Erik Satie (1866-1925), who lived between the 19th century and the 20th century, was well known for his eccentric character and always gave his works odd titles that seemed almost derisive and ridiculous. With unique and creative ideas, Satie eagerly led the French composers to escape the constraint of Romanticism and Impressionism, and did a lot to promote the formation of music style in France after World War I. Created with simplicity and the pure idea, his works make him play an important role in the music history. Based on Satie's works of piano duets, this study mainly investigates the space usage in music works. To do so, this essay is divided into three parts. First of all, the first part discusses his creation background and explores his educational background as well as his unique personality. In addition, the second part introduces the creation background of these three sets of piano duets. At last, the third part tries to illustrate the space usage in music works with these three piano duets in terms of texture, forms, rhythm, dynamics, tonality, expression marks and borrowed melody.

Duet playing should form an integral part of the development of all young pianists. Personal development, reduction of performance anxiety and skills such as listening, rhythmic stability and sight-reading are but a few components that can be improved through duet playing. Piano playing is mostly a lonely activity and one of the best ways to counteract this isolation is to become involved in collaborative musicianship through duet playing. The piano duet has an extended history, beginning in the Pre-Baroque and reaching its pinnacle during the Romantic period. After dwindling interest in the early twentieth century, renewed attention has recently been given internationally to duet playing and composition, resulting in large numbers of new duet publications. It is a matter of concern that duet playing is sadly neglected in the tuition of many beginners. This may be due to factors such as lack of knowledge of duet repertoire, difficulty in obtaining such repertoire and problems with incorporating still another aspect in the piano lesson. To provide some guidelines for the teacher, practical considerations such as partner compatibility, leadership, repertoire and publication choice, memorising, page turning and the preparation process have been investigated. Technical aspects are dealt with because adjustments are needed during duet playing compared to solo playing. These include seating, the position of the arms and hands, fingering, dynamic variety, balance, timing and the use of pedal. A factor contributing to the neglect of incorporating duet playing in teaching seems to be the difficulty in sourcing appropriate repertoire. Duet publications generally offer only limited guidelines concerning grading whereas duet repertoire lists include mostly advanced compositions using undefined grading over a broad spectrum. Beginner repertoire is seldom referred to in duet repertoire lists, which complicates the process of finding appropriate beginner repertoire. The fact that sheet music suppliers only have a limited variety of duet publications available exacerbates the problem. The researcher has endeavoured to find a solution for this problem by devising a selective syllabus of beginner duets. Because no relevant grading system is available, such a system had to be devised. The publications of six well-known piano beginner methods were analysed to establish the basic sequence in which musical concepts are introduced to the beginner pianist. Following these guidelines a grading system of eight levels has been developed. A search for duet repertoire has been undertaken by scrutinising a piano curriculum, various piano duet examination syllabi as well as the researcher’s duet collection, and by investigating the availability of repertoire in libraries, sheet music suppliers and on the Internet. Subsequently suitable duets were played and graded. The outcome of this dissertation is a suggested graded duet syllabus for the beginner pianist. A compact disc of selected piano duets performed by the author and a partner is included. / Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Music / unrestricted

abstract: Between the years of 1818 and 1833 the Austrian composer, teacher, and pianist, Carl Czerny (1791–1857) wrote one of his greatest compositions, the f minor Grand Piano Sonata, Op.178 for piano four hands. Overshadowed by composers like Ludwig van Beethoven, Frederic Chopin, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and possibly because of Czerny’s prolific pedagogical output, this work has received little scholarly attention and is rarely performed. The aim of my paper is first to provide a concise background of the composer for better insight of his ideas and influences and, second to provide a theoretical framework and analysis of the composition to show how this piece is uniquely set in the musical backdrop among early nineteenth century piano music. Further, I will demonstrate performance concepts and ideas of the composition highlighting his instructional mastery. There are two components for this project including a research paper and a lecture recital. I hope this project could bring more musicians and audiences to Carl Czerny’s serious and concert music as he categorized his music. He had been a great model of true artist, he composes, teaches and perhaps not the greatest promoter of his own music like the contemporaries. However, he devoted most of his life to development of music and the new generation of pianists, which is the most honorable of an individual. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2019

This dissertation comparatively examines musical nostalgia, particularly nostalgia for childhood, in video games and post-Romantic classical music. An introductory chapter lays out several key concepts drawn from video games—loops, gameworlds, and role-play—and suggests the correspondences these have in Romantic music and thought. The central chapters offer case studies of pieces by Robert Schumann, Brahms, Debussy, and Ravel, each along with a corresponding concept drawn from video games. Each chapter articulates ways that works by these composers provide analogies for practices in contemporary role-playing and adventure video games and, conversely, suggests that features drawn from those games might illuminate how these pieces create musical meaning out of dwelling on the past or imagining distant places. The central chapters draw video games and classical music more closely together over their course. In an analysis of Schumann’s Kinderszenen, I suggest that Schumann’s music could be conceived as offering the player a form of role-play, allowing its players and listeners to play as an imagined child and gain access to otherwise inaccessible space. Brahms’s works often dwell in the past (and are often analyzed as such), especially when that past is metaphorically conceived as childhood or the classical tradition. I suggest that we might hear Brahms’s music as preoccupied with the “unrevisitable location,” a feature of video games in which certain spaces are visitable only a fixed number of times and therefore charged with melancholy and loss. Debussy’s Children’s Corner extends role-play to an extreme degree, while at the same time suggesting distant, unreachable vistas. In particular, I borrow Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin’s ideas on mediation and Christopher Goetz’s notion of “nostalgic travel” to suggest ways that Debussy’s music incorporates impossible distance into its sound and structure. Video games and classical music converge as much as possible in an analysis of Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye, which I read alongside Nintendo’s open-world game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I suggest that Ravel’s music offers space for its players to explore similar to this video game. In particular, we might hear the music as allowing linear narrative to give way to a freer, open-ended exploration, suggesting the opening of a world. Finally, a concluding chapter examines nostalgia in video games themselves, specifically Undertale, Final Fantasy VII, and Final Fantasy VII Remake, while revisiting elements of the Romantic musical past as they have accrued in the dissertation so far. The argument in this final chapter is that of the dissertation as a whole: that the same desires for fantasy and adventure animate both traditions, and that the two provide meaningful contexts for each other, in ways that studies of the two have until now overlooked.