Academic literature on the topic 'Waltzes (Piano, 4 hands)'

The article is aimed at presenting piano and chamber music written by the forgotten composer of the period of the Young Poland. Born in Cracow to a family with rich music traditions, Jerzy Gablenz learned to play the piano, flute, cello and organ. But his main interest was to write music himself. As early as in his youthful years, he wrote songs and piano miniatures mainly dedicated to Małgorzaa Schoen, his future wife. He graduated from law school, but he also studied composition and theory of music with Władysław Żeleński, Feliks Nowowiejski and Zdzisław Jachimecki. His main occupation was managing the vinegar and mustard factory. Despite that, he found time for writing symphonic, opera, chamber, piano and vocal pieces. His piano works – due to their tunefulness, diversified texture, mysteriousness and ballroom elegance – are unquestionably worth promoting. They include: 4 Small Bagatelles op. 1 no. 1, 4 Improvisations op. 1 no. 3, 3 Improvisations op. 1 no. 4, Intermezzo a la mazurka op. 2, 2 Morceaux op. 3, Two Small Bagatelles op. 8, 2 Skizzen op. 24 Es war niemal…, or Suite op. 35. Gablenz’s chamber works cover: Canzona op. 1 no. 2 for flute and piano, Sonata op. 15 for cello and piano, 5 Waltzes op. 28 for piano 4 hands, Arabesque op. 28 no. 6 for oboe and piano, Trios for three female voices and piano to lyrics by Leopold Staff op. 4 and op. 19. Unfortunately, Gablenz’s tragic death on 11 November 1937 in a plane crash near Piaseczno made the further development of his great talent impossible. I believe that his creative output deserves promoting among music lovers not only in the Dominican Republic and Canada, but first of all in Poland, where some of his works still have not had their premiere performances, despite numerous efforts of Tomasz Gablenz, the composer’s son.

Statement of the problem. Recently, there has been growing interest in the personality of the outstanding Polish composer, pianist, teacher and conductor M. Moszkowski (1854–1925), whose creativity occupies a significant place in the history of European musical art of the second half of the nineteenth – early twentieth centuries. The multifaceted composer’s legacy of M. Moszkowski gives a large variety of materials for researchers. His piano creativity, which encompasses composing, performing, teaching and editorial activities, is an outstanding phenomenon in the European musical culture. One of the key genres of piano music by composer is a miniature. The miniatures that were created by M. Moszkowski during his life, reflects the evolution of his individual style, clearly representing his creative method, aesthetics and piano performance features. However, the question of the genre of miniatures in the work of M. Moszkowski has not been considered by the researchers yet. Thus, there is a need for scientific analysis of M. Moszkowski’s piano miniatures in the context of the general stylistic norms of his creative work. The purpose of the article is characterization of stylistic features and attempt to classify of M. Moszkowski’s piano miniature in view of the role of this genre in the Polish composer’s creativity. Methods. The methodological basis of the study is the unity of scientific approaches, among which the most important is a functional one, associated with the analysis of the genre as a typical structure. The desire to realize the fundamental principles of scientific knowledge, comprehensiveness and concrete historical approach to the study of the target problem requires the combination of musical analysis with historical-cultural, stylistic generalizations, considering piano works by M. Moszkowski in the unity of historical, ideological, stylistic and performing problems involving the conceptual apparatus of theoretical musicology and the theory of pianism. Results. The vast majority of piano pieces by M. Moszkowski are miniatures. According to their place in the performing practice, miniatures are differentiated into concert-virtuoso, pedagogical, household directions. According to the internal genre typological features, they are divided into etudes, dance pieces (waltzes, mazurkas and polonaise serve as confirmation of the musical-historical experience of romantic composers) and others. In the palette of the latter are scherzo, capriccio, fantasia-impromptu, musical moments, arabesques, barcarole, lyrical pieces – that is, almost the whole arsenal of the most common types of miniatures of the Romantic era. The analysis of piano miniatures reveals the composer’s