Each has its flavor, and plays (or reads) like a report\u00a0of its immediate cultural context.\u00a0Several \u00a0would make excellent short\u00a0programs for performance! I have included some ideas along that line.<\/p>\n
This is a fairly exhaustive list; at the moment there are\u00a0about 20 entries. I’d be glad to receive\u00a0corrections and additions. It’s\u00a0difficult to know how many more anthologies there are, because\u00a0they’re hard to search. I have looked\u00a0using Google, used.addall, the various national\u00a0Amazons, WorldCat, eBay, and sheetmusicplus. There must be a lot missing: I have no French, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, or Spanish anthologies. Please let me know about omissions and errors. Thanks!<\/p>\n
The list begins in 1940, and goes in chronological order by year of first publication. I have written comments on about a quarter\u00a0of these; I intend to\u00a0add more notes, perhaps in separate posts, if this page gets too big.<\/p>\n
\n
1940<\/p>\n
51 Piano Pieces From the Modern Repertoire: Representing Composers of Thirteen Nationalities<\/em> (Schirmer, 1940)<\/p>\n The salon literature includes Percy Grainger’s\u00a0Spoon River,<\/em> pieces by Granados and Alb\u00e9niz, Debussy’s\u00a0R\u00eaverie,\u00a0<\/em>and the Brazilian composer Octavio Pinto<\/a>‘s Tom Thumb’s March, <\/em>Rachmaninoff’s\u00a0\u00c9l\u00e9gie\u00a0<\/em> Op. 3 no. 1 and\u00a0Prelude in E flat\u00a0<\/em>Op. 23 no. 6,\u00a0and\u00a0Emmanuel Chabrier’s\u00a0Habanera. <\/em>Some of these are showpieces, requiring advanced technique. (There are also some less familiar salon pieces here, several of which are rewarding: Faur\u00e9’s\u00a0Berceuse, <\/em>Ottorino Respighi’s\u00a0Nottorno,\u00a0<\/em>Richard Strauss’s An einsamer Quelle<\/i> Op. 9 no. 2, and “the Finnish Chopin” Selim Palmgren<\/a>‘s\u00a0Spring Night\u00a0<\/em>Op. 22 no. 8.) 1945 (ca.)<\/p>\n 36 Twentieth-Century Piano Pieces: A Collection of Contemporary Works for Recital and Study<\/em> (Schirmer, n.d.,\u00a0c. 1945)<\/p>\n It begins by acknowledging a certain French tradition, with Gabriel Faur\u00e9’s\u00a0very playable\u00a0Clair de lune.<\/em>\u00a0I assume\u00a0Faur\u00e9 provided a politic starting place, enabling the anthologist to avoid both the German and Russian schools, and even to sidestep the route to modernism offered by the route from Debussy\u00a0through Messiaen to Boulez\u2014who would have been very much on some American composers’ minds in 1945.<\/p>\n Most of the composers here are American: Edward MacDowell, William Schuman<\/a>, the Chicagoans\u00a0John Alden Carpenter<\/a>\u00a0and Robert Muczynski<\/a>, Samuel Barber, Paul Creston<\/a>, Norman Dello Joio<\/a>\u00a0(represented by a lovely piece in octave ostinato, the third movement of the\u00a0Suite for Piano<\/em>, 1945), and Irving Fine. There are also a number of Anglophone composers, such as the Australian Percy Grainger<\/a>, the Swiss-born Ernest Bloch<\/a>, Ernst K\u0159enek, and Cyril Scott (represented by the excellent Lento<\/em>).\u00a0A\u00a0token Hispanic presence\u00a0is also typical for mid-century American anthologies: here it’s the Mexican composer Carlos Ch\u00e1vez<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are unusual choices throughout: Ernest Bloch’s\u00a0Waves<\/em> (1923)\u00a0is a good set piece, whose dissonances complement the opening Faur\u00e9; there is also William Schuman’s\u00a0Three-Score Set<\/em> (1943), and Irving Fine’s very well-balanced\u00a0Prelude\u00a0<\/em>from\u00a0Music for Piano\u00a0<\/em>(1949), which shows why Stravinsky made him an exemplar. (I will write about Fine’s music in a separate post.) The anthology also has Leonard Bernstein’s\u00a0Four Anniversaries<\/em> (1948), which show the influence of both Stravinsky and Copland.