Why collaborate?(collaborative piano program in music education)

A challenge to recruiting serious young pianists into a collaborative piano program is convincing them of the merits of a program other than piano performance. The value of collaborative work is sometimes less than obvious, and so the first course of action is to promote the idea that "piano literature" should encompass all music written for the instrument. There is much these works and the collaborative experience can teach aspiring soloists.

Working with vocal literature is the best way for any musician to understand the dramatic nature of music. Vocal music has an advantage in that the text tells us what the music is about. This can teach us to recognize musical gestures that illustrate very specific actions, thoughts or feelings as revealed by the words--see any Schubert Sonata, for example.

As students, we have all been told to "sing" on the piano and that all of Mozart's music is "operatic." Unfortunately, such statements are rarely followed by insightful explanations of their truth. When asked to explain what it means to play in a singing manner, the most common responses are "legato" and with a "beautiful tone." While these are elements of good singing, what makes singing engaging is the diction: the sounds and slight rhythmic manipulations brought about by the dramatic expression of words. "Singing" at the keyboard is to play in a way that implies the intimacy of language. This is best learned through collaboration with vocalists.

A familiarity with opera is invaluable to any musician. Most of the great composers aspired to be successful in opera. Beethoven, Schubert, even Schumann had ambitions in this area and always thought in dramatic terms. Mozart's piano music is understood to be operatic if one is aware of the ways in which he paints emotions and psychology of characters in the music. The piano concerti, for example, are probable character studies for the operas. Chopin's love of Mozart, bel canto opera and the human voice is well documented. His concerti are often criticized as failures of orchestration and form, yet knowledge of the bel canto literature reveals these to be exemplary in their ...