individual attitude to tradition, free choice of figurative and stylistic priorities by him. Under consideration are the piano cycles “Spanish dances” op. 12, “Arabesque” op. 61, the piece-fantasia “Hommage à Schumann” op. 5, Suite for 4 hands “From all over the World op. 23” and other miniatures that were creating throughout the life of the composer. These samples of the salon style of the late XIX century became a kind of generalization of creative searches of the previous constellation of composers – salon performers. Throughout his life, M. Moszkowski repeatedly turns to ancient forms and finds for creation of his miniatures an entirely new impulse: the small forms of the Baroque age. By rethinking, “romanticizing” them, the composer creates his own modifications of the genre models of ancient music in such works as “Canon” (op.15, op. 81, op. 83), “Rococo” op. 36, “Burre” op. 38, “Siciliana” op. 42, “Gavotte” (op. 43, op. 86), “Fugue” op. 47, “Sarabande” op. 56, “Prelude and Fugue” op. 85, as well as numerous “Minuets”. The latter carry out the traits of the aesthetics of the gallant style. Since 1900, Moszkowski prefers etudes. The arsenal of techniques he uses in these works is rich and diverse and emphasizes the artistic qualities of these compositions. Sometimes Moszkowski interprets the genre of the etude very freely: as a substitute for another genre (“Two miniatures” op. 67), as part of the cycle-diology (“Etude-Caprice” and “Improvisation”, op. 70), etc. Modern pianists seldom perform the piano music by Moszkowski. At the same time, the pieces represent a very interesting material that clearly reflects the originality of the musical language of the late romantic pianists, to which Moszkowski belonged. Perhaps, performers confused by the overload of musical material with various technical difficulties. The composer used a wide range of romantic pianistic means. The typical stylistic feature of his music is improvisation, based on the tradition of a brilliant piano style of performance with a romantically impulsive change in emotional states. The performance seems to be more unattainable, because the composer’s bold innovation in virtuoso texture is combined with a refined romantic manner of writing. This circumstance explains the fact that the works by Moszkowski were forgotten for many years. And only now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, when many values and priorities are revised, art salon style and Moszkowski’s compositions are becoming of great interest. Conclusions. The piano “workshop of miniatures” is the most important component of the composer’s legacy of M. Moszkowski, reflecting the peculiarity of the author’s aesthetic position – cultivating a positive mood, elegance, refinement, virtuosity as signs of ownership of the instrument. It is these aesthetic principles – the feeling of Beauty as preciosity, delicacy, non-conflict state of reality – formed his attitude to the genre of miniatures. M. Moszkowski’s piano miniatures marked by the features of virtuoso style creating associations with the music of F. Chopin and R. Schumann. Chopin’s influences can be traced in the choice of genres of miniatures – among them there are waltzes, polonaises, impromptu, etudes, scherzo and barcaroles. However, for M. Moszkowski, as a composer of Polish origin, was simply necessary to be “native” to the musical heritage of F. Chopin. At the same time, the “similarity” of certain techniques to Chopin’s in the piano works by Moszkowski, always appears in the updated version without duplicating the original sources. The influence of R. Schumann is manifested in the dominance of melodious lyric and playful scherzo’s spheres, the tendency toward the characteristic images and the cycling of pieces, often combined with a certain artistic idea, specified by the programmatic subtitles or by the suite principle. Moszkowski’s piano works are perfect in a form, in possessing of specifics of the piano texture and the richness of figurative thinking. Moszkowski’s miniatures represent a very high level of piano skills, technically, they often require the ability to have a good command of the instrument, but technical difficulties submit to a vivid, meaningful image. Piano miniatures by M. Moszkowski became a significant contribution to the development of Western European art of the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The numerous piano pieces by the composer, distinguished by high artistic qualities, today should rightfully take a worthy place in the concert practice of modern pianists.

