MUP 379/579 CME:PIANO ENS

Spring 2008

PROFESSOR: Mr. Cosand, Room W-254

Phone: (480)965-4254; E-mail: wc@waltercosand.com

Here is important information for those registered for Spring 2008!

Before Instruction Begins

Please send an e-mail message as soon as possible enabling me to learn your current e-mail address. Please attach your schedule. I will teach this course as lessons this semester. If you don’t tell me your schedule I cannot tell you when to come for a lesson. If you want to play with a specific partner or are interested in specific repertoire let me know your requests. Likewise, if you want to let me know confidentially that a certain student would not be a good partner I need to know that.

I will be assigning music the first week; so by the second week I will have a sign on my door telling you when to come for instruction, with whom you will play and which part you should learn. You are responsible to rehearse together once every week in addition to the practice you do individually.

Recital Plans

This is a performance course and I want every student to play publicly. Your grade will depend on your cooperation in this aspect of the course. I have scheduled a program in Katzin Concert Hall for 2:30 p.m., Saturday, April 19, 2008, and most of you will perform at that time.

Learning the Repertoire

This is not ONLY a performance course. Two pianists as an ensemble have a very rich literature of music from which to choose, and I want to make sure that you learn about how much great music we have at our disposal. There are reference books in the music library that are useful for this purpose. For two pianos see Hinson's Music for More Than One Piano (ML 128 .P3H52 1983 Music Ref); for duets McGaw's Piano Duet Repertoire (ML 128 .P3M2 Music Ref). There's also an interesting list of duets in volumes 5 and 6 of Ferguson's Style and Interpretation (M21. F37S9, NOT a reference book). Please note well: in order to get an A for this course, you should cover repertoire (i.e., learn to play it well) at a rate of five works in two semesters. These five works should be chosen with my approval from the following categories: one classical, one French, one Russian, one twentieth-century, and one other. The five pieces should include work at two pianos as well as music for four hands at one piano. Just to give you an example of good repertoire coverage consider this model:

Semester One

Two Fugues for Two Keyboards from "The Art of Fugue" by J. S. Bach

Dolly (complete), Opus 56, by Gabriel Faure, for four hands

Danza de Jalisco, by Aaron Copland, arranged by the composer for two pianos

Semester Two

Sonata in F, K. 497 (complete), by W. A. Mozart, for four hands

Second Suite for Two Pianos, Opus 17 (complete), by Sergei Rachmaninoff

Problems?

See me about problems with this course. I can be reached by phone or by e-mail.