Best Collection for Adult Piano Students: 30 of the most important and beloved classical piano pieces

Why this collection?

These are the editions I created and use for myself and my adult piano students. They are not "arrangements" or simplifications in any way. They are better described as "clarifications" with clean page layouts and comprehensive fingering.

These editions enable students to encounter the composers "face to face" by stripping away antiquated publishing conventions. Traditional editions, especially the economical older ones, prevent students from being able to prepare and perform the beloved music, rather than enabling and supporting successful performance.

Traditional piano music publications suffer from two fatal flaws: (1) the economic need to "save paper" resulting in page layouts that are too dense, and which compound the problem by obfuscating the natural 2 and 4 bar structures of music, and (2) the absence of technical solutions (fingering).

The exception in this collection is the arrangement of the Pachelbel Canon in D, because it was not originally composed for keyboard.

Contents

1 Canon in D and#8195; and#8195; and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;Johann Pachelbel

2 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, BWV 846 and#8195; and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;Johann Sebastian Bach

3 Prelude No. 2 in C minor, BWV 847 and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;Johann Sebastian Bach

4 Prelude No. 21 in Bb Major, BWV 866 and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;Johann Sebastian Bach

5 Aria from the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 and#8195;and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;Johann Sebastian Bach

6 Invention No. 1 in C Major, BWV 772 and#8195; and#8195;and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;Johann Sebastian Bach

7 Menuet No. 2 from French Suite No. 1, BWV 812 and#8195;and#8195;and#8195; Johann Sebastian Bach

8 Menuet No. 2 from English Suite No. 4, BWV 809 and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;Johann Sebastian Bach

9 Menuet from French Suite No. 2, BWV 813 and#8195; and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;Johann Sebastian Bach

10 ?Jesu, Joy of Man?s Desiring?, from Cantata, BWV 147 and#8195;Johann Sebastian Bach

11 Sarabande from Suite in D minor, HWV 437 and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195; George Frideric Handel

Sonata in A, K. 331 ?Rondo alla Turca? and#8195; and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

12and#8195;and#8195;III. Allegretto

Sonata in C, K. 545 and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

13and#8195;and#8195;I. Allegro

14 II. Andante

15 F�r Elise and#8195; and#8195; and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195; Ludwig van Beethoven

Sonata No. 14 ?Moonlight? Sonata and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;Ludwig van Beethoven

16and#8195;and#8195;I. Adagio sostenuto (transposed to D minor)

and#8195;and#8195; I. Adagio sostenuto (original key C# minor)

Sonata Op. 13, No. 2 ?Pathetique? and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195; Ludwig van Beethoven

17and#8195;and#8195;I. Grave/Allegro

18and#8195;and#8195;II. Adagio

19 Impromptu, Op. 90, No. 2 and#8195; and#8195; and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195; Franz Schubert

20 Prelude in E minor, Op. 28 and#8195; and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195; Fr�d�ric Chopin

21 Prelude in C minor, Op. 28 and#8195; and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195; Fr�d�ric Chopin

22 Nocturne No. 20 in C# minor and#8195; and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195; Fr�d�ric Chopin

23 Nocturne in Eb, Op. 9, No. 2 and#8195; and#8195; and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195; Fr�d�ric Chopin

24 Tr�umerei Op. 15, No. 7 from ?Scenes from Childhood? Robert Schumann

25 St�ndchen (?Serenade?) D. 957/S. 560 and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195; Franz Schubert/Franz Liszt

26 R�verie and#8195; and#8195; and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;Claude Debussy

27 La fille aux cheveux de lin (?The Girl with the Flaxen Hair?) Claude Debussy

28 Arabesque No. 1 and#8195; and#8195; and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;Claude Debussy

29 Clair de Lune and#8195; and#8195; and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195; Claude Debussy

30 Gymnopedie and#8195; and#8195; and#8195; and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195;and#8195; Erik Satie

Recorded by Nicolas Horvath on Grand Piano records (GP822)

Debussy?s friendship with the versatile poet and playwright Gabriel Mourey began in 1899, and in July 1907 Mourey offered Debussy a libretto based on Le roman de Tristan - Joseph B�dier?s adaptation of a twelfth-century Breton romance by the Anglo-Norman poet known as Thomas - which had recently been published in Paris. Debussy enthusiastically outlined the four-act plot to Victor Segalen that October, and the main differences from Wagner?s Tristan und Isolde are that none of the action takes place in Cornwall and that ?Isolde of the White Hands? is found guilty of cuckolding King Marc with Tristan, who has to rescue her from the leper colony in which she is abandoned in Act 1. She also betrays him when he goes mad at the end.

The idea of a Tristan that restored its ?legendary character? and had no connections with Wagner, appealed to Debussy, who was extremely moved by the circumstances of Tristan?s death. Even if he thought that Mourey?s poetry was ?not very lyrical and many passages do not exactly ?invite? music?, he did work on the libretto and the music that summer and sent his publisher, Jacques Durand, ?one of the 363 themes for the ?Roman de Tristan?? in a letter sent from Pourville on 23 August, 1907. The present prelude grows from this theme, together with the poignant Breton folksong ?Le Faucon?. After a short atmospheric introduction, Debussy?s dance-like theme (which is definitely not a leitmotif) gradually gains momentum and after it reaches its ecstatic climax, representing the transient happiness of the lovers, it dissolves into an expressive coda and an elegiac close (all growing from Debussy?s opening, off-stage trumpet calls), leaving us with the ultimate tragedy of their ill-fated affair.

Unfortunately, Mourey?s actual libretto has been lost and the project eventually foundered because B�dier?s cousin, Louis Artus, wanted Debussy to use the scenario he had prepared and copyrighted for the stage, and would not allow him to proceed with Mourey?s version. Debussy, it need hardly be said, would never have dreamed of collaborating with the author of the vaudeville hit La culotte (The pants)!

Robert Orledge