[Description] MASTER CLASS Thursday June 27 (time to be announced) Exploring the Piano, One Key at a Time Michael Pecak Class size limited-Contact Raue Center for Registration. Class attendees will be given tickets to all four concerts held at Raue Center on piano Weekend through June 30th Spanning continents and centuries, from Florence to New York City, from grand concert halls to intimate living rooms, from Franz Liszt to Elton John, the piano has dominated the world of music for roughly the past 300 years. As far as solo acoustic instruments are concerned, nothing else has been invented that can match the piano’s tonal range, its expressive possibilities, its accessibility, or its practicality. No wonder the piano has historically been the instrument of choice for such musical giants as Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin among many others. Yet, because of its present‐day ubiquity, it is easy to forget that the piano as we know it is not the same instrument that they knew. So, then, what were the pianos of past centuries like? How did historical pianos look, sound, and feel as compared to today’s piano? What were the piano’s origins? How did it develop over time? Moreover, since the history of an instrument is inextricably related to the actual music written for that instrument, how might have the qualities of early pianos influenced the way in which the great composers wrote? My presentation will address all of these fundamental questions. Beginning with the harpsichord (the piano’s most important predecessor) and the music of the Baroque era, I will discuss the evolution of the piano and how it gradually attained the features and sonic characteristics we now value. I will also demonstrate a variety of historical keyboard instruments, allowing the audience to hear for themselves how the masterpieces of the past might have sounded. Through this performance‐lecture, I hope to awaken your sense of historical and musical curiosity by introducing you to the stunning subtlety of the keyboard literature and the diverse instruments for which it was written. Students, teachers, those new to classical music, lifelong‐ music‐lovers, pianophiles are welcome and encouraged to attend! There will be a Q & A at the end of class.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Jun 2013 21:02:35 +0000
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