Background. The article is a step towards a modern comprehension of the creative heritage by M. Karminskyi, whose work in the second half of the 20 century contributed to the development and international fame of Ukrainian music. Analysis of scientific publications (Heivandova, K., 1981; Ivanova, Yu., 2001; Kushchova, E., 2004 etc.), memoirs (Hanzburg, G., 2000) and a huge array of periodicals devoted to the composer allows us to single out the characteristic features of his creative personality, which determine the originality of his talent as a composer, explaining the constant demand for his music and its successful functioning in the pedagogical process, in particular, in children’s music schools. The purpose and objectives of this study – to consider the artistic and aesthetic orientation of the creative heritage by M. Karminskyi and identify its distinctive features, focusing on the genre and style aspect of his works for children and youth and their methodological significance in pedagogical practice. Research methods are based on general scientific principles of systematization and generalization. The most important role was played by the interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of the composer’s creative heritage from the standpoint not only of musicology, but also of history, culturology, and pedagogy. For reflecting the spiritual atmosphere, where the composer’s talent was formed, the historicalbiographical approach was of great importance. Research results. The way of formation of M. Karminskyi’s individuality, development of his innate musical inclinations to successful realization of talent is crowned with creation of compositions of various genres, both largescale – partitas, operas, music to performances, and chamber – vocal-choral and instrumental miniatures, among which the piano music for children and youth audiences appealed to the style of Ukrainian folklore occupies a significant place. Ukrainian literature, in particular, works by Taras Shevchenko, Lesia Ukrainka, and Ivan Franko, which were carefully studied by M. V. Karminskyi as a student of the Faculty of Journalism at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv State University, had a significant influence on the formation of the composer’s worldview and aesthetic priorities. Probably, it was the love for literature that determined the programmatic narrative nature of M. Karminskyi’s compositions. However, the love for music itself prevailed: M. Karminskyi continued his studies at the Kharkiv Conservatory in the class of Professor D. Klebanov possessed in perfection by the musical artistic heritage and was able to transfer creatively this knowledge to students. M. Karminskyi’s later applied the skills acquired from him in his work. In those years, the Kharkiv School of Composition stood out among other music unions of Ukraine with a high level of creative competence: composers sought their own way and artistic individuality, creating a modern musical language. However, even in this highly educated environment, the personal potential of Mark Veniaminovich, his highly artistic taste and erudition rose. Mark Veniaminovich is sometimes called “the knight of the country of childhood” thanks to his brilliant compositions for children. The composer speaks to the children’s audience with the help of intonations and artistic techniques available to the child’s worldview, but he does not adapt to the child, but teaches him to develop thinking, show strong emotions. Pupils like program music with interesting content that evokes familiar associations, specific ideas. Therefore, in many of his works M. Karminskyi turns to the literary basis, clear concrete and dynamic images, heightened emotionality (“Steppe, steppe...”, “Autumn Day”, “Lyrical intermezzo”, etc.). Such approach motivates children not to perform works abstractly and mechanically, but to bring their own emotions and understandings into them. M. Karminskyi uses clear three-part or couplet forms that contain repetition (the plays “Favorite Tale”, “Ancient History”, “Merry Trumpeter”, etc.), he is characterized by conciseness of melodic phrases. The texture is convenient for children’s hands: parallel intervals, counterpointing voices, organ points of the lower voice, melodic figurations and harmonic degrees sustained in the middle line, register dynamics are used. These and other techniques promote students’ technical capabilities by developing mobility and finger strength. Continuing the traditions of the Ukrainian singing school, M. Karminskyi pays a lot of attention to the techniques of cantilena performance, forcing students to master the art of playing the pedal, which requires careful sound control. Piano ensembles, unique in their poetic beauty, were created by the composer at the end of his not too long life. These plays use themes from the music to the play “Robin Hood”, and the musical images of the pieces are extremely clear even in the names: “Old Grandfather Kohl”, “Lady Tambourine”, “Road to the Temple”, “Crazy Waltz”. M. Karminskyi, feeling a passionate interest in theatrical action with its playful moments and the task of embodying specific images, created music for performances. The radio production “Robin Hood” with the participation of the country’s leading