Education Composers – Page 2

More Ballads Without Words

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Heather Hammond is well established as one of the most prolific and respected composers of educational piano music, and her publications for EVC Music (which include Grooves for Piano Dudes reviewed here and Ballads Without Words reviewed here) include much of her best work.

Of the latter, I wrote:

“Here is an album that will surely be a “quick win” with players at upper intermediate level who want to play music in a lighter style, but with emotive melodic content.”

It is neither a surprise that it has proved to be a popular success, not that Hammond’s latest publication is a much-anticipated sequel…

Eugénie Rocherolle’s Fantasia del Tango

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Among the American piano composers to gain prominence since William Gillock (1917-1993), Eugénie Rocherolle (b.1936) is certainly a leading light, and I have increasingly taken an interest in her work as it has steadily become more familiar here in the UK. To find out about her other recent publications, you can check my previous reviews here.

A few months back, her 2016 collection Fantasia del Tango appeared in a new edition here, and it’s another firm winner. Read on to find out more…

Angeline Bell’s Garden Notebook

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Angeline Bell’s Lyrical and Quirky Notebooks were a highlight of 2023, and so much so that in my review of them here I concluded,

“With these two collections, Angeline Bell has certainly burst onto the scene with music that has the same explosive energy as the flora and fauna erupting from the pianos on her book covers. On the strength of these, her debut publications, she can be greeted as a major talent.”

Editions Musica Ferrum recently published Bell’s third Notebook, My Garden Notebook. This latest collection is suitable for players from elementary to early intermediate, around UK Initial to Grade 4. and offers:

“24 easy and melodious piano solos inspired by nature.”

Time to find out whether this new collection lives up to the inspiration of its predecessors…

Eugénie Rocherolle’s Reflective Piano Solos

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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When I recently reviewed Mona Rejino’s Reflections and Relaxations collection (you can read the review here), I noted that the cover image and title suggested it to be part of the current trend for books of calm, relaxing music in the popular ambient classical style, but that in the event it proved to be something different.

It’s therefore with a sense of déjà vu that I now bring you my review of another Hal Leonard title that appeared around the same time. Here, again, the title perhaps implies a relaxed book of soothing adagios, a lovely cover photograph seems to underline this expectation, and the book promises “11 Beautiful Moods and Styles”.

But once again, this proved to be a different (but no less enjoyable) collection to the one I initially expected. Let’s dip in…

Eugénie Rocherolle’s Romantic Stylings

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Widely respected as a leading contemporary American composer of piano repertoire, Eugénie Rocherolle was born in New Orleans in 1936. A music graduate of Tulane University (Louisiana), she spent her Junior Year in Paris, where she attended classes with Nadia Boulanger.

Rocherolle has composed works for solo voice, chorus, orchestra, musical theatre, and chamber music. Success as a piano composer came with the publication of her first solo collection in 1978, since when she has added dozens of educational and recital works to her catalogue, many now appearing in The Eugénie Rocherolle Series from Hal Leonard.

Though less well known here in the UK, Musicroom nevertheless list more than a hundred piano publications, many of which comprise Rocherolle’s arrangements of popular, film and show tunes. Now in her 80’s, she still composes original music too, and a new collection is imminent.

In this review, I revisit her most recent (at the time of writing) collection of original pieces. Appearing in 2019, Romantic Stylings offers 8 original piano solos suitable for the intermediate player.

Grooves for Piano Dudes

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Heather Hammond is well established as one of the best-loved educational composers in the UK today, with more than 100 publications in print (piano and woodwind) from a variety of publishers.

The last time I took a good look at Hammond’s music was in my review of her Ballads Without Words, brought to us by EVC Music. In this review, I’m considering a contrasting series of her music from the same publisher.

Grooves for Piano Dudes currently includes three volumes, including one with a special Halloween theme. All are suitable for intermediate players, and between them offer 37 fresh Hammond compositions in jazz, rock, blues and boogie styles…

Graded Gillock • Three Essential Collections

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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I have long been an admirer of the brilliant piano music of William Gillock (1917-1993), so am delighted to have selected and edited a new series of ‘graded’ collections the Willis Music Company, showcasing a varied range of his best pieces. Graded Gillock appears in three volumes, now available.

There’s little doubt in my mind that Gillock was one of the most significant educational piano composers of the twentieth century, as adept at turning out distinctively memorable and colourful piano pieces in an accessible style as he was at engaging the imaginations and enthusiasm of young learners, in doing so paving the way for today’s educational composers.

Gillock is perhaps best known here in the UK for his evocatively bluesy New Orleans Nightfall, stomping Swinging Beat and Latin-infused Carnival in Rio, all of which have been popular graded exam pieces in recent years. But what of his other music?

For this new series, I have used these favourites as a starting point, working with the composer’s long-term publisher Willis Music to explore and select Gillock’s most enjoyable and pedagogically useful music.

“The consistency William Gillock achieved in writing music that is both interesting to learners and pedagogically valuable is unmatched, in my opinion, and although a few of his pieces have appeared on exam syllabuses it is puzzling that his music is not better known in this country.

Andrew Eales has therefore done the UK market a great service by curating this series of graded books, which features 40-odd pieces altogether. The notation is enlarged in the first volume to facilitate reading, and reduces in size as you advance from book to book, a thoughtful touch… These books are a great introduction to the composer.”

Michael McMillan, Pianist magazine 128, October 2022

Mirosław Gąsieniec: Album for Children

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Of the many beautifully presented intermediate piano collections in the PWM Edition catalogue, the Album for Children by Mirosław Gąsieniec deserves special attention. Published in 2020, the book includes twelve superbly crafted, varied and original, melodic pieces.

In this review I will also consider the same composer’s earlier Collection of Dances for Piano (2013) which delivers another, similarly enticing set of ten Gąsieniec originals composed in a neo-classical manner, and again suited to players at upper intermediate level (around UK Grade 3-6).