Teaching What You Compose and Play

 Tomoko is known for both her piano performance and her piano teaching ability. Those same skills and careers apply to several outstanding classical piano composers. Here is a sampling.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was a prolific teacher who instructed both his family members and university students. His famous collections of keyboard music, such as the Inventions and The Well-Tempered Clavier, were expressly written for instructional purposes. His pedagogy focused on attentive listening, finger independence, clear articulation, and a strong understanding of harmony. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) earned a significant income from teaching piano to members of the nobility to supplement his income from concerts and commissions. His lessons combined performance practice, compositional theory, and technique training, sometimes even during informal settings like billiards. However, Mozart thought he could teach more by simply playing a piece for a student than through verbal instruction alone.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) taught piano lessons throughout his career to supplement his income, especially when he started out and before his hearing loss became severe. His most famous pupil was Carl Czerny, who documented and passed on Beethoven's methods for interpreting his piano works. Czerny's pedagogical approach is considered the foundation of modern piano technique. 

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) earned a significant portion of his income by teaching piano to aristocratic students in Paris. He was a meticulous and passionate teacher who focused on beautiful, expressive tone and fluidity, which he often demonstrated on a second piano. His method emphasized relaxation and natural hand movement, rather than the rigid, mechanical exercises common at the time. Students were taught using works by Bach, Mozart, Hummel, and Chopin himself.

Franz Liszt (1811–1886) was a legendary piano teacher who instructed hundreds of students in his masterclasses. He never charged for his lessons, which was a source of frustration for rival teachers. Rather than drilling technique, he focused on musical interpretation, and he used his lessons to discuss a piece's form, proportion, and emotional character.

Clara Schumann (1819–1896) was a highly regarded pianist and composer – and piano teacher – of the Romantic era.  Her disciplined and traditionalist style of playing, which emphasized a singing tone and clarity, influenced many students.

Classical Piano June Composers

 Happy June birthday to the following classical composers of piano music who were born in June! Tomoko has played the pieces of several of these famous musicians.

Mikhail Glinka was born June 1, 1804, in Novospasskoye, Russia. He is known as the father of Russian classical music. As a child, the first music he heard were church bells (which he didn’t like) and folk songs, which influenced his compositional style, particularly his art songs.

Robert Schumann was born June 8, 1810, in Zwickau, Germany. He wanted to have a career as a virtuoso pianist, but a hand injury dashed that dream. The musical world benefitted as he became a renown composer for piano; in fact, he wrote exclusively for the piano until 1840.

Richard Strauss was born June 11, 1864, in Munich, Germany. He bridged the late Romantic and early modern styles. He is famous for his lieder tone poems piano compositions.

Edward Grieg was born June 15, 1843, in Bergen, Norway. He was both a concert pianist and composer of the Romantic era. His mother was his first piano teacher.

Igor Stravinsky was born June 17, 1882, in Lomonosov, Russia. He is most known for his Firebird suite, The Rite of Spring, Petrushka, and is 1924 Sonata for piano. After his Russian phase, her transitioned to a more austere neoclassical style.

Charles Gounod was born June 18, 1818, in Paris, France. He is best known for his Ave Maria and his “Funeral March of a Marionette,” which was used as the theme song for the TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach was born June 21, 1732, in Leipzig, Germany. He was Johann Sebastian Bach’s ninth son. He wrote mainly keyboard compositions: for sonatas, choir pieces, oratorios, motels, operas, and songs.

Musical Pranks

It's April Fools' Day.: a day of (hopefully harmless) pranks. Musicians and composers have been known to play pranks on the piano. Probably the most famous playful piano perforrmer was the Danish-American pianist and comic Victor Borge.

One piece that Borge liked to perform was a version of Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody (especially the friska section), which is considered a musical comedic classic and has been featured in animated cartoons.

Mozart once wrote an aria for a soprano who tended raise her head for high notes and tuck in her chin for low notes. Mozart hated her, so the nicknamed piece, “The Chicken Dance” in Cosi fan Tutte, featured dramatic fluctuating low and high notes; Mozart took delight in watching the soprano bob her head repeatedly.

More recently, Leroy Anderson is known for his lighthearted compositions, such as The Syncopated Clock. His pieces sometimes featured unlikely instruments such as a typewriter.

Debussy's Carnival of Animals is charming, but how many people realize that his “Tortoises” is actually a very slow version of Offenbach's “Can-Can”?

P. D. Q. Bach is a comedic alias for contemporary composer Peter Schickele. He creates parodies of baroque and classical music, which often employ unusual instruments such as kazoo and slide whistles and even fictional instruments such as the left-handed sewer flute and pastaphone. His humor often draws from odd key changes and inserts of popular music into classical sections.

Violinist Fritz Kreisler played “lost” classical pieces, which she later admitted writing himself. Another violinist, Henri Gustave Casadesus, also wrote faked compositions, supposedly created by Handel and Boccherini.

Some musicians also played practical jokes. For instance, Brahms sketched a fake Beethoven manuscript, and had a street vendor wrap it around a sausage to sell to one of Brahms' friend, who thought he had discovered a lost composition.

