24 Character Preludes.

by Dennis Alexander. Alfred Publishing Co., Inc. (16320 Roscoe Blvd., P.O. Box 10003, Van Nuys, CA 91410-0003), 2001. 39pp.; $7.50 for book one, $17.50 for book with CD. Late intermediate-early advanced.

This collection of preludes for piano is a treasure waiting to be explored. Composer Dennis Alexander has provided an excellent stepping stone that can assist students with the progression from intermediate-level teaching pieces to the more complex works of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century master composers.

These pieces move through all the major and minor keys. The sequence is in the tradition of J. S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. Each major key is followed by its parallel minor. In every piece, the student is presented with a different challenge. Some of the technical difficulties include a variety of scale passages (including chromatic and whole tone scales), alternating hands, large leaps in the left hand and rolled chords. Musically, these pieces provide a number of pedagogical concepts to explore. The rhythms are complex. Rapidly evolving note values will present issues with keeping a steady tempo. Time signatures include five and nine beats per measure in some pieces. But the most difficult element for many students to face would be key signatures such as B ...