artists, based on the poems of the famous Scottish poet R. Burns translated by S. Marshak and imbued with romantic sublimity, lyricism and sincerity, received a special resonance; it contains expressive melodies that are quickly memorized. In 1978, the company “Melody” released a stereo disc “Robin Hood” with a recording of this radio show. The variety of artistic tasks of the ensemble music of M. Kaminskyi leads to the formation of a variety of pianistic skills. The predominance of playful, moving images in plays develops motor technic and synchronization in performing. The meter and the rhythm of the works are complicated using the measures 6/8, 9/8 or size change in one work: 2/4; 3/4; again 2/4; then 4/4. This technique allows you to transmit movement and free breath of a musical phrase. Karminskyi actively uses chords from fourths and fifths intervals characterized the repertoire of Ukrainian bandura players. Conclusions. The composer gave the children a lot of strength and inspiration, creating music for them in accordance with high moral and ethical criteria and filled with vivid emotions, theatricality, and visible concrete imagery. Miniatures for the children’s choir, the master’s piano pieces have a high spiritual meaning and are among the best achievements of Ukrainian children’s musical literature. The piano music of M. Karminskyi is marked by a tendency to search for a new national style: the composer does not quote folk melodies, creating original musical images in the spirit of folklore. The multi-genre works of M. Karminskyi embody the eternal themes of good and evil, love and death, betrayal and fidelity with the emotional strength inherent in his music, demonstrating the composer’s deep erudition and human decency, originality, uniqueness of his personality and his talent.

С фортепианными переложениями как неотъемлемой частью музыкальной культуры XIX века Чайковский был связан на протяжении всей жизни. Обширную часть наследия композитора составляют переложения для фортепиано в 2 и 4 руки его собственных сочинений и произведений других авторов. Но если последние перекладывались Чайковским преимущественно в силу различных внешних обстоятельств, то переложениям собственных сочинений композитор уделял всегда особое внимание. Круг музыкантов, пользовавшихся доверием композитора в этом отношении, был весьма невелик и с течением времени неуклонно сужался. Чайковский стремился перекладывать свои сочинения самостоятельно, несмотря на постоянные жалобы на несовершенство переложения как формы представления оркестрового произведения и различные трудности при его создании. Всего композитором переложены более сорока его собственных сочинений. Помимо определенного этапа в истории самих произведений, переложения становились также частью фортепианного наследия Чайковского. Композитор неизменно настаивал на творческом характере создания переложений. В качестве примеров работы Чайковского в предлагаемой статье подробно рассмотрены переложения трех оркестровых сюит для фортепиано в 4 руки. With piano arrangements as an integral part of the musical culture of the XIX century, Tchaikovsky was associated for all his life. A large part of the composer’s legacy consists of arrangements for piano in 2 and 4 hands of his own compositions and works by other authors. But if Tchaikovsky made the latter ones mainly due to various external circumstances, he always paid special attention to the arrangements of his own compositions. The circle of musicians who enjoyed the composer’s confidence in this respect was very small and with time steadily narrowed. Tchaikovsky tried to make piano arrangements himself, despite the constant complaints about the imperfection of the transposition as a form of representation of the orchestral work and various difficulties in creating it. In total more than 40 of his own compositions have been arranged for piano by the composer. In addition to a certain stage in the history of the works themselves, the arrangements also became part of Tchaikovsky’s pianistic heritage. The composer invariably insisted on the creative nature of piano arrangements. In the proposed paper the four hands piano arrangements of three orchestral suites are considered in detail as examples of Tchaikovsky’s approach.

Among 703 professional pianists with medical problems in their hands seen by the author between 1981 and 2000, there were 27 patients who had interosseous muscle pain (23 women, 4 men; mean age, 30 yrs). The main symptom was dorsal hand pain during piano performance, especially when striking the keys with each finger rounded, mainly in the scale technique. Tenderness was noted in the deep part of the dorsal hand in the interosseous muscles, but not along or around the finger extensors. Patients sometimes complained of muscle weakness on abduction of the index, ring, and/or little fingers when performing octaves or chords on the piano keyboard. Resisted abduction and adduction testing of the fingers reproduced the pain which they experienced during or after performance. Pain occurred in the right hand in 10, left hand in 5, and bilaterally in 12. The pain was localized in the 4th and 5th interossei in 15 patients, in the 3rd and 4th in 14 patients; in the 2nd and 3rd in 11 patients; and in the 1st and 2nd in 1 patient.

