Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla started to receive greater recognition throughout the world after his death in 1992, leading to the growing popularity of his compositions. An excellent example of this is Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas composed by Piazzolla for his tango ensemble in the late 1960s and later arranged by Russian violinist Leonid Desyatnikov for violin soloist with string orchestra. As this arrangement has grown in popularity, it has become among the many extraordinary pieces that talented violinists play for recitals, concerto competitions and even final jury exams in many musical institutions. However, as of now, many musicians have faced a challenge because there is no published piano reduction for them to use. This project aims to create an orchestral reduction of the string orchestra parts that can benefit both collaborative pianists and violinists. This reduction will create timbres and textures similar to the original orchestration in an arrangement that is idiomatic for the instrument, and worthwhile to rehearse and perform as a collaborative pianist. While the appendix features the new reduction in its entirety, this paper aims at discussing and explaining the most important editing choices in different aspects when arranging the reduction, rather than examining each choice measure by measure throughout the composition. In this way, the technique demonstrated in this document can be employed in other reductions, and will hopefully provide inspiration for collaborative pianists to create new reductions for other works.

ABSTRACT

As a composer, Chou Wen-Chung (1923-2019) was a learner and inheritor of Chinese traditional music culture and was committed to carrying it forward. As a native of China who had his primary musical training in the West, Chou Wen-Chung was one of the first Chinese composers to make his mark on Western music. He successfully combined Western elements and Chinese tradition in his music. Chou Wen-Chung was one of the few prominent East Asian composers known in the Western musical world, and his music therefore has had a strong influence on other Chinese composers.
In order to understand more clearly his music, I analyzed his chamber work: Yü Ko. This piece was composed in 1965 for 9 instruments: Violin, Alto Flute, English Horn, Bass Clarinet, 2 Trombones, 2 Percussion and Piano. Inspired by the ancient Chinese musical instrument the Qin (also called guqin, or “ancient qin”), which is a plucked seven-string instrument, Chou Wen-Chung composed Yü Ko. Literally meaning “fisherman’s song,” this work was composed originally for the Qin, based on a melody composed by Mao Min-Zhong who was a very noted scholar and Qin player of the late Southern Song dynasty (C.E.1127-1276).
This paper provides Chou Wen-Chung’s biography, compositional styles and developments. It lists and explains the most common Chinese traditional cultural elements which he used in his compositions. In particular, it introduces the Qin in detail from the external structure, performance techniques, sound characteristics, the tablature notation, and compositional methods.
This document also includes a detailed analysis of Yü Ko in terms of the orchestration, pitch, tonal material, structure and tempo, dynamic and musical materials, and explains Chou Wen-Chung’s imitation of the Qin as well as the influence of Western music shown in this piece.

This research will explore the compositional approaches of Henry Cowell and John Cage to reveal piano techniques for the practice and performance of selected works. The discussion will focus on Henry Cowell’s Three Irish Legends and Six Ings, as well as John Cage’s The Perilous Night. An important contribution of Cowell was to further the use of tone clusters, applied in his Three Irish Legends by playing directly with the forearm, fists, and palm. Cowell’s Six Ings employ rhythmic experimentation, particularly in the first, second, and sixth pieces. He also uses tone color to portray specific programmatic features. John Cage greatly advanced the prepared piano from its earliest beginnings, as evidenced significantly in The Perilous Night. The present study will include advice on piano preparation, along with performance challenges and solutions.

The work of collaborative pianists can vary widely, requiring a large spectrum of musical and foreign language skills. In addition, many non-musical skills are required of collaborative pianists in order to adapt to various types of work, the roles they assume, and the needs of the people they encounter professionally. Collaborative pianists usually develop good habits for survival on the job, but rarely receive preliminary training in capacities such as facilitation, maintaining objectivity in collaboration, asking good questions, and giving feedback effectively. The emerging field of teaching artistry offers a wealth of information for the development of these non-musical skills in collaborative pianists. The skills necessary for teaching artistry and collaborative piano frequently overlap, which is instructive for collaborative pianists as they prepare for their various musical and leadership roles. This paper explores shared practices between these disciplines, how they can enhance the activities of a collaborative pianist, and also help them develop skills as arts advocates. Advocating techniques for new music and audience engagement are addressed, as well as programming, content development and building teams around projects. The idea of the collaborative pianist becoming a teaching artist is also explored, as the diverse activities and experiences of a collaborative pianist can serve as valuable resources. All of these approaches to non-musical skills focus on building strong processes, leading to creative activities that are process-driven rather than product-driven. This study seeks to enrich activities of collaborative pianists through the application of teaching artist capacities and pave pathways for new, more effective professional collaborations.