<\/p>\n 1948<\/p>\n Das neue Klavierbuch<\/a>,<\/em> edited by Willi Drahts and Friedrich Zehm (Schott, 1948).<\/p>\n There is a publication puzzle here. Currently this anthology is 3 volumes. (Volume 2 of the 2014 printing is shown above.) This is what I assume: the original 1948 publication was one volume, and Volume 1 is limited by its purview: it includes only “leichte Klavierst\u00fccke zeitgen\u00f6ssischer Komponisten.” Even so, the editors found\u00a0some rewarding\u00a0pieces: Wolfgang Fortner<\/a>‘s\u00a0Serenata <\/em>and\u00a0Lied\u00a0<\/em>(1951, see below), the Dutch composer Henk Badings<\/a>‘s Air<\/em>\u00a0from his\u00a0Reihe kleiner Klavierst\u00fccke<\/em>,\u00a0and Wilhelm Maler<\/a>‘s\u00a0Drei kleine St\u00fccke<\/em> (1948). The tone is set for vol. 1 by the opening piece, Hindemith’s\u00a0Marsch.<\/em><\/p>\n After the Bart\u00f3k comes\u00a0a Sonatine<\/i> by Boris Blacher<\/a>.\u00a0Pride of place is given in vol. 2 to Hindemith; the French school is represented by Milhaud, Fran\u00e7aix\u2014the wonderful La tendre\u2014<\/em>and Poulenc, and there is also\u00a0a piece by Tcherepnin,\u00a0Intermezzo.<\/em><\/p>\n The last piece in vol. 2 is\u00a0a Bach-inspired neoclassical\u00a0Prelude<\/em> by Wolfgang Fortner<\/a>, copyrighted 1951\u2014i.e., after the initial publication date of 1948, and therefore presumably part of an augmented edition that I’m assuming was published sometime around 1953. The other pieces that would have been added around 1953\u00a0are in the opening of volume 3, which begins with three\u00a0more German pieces:\u00a0Hindemith’s\u00a0In einer Nacht<\/em> and\u00a0Rufe in der horchenden Nacht, <\/em>and\u00a0another piece by Fortner\u2014but after those pieces, volume 3 turns suddenly to America\u00a0(Copland’s\u00a0Sentimental Melody<\/em>), France\u00a0(Fran\u00e7aix’s\u00a0En cas de<\/em> succ\u00e8s), and Italy\u00a0(Ligeti’s\u00a0Lamento<\/em> from the early\u00a0Musica Ricercata,<\/em>\u00a0a typically thundering Bart\u00f3kian\u00a0piece). If these are in fact additions made around 1953, then the choices make perfect sense: it would have been\u00a0almost ten years after\u00a0the Second World War, and the\u00a0anthology\u00a0was made\u00a0more international.<\/p>\n (Notes on volume 3 continue below, under the assumed publication date of 1983.)<\/p>\n 1951<\/p>\n The UE Piano Book<\/em> (Universal Edition).<\/p>\n This was published for the 50th anniversary of Universal Edition. See remarks under\u00a0UE-Buch der Klaviermusik des 20. Jahrhunderts<\/em> (1968)\u2014that is an expanded version of this book.<\/p>\n 1956 (ca.)<\/p>\n Contemporary British Piano Music\u00a0<\/em>(Schott and Co.)<\/p>\n This is a small anthology, with only four composers represented: the Australian Don Banks<\/a>, Peter Racine Fricker<\/a>, the Scot Iain Hamilton<\/a>, and Humphrey Searle<\/a>. In the edition I have (presumably a reprint) the notes are uncomfortably small and the pages are poorly printed.<\/p>\n 1964<\/p>\n The World of Modern Piano Music,<\/em> edited by Denes Agay (MCA, 1964).<\/p>\n The Israeli composer Marc Lavry<\/a> (1903-1967) is represented by two pieces: This anthology also includes some less-often anthologizes Prokofiev and Bart\u00f3k pieces, such as Prokofiev’s Bart\u00f3kian\u00a0Rain and the Rainbow:<\/em><\/p>\n 1965<\/p>\n Neue Klaviermusik aus europ\u00e4ischen L\u00e4ndern \/ Contemporary Piano Music from European Countries\u00a0<\/em>(Hans Gerig, 1965 et seqq.). One of these is discussed in some detail elsewhere<\/a> on this site.