000			03719cam a22003858i 4500
003			IE-CoMTU
005			20231115062737.0
008			191018s2020 nyu b 001 0 eng||
020			_a9780190920401 (paperback)
020			_z9780190920432
029			_aT63652
029			_aT63653
029			_aT63654
029			_aT63655
029			_aT63656
040			_aDLC _beng _erda _cDLC _dDLC _dIE-CoMTU
082	0	4	_a786.2136
100	1		_aMortensen, John J. _eauthor _9130485
245	1	4	_aThe pianist's guide to historic improvisation / _cJohn J. Mortensen.
264		1	_aNew York : _bOxford University Press, _c[2020]
264		4	_c©2020
300			_aix, 208 pages : _bmusic ; _c28 cm
336			_atext _btxt _2rdacontent
337			_aunmediated _bn _2rdamedia
338			_avolume _bnc _2rdacarrier
504			_aBibliography: (page 201) and index
505	0		_aFiguration Prelude -- Toccata -- The rule of the octave -- Diminution -- Variation -- Lyricism -- Suite -- Imitation -- Partimento -- Schemata.
520			_a"This book is for pianists who wish to improvise. Many will be experienced performers - perhaps even veteran concert artists - who are nevertheless beginners at improvisation. This contradiction is a reflection of our educational system. Those who attend collegiate music schools spend nearly all time and effort on learning, perfecting, and reciting masterpieces from the standard repertoire. As far as I can remember, no one ever taught or advocated for improvisation during my decade as a student in music schools. Certainly no one ever improvised anything substantial in a concert (except for the jazz musicians, who were, I regret to say, a separate division and generally viewed with complete indifference by the classical community). Nor did any history professor mention that, long ago, improvisation was commonplace and indeed an indispensable skill for much of the daily activity of a working musician. I continue to dedicate a portion of my career to "perfecting and reciting" masterpieces of the repertoire, and teaching my students to do the same. That tradition is dear to me. Still, if I have one regret about my traditional education, it's that it wasn't traditional enough. We have forgotten that in the eighteenth century - those hundred years that form the bedrock of classical music - improvisation was a foundation of music training. Oddly, our discipline has discarded a practice that helped bring it into being. Perhaps it is time to retrieve it from the junk heap of history and give it a good dusting off. I love the legends of the improvisational powers of the masters: Bach creating elaborate fugues on the spot, or Beethoven humiliating Daniel Steibelt by riffing upon and thereby exposing the weakness of the latter's inferior tunes. The stories implied that these abilities were instances of inexplicable genius which we could admire in slack-jawed wonder but never emulate. But that isn't right. Bach could improvise fugues not because he was unique but because almost any properly-trained keyboard player in his day could. Even mediocre talents could improvise mediocre fugues. Bach was exceptionally good at something which pretty much everyone could do at a passable level. They could all do it because it was built into their musical thinking from the very beginning of their training"-- Provided by publisher.
650		0	_aImprovisation (Music) _949438
650		0	_aPiano _xInstruction and study _950055
650		0	_aPerformance practice (Music) _xHistory _y18th century _988772
906			_a7 _bcbc _corignew _d1 _eecip _f20 _gy-gencatlg
942			_2ddc _cCR_LENDING _y _zCRON CRON
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