In this essay I discuss a collection of seven piano pieces that I commissioned by four emerging young Colombian composers. It contains two parts: the first explains the importance of involving contemporary and world music in piano education and includes a brief history of music in Colombia. The second part discusses in detail each of the piano pieces and the contemporary and folkloric references that each one uses. It also illustrates the technical challenges that each piece presents and provides suggestions on how to practice each work. The two pieces by Castaño include taped electronic sound as part of them. The two files are attached with the paper. I have always believed in the responsibility and importance that teachers have in the creation of new music and discuss the importance of educators working with composers. I also explore the importance of teaching and learning world music and contemporary music from the beginning of a piano education. The commissions are the first step towards the creation of a piano pedagogical anthology of Colombian contemporary music for the late intermediate and early advanced level for which there is very little Colombian repertoire. Colombia's rich rhythms, dances and musical traditions are not reflected in the formal music education in the country. Heightened security and the resulting economic growth have brought significant changes over the last ten years to the country providing a moment of possibility to advance an agenda in musical education as well. If the piano teachers take charge of the education of the new generation, beyond simply teaching them how to play the piano, the classical music tradition in Colombia will grow at the same time that high quality music will be provided around the world to play.

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.

Tales of Old Grandmother, Op. 31 by Prokofiev is based on a fairy tale theme. It can be considered as both a most valuable pedagogical piece for young students and as a piece for the concert repertoire. However, this piece was under-appreciated by most piano performers and piano pedagogues for many years, even though it was praised by several well-known composers and was often played by other pianists and Prokofiev himself. The main aim of this study is to promote the Tales so that they will be performed and taught more often. All of the complex harmonic language, unique unforgettable lyricism and Prokofiev's typical compositional elements are presented in this score, allowing it to serve as a great concert repertoire choice. At the same time, the simple format setting, less demanding technique and the fairy tale theme can easily catch and hold a children's interest. Therefore, Tales of Old Grandmother contains both performance value and pedagogical value. This premise is achieved through a discussion of Prokofiev's unfailing interest in fairy tales and comparisons between Tales of Old Grandmother with Prokofiev's advanced piano works and with his Music for Children, Op. 65. Lastly, a performance guide is given suggesting different performance interpretations, various practice strategies and several efficient teaching methods regarding the Tales of Old Grandmother, Op. 31.

Comprehensive Musicianship (CM) is a philosophy that developed in the 1960s to encourage the study of contemporary music and student creativity. It expanded in the 1970s to describe the interdisciplinary study of music. Its goal was to encourage teachers to go beyond technical and performance aspects of music and start integrating theory, history, composition, improvisation and aural skills instruction to their curriculums. However, while CM has had a strong influence on many music programs, it is not clear whether this trend has influenced the field of private piano instruction, and whether CM elements have been included and integrated in beginner piano method books. To address this question, categories that constitute the core elements of CM were selected to conduct a content analysis of 12 piano method series. Analysis showed that the focus tends to be on aural skills (as teacher duets), and theory, with a noticeable lack of the more creative activities of improvisation and composition.

This study provides a comparative analysis and performance suggestions for three Cirandinhas and three Cirandas for solo piano by Heitor Villa-Lobos in order to demonstrate their aesthetic and pedagogical value. The primary objective is to argue for the significance of the Cirandas as concert works and of the Cirandinhas as didactic ones. To better explore these two sets of pieces and their interconnections, the selected Ciranda-Cirandinhas pairs are all based on the same folksong theme. Thus, the analyses also demonstrate Villa-Lobos’s desire to represent Brazilian culture through his music and the ingenuity with which he treated the same melodic material within performative and pedagogical contexts. Heitor Villa-Lobos is recognized as the most significant creative figure in twentieth-century Brazilian art music and as one of the distinguished Latin American composers to date. His distinctive compositional style represents a thorough synthesis of influences from European art music with the African, Indo-American, and cosmopolitan urban idioms of Brazilian vernacular music. Villa-Lobos’s output comprises more than 2000 compositions in a wide variety of genres: symphonies, concertos, operas, chamber music, art songs, and solo piano music. Throughout his career, he was a devoted supporter of music education for young people and of the development of a distinctively Brazilian art-musical tradition. The Cirandinhas and Cirandas represent an intersection of these two concerns. This study will be meaningful to both performers and piano teachers, whom it will encourage to include Villa-Lobos’s works within their concert repertory or teaching curricula. The document includes an introduction, a brief contextualized biography of the composer, a comparative analysis of the selected Cirandinhas and Ciranda with performance suggestions that touches on stylistic, pedagogical, and technical features of the pieces; a conclusion; appendices that include a chronological list of Villa-Lobos’s piano works and the titles and translations of all the Cirandinhas and Cirandas; and a bibliography.