<\/p>\n One of the principal features of this series is the strong contrast between Soviet-bloc volumes and others. In the Bulgarian and Romanian volumes, for example, the music is Soviet-approved, with folk themes and a general absence of virtuosity. In some other volumes there has been an attempt to showcase the most “difficult” recent music.<\/p>\n (A) Neue Griechische Klaviermusik,<\/em>\u00a0in 2 vols., edited by G\u00fcnther Becker. Volume 1 is generally excellent, with unfamiliar works and composers influenced by Bart\u00f3k, Stockhausen, Shostakovich, Poulenc, and Prokofiev. Nikos Skalkottas is represented by the\u00a0Little Peasant March<\/em> from the\u00a032 Piano Pieces;\u00a0<\/em> there are also pieces by\u00a0Yorgo Sicilianos<\/a>, Stephanos Gazouleas, Yannis Papaioannou<\/a>, and Michael Adamis.<\/p>\n (B) Neue Rum\u00e4nische Klaviermusik,<\/em> in 2 vols., edited by Aledandre Hrisanide.<\/p>\n (C)\u00a0Neue Jugoslawische Klaviermusik,<\/em> in 2 vols., edited by Rudolf L\u00fcck.<\/p>\n There is some strongly dissonant music in volume 2, influenced by the Viennese school. Primo\u017e Ramov\u0161’s\u00a0Prelude,<\/em> for example, is determinedly atonal.<\/p>\n (D)\u00a0Neue Schweizerische Klaviermusik,<\/em> in 2 vols., edited by Charles Dobler.<\/p>\n (E)\u00a0Neue Niederl\u00e4ndische Klaviermusik,<\/em> in 2 vols., edited by Ton Hartsuiker.<\/p>\n (F)\u00a0Neue Bulgarische Klaviermusik,<\/em> in 2 vols., edited by Otto Daube. (Information on these composers can be found on the Union of Bulgarian Composers’ website<\/a>, often under alternate transliterations.)<\/p>\n (G)\u00a0Neue Skandinavische Klaviermusik,<\/em> edited by Herbert Connor. In one volume. This is marked “Not available for U.S.A. and Canada.”) I can’t find this online.<\/p>\n (H)\u00a0Neue Sowjetische Klaviermusik,<\/em> in 2 vols., \u00a0edited by Rudolf L\u00fcck. I can’t find this online.<\/p>\n (I)\u00a0Neue Tschechoslowakische Klaviermusik,<\/em> in 2 vols., edited by Jan Matej\u010dek. I can’t find this online.<\/p>\n There\u00a0were apparently more titles, perhaps published by Breitkopf as a continuation of the Gerig series?<\/p>\n (J)\u00a0Neue Deutsche Klaviermusik,<\/em>\u00a0in 2 vols. I have not seen either volume. Strange this one should be so rare: the Romanian, Yugoslavian, and Bulgarian volumes appear from time to time on the internet, but I haven’t seen this yet. I wonder if the Balkan volumes were given larger initial print runs.<\/p>\n (K)\u00a0Neue Brasilianische Klaviermusik,<\/em> edited by\u00a0Paulo Affonso de Moura Ferreira, 1978. I haven’t seen this either; I don’t know if it appeared, or if it was also 2 vols., or if it was planned as part of a Latin American expansion of the series.<\/p>\n I think all the books would be in Classical Keyboard Music in Print<\/em> (1993). I hope to post more on individual volumes in future.<\/p>\n 1967<\/p>\n The International Library of Piano Music<\/a>,<\/em> edited by Felix Greissle et al., in 16 “Albums,” “Album” (volume) 9 (The University Society, 1967\u20131973).<\/p>\n Even the standard composers are represented by very well-chosen pieces: there is Max Reger’s beautiful piece,\u00a0Aus meinem Tagebuch<\/em> Op. 82, book 1, no. 2, and Shostakovich’s exemplary\u00a0Prelude<\/em>Op. 34 no. 3 in G major, which condenses several of his compositional strategies from the period.\u00a0Almost all the selections are good, which makes the minor composers’ pieces more interesting than usual. Examples here include at least two pieces by African-American composers: \u00a0Evocation\u00a0<\/em>by\u00a0Hale Smith<\/a>\u00a0(1925-2009), and\u00a0The Cuckoo\u00a0<\/em>by\u00a0Howard Swanson<\/a>\u00a0(1907-1978).