interpretations of music in pursuing a thorough investigation of one work and its relationship with broader issues in philosophy and …

Florence Price (1887–1953) was one of the most important African American woman composers of the early twentieth century. Price's music is known for combining techniques of Western art music with elements of the African American musical heritage. Although Price composed many works for piano, from large virtuoso pieces to characteristic miniatures, this study will address only her Piano Sonata in E minor. The purpose of this study is to analyze this sonata and discuss her compositional techniques and musical style as a combination of African American elements and Classical European procedures, combined and coordinated yet remaining in tension. Traditional European harmony, tonality, and form are successfully combined with African American characteristics: pentatonic scale, spirituals, syncopations, repetition, and dance rhythms. Indeed, Price's work is a considerable achievement, and she is one of the important African American women composers who should be better recognized today.

Although the current, exhaustive studies of Brahms' works have covered many aspects of the composer's art, it is still surprising that his large-scale, five-movement Piano Sonata No.3 has in many ways been insufficiently studied by scholars who have emphasized the genre of the piano sonata and the aspect of performance practice over the work's more diverse features. Another reason that this early work has been understudied could in fact be that his later compositions in other genres, such as his symphonies, chamber music or choral music, have been perceived by scholars to represent best his most mature, comprehensive style. This dissertation will therefore examine the orchestral underpinnings of this monumental work which owes most often its already mature artistic essence to Brahms' multi-instrumental approach.

As opportunities to perform as a soloist diminish, more pianists consider chamber and orchestral playing as an alternative solution. By so doing, ample performance opportunities are introduced. Although most university music programs offer ensemble courses for pianists and have begun to offer degrees with an emphasis in accompaniment, their curriculum lacks instructions specifically designed to train and prepare pianists for playing in large ensembles, especially wind bands. This dissertation addresses the difficulties, which one might encounter in large ensemble collaboration, and recommends useful suggestions for acquiring functional skills to solve these difficulties. Pianists can attain professional status by acquiring the functional skills presented in each chapter. The goal of this study is to provide pedagogical support and direction for novice pianists in the larger ensemble collaboration.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the first movements of Sergei Bortkiewicz's two piano sonatas and compare them with works by other composers that may have served as compositional models. More specifically, the intention is to examine the role of the subdominant key in the recapitulation and trace possible inspirations and influences from the Classical and Romantic styles, including Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. The dissertation employs Schenkerian analysis to elucidate the structure of Bortkiewicz's movements. In addition, the first movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata K. 545, Beethoven's Coriolan Overture, and the first movement of Schubert's "Trout" Quintet in A, D. 667, are examined in order to illuminate the similarities and differences between the use of the subdominant recapitulation by these composers and Bortkiewicz.

Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) composed primarily for his instrument, the piano. He did, however, compose five major works for orchestra and a piano concerto. Scriabin's last work for orchestra, Prometheus: Poem of Fire, Op. 60 (1910), exemplifies his mature compositional style. The purpose of this dissertation is to contribute a solo transcription of Prometheus to the piano's rich literature in that genre. Furthermore, the dissertation aims to identify and examine the problems encountered in transcribing this work for solo piano and the decision-making that led to musically acceptable solutions. Throughout the process of arrangement, one major question became apparent: What informs the transcription? In turn, this question and its numerous answers served as a guide during the transcription's realization and are the focus of the project.