Today is my birthday, and, as has been the custom over the past couple of years, I’m offering a free elementary piece for you to download and enjoy. Forget-Me-Not was written a few years ago, and then re-written in 2021; it’s often the case that I ‘revisit’ pieces at a later date and alter them…
Tag: Contemporary Music
Chord Playing and Improvising: Christopher Norton
This is the first of five articles written especially for this blog by renowned composer and educator Christopher Norton. These posts are intended to encourage classical players (and teachers) to explore jazz and pop styles. Deep in Thought is the first featured piece, and you can download it here for free. Chris also offers some…
A Few Thoughts on Selecting Piano Diploma Repertoire
Today’s post is the second exploring piano diploma repertoire. You can read my first post, here. As the previous article describes, there are many ways of ensuring an interesting well-balanced programme, but when it comes to choosing the music itself, how and what do you select? Which pieces make ‘safe’ choices and what constitutes an…
Orchids for piano by Ed Hughes
A blog can provide the ideal opportunity to highlight less familiar Contemporary music, and this interesting set of pieces by British composer Ed Hughes (born in 1968), employs the piano in all its glory. Orchids consists of six movements written between 1990 and 2002 for a collection of fine pianists; Benjamin Morison, Stephen Gutman, Robert Saudek, Nicolas Hodges, Michael…
Sonya’s Lullaby Op. 16 by Oliver Knussen
I was introduced to Oliver Knussen’s music as a young student. Playing unusual, less familiar repertoire was always an interesting discovery. Oliver Knussen was born in Glasgow in 1952. His father was the principal double bass player in the London Symphony Orchestra, with whom he made his debut in April 1968 conducting his First Symphony in London…
Contemporary piano music?
I was recently asked to name some late 20th and 21st century piano pieces suitable to play for diploma exams. On examining the diploma syllabus I was struck by how little contemporary music was included, and by contemporary I mean music of today. I’m not talking about composers such as Charles Ives, John Cage, and Stockhausen,…
Melanie Spanswick 