Art Music for the acoustic piano has changed tremendously during the twentieth century. Some of the techniques and skills pianists need to master in order to be able to perform successfully twentieth-century art piano music include: a refined ability to discriminate varied layers of sonorities; sophisticated pedal combinations; a sometimes percussive technique; and superior control of complex metric and rhythmic passages. New combinations of patterns that require specific technical preparation pose substantial pianistic challenges. Todays pianist needs to master a variety of glissandi, chords, or single melody textures played directly on the strings inside the piano and to combine such techniques with sounds beyond the traditional piano sonorities. Besides technical preparation, pianists must also acquire sufficient knowledge of twentieth-century compositional techniques and analytical methods, as well as composers individual styles and their contributions to new ways of using the acoustic piano. This document focuses on selected twentieth-century piano compositions by Ravel, Debussy, Prokofiev, Bartk, Cowell, Cage, Holliger, Crumb, Corigliano, and Louie. These composers and their works are discussed with an emphasis on the new expressive, technical, artistic, pedagogical, and performance elements they introduce. The original technical exercises in Appendix A employ twentieth-century scales, harmonies, and progressions. These exercises will facilitate the development of technical skills related to the pieces considered here and to other twentieth-century piano repertoire. The interviews with John Corigliano and Alexina Louie provide uniquely insightful and provocative glimpses of the creative and technical issues involved with two remarkably original artistic conceptions in this repertoire. It is almost a truism to observe that much of the piano music of the twentieth century eschews convention and invents its own vocabulary and syntax. At the beginning of a new century, we are able to gain an historic perspective upon this body of repertoire. This document will lead to an increased awareness and understanding of selected twentieth-century piano repertoire. It suggests that twentieth-century piano compositions should assume an important and equal place with the more traditional music in the pianists repertoire and in the university and conservatoire curricula.

Comprehensive Musicianship (CM) is a philosophy that developed in the 1960s to encourage the study of contemporary music and student creativity. It expanded in the 1970s to describe the interdisciplinary study of music. Its goal was to encourage teachers to go beyond technical and performance aspects of music and start integrating theory, history, composition, improvisation and aural skills instruction to their curriculums. However, while CM has had a strong influence on many music programs, it is not clear whether this trend has influenced the field of private piano instruction, and whether CM elements have been included and integrated in beginner piano method books. To address this question, categories that constitute the core elements of CM were selected to conduct a content analysis of 12 piano method series. Analysis showed that the focus tends to be on aural skills (as teacher duets), and theory, with a noticeable lack of the more creative activities of improvisation and composition.

