Polyphony.(Professional Resources)

Q Please provide a list of baroque music with suggested grading and difficulty levels.

A This is the music that sends us dancing! It is impossible to listen to compositions by Scarlatti, for example, for any length of time and not feel buoyant and physically involved. Where do things go wrong? The music seems to be accessible on the page--sometimes textures are not so thick, and many of the early pieces appear as two-voice pieces only. Many of the keys seem to be ones that could be easily accessible. So, the mistake often is to assign pieces that are too hard for the student. The result is that the student then struggles and, perhaps, has a bad experience. From this point on, the teacher may avoid giving the student more pieces from the same style, or the student may develop a dislike for baroque music. It is essential for the teacher to play through and study all scores before assigning them, and this can help avoid the forementioned problems.

What happens if a student misses out playing Bach and baroque music? He bypasses important and wonderful literature that helps develop hand independence, the musical control of individual lines and practice in portraying the inner pulse of the many dances forms of the baroque.

At Levels 3 and 4 of the student's study, I encourage study of many of the minuets and other pieces in two voices from the Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook. In addition, the student probably will play various selections from the dances and miscellaneous pieces of Handel. Most of these are one-page pieces, and the student should play many. The student undoubtedly will also play other miscellaneous pieces by Rameau, Purcell and others.

At Levels 5 and 6, the student…