Pianodao

Impressions of New York

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

in my recent review of Texan composer Mona Rejino’s excellent Reflections and Relaxations (which you can read here), I both mentioned and praised her Impressions of New York, another fairly recent publication in Hal Leonard’s ‘Composer Showcase’ series.

In this review I am returning to that 2021 title to tell you more about it, having intended on reviewing it here and introducing it to the Pianodao Music Library for some time.

Subtitled A Jazz Sonatina, the three movement work was originally commissioned as a trio for viola, cello and piano, and by the Music Teachers National Association in the US for their 2019 National Conference.

Encouraged by its reception, her editor and husband, Rejino subsequently arranged Impressions of New York as the solo piano Jazz Sonatina reviewed here…

Paul Harris’s Purple Piano House

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Paul Harris is known worldwide as one of today’s foremost music educators and I have reviewed numerous publications bearing his name on Pianodao before.

Harris’s latest is unusual indeed, which perhaps need not surprise us given his incredibly fertile mind and innovative creativity.

The Purple Piano House, published by his own Queen’s Temple Publications and subtitled “A Musical Adventure for Pianists” is a delightful story-with-music book which is sure to charm younger players, and offers several intriguing pedagogic possibilities.

The story itself is written by Sam Edenborough, and the book includes illustrations by Jasper Pye. Let’s join them on an adventure…

9 Female Composers from 3 Centuries

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Some time ago I reviewed Wiener Urtext Edition’s Urtext Primo series of six books, each bringing together the music of three composers whose careers overlapped, two well known, the third less performed today. You can read my series review here.

These are serious editions suitable for late intermediate to early advanced players who want to explore key repertoire in a broader musical context, and some of the adult learners I work with have certainly found them rewarding.

Wiener Urtext now bring a seventh volume to the series. 9 Female Composers from 3 Centuries has a self-explanatory title, and is a natural expansion of a series that already shines a spotlight on the music of overlooked composers of the past. This latest collection offers authoritative new editions of 25 pieces, as always edited and with practice tips by Nils Franke.

There has of course been a spate of new collections of music composed by women composers, all of which I have praised in reviews here, and which between them have nicely filled a gap in our repertoire and historical understanding.

I am told these books have only been a modest success, however, which raises intriguing questions about whether publishing agendas and perceptions of the market match the unaffected musical appetites of players. As I look at this new collection let’s not only consider the intrinsic value of the publication itself, but whether and what it can add to this increasingly crowded market…

Scott Joplin • 20 Ragtimes

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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The Chicago World Fair of 1893 established Ragtime music as a national craze in the US, and by the end of the decade, the “King of Ragtime” Scott Joplin (1868-1917) was enjoying immense success as the composer of the genre’s biggest hits, most notably the Maple Leaf Rag, published in 1899.

Joplin died at the age of just 49, by which point he had composed just 53 piano pieces pieces, ten songs, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. Nevertheless, his impact on music was seismic, and a number of his works remain among the best loved in the whole piano repertoire.

It is, of course, for his Ragtime pieces that Joplin is particularly remembered, and a newly reissued publication in the Schott Piano Classics series presents 20 of the best known in a superb performers edition.

These are seminally important works in the solo piano repertoire, the emergence of jazz, and in the broader cultural history of the 20th century. And yet they remain somewhat under-represented in the music catalogue, as they do on exam lists and in concert. So this arrival is happy news indeed…

Reflections & Relaxations

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

There has been a spate of music books offering calming, relaxing piano music of late, and this new title from Dallas-based piano pedagogue Mona Rejino looks, on the surface, to be another addition to that growing trend. However, it proves to be something a little different, as we’ll discover in this review…