Music. Learn, enjoy, appreciate.

Some of the most famous classical music of all time has been written for the piano. Mozart’s Rondo Alla Turca, Debussy’s Claire de Lune, Chopin’s Nocturnes, Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, Satie’s Gymnopedies, and Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, to name just a few.

This one-day music appreciation course explores the repertoire and development of the piano, considering its forerunners in the organ and the harpsichord, through technological advances to the instrument we know and love today.

We will listen to some of the most beautiful and thrilling compositions from the piano repertoire, and discover the composers who helped to find the instrument’s voice.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• list some great compositions for the piano
• identify composers who are known for their piano compositions
• list some genres of composition for the piano
• describe some of the features of the construction of the piano
• describe some of the features of the development of the piano.

Content

Topics we will explore:

• The forerunners of the piano: the organ and the harpsichord
• The construction of the piano: strings, hammers, pedals
• The development of the cast-iron frame
• Why the development of the sustain pedal made such a difference
• The first composers for the piano: Haydn and Mozart
• Beethoven’s piano music