Esta pesquisa busca refletir sobre o processo de elaboração de arranjos musicais feitos para o ensino de piano. O trabalho procura esclarecer e compreender as escolhas, decisões e alternativas empregadas diante de possíveis problemas da didática musical e didática do instrumento. Os arranjos analisados foram elaborados para prática de piano em conjunto, consistindo em peças criadas para serem tocadas por quatro ou cinco alunos no mesmo piano, uma atividade que foi desenvolvida pela pesquisadora nas duas instituições onde trabalhava durante o mestrado: Associação Pró-Cultura e Arte de Ivoti-Ascarte/Instituto de Educação Ivoti-IEI e na Fundação Municipal de Artes de Montenegro – FUNDARTE, localizadas no Rio Grande do Sul. Como metodologia, foi construído um tipo de memorial, que colaborasse para a reflexão sobre o processo de elaboração dos arranjos, a partir de autores como: Bosi (1994); Teixeira, Zamberlan e Rasia (2009); Morisse (2012); e Anastasiou (2002). Foram analisados sete arranjos didáticos elaborados em épocas diferentes, são eles: A História de uma Gata, do musical Os Saltimbancos, de Luis Enríquez Bacalov e Chico Buarque (elaborado em 2011); Three little birds, de Bob Marley (elaborado em 2011); Viva la vida (elaborado em 2009) e Speed of Sound (elaborado em 2010), ambas do grupo Coldplay. As outras três peças foram elaboradas durante a escrita desta dissertação, no decorrer do ano de 2012, sendo elas: Rock and roll old times, de compositores variados, pois se trata de um medley; Paradise e Violet Hill, ambas do grupo Coldplay. Como aporte teórico da pesquisa foram abordados os conceitos de arranjo; transcrição, adaptação, redução (Pereira, 2011; Duarte, 2010; Lima Júnior, 2003; Aragão, 2001a e 2001b) e música original (Carvalho, 2008; Aragão, 2001a e 2001b). As reflexões feitas nesta pesquisa esclarecem uma prática de música em conjunto voltada para a didática do piano, evidenciando uma abordagem músico-pedagógica onde o aprendizado dos alunos é o alicerce da criação de cada arranjo. Acredito que este trabalho possa vir a contribuir para que outros professores e alunos possam buscar alternativas e ideias para criarem seu próprio material, de acordo com suas necessidades e/ou, ao buscarem material alternativo, possam analisar e refletir sobre a forma como um outro arranjo se apresenta e trabalha questões de didática musical. / The research seeks to reflect upon the process of arranging musical pieces made for teaching piano. It seeks to explain and recognize the choices, decisions and options put before potential didactical musical problems and didactics of musical instruments. Pieces were analyzed and created to be played in class piano, consisting of pieces made to be played by four or five students on the same piano, an activity that was developed by the researcher in two institutions where she worked during her Masters: Ascarte (Associação Pró-Culture e Arte Ivoti)/Instituto de Educação Ivoti (IEI) and the Fundarte (Fundação Municipal de Artes de Montenegro), both located in Rio Grande do Sul State. As methodology, a memorial was developed, to work and explain the process of making arrangements, from authors such as: Bosi (1994); Teixeira, Zamberlan and Rasia (2009); Morisse (2012); and Anastasiou (2002). Seven pieces were analysed, four were prepared at different times, including: A História de uma Gata, the musical Os Saltimbancos, Luis Enríquez Bacalov and Chico Buarque (arranged in 2011), Three Little Birds by Bob Marley (arranged in 2011), Viva la Vida (arranged in 2009) and Speed of Sound (arranged in 2010), both by the group Coldplay. The other three pieces were arranged during the writing of this dissertation, throughout the year of 2012: Rock and roll old times, from various composers as it is a medley and Paradise and Violet Hill, both by the group Coldplay. As theoretical research, the concepts of arrangement, transcription, adaptation, reduction (Pereira, 2011; Duarte, 2010; Lima Jr, 2003; Aragão, 2001a and 2001b) and original music were addressed (Carvalho, 2008; Aragão, 2001a and 2001b). The reflections made from this research describe an exercise focused on piano technique, showing a pedagogical music approach where student learning is the foundation of the creation of each piece. The intent is that this project may potentially contribute to other teachers and students who seek alternatives and ideas to create their own material, according to their needs and/or to seek alternative materials, and, that they may analyze and ponder on how other pieces show and work musical didactics.

Submitted by Morgana Silva (morgana_linhares@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-09-19T17:59:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1594329 bytes, checksum: 35c7653a9196ce37c2c8d75e4c54f7ce (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-19T17:59:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1594329 bytes, checksum: 35c7653a9196ce37c2c8d75e4c54f7ce (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Historically, piano exercises have served a significant role in the development of piano pedagogy. Nonetheless, these drills still manage to provoke debates and cause frequent divergences of opinion among pianist and piano teachers world wide. Willing to offer further material for debate, the objective of this research is to develop a better understanding of how the teachers at the largest public schools in Recife (the Conservatório Pernambucano de Música and Universidade Federal de Pernambuco) handle the topic. In other words, whether or not they incorporate piano exercises into their teaching material. In order to collect this information, we used semi-structured interviews. As a theoretical basis of the proposed subject, this work will provide a historical description of piano technique and its evolution, explain the differences in approach of various “Piano Technique Schools”, explore the opinions of renowned pianists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and compare those opinions to the ideologies of the teachers interviewed. The conclusion of this work relies on the fact that the use of technical exercises is still a controverse subject among piano teachers, surrounded by disagreements, conceptual incoherences and diversity of opinion. / Em que pese ser um tema bastante antigo no âmbito da pedagogia pianística, o uso dos exercícios de técnica ainda provoca debates e constantes divergências de opinião entre os pianistas e professores de piano mundo afora. Com a finalidade de fornecer mais material para discussão, este trabalho tem por objetivo investigar como um grupo de professores de piano da cidade do Recife (docentes ou ex-docentes das duas principais escolas de música públicas da cidade: Conservatório Pernambucano de Música e Universidade Federal de Pernambuco) utiliza esse material, ou se o rejeita completamente na sua prática pedagógica. Para coletar essas informações, optamos pelo uso de entrevistas semi-estruturadas. Neste trabalho podemos encontrar, como embasamento teórico do tema proposto, um histórico da técnica pianística, onde se discutem aspectos ligados à pedagogia pianística e às chamadas Escolas de Técnica Pianística; relatos de importantes pianistas do século XX e XXI e suas posturas acerca da utilização dos exercícios técnicos, e uma comparação analítica entre suas opiniões e as dos professores do Recife entrevistados. À guisa de conclusão do trabalho vemos que a utilização de exercícios técnicos ainda é um tema controverso no meio pianístico, cercado de desacordos, de divergências conceituais e diversidade de opiniões.

