Piano Repertoire
J. S. Bach's Little Preludes: The Gateway to Baroque Mastery
Bach’s 18 Little Preludes, too rarely taught and performed, offer an unparalleled window into Bach’s own pedagogy. While Inventions and Sinfonias teach the contrapuntal style and compositional techniques, the Preludes concern themselves with expressive playing. Each one focuses on a specific challenge of technique, touch, style, or character – in a setting so beautiful that the students are meant to enjoy the struggle, as they prepare to tackle the great masterpieces of the Baroque Era. This video is available for download at a nominal fee.
While we teachers often treat the Inventions as mere finger exercises, they are much more than that. Bach wrote them for his own sons to teach, yes, finger independence, but, above all, compositional and contrapuntal techniques. Each one is a little gem, with surprises, puzzles and jokes just waiting to be discovered.
Decoding the Bach Inventions
This talk explores Busoni's influence on how we play and teach the works of J. S. Bach from several perspectives by comparing the various transcriptions of Bach's Chaconne in D Minor; discussing Busoni's understanding of trochaic vs. iambic rhythms and how these shape interpretations; looking at Busoni's editions of Inventions, Sinfonias and the Well-Tempered Clavier, which are still relevant and immensely helpful to today's teachers and students.
RECENT LECTURES
10/06/2020 Lecture and Masterclass, The Piano League
10/2020 "J. S. Bach's Little Preludes: The Gateway to Baroque Mastery.", ISMTA State Convention
10/26/2020 "J. S. Bach's Little Preludes: The Gateway to Baroque Mastery.", SSMTA
11/12/2020 "J. S. Bach's Little Preludes: The Gateway to Baroque Mastery.", Naperville MTA
11/13/2020 Teaching the Roberta Savler Competition Repertoir, CAMTA
11/19/2020 "J. S. Bach's Little Preludes: The Gateway to Baroque Mastery.", Salk Creek MTA
01/18/202` "J. S. Bach's Little Preludes: The Gateway to Baroque Mastery.", Fox Hills MTA
02/22/2021 "J. S. Bach's Little Preludes: The Gateway to Baroque Mastery.", North Shore MTA
03/12/2021 "J. S. Bach's Little Preludes: The Gateway to Baroque Mastery.", Chicago Area MTA
03/22/2021 "J. S. Bach's Little Preludes: The Gateway to Baroque Mastery.", SS MTA
7/20/2020 "Decoding the Inventions" and "J. S. Bach's Little Preludes: The Gateway to Baroque Mastery." The Children's Academy/Lake Michigan Music
01/18/2020 "Psychology of Practice and Performance", Sala Bellini, Catania, Italy