<\/p>\n Not far into the book comes a pedagogic entry: a monograph\u00a0(it’s hard to know what else to call it) by Wallingford Riegger<\/a>, who was known for his advocacy of Sch\u00f6nberg’s style. The “monograph” is a series of Riegger’s own pieces, some fairly long, each prefaced by a half-page of description titled according to the technical content they exemplify:\u00a0“The Augmented Triad,” “The Twelve Tones,” “Chromatics,” and so on:<\/p>\n Riegger’s contribution\u00a0seems to have been specially commissioned by the editors, and it is unique, as far as I know, in music\u00a0anthologies. It points up the volume’s ambitions to present modern music to a wide\u00a0public\u2014at least the public that plays piano at home\u2014and in that sense it is\u00a0a typically American initiative. It’s difficult to imagine such a thing in Germany, France, or other countries where the small audience for the avant-garde was taken as proper and not in need of remediation.<\/p>\n Yet despite Riegger’s long contribution, the Viennese school does not dominate. Stravinsky is represented by the entire\u00a0Sonata<\/em> and also the\u00a0Tango,\u00a0<\/em>a total of 24 pages. American composers in this volume are mainly neoclassicists, and so on balance it’s American neoclassicism that represents \u00a0average modernism, but the Vienna school that stands for\u00a0modernism’s best moments.<\/p>\n 1968<\/p>\n UE-Buch der Klaviermusik des 20. Jahrhunderts \/ Styles in 20th Century Piano Music,<\/em> edited by Otto Karl Math\u00e9.<\/p>\n Max Reger, Richard Strauss, Alexander Tcherepnin, and Karol Szymanowski open the collection; they are presumably from the original 1951 edition. There is a generous selection of eastern European and Balkan material: Kod\u00e1ly, represented by the ubiquitous and uncharacteristic\u00a0Klavierst\u00fcck; <\/em>Alois H\u00e1ba<\/a>; Felix Petyrek<\/a>; and Bart\u00f3k, represented by two pieces including the lengthy\u00a0Night’s Music.\u00a0<\/em>All that becomes a preface, however, for what follows:\u00a0an unprecedentedly\u00a0large\u00a0selection of\u00a0Vienna school composers, including\u00a0Sch\u00f6nberg, Joself Hauer’s\u00a0Zw\u00f6lft\u00f6nspiel, <\/em>Webern, K\u0159enek, Wellesz, Hanns Jelinek<\/a>, and\u00a0Hans Erich Apostel<\/a>.<\/p>\n And the collection\u2014presumably in its expanded 1968 version\u2014ends with Darmstadt: Roman Haubenstock-Ramati<\/a>, Stockhausen, Henri Pousseur<\/a>, and Boulez’s\u00a0Sigle.\u00a0<\/em>It is hard to imagine a more doctrinaire anthology: this is the Museum of Modern Art of piano anthologies, didactic in its insistence on the Vienna school and Darmstadt, and inclusive only when its diversity fits the program.<\/p>\n \u00a01977<\/p>\n Tarka-Barka: A Microcosmic Collection of New and Extraordinary Pieces for Piano<\/em> [by Hungarian composers], edited by Marianne Te\u00f6ke (Editio Musica Budapest).<\/p>\n 1978<\/p>\n Waltzes by 25 Contemporary Composers,<\/em> edited by Robert Helps and Robert Moran (Peter, 1978)<\/p>\n 1979<\/p>\n 21 X 11: 12 Original Compositions Written by 11 Contemporary Composers,\u00a0<\/em>edited by Maurice Hinson (Hinshaw Music)<\/p>\n This is a populist anthology, mainly\u00a0American neoclassicism and regionalism, with a sampling of Sch\u00f6nberg and Stravinsky. It’s odd to see two of Sch\u00f6nberg’s\u00a0Six Little Pieces<\/em> Op. 19 alongside unbearable nostalgic\u00a0patriotic folksy pieces like Arthur Farwell’s\u00a0Approach of the Thunder God<\/em> (one of those pieces that seems to associate Native Americans, or at least the uncivilized Americas, with 4\/4 drumbeats) and Ross Lee Finney’s\u00a0Medley: Campfire on the Ice.\u00a0<\/em>The notion seems to have been to make the easiest possible nod to contemporary music\u2014Hinson has even given a title to one of Stravinsky’s untitled pieces for children, calling it\u00a0Siciliana\u2014<\/em>while also providing all the material for an unchallenging night at the piano.