Piano Notes
Subtitle: The World of the Pianist
Publisher: Free Press
Published: October 29, 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9780743203821
Subjects: Keyboard instruments; Performance; Music; Music/Songbooks; Techniques; Piano; Classical; Genres & Styles - Classical; Instruction & Study - Techniques; Musical Instruments - Piano; Music / Classical; Pianos
First sentence: ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS a child is taught when learning the piano is to play a C major scale.
Description: "In Piano Notes, he writes for an audience about an old friend - the piano itself. Drawing upon a lifetime of wisdom and the accumulated lore of many great performers of the past, Rosen shows why the instrument demands such a stark combination of mental and physical prowess. Readers will gather many little-known insights - from how pianists vary their posture, to how splicings and microphone placements can ruin recordings, to how the history of composition was dominated by the piano for two centuries.

Stories of many great musicians abound. Rosen reveals Nadia Boulanger's favorite way to avoid commenting on the performances of her friends ("You know what I think, " spoken with utmost earnestness), why Glenn Gould's recordings suffer from "double-strike" touches, and how even Vladimir Horowitz became enamored of splicing multiple performances into a single recording.

Rosen's explanation of the piano's physical pleasures, demands, and discontents will delight and instruct anyone who has ever sat at a keyboard, as well as everyone who loves to listen to the instrument."--BOOK JACKET.