This article characterizes development trends in jazz piano from its origins in the “third-layer” (Konen, V., 1984) of music (ragtime and other “pre-jazz” forms) to the present time (avant-garde and retro styles of the late 20th – early 21st centuries). Main attention was devoted to the stylistic sphere, which represents an entirety of techniques and methods of jazz piano improvisation and combines genre and style parameters. In this context, the currently available information about jazz pianism and its sources (Kinus,Y., 2008; Stoliar, R., 2017) was reviewed, and sociocultural determinants, which contributed to the advent and changes of jazz piano styles were highlighted. Standing out among them at the first (traditional) stage are the schools and individual creative techniques known under generic name “stride piano” and based on the ragtime technique. At the second (contemporary) stage beginning from bebop, jazz piano stylistics gradually diverge from standardized textural formulas of homophonicharmonic type and attain fundamental diversity depending on creative attitudes of leading jazz pianists. The question of jazz piano stylistics is one of the least studied in jazz theory. The existing works devoted to this subject address mostly the sequence of the advent and changes of jazz piano styles along with the general characteristics of their representatives. Beginning from approximately the 1920s, jazz piano styles appeared and changed so fast that they left no time for their comprehension and perception (Kinus, Y., 2008). Only in the newest stylistics of the period after bebop, which divided the art of jazz into traditional and contemporary stages, did these styles attain a certain shape in new modifications and become the components of a phenomenon defined by the generic notion “jazz pianism”. It was stated that the genesis of this phenomenon is usually seen in the art of ragtime, carried in the United States of the late 19th – early 20th centuries by itinerant pianists. This variety of “third-layer” piano music playing produced a significant impact on the art of jazz in general, which is proved by its reproduction in the Dixieland and New Orleans styles as some of the first examples of jazz improvisation. The stylistics of ragtime influenced the entire first stage of jazz piano, which traces its origins back to approximately the 1910s. It combined mental features and esthetics of two traditions: European and Afro-American, which in the entirety produced the following picture: 1) popular and concert area of music playing; 2) gravitation toward demonstration of virtuosic play; 3) domination of comic esthetics; 4) objectivity of expression; 5) tendency toward the completeness of form; 6) inclination toward stage representation. In technological (texturalpianistic) aspect, ragtime, reproduced in the jazz stylistics of stride piano, demonstrated the tendency toward universalization of piano, which combined in the person of one performer the functions of solo and accompaniment, derived from the practice of minstrel banjoists related to the percussion-accented rhythmics of dance accompaniment (Konen, V., 1984). It was stated that ragtime as the transitional bridge to jazz piano existed simultaneously with other forms of “third-layer” music playing found in the Afro-American environment (unlike ragtime itself, which was an art of white musicians). These were semi-folklore styles known as “barrel house” and “honky-tonk(y) piano” cultivated in Wild West saloons. The subsequent development of jazz piano stylistic went along the lines of more vocal and specific directions related mostly to peculiarities of playing technique. Among the more global origins equal in significance to ragtime and stride pianists derivative, blues piano stylistics is worth noting. It represents an instrumental adaptation of vocal blues, which had the decisive influence over the melodics and rhythmics of the right hand party of jazz pianists (ragtime and stride piano highlighted and consolidated the typical texture of accompaniment, i.e., the left hand party). Blues piano style is a multicomponent phenomenon that shaped up as a result of efforts taken by a whole number of jazz pianists. It was developed, and continues to exist until presently, in two variants: a) as a solo piano variant, b) as a duet variant (piano and vocal). Along with blues piano, a style known as “boogie-woogie” was cultivated in jazz piano stylistics of the period before bebop as the new reminiscence of the pre-jazz era (with rock-n-roll becoming a consequence of its actualization in the 1950–1960s). A stylistic genre known as “Harlem piano style” (its prominent representatives include Luckey Roberts, James P. Johnson, Willie “the Lion” Smith, and Thomas “Fats” Waller) became a sort of compendium that combined genetic components of traditional jazz piano. This school has finally defined jazz