Piano Repertoire and Music Composers Essay- Instrumental Teaching Method (MUSC3IB)
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Course
Music History (MUSC3IB)
Institution
University Of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN)
The essay covers a range of Western Classical composers and their piano works. When developing a repertoire of music, understanding the composers who wrote the music adds a layer of depth to the works themselves. There are links between musicians that also turn into leaps of change between them. Th...
Piano Repertoire Essay
Lecturer: Andrew Warburton
Student: Tatum Thomas
Student number: 219001981
, A piano repertoire is a collection of piano pieces learned and prepared to be actively played
publicly. There is the solo piano repertoire, the piano duet/four-hands repertoire, and the piano
chamber repertoire (Wikipedia, 2021). It can include performances with one or more pianists or
pianos, as well as and with or without other instruments. Many composers and pianists try to
grow and refine their piano repertoires which are all unique in their variety.
During the Classical period (1750–1820), piano music became popular among composers such
as Mozart and Haydn. Classical composer and pianist, Ludwig van Beethoven was mildly
influenced by them and went on to create 32 pianos sonatas (solo piano repertoire) and 5 piano
concertos (Piano chamber repertoire). From Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.1 in F minor, he
already used unconventional expansions in piano literature. He expanded the three-movement
sonata structure to contain four movements where the third movement was a stylized dance
movement. Op.2 No.2. in A major had a harmonic structure that was fairly surprising to
Beethoven’s contemporary audience. The exposition and developments sections contained many
modulations to closely related keys. In the first movement, Beethoven created contrast in the
dynamics such as a detached staccato versus slurred notes. In the Grazioso Rondo fourth
movement, Beethoven became playful in his use of the mostly constant Alberti Bass. He briefly
shocked his listeners with a “bombastic middle section” in A minor (Strider, 2013: pg 13-14). On
the left hand, there were full chords and on the right, there were heavily chromatic triplets that
were simple yet strictly arranged to maintain the lyrical elegant mood (Strider, 2013: pg 14).
In the middle period of Beethoven’s works (1802-1812), his piano sonatas became much larger,
but the performance length remained the same. For example, Piano sonata no.21, “Walstein” in C
Major, opened dramatically with quick eighths that built rhythmic momentum. It was named
after a friend of Beethoven, Count Waldstein who he had met in Bonn. There was a
compositional growth from Opus 13-53. Beethoven manipulated the motives to create new
themes (Strider, 2013: pg19). Additionally, he used a connective technique where the piano can
mimic the orchestral sound of the tremolos. He used quite a tightly-wound harmonic structure,
through chromatic descents in the bass clef, stepwise motion, and exchanges between a triad and
the dominant seventh. Beethoven’s musical abnormalities still remained as he had created an
uneven amount of 9 measures for the first phrase of the Adagio molto introduction whereas it
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