<\/p>\n Still, as usual, there are some interesting unusual pieces: Carlisle Floyd’s\u00a0Night Song\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Waltz\u00a0<\/em>are simple\u00a0but subtle pieces done in imitation of Bart\u00f3k and of modernist waltzes; Darius Milhaud’s\u00a0Sorocaba,\u00a0<\/em>Karol Szymanowski’s\u00a0Prelude in B Minor,<\/em> and\u00a0Vladimir Rebokov’s\u00a0Dancing Demons\u00a0<\/em>are better than average set-pieces; and Virgil Thomson’s\u00a0Homage to Marya Freund and to the Harp<\/em> is a well-constructed\u00a0blend of harp and piano sounds.<\/p>\n 1981<\/p>\n 20th Century Composers: Intermediate Piano Book<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(Peters, 1981)<\/p>\n 1983 (ca.)<\/p>\n Das neue Klavierbuch<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a03 vols. (Schott, c. 1983).<\/p>\n Here I continue my notes on Das neue Klavierbuch,<\/em> which was first published as a single volume in 1948. (See above.)<\/p>\n In what is currently volume 3, after two pieces by Ligeti,\u00a0all the succeeding pieces are copyrighted between 1980 and 1983. I\u00a0assume this is the material used in the latest expansion, one that took Das neue Klavierbuch<\/em> from 2 volumes to 3.<\/p>\n Assuming the additions begin with Hans-Werner Henze’s Ballade,<\/em> there may be an intentional echo of Hindemith’s\u00a0In einer Nacht<\/em> that begins volume 3: both are serious, meditative pieces. Henze’s is marked “sehr Zart” (“very tender”) and Hindemith’s is subtitled “Phantastisches Duett zweier B\u00e4ume vor dem Fenster” (Fantastical duet of two branches in front of the window”).\u00a0These two, in turn, recall\u00a0Bart\u00f3k’s\u00a0Volkslied<\/em> that opens volume 2: the entire collection evokes a kind of thoughtful, slow,\u00a0dissonant modernism, relieved by modernist marches, mazurkas, and other dance pieces. It would be possible to play a selection from the three volumes as a kind of composition in its own right, in with slow movements alternating with scherzo-style fast movements.<\/p>\n This last volume\u00a0also has some excellent unusual choices, such as Wilhem Killmayer<\/a>‘s\u00a0Nocturne III<\/em> from\u00a0An John Field<\/em> (which I have not been able to find), the American composer No\u00ebl Lee<\/a>‘s Intervalle,\u00a0<\/i>two pieces from Hans Werner Henze’s\u00a0Sechs St\u00fccke f\u00fcr junge Pianisten,<\/em>\u00a0and a lovely elegy by a lesser-known Romanian composer named Friedrich Wanek<\/a>. The third volume, and the entire anthology, ends with two more obscure choices: ![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.20.54-PM-804x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>This is a good starting place for post-war anthologies because it is a resum\u00e9 of stock pieces of the popular salon literature of the first half of the century, with a couple of anomalous avant-garde pieces thrown in to ensure it appeared up-to-date.<\/p>\n
\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.21.01-PM-836x1024.jpg\")
The anthology is organized according to nationality, and\u00a0it’s striking that the few dissonant compositions are by Americans or composers living in America: Roy Harris’s\u00a0Little Suite <\/em>and Ernst K\u0159enek’s\u00a0The Moon Rises.\u00a0<\/em>There are also the obligatory pieces by Bart\u00f3k, but nothing from the Vienna school: the European avant-garde is represented by Richard Strauss and Scriabin, especially the exemplary late\u00a0Po\u00ebme\u00a0<\/em>Op. 69 no. 1, which stands in for the late sonatas.<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.21.20-PM-772x1024.jpg\")
