notes on my program at the Gilmore Festival last week The piano has always been a virtual instrument. "Virtual" in the sense that for a phrase the keyboardist could sing, or dance, or speak -- by turns, taking on the musical or expressive persona of an Italian coloratura soprano, a violin virtuoso, a country dancer, a marching soldier, or then a whole orchestra, or a madrigal group reading from part books. Robert Schumann commented that … [Read more...]
Piano Country
Keyboard music has always been linked with transcribing: making sung, or strummed pieces (or gestures), into something fingers can play on keys. The earliest extant keyboard pieces are transcriptions (more properly "intabulations," because they are written using the little diagrams called tablature): Robertsbridge Codex, circa 1350 One of my former students is making solo piano versions of Detroit techno. I've made piano transcriptions of … [Read more...]