Abstract This research report examines Maurice Ravel’s piano pieces, Miroirs (1905), as texts. These five piano pieces draw on a wide range of sources and conventions across nearly two centuries and yet are utterly integrated in their expression. In the Miroirs, Ravel exhibits a fascinating meshing of historical and contemporary influences that range from Mozart to Chabrier and Fauré. The pieces are also interestingly and very personally related to their cultural and social contexts, in that each individual piece was dedicated to a member of the Apaches, a group of young artists and intellectuals residing in Paris of whom Ravel was himself one. The research examines the significance of the Miroirs both within Ravel’s own and the broader twentieth-century repertoire.

The aim of this research was to explore the piano method and teaching philosophy practised by the Russian piano pedagogue, Natalia Pirozerskaya. Her piano method is not well known and as a former student of hers I firmly believe in its values and implications for piano pedagogy. The focus of her teaching is a holistic concept of the harmonious (organic) development of the artist-musician as expounded by Yakovlev in relation to vocal art and higher nervous activity. Pirozerskaya’s piano methodology addresses the delicate relations between the inner life of the individual and the process of piano playing. She advocates a self-connected pianism characterised by the integration of all processes with the self. Pirozerskaya links the aesthetic values of Glinka’s artistic tradition to piano pedagogy in relation to creative potentialities and self-expression. The participants of this intrinsic case study were Natalia Pirozerskaya, Olga Tsihelashvili (the researcher) and five of Tsihelashvili’s piano students in Johannesburg. I interviewed the five piano students and through validation strategy of crystallisation the themes emerged. Based on the interviews with the students several themes were identified: 1) They explained that they experience an interconnected unity which can be described as oneness; 2) There was also a sense of deep fondness in the way the pupils shared their feelings about the piano; 3) They pinpointed the existence of an inner driving force – a form of artistic energy emerging as a tangible component of their pianistic process; 4) Concerning the special piano touch advocated by Pirozerskaya, all the students unanimously agreed that it is an effortless transmission from the fingertips straight into the piano which “just happens by itself”. They willingly demonstrated this touch on the piano, thus enriching the evidence; 5) With regard to the physical interaction with the instrument, the students observed the element of the opposing spring-support and the feeling of lightness in the body, essential in Pirozerskaya’s piano technique; 6) They mentioned that when they play they experience a deeper perception of the self; 7) Regarding teaching strategies, a rigid teaching approach and inexpressive mechanical piano playing, their spontaneous reactions proved that they have assimilated the fundamentals of Pirozerskaya’s self-connected pianism and developed a deep insight into the pianistic process. / PhD (Music Performance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The aim of this research was to explore the piano method and teaching philosophy practised by the Russian piano pedagogue, Natalia Pirozerskaya. Her piano method is not well known and as a former student of hers I firmly believe in its values and implications for piano pedagogy. The focus of her teaching is a holistic concept of the harmonious (organic) development of the artist-musician as expounded by Yakovlev in relation to vocal art and higher nervous activity. Pirozerskaya’s piano methodology addresses the delicate relations between the inner life of the individual and the process of piano playing. She advocates a self-connected pianism characterised by the integration of all processes with the self. Pirozerskaya links the aesthetic values of Glinka’s artistic tradition to piano pedagogy in relation to creative potentialities and self-expression. The participants of this intrinsic case study were Natalia Pirozerskaya, Olga Tsihelashvili (the researcher) and five of Tsihelashvili’s piano students in Johannesburg. I interviewed the five piano students and through validation strategy of crystallisation the themes emerged. Based on the interviews with the students several themes were identified: 1) They explained that they experience an interconnected unity which can be described as oneness; 2) There was also a sense of deep fondness in the way the pupils shared their feelings about the piano; 3) They pinpointed the existence of an inner driving force – a form of artistic energy emerging as a tangible component of their pianistic process; 4) Concerning the special piano touch advocated by Pirozerskaya, all the students unanimously agreed that it is an effortless transmission from the fingertips straight into the piano which “just happens by itself”. They willingly demonstrated this touch on the piano, thus enriching the evidence; 5) With regard to the physical interaction with the instrument, the students observed the element of the opposing spring-support and the feeling of lightness in the body, essential in Pirozerskaya’s piano technique; 6) They mentioned that when they play they experience a deeper perception of the self; 7) Regarding teaching strategies, a rigid teaching approach and inexpressive mechanical piano playing, their spontaneous reactions proved that they have assimilated the fundamentals of Pirozerskaya’s self-connected pianism and developed a deep insight into the pianistic process. / PhD (Music Performance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The purpose of this D.M.A. Essay is to highlight the legacy of duo-pianists, Bill and Pat Medley. To that end, this essay will explore: (a) the early biographical information of the Medleys (developing their musical talents in the Depression and World War II Era), (b) the Medleys' concert touring career, including a section on the logistics of travelling with their own concert grand pianos across the United States and Canada, (c) the Medleys' teaching career which included both secondary and pre-college levels, (d) a collection of comical stories learned through personal interviews with the Medleys that speak to their many years of concertizing, and (e) the Medleys' composing and arranging career, which includes a detailed overview of The Medley Way method book series published by The Hal Leonard Corporation and a detailed review and analysis of twenty-two of their educational solos, which were published by the Alfred Music Company, The FJH Music Company, and The Willis Music Company. Bill Medley stated, "As I look back on our lives and the past sixty years, I see two teenagers striking out on a journey that would take them to unfathomable destinations. It would not be done alone, by any means, but with the help of many, many people..." It is my hope that this essay will shed light on a career that has endured sixty plus years and counting. The Medleys' touring career allowed small town communities to experience the art of classical music, who otherwise would not have experienced such beauty. The Medleys' teaching career passed along a musical lineage from their teachers, including Pierre Luboshutz and Genia Nemenoff, along with a composing and arranging career that continues to serve as a pedagogical essence of quality to this day.

Primarily the writer was interested in the relationship between technique and interpretation in the concept of pianism, especially in the music of Brahms, because of the technical difficulties thereof. In this study the truism that technique = interpretation is the focus point. After giving many different opinions about this, the writer brings it into context with Brahmsian pianism specifically. It is made clear how Brahms used certain techniques for certain soundworlds that he wanted to create, in order to reach a certain interpretation, and that there are recurring technical procedures in opus 34, 35, 56b and the 51 exercises. As an interface to these Brahmsian techniques, the writer selects a mixture of generic technical aspects from a wide scope of other musical minds. There is a definite inter-reaction between all these generic aspects and those of Brahms. The background and history of opus 34 is explained, plus a short section about Brahms aesthetics/ambiguity, and some philosophical opinions about the dimension of emotions and feelings in interpretation. However, the writer explains that this dimension is outside the scope of this thesis. A summary of schools of thought on technique and theories of interpretation is given to establish the links between them. Using available literature on quintets, ensembles, pianism, idiomaticism and timbre, the piano quintet specifically was explored for the uniqueness of its features. Brahms’s individualistic approach to pianism, as exemplified by his chamber music and his unique contributions to virtuoso technical routines, is examined against the background of sonorities of the piano and underpinned by appropriate technical skills. Against a template of pianistic criteria, appropriate examples, rich in context, are analysed both technically (objectively) and interpretatively (subjectively) to educe outcomes that establish that the two approaches have a holistic relationship and are ultimately inseparable and interdependent. The score examples show how technical difficulties escalate in combinations of complex movements in the “marriage” of technique and interpretation, and how interpretation relies primarily and fundamentally on the craft of technique, which is also an art in itself. / Thesis (DMus)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Music / unrestricted