Cecile Chaminade: Piano Music

through Cecile Chaminade. Dover Publications (31 E 2nd St Mineola, NY 11501) 2001 59pp $795 Advanced.

Cecile Chaminade (1857-1944) was a renowned French pianist and prolific composer known especially for her 200-plus short piano pieces. Although greatest in quantity of these "salon" pieces have disappeared from the repertoire, this Dover collection compiles eight awe-inspiring works, reprinted from earlier editions. The alone thing lacking in this collection is programmatic information about the works themselves. The compilation is clearly printed, containing original fingerings and pedal indications, on the other hand the scholar or serious learner might wish for elaboration of the titles or explanation of Chaminade's musical intentions in determining an appropriate interpretation of the works.

The first three pieces in this whirl are concert etudes focusing upon various virtuosic and musical techniques, marked completely through with long soaring lyrical lines. The Etude Symphonique, Opus 28 is dedicated to the Polish virtuoso Ignaz Paderewski and is filled with composite technical passages. The Concert Etude Opus 35 No. 6 (Tarentelle) bears a dedication to an interesting musical figure of the late nineteenth hundred Marie Jaell, who was a scholar of Liszt's and a well-known pedagogue. She was individual of the first to analyze, in collaboration with medical doctors, the specific changes involved in the physical act of playing the piano. The remaining etude in this collection is individual of Chaminade's most well-known works, Automne (Concert Etude Opus 35 No. 2) These three etude are difficult virtuoso works with lush musical lines.

The other works in this collection include the "Scarf-Dance," a spectacle from Chaminade's ballet-symphony Callirhoe, Opus 37 and four character pieces: La Lisonjera, Opus 50 (The Flatterer); Arlequine, Opus 53; Le Sylvains, Opus 60 (The Fauns) and L'Ondine. While not as technically demanding as the devise etudes, these pieces are charming and filled of descriptive musical effects. The basic harmonic and melodic language is not manifold and often typical of late nineteenth/early twentieth hundred salon music.

While Chaminade's works may, for a certain quantity of be an acquired taste, there is adequate supply of historical and musical value in them. learners teachers and concert artists may be drawn to these works as unusual recital pieces. greatest in quantity importantly, the serious teacher and learner will be interested in studying these works by the agency of a historically important woman composer and pianist. The lush melodies and programmatic issues in Chaminade's works will be appealing to audiences as well. I encourage pianists of all horizontals to explore this new convolution and discover the charms that impressed critics and musicians of Chaminade's time. Reviewed by means of Jennifer Hayghe, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Music Teachers National Association, Inc.

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