SEVEN PIECES FEATURING FRANCE AND RUSSIA
For your progressing upper intermediate to early advanced students, here’s a short list of pieces to consider for the coming year. Now is a superb time to hunt and find those pieces that you only wish you’d thought of before the new school year begins!
Upper Intermediate to Early Advanced:
Introducing Impressionism-Short single pieces of Ibert, Debussy, and Ravel.
- Ibert: From Histoires: The Little White Donkey, and A Giddy Girl
- well patterned pieces that introduce early impressionism.
- Ravel: Menuet Sur Le Nom D’Haydn, Prelude
- provides not only a work for impressionistic study, but also an excellent first step in octave and larger chord study.
- Debussy: From Album Leaf, Page d’album.
- similar to the Ravel Prelude, an excellent recital piece and pedal study.
- Debussy: Golliwog’s Cake-Walk
- well-patterned. Introduces LH jump patterns. Excellent character piece.
Advancing “pre-college” Repertoire:
There are some pieces in the 20th Century that are foundational in developing both the technical and musical demands for students studying the repertoire in the contemporary literature. Repertoire particularly in this era can get complicated very quickly. Here’s a short to ease your students into the more advanced literature.
- Khachaturian -Toccata
- Prokofiev Prelude in C, Op. 12 No. 7
- Shostakovitch-24 Preludes, Op. 34 (selected)