Nocturnes and Barcarolles for Solo Piano [Paperback] Review

Of course pianists should have this wonderful book, just don't assume it's complete.Fauré actually wrote a thirteenth Nocturne (in B minor) and a thirteenth Barcarolle (in C major), neither of which is included here.Both of these are characteristic late Fauré, but the Nocturne #13 is particularly not to be missed.I was just playing it over tonight and was amazed by the dark drama of the music.It's as Fauré's biographer Jessica Duchen said, that it seems to stare death in the face.
Both the Nocturne #13 and the suave, tranquil Barcarolle #13 are available individually from Masters Music Publications, and I would suggest that pianists supplement this book with both of those works to make a complete set of Fauré's nocturnes and barcarolles.

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Product Description:
The music of Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) is an important link between the innovations of late Romanticism and the experimentation of the early 20th century. A student of Saint-Saëns, he, in turn, taught Ravel and was a mentor to the young modernists of Les Six. These 12 nocturnes and 12 barcarolles, composed over a span of 40 years, document his move from Romanticism to the frontiers of 20th-century music. Reprinted from authoritative French editions.


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Allegro Barbaro and Other Short Works for Solo Piano [Unabridged] [Paperback] Review

Bartok was the first composer who really got me interested in what one could still technically call "Classical music." I remember hearing his Piano Sonata No. 1, Sz. 80 for the first time and being completely blown away by it. It was so primal and yet still refined in a musical sense. It was like listening to a man lose his mind at the piano while still retaining enough intellect (musically) to function.

But onto the review:

To my dismay, this collection does not contain the Sz. 80 sonata, but it does contain a myriad of other Bartok works which perhaps define him as an artist even better. Bartok was truly our first ethnomusicologist. His experiments with recording the folk music of his homeland (Hungary) and other Eastern European countries and arranging it in the Western tradition brought Western music as far East as it had been up until that point. Sure, there were Russian composers before Bartok who integrated their own folk music into Western styles (The Five, Tchaikovsky, even Rachmaninov), but Bartok's Eastern European studies are a different animal all together.

For starters, Bartok studied Western music under the care of Hugarian teachers at the Royal Academy of Music at Budapest. Here he was perpetually influenced by teachers (Franz Liszt [indirectly], Janos Koessler) and other students (Zoltan Kodaly) who had already begun studies of their own folk music in comparison to Western styles. This book contains great examples of these folk influences translated into the Western style in the intellectual and profound way that Bartok was known for.

This book features Bartok's shorter works like the Romanian Christmas Carols and Hungarian Peasant Songs that offer the average Western listener an abstract approach to Bartok's homeland. The seemingly unnatural rhythms (which the pianist will undoubtedly have trouble with at first) come second nature to the folk music of Eastern Europe. And by reading and playing through this book, the music student will see that Bartok's fundamental understanding of music is unbelievably far removed from the understanding of music that Westerners are raised in.

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Product Description:
Treasury of rewarding piano works from one of the 20th century's most influential composers. Includes the dancelike Allegro Barbaro, a sonorous, boisterous piece of power and bravura; 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs; six Rumanian Folk Dances; 20 Rumanian Christmas Carols; and eight Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs. Musical gems for pianists at intermediate and advanced skill levels.


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