Mr. Severino Presents is going to be an ongoing feature of Blogging at Piano Teacher Press. This feature is JUST FOR STUDENTS.
I do not think any blog on piano would be complete without bringing the piano student into the conversation. The Mr. Severino Presents feature is meant to give piano students some new ideas and expand your way of thinking about your piano music. We will be able to expand on some ideas that time doesn’t allow us in our private lessons.
What I hope YOU will do is to get your friends in touch with this blog so they can share in the fun of learning about music and especially the piano.
One thing I’d like to share is that the music you play shares in the great classical tradition of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. Here is an example by a favorite composer of student compositions Friedrich Burgmuller. If you have not played any of his compositions perhaps you soon will. This one is a favorite with students.
What is common with this piece and with some compositions of the great composers is the FORM of the composition. The Burgmuller Ballade is in ABA FORM. ABA FORM is OREO COOKIE FORM.
The A SECTIONS “sandwich” the composition, in other words, they begin and end the composition with the same musical material.
The middle section, the B SECTION, is brand new musical material. It contrasts the A SECTIONS.
Just like the creamy vanilla center of our OREO contrasts the crunchy chocolate outside cookies the musical material of our A and B SECTIONS contrast each other. How would you describe the CONTRAST between the A and B sections of the Burgmuller Ballade?
Click on the green hypertext to view the manuscript of the Burgmuller Ballade in .pdf format. Burgmuller-Ballade
NOTE: It is recommended that you RIGHT CLICK and choose the selection OPEN LINK IN NEW TAB. This way you can CLICK on the VIDEO and follow along in the .pdf manuscript. There are “sticky notes” included in the manuscript to help you follow along the ABA FORM.
Now let’s see if you can spot the ABA FORM in Chopin’s famous Minute Waltz. This is performed by one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century – Artur Rubinstein.
HINT: Listen for contrasts. The A section is FAST so, what may you expect for the contrasting B SECTION? Can you determine the time that each section begins?
Finally, can you spot the ABA FORM from the very popular Rigaudon movement from Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin.
Click on the Mr. Severino Presents – ABA TIMING ANSWERS to see how well you did in finding the beginning and ending times for the ABA SECTIONS on our 3 musical examples. Mr Severino Presents – ABA TIMING ANSWERS
I hope this little lesson proves the point that the music YOU are learning was drawn from the same great classical tradition that was learned by the very young Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. You, even at the beginning of your study, participate in that grand musical tradition.
Thanks for participating in Mr. Severino Presents. ‘TILL NEXT TIME — KEEP PRACTICING!!
Leave a comment