Research Catalog

Title

Piano notes : the world of the pianist / Charles Rosen.

Author

Rosen, Charles, 1927-2012.

Publication

New York : Free Press, [2002], ©2002.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

x, 246 pages : illustrations; 23 cm

Summary

• "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.

Subject

Piano > Performance

Note

• Includes index.

Contents

Body and mind -- Listening to the sound of the piano -- The instrument and its discontents -- Conservatories and contests -- Concerts -- Recording -- Styles and manners.

ISBN

0743203828

LCCN

2002069634

OCLC

• ocm49679727
• SCSB-14535299

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries