The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

Piano Literature II, Spring 2008          Wed, 11:30-1:20

Dr. Sharon Levy- redon@peabody.jhu.edu  www.peabody.jhu.edu/slevy

Course Description: This course is designed to enhance your knowledge, appreciation, and understanding of the classical literature for the piano. The classical style is defined broadly, to include not only Bach’s sons but the music of Beethoven and Schubert. Hopefully, you will discover some music which you did not previously know, as well as gaining insights into works with which you were already familiar.

Approximate list of topics to be covered (always subject to modification by instructor) include the music of Bach’s most famous sons (C.P.E. and J.C. Bach), Mozart concertos, and sonatas and shorter keyboard works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert.  Depending on time, Clementi may be touched upon as well.

Grading: Your grade will be based upon Participation, Assignments, and Exams.

Participation: This is a real factor in your grade. It is composed of Showing up, Speaking up, and Staying focused. You don’t need to know the answers to speak up; reactions and questions are equally welcome. A great part of being in class together is learning from each other; your comments and questions help all of us. I encourage you to play some of the works which we are studying in class if they are works which you know. (This is a great way to earn “participation” points, which can be a big help in boosting a borderline grade! It also benefits all of us, as live performances are so much more engaging than recordings.) While this is not a requirement, it allows you to choose the best way in which you can help participate in our learning together.

Exams: There will be two midterms and a final which will be largely listening-based.  There may also be some score-identification (based on style recognition), as well as questions based on our discussions. We will discuss these more as they come closer in the term.

Presentations: Towards the end of the term, you will give a brief presentation, performing a work from the period we have studied. Works chosen will be short, and may be either complete or a self-contained section (such as a movement, or single-piece from a larger opus). It will be your responsibility to bring to class, the week before your presentation, a short prepared sheet for your classmates giving some brief background material for the work you will be presenting. This information sheet may be in prose or free outline form- whatever works for you.

-You will need to get your choice of piece approved by me first. This is because I would prefer your not presenting a piece which I will already be covering in class. (In this case,I will suggest that you do it in this class period, not as a full presentation, but as part of your participation grade, as discussed above.)

Your presentation sheet should give the following information:

1)         Composer (dates) and Title of Work (with date of composition)

2)         Brief description- Keep this as objective as possible. You do not need to cover everything on the following list; they are suggestions, not requirements. Types of things you might list could include the following:

-whether the work was early, middle, or late in its composer’s career

-its genre (sonata, fantasy, rondo, etc)

            -its form (variations, fugue, sonata-allegro, rondo, ternary)

             -anything generally considered musically or historically significant about the piece   

        Before your performance, you should say a few words about the work to be performed. You should keep this brief and not duplicate the information on your sheet. It would be particularly effective to show things which need a piano to demonstrate. For example, you might play for us some of the main themes, or motives, or demonstrate a spot which you find particularly effective or original, or show us something which involved a particular interpretive choice on your part (such as- “the piece is generally performed this way, but I choose to do it this way b/c…”) Here you should definitely say more than “my teacher chose it for me” or “it was easy to learn” or “it was on a list of competition repertoire that I needed to learn anyway”. Those can be part of why you chose the piece, but you need to also find something beyond this. Even if all of the above are true, there are surely still good musical reasons for that, and this is your chance to share some of them, so that your classmates can have some sense of why this piece matters. While you may have touched on similar ideas in the “anything musically or historically significant” of your handout, there your points should be fairly objective, while here you can be a bit more subjective and personal.

Note: If you are a student with a disability or believe you might have a disability that requires accommodations, please contact Dr. Eileen Soskin, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University at 410-659-8100, extension 4405 esoskin@peabody.jhu.edu, or Ms. Peggy Hayeslip, University Coordinator of Disability Services on the Homewood Campus of the Johns Hopkins University at 410-516-6225 phayeslip@jhu.edu to discuss reasonable and appropriate accommodations.