piano as a form of solo concert music playing, which also determined the subsequent stylistic varieties of this art, the most noteworthy of which are “trumpet piano style”, “swing piano style” and “locked hands style”. Their general feature was interpretation of the instrument as a “small orchestra”, which meant rebirth at the new volute of a historical-stylistic spiral of the “image” of universal piano capable of reproducing the “sounds” of other instruments, voices and their ensembles. Outstanding pianists of various generations have been, and are, the carriers (and often “inventors”) of jazz piano styles. It should suffice to mention the names of such “legends” of jazz as Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Bill Evans, and also Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett (older generation), Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Brad Mehldau, Vadim Neselovskyi, Robert Glasper (middle generation), Eldar Djangirov, Tigran Hamasyan, Cory Henry (younger generation). Conclusions. The description of the stages of development of jazz piano pianism made in this article proves that its polystylistic nature is preserved, and the main representative of certain stylistic inclinations were and remain the texture. Textured formulas serve as the main objects of stylistic interpretations for jazz pianists of different generations. These readings are represented by two vectors – retrospective (revival of jazz traditions) and exploratory, experimental (rapprochement with the academic avant-garde). Of great importance are the styles of personalities, in which polystylistic tendencies are combined with the individual playing manners and improvisation, which, in general, is the most characteristic feature of the current stage of development of jazz piano art.

When training bimanual skills, such as playing piano, people sometimes practice each hand separately and at a later stage combine the movements of the two hands. This poses the critical question of whether motor skills can be acquired by separately practicing each subcomponent or should be trained as a whole. In the present study, we addressed this question by training human subjects for 4 days in a unimanual or bimanual version of the discrete sequence production task. Both groups were then tested on trained and untrained sequences on both unimanual and bimanual versions of the task. Surprisingly, we found no evidence of transfer from trained unimanual to bimanual or from trained bimanual to unimanual sequences. In half the participants, we also investigated whether cuing the sequences on the left and right hand with unique letters would change transfer. With these cues, untrained sequences that shared some components with the trained sequences were performed more quickly than sequences that did not. However, the amount of this transfer was limited to ∼10% of the overall sequence-specific learning gains. These results suggest that unimanual and bimanual sequences are learned in separate representations. Making participants aware of the interrelationship between sequences can induce some transferrable component, although the main component of the skill remains unique to unimanual or bimanual execution. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Studies in reaching movement demonstrated that approximately half of motor learning can transfer across unimanual and bimanual contexts, suggesting that neural representations for unimanual and bimanual movements are fairly overlapping at the level of elementary movement. In this study, we show that little or no transfer occurred across unimanual and bimanual sequential finger movements. This result suggests that bimanual sequences are represented at a level of the motor hierarchy that integrates movements of both hands.

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This research focus on the repertoire for four-hand piano in Brazil, presenting a musicograph research of pieces composed between 1890 and 2000. This paper also analyses five important moments of this repertoire, between 1950 and 1990, by choosing representative works by composers Edino Krieger, Cláudio Santoro, Ricardo Tacuchian, Henrique de Curitiba and Osvaldo Lacerda. This work concludes that the chosen repertoire, for its relevance and artistic qualitites, is representative of Brazilian musical creation.
A pesquisa investiga o repertório para piano a quatro mãos no Brasil, traçando um panorama por meio de peças compostas entre 1890 e 2000, apresentado em forma de Levantamento Musicográfico. Analisa cinco importantes momentos brasileiros para piano a quatro mãos das décadas entre 1950 e 1990 utilizando obras dos compositores Edino Krieger, Cláudio Santoro, Ricardo Tacuchian, Henrique de Curitiba e Osvaldo Lacerda. Conclui que o repertório investigado, por sua relevância e qualidade, é representativo da criação musical brasileira.