Shostakovich’s\u00a0Polka\u00a0<\/em>from\u00a0l’Age d’or\u00a0<\/em>is included, no doubt as a “grotesque” piece (Lukas Foss’s\u00a0Grotesque Dance<\/em> is also here), without any awareness of Shostakovich’s\u00a0bitterness or irony.<\/p>\n
\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.20.37-PM-813x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>This is one of the most versatile American anthologies. It is regionalist and populist,\u00a0but also contemporary (many pieces were composed within five years of publication), so it represents mid-twentieth century North American taste quite well.<\/p>\n
\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-06-at-3.15.49-PM-798x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>This was first published in the U.S. in\u00a01961, according to WorldCat, so it would have been received very differently than in Germany in 1948. The original publication date suggests it\u00a0would have been known in Darmstadt; the North American publication date\u00a0suggests it could have been seen at Princeton.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>contained the current volumes 1 and everything in volume 2 except the final piece. The final piece of volume 2 was copyrighted in 1951, and so are the opening pieces in volume 3. So I assume those were additions made sometime around 1953. Then the current, three-volume series would have been done around 1983 and not subsequently revised; I review it separately under that date.<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.20.18-PM-831x1024.jpg\")
Volume 2 is a serious selection of works mainly from the 1920s, with a couple from the 1940s. It opens with the Volkslied<\/em> from Bart\u00f3k’s\u00a0Zehn leichte Klavierst\u00fccke,<\/em>\u00a0unusually simple piece. It would be interesting to know why it was chosen: perhaps its bareness made it less liable to be associated with the “bad” ethnographer and folk-musician Bart\u00f3k, but also not exclusively with the “good” dissonant, percussive composer of the Fourth String Quartet<\/em> and the\u00a0Piano Sonata<\/em>.<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-06-at-3.15.55-PM-766x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-06-at-3.16.04-PM-756x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-06-at-3.16.42-PM-797x1024.jpg\")
This is subtitled “Easy, Original Pieces by Contemporary Composers”; the composers’ birth dates range from the 1880s (Bart\u00f3k, Marion Bauer<\/a>, Ernst Toch<\/a>) to the 1920s (Robert Starer<\/a>, Yoshinao Nakada<\/a>).<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-06-at-3.16.46-PM-792x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>The Austrian-born American composer Robert Starer<\/a> (1924-2001) is represented by two pieces, one of them a chromatically inventive Chorale:<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-06-at-3.16.54-PM-776x1024.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-06-at-3.17.00-PM-783x1024.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.24.16-PM-785x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>This series is one of the most obscure twentieth-century anthologies of piano music. Even with addall.com and amazon, it is nearly impossible to find some of the titles. There are\u00a0some very obscure titles and composers, and the series has a complex publishing history. It’s harder than usual to collect because most, or all, were issued in 2 vols., and they have become separated. (I have marked the ones I have not seen.)\u00a0Does anyone know what the full list of countries is? Was Neue Sowjetische Klaviermusik<\/em> ever published? Anyone find it on the internet? It\u2019s strange to have such puzzles in this day and age.<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.24.43-PM-804x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.24.26-PM-739x1024.jpg\")
