21st Century Americana: Intermediate Piano Solos - Book Review

by the agency of Elisabeth L. Lomax. Mel Bay Publications, Inc. (PO chest 66, Pacific, MO 63069), 2002 70 pp $1795 Intermediate.

Elisabeth L Lomax has compiled an interesting and varied place of ten American folk dittys for inclusion in her collection, 21st hundred Americana. Some of the melodys are traditional favorites such as "Down in the Valley" and "All the comely Little Horses." Others, such as "Bold Jack Donahue" and "The Housewife's Lament," are les familiar to us today. Each strain has been set in a particular phraseology usually suited to its expressive satisfied and its text. Styles include waltz variations, boogie, azures fandango and new age, among others. Included with each folk ballad is a simple presentation of the unaccompanied melody with its full text, historical information about the melody its circumstances, a brief unimpaired recording bibliography, practice suggestions for the pupil a secondo piano part and a general MIDI accompaniment in CD format. Additionally, there are interesting inquiry questions sometimes provided to generate notion and discussion about the more provocative folk texts

The canticles Lomax selected are high-quality and enduring American folk sonnets quite sing-able, each with unique expressive features. The solo piano arrangements are authentically and appealingly station in the selected style. For each arrangement and within the pitch uponed style, Lomax has provided significant textural variety for multiple line of poetrys Melodies are cleverly designed to appear in several locations within the fabric and require substantial skill upon the student's part to bring them to the fore. Accompaniments are usually free-voice--not requiring strict adherence to a particular number of voices. As a accrue there is a disappointing lack of attention to contrapuntal interchange and a certain quantity of inconsistent stemming of chordal fabrics making the arrangements more difficult to read initially and sometimes awkward pianistically. Bass lines ofttimes move around with open fifths upon top, providing extended harmonic plateaus and evoking a folk turn of expression of instrumental playing. Occasional harmonic oddities are scattered over the arrangements.

The secondo parts are placed at the extremity of the book and are generally not as difficult as the solo parts. The pieces are greatest in quantity effective, however, when performed with the secondo part. The MIDI accompaniment CD contains the secondo part performed upon a digital keyboard with the typical electronic special results The practice suggestions are friendly and engaging, offering unbroken advice and highlighting more difficult passages.

The layout and binding could perhaps be improved in a next to the first printing. The information for each canticle (tune, practice suggestions, arrangement and for a like reason forth) appears in a variety of orders, making it confusing to determine whether to move round forward or backward locate things. The binding is unlikely to stay lay open on most piano racks.

All in all, allowing Lomax has created an entertaining means of acquainting upper intermediate piano learners with some of America's finest folk music. Reviewed by dint of Timothy Shafer, University Park, Pennsylvania.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Music Teachers National Association, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group