It is often challenging for early advanced piano students to move from intermediate level repertoire to standard repertoire because the techniques and difficulties present in the new repertoire are simply too overwhelming for them. "A Holy Night: 10 Arrangements of Timeless Carols" can help bridge the gap between the two repertoire categories by introducing several advanced techniques and combinations of techniques to early advanced students in a non-overwhelming way. Several standard techniques that were widely used by composers of different styles are addressed in the arrangements: legato and chord playing, orientation in different keys, pedaling, dynamics and octave playing. The topic of fingerings is also covered since using correct fingerings is a key for any technique to work. The arrangements help to prepare early advanced students for standard repertoire by allowing them to learn, practice, and perform a variety of standard repertoire techniques in short and engaging pieces. This dissertation is intended to demonstrate to private piano teachers ways in which this arrangement of mostly well-known seasonal tunes can be used to assist in the transition to more advanced repertoire.

This dissertation provides comprehensive performance perspectives for the interpretation of the published keyboard toccatas by Michelangelo Rossi (ca.1602-1656) in his collection, Toccate e Correnti d'Intavolatura d'Organo e Cimbalo (c. 1634). This document consults the following sources on keyboard practice in the early-Baroque period: Girolamo Diruta's Il Transilvano Dialogo Sopra Il Vero Modo Di Sonar Organi, & Istromenti da penna (1593); Adriano Banchieri's Conclusioni nel Suono dell'Organo (1609); Costanzo Antegnati's L'Arte Organica (1608); and the prefaces to Girolamo Frescobaldi's publications Toccate e Partite d'Intavolature di Cembalo, Libro Primo (first version 1615; second version 1615, 1616, 1628; and third version 1637), and Fiori Musicali (1635). These sources provide information on most aspects of keyboard—and specifically organ—playing in the decades leading up to, and at the time of, the initial publication of Rossi's toccatas: including the toccata as genre, Italian organs from the late-Renaissance/early-Baroque, registration, tempo, pedaling, fingering, articulation, and ornamentation. In addition to the performance perspectives, this dissertation also provides a new modern edition of the ten toccatas by Michelangelo Rossi. This edition is based on the 1657 Bologna facsimile. The goal of this edition is two-fold. First to present an accurate text of the facsimile and second to adjust certain beam-groupings, …

Paganini's 24th caprice still remains to this day one of the most celebrated themes in classical music history. Many composers have used this theme to create variations and each composer attempted to produce stylistically unique variations on this piece. Hamelin's Variations on a Theme of Paganini stands out because his piece incorporates musical borrowing and many different composers' styles. His variations integrate music from different centuries, using pastiche and musical borrowing from figures such as Beethoven, Liszt, Brahms, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff. More provocatively, Hamelin's variations reach outside of Classical music, even adopting elements from salsa and friska. The spectrum of composers and styles included in this set are so radical and shocking that it creates a parody of not only Paganini's theme, but also the tradition of theme and variation pieces it has inspired. Due to its multiple variations juxtaposing extremely different styles, Hamelin's Variations on a Theme of Paganini presents the listener with a musical puzzle that is designed to invoke surprise. The juxtapositions of extremely different styles in these variations create disjointed variations with polystylism. The polystylism in this work diversifies his variations, while unifying these seemingly unbalanced movements through broad musical references. As such, both performers and …

Pianists often have trouble in determining where a phrase ends, or in other words, cadence identification. This is especially true of certain cadences that can be considered either as half cadences or authentic cadences. This analytically ambiguous cadential point can result in different performance decisions, so pianists should make informed decisions about what kind of cadence it is. This study aims to investigate such cadential ambiguity shown at points of phrase boundaries by focusing on Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35, first movement. I offer both possibilities (a half cadence or an authentic cadence) at the phrase ending, suggesting a performance-related strategy based on each possibility. My objective is not to support only one cadential status, but to bring up the cadential problem from the analytical perspective and to demonstrate how cadence identification affects performance results. The dissertation is divided into two parts: analysis and performance, so it relies on a combined method of analytical terminologies and performance-related musical elements. In the analysis, the terminology of William Caplin is employed. The performance part refers to several method books written by prestigious piano pedagogues. After an introduction in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 reviews some literature on cadences. …

Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927) is a leading American composer, pianist, and educator. Although she composed many outstanding advanced-level piano works, she also believes that composing for other levels is a good discipline for composers. Her two collections Reaching Out and Travels Through Sound contain various contemporary techniques that are highly approachable for intermediate-level students. The purpose of this study is to provide a pedagogical guide to contemporary elements present in these collections, which are ideal for developing skills that can prepare intermediate-level students for more complex modern music. Diemer incorporates such contemporary features as complex rhythms and meters, non-traditional notations, and extended piano techniques, as well as non-traditional textures and forms. These techniques are presented in a compact and informative but not too complicated manner, so that intermediate-level students can master them.