The first volume is discussed in another post<\/a>. Volume 2 also has some outstanding pieces, especially a thoughtful slow three-part fugue by Zeno Vancea<\/a>:<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.24.36-PM-805x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.23.30-PM-798x1024.jpg\")
Volume 1 is a collection\u00a0of pieces heavily influenced by Bart\u00f3k, and mainly at the level of\u00a0Mikrokosmos<\/em> volume 3. An exception is Bo\u017eidar Kunc’s (1903-1964)\u00a0Draga pri\u010da\u00a0<\/em>(The Favorite Fairy Tale<\/em>), which owes its harmonies to Debussy.<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.23.37-PM-743x1024.jpg\")
In the Introduction, Rudolf L\u00fcck dates the inception of modernism to the\u00a0Muzicki Biennale<\/em> in Zagreb in 1961, although he also notes that “this influence has been mostly restricted to composers of northern Yugoslavia.” Volume 2 ends with the most difficult piece,\u00a0Dialogue<\/em> by Ivo Malec<\/a>, which shows the influence of Stockhausen (Malec has also been compared to Xenakis).<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.24.02-PM-789x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.23.56-PM-726x1024.jpg\")
I have vol. 1; I can’t find vol. 2. Highlights here include Rudolph Ganz<\/a>‘s\u00a0Three Rubes<\/em> (1920), which is written on three staves, each with a different key signature (see the scan below); Roger Vuataz<\/a>‘s\u00a0Question-Response <\/em>(1968), which is written in a compound meter (“2\/4 3\/4 4\/4”); and Hugo Pfister’s\u00a0Crystallizations <\/em>(1968).<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.24.08-PM-749x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.23.43-PM-786x1024.jpg\")
I have vol. 2; I can’t find vol. 1. In contrast to the Soviet-bloc volumes, this is full of spiky avant-garde compositions, by Peter Schat<\/a>, Otto Ketting<\/a>, L\u00e9on Orthel<\/a>\u00a0(below),\u00a0Hans Kox<\/a>, and others.<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.23.50-PM-735x1024.jpg\")
There is even a double-page fold-out: Daan Manneke<\/a>‘s\u00a0Polychroon\u00a0<\/em>(1978); it makes me wonder if the Dutch government helped subsidize this volume.<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.24.21-PM-660x1024.jpg\")
This is another two-volume set that is mainly Soviet-approved material, so it’s heavy on folk music and harmless or wholesome narrative themes, and there is a relative absence of technically difficult music. There are several good pieces for beginning pianists in volume 1, such as Konstantin Iliev<\/a>‘s\u00a0The Hen Laid an Egg,<\/em> Alexander Raitschev’s<\/a>\u00a0The Angry Rooster,<\/em> and Dieter Nenov<\/a>‘s\u00a0Melody<\/em>. Volume 2 also has a couple of wonderful pieces: a disconsolate, lyrical\u00a0and\u00a0dissonant Lullaby<\/em> by the very skilled composer\u00a0Pantscho Wladigeroff<\/a>\u00a0(Pancho Kharalanov Vladigerov; he is also represented in the\u00a0UE-Buch der Klaviermusik des 20. Jahrhunderts<\/em>, published in 1968), \u00a0and an\u00a0Elegy<\/em> by Krassimir K\u00fcrktschijski.<\/p>\n
\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.23.01-PM-774x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.23.10-PM-725x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>This is a fascinating anthology. It is the final volume of a series of piano music; the title page lists an Editorial Staff of 4\u00a0and an Advisory Board of 17, including Leonard Bernstein, Vincent Persichetti, Van Cliburn, Norman Dello Joio, Roger Sessions, Rudolph Serkin, and Aaron Copland. My copy is a hardbound volume with over 150 pages of music.<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.23.17-PM-765x1024.jpg\")