Esta pesquisa busca refletir sobre o processo de elaboração de arranjos musicais feitos para o ensino de piano. O trabalho procura esclarecer e compreender as escolhas, decisões e alternativas empregadas diante de possíveis problemas da didática musical e didática do instrumento. Os arranjos analisados foram elaborados para prática de piano em conjunto, consistindo em peças criadas para serem tocadas por quatro ou cinco alunos no mesmo piano, uma atividade que foi desenvolvida pela pesquisadora nas duas instituições onde trabalhava durante o mestrado: Associação Pró-Cultura e Arte de Ivoti-Ascarte/Instituto de Educação Ivoti-IEI e na Fundação Municipal de Artes de Montenegro – FUNDARTE, localizadas no Rio Grande do Sul. Como metodologia, foi construído um tipo de memorial, que colaborasse para a reflexão sobre o processo de elaboração dos arranjos, a partir de autores como: Bosi (1994); Teixeira, Zamberlan e Rasia (2009); Morisse (2012); e Anastasiou (2002). Foram analisados sete arranjos didáticos elaborados em épocas diferentes, são eles: A História de uma Gata, do musical Os Saltimbancos, de Luis Enríquez Bacalov e Chico Buarque (elaborado em 2011); Three little birds, de Bob Marley (elaborado em 2011); Viva la vida (elaborado em 2009) e Speed of Sound (elaborado em 2010), ambas do grupo Coldplay. As outras três peças foram elaboradas durante a escrita desta dissertação, no decorrer do ano de 2012, sendo elas: Rock and roll old times, de compositores variados, pois se trata de um medley; Paradise e Violet Hill, ambas do grupo Coldplay. Como aporte teórico da pesquisa foram abordados os conceitos de arranjo; transcrição, adaptação, redução (Pereira, 2011; Duarte, 2010; Lima Júnior, 2003; Aragão, 2001a e 2001b) e música original (Carvalho, 2008; Aragão, 2001a e 2001b). As reflexões feitas nesta pesquisa esclarecem uma prática de música em conjunto voltada para a didática do piano, evidenciando uma abordagem músico-pedagógica onde o aprendizado dos alunos é o alicerce da criação de cada arranjo. Acredito que este trabalho possa vir a contribuir para que outros professores e alunos possam buscar alternativas e ideias para criarem seu próprio material, de acordo com suas necessidades e/ou, ao buscarem material alternativo, possam analisar e refletir sobre a forma como um outro arranjo se apresenta e trabalha questões de didática musical. / The research seeks to reflect upon the process of arranging musical pieces made for teaching piano. It seeks to explain and recognize the choices, decisions and options put before potential didactical musical problems and didactics of musical instruments. Pieces were analyzed and created to be played in class piano, consisting of pieces made to be played by four or five students on the same piano, an activity that was developed by the researcher in two institutions where she worked during her Masters: Ascarte (Associação Pró-Culture e Arte Ivoti)/Instituto de Educação Ivoti (IEI) and the Fundarte (Fundação Municipal de Artes de Montenegro), both located in Rio Grande do Sul State. As methodology, a memorial was developed, to work and explain the process of making arrangements, from authors such as: Bosi (1994); Teixeira, Zamberlan and Rasia (2009); Morisse (2012); and Anastasiou (2002). Seven pieces were analysed, four were prepared at different times, including: A História de uma Gata, the musical Os Saltimbancos, Luis Enríquez Bacalov and Chico Buarque (arranged in 2011), Three Little Birds by Bob Marley (arranged in 2011), Viva la Vida (arranged in 2009) and Speed of Sound (arranged in 2010), both by the group Coldplay. The other three pieces were arranged during the writing of this dissertation, throughout the year of 2012: Rock and roll old times, from various composers as it is a medley and Paradise and Violet Hill, both by the group Coldplay. As theoretical research, the concepts of arrangement, transcription, adaptation, reduction (Pereira, 2011; Duarte, 2010; Lima Jr, 2003; Aragão, 2001a and 2001b) and original music were addressed (Carvalho, 2008; Aragão, 2001a and 2001b). The reflections made from this research describe an exercise focused on piano technique, showing a pedagogical music approach where student learning is the foundation of the creation of each piece. The intent is that this project may potentially contribute to other teachers and students who seek alternatives and ideas to create their own material, according to their needs and/or to seek alternative materials, and, that they may analyze and ponder on how other pieces show and work musical didactics.