Melanie Spanswick

Mélanie Bonis • Children’s Albums

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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The superb Schott Student Edition series has recently grown to include two very welcome volumes of music for children by the Late Romantic French composer Mélanie Bonis.

The Album pout les tout-petits Op.103 includes 20 pieces suitable for elementary players (around UK Grades 1-3), while the eight pieces that make up Scènes enfantines Op.92 will suit intermediate players (UK Grades 4-6).

Both books are edited by the indomitable Melanie Spanswick, who has also written an excellent introduction which includes a composer biography, and several pages of in-depth teaching notes.

These excellent volumes are an important addition to the pedagogy repertoire, and in this review I will consider each of the two sets after first briefly introducing the composer…

Ghostly Piano Tales

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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In addition to her superb Play it Again Piano series for adults returning to the piano (reviewed here ) and ground-breaking Women Composers: Graded Anthology series (reviewed here), Melanie Spanswick is a busy composer with a growing catalogue of titles to her name, including several from Schott Music.

For her latest, Spanswick delivers 24 Imaginative Piano Pieces for elementary to early intermediate players which dive headlong into the world of the macabre. Is there suddenly a chill in the air?

Narcisa Freixas • Elementary Piano Pieces

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Previous titles in Schott Music’s Student Edition series have impressed, so with the arrival of the latest title, Elementary Pieces by the Spanish painter, sculptor and composer Narcisa Freixas (1859-1926), hopes for another worthwhile addition to the repertoire ride high.

In common with the recent Schott Student Edition of Amy Beach’s Children’s Music (reviewed here), and following on from her three graded anthologies of music by Women Composers (reviewed here), this new edition has been put together by British pedagogue Melanie Spanswick, who would seem to have made it her crusade to revive forgotten works by women.

So who was Narcisa Freixas, and what are her pieces like? Let’s find out…

Amy Beach • Children’s Music

Pianodao Music Library

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

Back in 2019 I reviewed an excellent edition of Türk’s Pieces for Beginners, which launched the new Schott Student Edition. It has been a while, but now Schott have launched a couple more titles in the series, the first of which features two collections by the popular American composer Amy Beach (1867-1944), her Children’s Album Op.36 and Children’s Carnival Op.25, together in one elegant volume.

Individual pieces from these collections may be known to readers from their appearance in graded collections and anthologies of music by women composers. How wonderful, though, to have complete versions brought together in this publication, which also includes in-depth background and teaching notes on each piece by editor (and well-known teacher) Melanie Spanswick.