Sch\u00f6nberg is also in the volume, immediately after Riegger’s “chapter,” and following a reproduction of Egon Schiele’s 1917 portrait. Significantly, Webern is placed at the very end of the book\u2014implicitly, he’s the culmination of all 9 volumes of piano music. He is represented by the\u00a0Variationen f\u00fcr Klavier\u00a0<\/em>Op. 27; “Variation” (i.e. movement) 3. (More on that piece elsewhere<\/a> on this blog.)<\/p>\n
\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.21.46-PM-800x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>This is an expanded version of the\u00a0The UE Piano Book<\/em> (1951); the editor says the book reflects “the various styles and manners of the piano music of our time: the dodecaphony of the Vienna School, neoclassicism, the folkloristic influence, educational music in its best sense and, finally, today’s avant-garde.” If we subtract “educational music,” because it is not a style, and “today’s avant-garde,” because it does not discriminate itself from the previous entries, we get three options for contemporary music: the Vienna school, neoclassicism, and “folkloric influence”\u2014meaning music of the Soviet bloc.<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.21.53-PM-732x1024.jpg\")
All that was presumably in the original 1951 edition, which may therefore have been the most extensive collection of piano music from the Vienna school. From there the anthology drifts toward composers influenced by Prokofiev and Stravinsky, such as the Austrian opera composer Gottfried von Einem<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the Swiss composers\u00a0Willy Burkhard<\/a>\u00a0and Frank Martin<\/a>. The French school is scarcely mentioned (there is one piece by Milhaud). The anthology continues with lesser-known composers in the general orbit of Vienna: the interesting Bulgarian composer Pantscho Wladigeroff<\/a>\u00a0(or Vladigerov<\/a>, 1899-1978), the Belgian Marcel Poot<\/a> (1901-1978), the Romanian Rudolf Wagner-R\u00e9geny<\/a> (1903-1969), Boris Blacher<\/a> (1903-1979), and the Italian Angelo Paccagnini<\/a> (1930-1999).<\/p>\n
\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.21.27-PM-809x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>I would love to know more about this crazy anthology. It seems to be exclusively Hungarian composers from the 1970s who use non-conventional notation in their pieces.There is no introduction. The composers’ notational inventions are all listed together at the beginning, as if they shared them, but they don’t. Some are commonly used; the editor remarks of the rest “we would like them to become generally known.” The echo of\u00a0Mikrokosmos<\/em> in the title suggests a pedagogic initiative.<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.21.33-PM-808x1024.jpg\")
Many of the pieces are very short (a half-page, or less), and seem to be demonstrations of some notation or acoustical possibility. Except for Kurt\u00e1g, the\u00a0composers are very obscure: L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Borsody, Attila Bozay<\/a> (1939-1999), Lajor Husz\u00e1r, Mikl\u00f3s Kocs\u00e1r<\/a> (b. 1933), Gy\u00f6rgy Kurt\u00e1g<\/a>\u00a0(b. 1926), and J\u00f3szef Soproni<\/a>. (See the Hungarian Composers site<\/a> for some details.)<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-09-at-12.21.39-PM-820x1024.jpg\")
Few of the compositions could stand on their own. What was this all about? Did they all know one another? What prompted this collection, in 1977, in Budapest?<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
![\n<\/a>](\"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-06-at-3.16.42-PM.jpg\"){kind=link}