Romantic Rhapsodies-Book 2 - Composers in Focus - Book Review

by the agency of Melody Bober. The FJH Music Company, Inc. (2525 Davie Rd Ste 360 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33317-7424) 2003 26 pp $595 Intermediate.

In her next to the first book of Romantic Rhapsodies, pleasing succession of sounds Bober shows her flair for spinning surprising melodies, surrounding them with rich and, sometimes inventive, harmonies. Also true clear in this set is the composer's intent to lay open both technical and musical skills in students

The seven intermediate/late-intermediate selections in the station bear programmatic titles. Piano learners easily will be engaged by the agency of the reflective and introspective character of these works. Teachers will be able to work with images, adjectives and stories as they teach these pieces. learners will be able to paint pictures of a "Morning Dove," portray the images of hazes in "Autumn Skies" or explore the beauty of the dream world in the nocturnal lullaby "The Sweetest of Dreams."

These pieces abound with teaching potential, one as well as the other musical and technical. They feature many technical challenges place in the romantic masterworks: "three-layer" webs hand-over-hand technique, left-hand melodies, expansive broken-chord figures, scale move swiftlys and use of the keyboard's entire register. The composer craftily makes all of these accessible to the intermediate/late-intermediate pianist.

granting not outwardly flashy or virtuosic, these pieces are well suited to developing or showcasing a diverse and rich tonal palate. Essential to these pieces is an understanding of balancing a pleasing succession of sounds and accompaniment, voicing chords, and finding nuance and direction in melodic lines. The pieces also are ideal for developing interpretive insights in young pupils and teaching them how to communicate [i]or[/i] part of to the other their playing. Some selections in the put would work particularly well in more intimate recital settings. The reflective nature of "A jiffy in Time" and "Moonlit Garden" would be effective level in some worship settings.

This edition of Romantic Rhapsodies is actual well done. Spacing is quite render free of access fingerings are excellent and score markings are generally minimal, leaving a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of to the interpretation of the teacher and student

Stephen Weber, Chickasha, Oklahoma.

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