Tuesday, March 24, 2009

A Piano Project I Enjoyed Doing

During my experience in teaching, there were many happenings of solid enjoyment involving my students.
One that I remember was a project I did , called "A Parade of Pianists."
What I did was to write several variations on "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", which I titled "Argument Over a Well - Known Theme."
Each variation was written in the style of a great composer. I used Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, the so-called "mystic chord" of Scriabin, and Prokofiev, in fashioning these variations.
Off stage, the piano students were lined up, each of whom came out on stage to do his or her particular variation, one after the other, in a continuous "parade", after which I completed the cycle by coming out and doing a Lisztian (or Horowitzian) transcription of the well-known theme, with all of the bells and whistles of absolute bravura and hubris, followed by a most enthusiastic reaction from the audience.
It was indeed a bundle of real fun to have done this project, and, above all, an experience of value to me, having been involved with these deserving students, who worked so hard to make it a successful remembrance for themselves.

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