Best known for his keyboard sonatas, the music of Soler shows the influence of Scarlatti without imitating it, including the sounds of Spanish dances and Italian influences. This sonata is a radiantly joyful, merry and mischievous, lively and light musical celebration. It is in 3/8 time, with running 16th notes, ornamentation, and nice dynamic contrasts.

This new series features carefully selected performance repertoire of the great masters from all eras. Each piece is accessible to students and creates a feeling of accomplishment. Diverse in style and expression, each selection features melodic, rhythmic, or harmonic patterning to allow for ease in teaching and memorization. The CD, performed by Valery Lloyd-Watts, provides a powerful auditory tool for musical interpretation. Lloyd-Watts studied at the Conservatory of Music in Toronto and the Royal College of Music in London. She earned a Master of Music degree from the University of Wisconsin, where she studied with Paul Badura-Skoda. She co-authored the text Studying Suzuki Piano: More than Music, which was endorsed by Dr. Suzuki.

This book is a study and critical edition of Mendelssohn's composition exercise book from his early period of study with Carl Friedrich Zelter (1819-1821). The workbook illustrates in considerable detail the young musician's struggle to master the rules of part writing and principles of counterpoint. Much of Zelter's systematic teaching method is grounded in the eighteenth-century theoretical tradition of Berlin; not surprisingly, the exercises bear the stamp of the music of J. S. Bach, which heavily influenced such Berlin musicians as C. P. E. Bach, C. F. C. Fasch, Marpurg, Kirnberger, Zelter and Mendelssohn. There is little doubt that the historicist attitude of the mature Mendelssohn - as seen in his efforts to revive the works of Bach and Handel and in his propensity toward strict contrapuntal techniques in his own music - was conditioned by these studies with Zelter. The publication of the workbook sheds new light on the early development of one ofthe most important nineteenth-century composers who, though affected by the new wave of romanticism that swept over Europe, never lost his respect for the past. No less important, the manuscript includes several previously unpublished pieces which rank among Mendelssohn's earliest compositions.

This study is the first to consider all three of Rachmaninoff's careers in detail. After surveying his place in Russian musical history and his creative activity, the author examines, with musical examples, each working chronological order against the background of the composer's life. Among the the many subjects upon which new light is shed are the operas, the songs, and the religious music. Rachmaninoff's remarkable career as a pianist, his style of playing and repertoire are analysed along with his historically important contribution to the gramophone and his work for the reproducing piano. The book includes a survey of his activity as a conductor. There are extensive references to Russian sources and the first appearance of a complete Rachmaninoff disconography is included. This book is the only comprehensive study in any language of the three aspects of Rachmaninoff's musical career and is a stimulating read for music lovers everywhere.

This new series features carefully selected performance repertoire of the great masters from all eras. Each piece is accessible to students and creates a feeling of accomplishment. Diverse in style and expression, each selection features melodic, rhythmic, or harmonic patterning to allow for ease in teaching and memorization. The CD, performed by Valery Lloyd-Watts, provides a powerful auditory tool for musical interpretation. Valery Lloyd-Watts studied at the Conservatory of Music in Toronto and the Royal College of Music in London. She earned a Master of Music degree from the University of Wisconsin, where she studied with Paul Badura-Skoda. She co-authored the text Studying Suzuki Piano: More than Music, which was endorsed by Dr. Suzuki.