Re: GG Mozart was a bad composer...

["Anne Smith" <smithqa@nexicom.net>]

-Brad wrote:


>
>What was the feeling there about playing CPE Bach?  Both Mozart and Haydn
>revered him as their great role model.  Are any of his sonatas ever heard
in
>RCM exams?  Some of them are more difficult to play well than many of the
>Beethoven sonatas.  Heck, they even come with a full-length instruction
>manual by the composer.

Sonata in A+ 1st. movement is listed for Grade 9 .  Sonata in F+ 3rd.
movement is in the Syllabus for Grade 6.  Neither piece is in the official
publication for said grade.  I've taught a lot of his music in the lower
grades, but if a student is going to do well on an exam, he/she needs to
play J.S. Bach for the Baroque section .(In the higher grades.) I remember
reading for a history exam about the major influence CPE had on the
Classical composers and wondering why nobody ever played his music.


>
>(Speaking of wonderful and essential treatises about musicianship, what
>percentage of piano students ever read Quantz's 1752 book, _On playing the
>flute_?  2%?  0.5%?  Even if one never touches a flute, it's possible to
>learn far more from reading that book thoughtfully than from slaving away
in
>a piano practice room....)

I have to admitt that I've never heard of this book.  I'll look for it.

>Of course, there's always that axiom that anything by Beethoven is Great
>Music, and anything by CPE Bach (except that Solfeggietto) is Unknown
Music.

If you teach piano long enough Solfeggietto is right up there with Fur Elise
and The Entertainer for making you want to reach for your ear plugs!

>And there's also the axiom that a Great Pianist is measured by the ability
>to play the mainstream Great Music; the Unknown Music is mainly for
>specialists.  Axioms can be pretty limiting.

Maybe this is why we are attracted to Glen Gould!

Anne