The purpose of this document is to create a template for a master’s degree in Collaborative Piano using data collected from an online survey and from publicly available information on institutional websites. The history and development of the graduate collaborative piano degree in the United States is examined to provide the background to this research. In addition to the degree template, other aspects useful for the creation of such a degree are discussed, including proposed required and optional courses, financial considerations, community outreach opportunities, and balancing off-campus professional engagements with on-campus academic duties. A list of all institutions currently offering collaborative piano degrees at the graduate level is included in the appendix.

The degree template conforms to the requirements of the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) in order to allow the greatest number of institutions the ability to embrace the curriculum. Designed to be flexible within the overall requirements of the degree, the proposed curriculum favors a balanced approach between instrumental and vocal collaboration, with a combination of traditional courses, project-based courses, and customizable elective courses designed to develop important competencies in collaborative piano. Both solo and collaborative applied lessons would be required, with three coached collaborative recitals and one uncoached collaborative recital required to fulfill the degree requirements. The project-oriented Collaborative Piano Seminar course has the flexibility to allow team teaching or community partnerships and requires an off-campus class performance once per academic year.

The goal of this template is to provide a pedagogically solid foundation for a master’s degree in collaborative piano, with the flexibility to add a variety of elective courses best suited to the needs and talents of the students, faculty, and institution. The synthesis of classical and popular styles within the curriculum is designed to give the collaborative pianist diverse musical competencies in order to succeed and thrive as a professional musician in the 21st century, whether the student continues with self-education after the master’s degree, pursues further study at the doctoral level, or enters the professional world.

ABSTRACT



"The Soul Unto Itself," a chamber music song cycle, was commissioned by the author, Rosa LoGiudice, and composed by William Clay, a doctoral candidate in composition at Arizona State University. The cycle was conceived and composed in the summer and fall of 2019. The chamber ensemble was a sextet comprised of Megan Law, mezzo-soprano, Kristi Hanno, clarinet, Emilio Vazquez, violin, Rittika Gambhir, bassoon, Nathaniel De la Cruz, double bass, and Rosa LoGiudice, piano, all based in Tempe, Arizona. The song cycle was premiered in a lecture recital on December 8, 2019 at Hammer and Strings Conservatory in Gilbert, AZ.

"The Soul Unto Itself" is a cycle of six songs based on poems of Emily Dickinson. The poems all have common themes of personal transformation achieved through the introspective observations of the poet. An unusual chamber ensemble was chosen to include instruments not commonly used in vocal chamber music in order to create a greater variety of musical colors and timbres. This project included the creation of the musical score, a live performance that was video recorded, and the research paper. This document discusses the process of working with the composer, rehearsing the music as it was being composed, and negotiating revisions necessary to make the music more effective in performance. Each song is discussed in detail, especially the connection between the music and poetry, the overall form of the song, revisions discussed and implemented, and important motivic relationships between the songs that unify the cycle. In summary, the process of collaborating with a composer is a rewarding experience for both the performers and the composer, as everyone is challenged to improve their craft and overcome obstacles to achieve a successful performance.

The process of learning orchestra reductions on the piano is rather different from learning a piece originally written for the piano. Even though Dvořák’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in b minor is among the most performed works for cello and orchestra, and has been transcribed carefully by both the composer and other editors, the existing piano reductions are not always representative of many important aspects of the original orchestral score. Some reductions have large portions with unplayable or uncomfortable passages for pianists, or imprecise notations compared to the original orchestration, such as inaccurate indications for dynamics, rhythms, and notes. In rehearsal and performance, the pianist is challenged to adapt and transform one of the existing reductions into a playable and productive piano reduction, one which creates Dvořák’s full orchestral sonorities while retaining clarity of voicing. The resulting sound can be infinite in variety, as individual decisions and reductions may differ greatly. This paper will explore the following: how to reduce this orchestral score and solve the technical problem involved in orchestral writing for piano while effectively producing the sound of the orchestra in the piano reduction. There will be a literature review on important published reductions and a brief history of the work and composer. While it is not possible to discuss in detail each passage that has been revised or altered, this paper will focus on and analyze representative and substantial passages, including the perspective of two different reductions: Bärenreiter (2011) and Bärenreiter Praha (2004). It will provide a detailed demonstration of each example and will make suggestions for changes which will concentrate on capturing the essence of the orchestral score at the piano. Chapter one introduces and presents current editions. Chapters two, three and four will discuss each movement of the concerto with detailed explanations about changes in certain passages and sections. The appendix will feature a new revised reduction of Dvořák’s Cello concerto in B minor.