Who says composers don't have a sense of humor?

Praising Easter through Music

When Tomoko was in college, she played the organ for Catholic masses. Easter is the most important event in Catholicism, and music has been an important part of Mass throughout the ages, including at Easter. Here are some representive samples of classical pieces for Easter.

Probably the most famous classical piece played at Easter is Handel's Messiah, particularly the “Hallelujah” chorus. The entire composition, which traces the highlights of Jesus's life, took Handel 14 years to finalize, in 1741.

Over a hundred years earlier, in the 1630s, Italian composer Gregorio Allegri set the Latin text of Psalm 51 to music, Miserere mei, Deus, for two choirs. Pope Urban VIII first used it for Holy Week services in the Sistine Chapel.

Bach's first major composition for Easter was St. John Passion, written in 1724 for that year's Good Friday Vespers service. Bach used John 18 and 19's account of Christ's crucifixion as the basis for his masterpiece.

St. Matthew Passion, also written by Johann Sebastian Bach, is often played at Easter because it is the story of Christ's suffering and death. It was performed only three times in the 18^th century, and not performed again until almost a hundred years later.

One more Bach piece, his Easter Oratorio, was first conceived as a cantata for Easter Sunday in 1725.

Even though Haydn was an Austrian composer, his orchestral work The Seven Last Words of Christ (which Haydn also approved in piano version) was written for the 1786 Good Friday service at Oratoria de la Santa Cueva in Spain.

Mahler's 1894 Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, evokes the beauty of that event. At the same time, this piece has both its light and dark moments.

Rimsky-Korsakov's 1888 Russian Easter Festival Overture evokes a grand Easter morning service.

While it is often associated with the American South, the song “Amazing Grace” dates back to 1779, written by John Newton: a clergyman in the Church of England. Poet William Cowper collaborated with him on this hymn.

The more contemporary hymn “How Great Thou Art,” often sung at Easter, was actually based on a traditional Swedish folk tune.

Bring Harmony to 2024

What better way to bring in the new year than with music? And piano music offers a way for an individual to kinesthetically set the tone for the upcoming 365 days. 

The new year is a time of creation. As the 18th century was coming to a close, Joseph Haydn wrote the sacred oratorio The Creation to depict the creation of the world. While it was originally scored for voice and symphonic orchestra, it has also been arranged for solo and four-hand piano. 

J. S. Bach thought systematically about the year, not surprisingly; “In dir ist Freude” is a gladsome way to herald the new year. This chorale prelude is one of the preludes collected in Bach’s Orgelbüchlein, which marks various points in the liturgical year. 

Particularly in Vienna, people welcome the new by clapping to Johann Strauss’s Radetzky March, composed in 1848. It can be arranged for piano solo and duets. The Champagne Polka is another selection by Johann Strauss that fits for New Year’s Eve parties. He wrote the piece as a little joke, imitating the sound of champagne bottles being uncorked. While the piano version does not “pop” as convincingly, it still captures the spirit of the pol,ka 

Since 1936 musicians gather to perform at New Year’s concert in Vienna, and Johann Strauss II’s Pizzicato Polka was played that first year. Another piece by Strauss II performed at the first concert was Die Fledermaus Overture of his famous opera. This Strauss’s Blue Danube is another piece performed at the New Year’s concert, often as an encore. All three pieces have been arranged for the piano. 

The modern English composer Ernest Tomlinson appreciated light classical music. In 1976 he created Fantasia on Auld Lang Syne, which uses that traditional song as the main theme, but also weaves in snippets of other 150 other pieces. Another orchestral composition, it has also been scored for the piano.  

May 2024 be harmonious…. 

Spirited Classical Piano Pieces

 At Halloween time, classical piano music may be very spirited – as in eerie. Here is a sampling, which may have surprising popular culture connetoins.

Viewers of Disney's 1940 movie Fantasia witnessed an abstract visual interpretation of Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D minor. The opening chords followed by a rippling effect are hard to forget.

Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata Opus 27, was written at the start of the 19^th century. The nickname of the piece, bestowed after Beethoven's death, alluded to a musical suggestion of moonlight reflected off a German lake. Even without the moonlight, the tone of the piece is ghostly.

Schubert is known for his lieder. His 1815 piece The Elf King was based on a Goethe poem. The rushing sound evokes haunted galloping horses, and may be heard in some horror films.

Chopin's Funeral March (Piano Sonata no. 2) was played at Chopin's own funeral – as well as the funerals of John F. Kenny, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. It is often played in the media: from Beetlejuice to cartoons.

Rachmaninoff compared his Prelude in C# minor (Opus 3, no. 2) when he was only 19 years old. Also known as the “Bells of Moscow” because of its bell-like opening. The piece was indirectly inspied by Edgar Allan Poets gothic writing.

One could say that these piano compositions are scary good, which is why they have featured in film as well as concert halls. They can spirit one away...

the Dog Days of Piano Music

 

The phrase “the dog days of summer” has a surprising meaning; it refers to the dog star Sirius that appears at that time of the year just before dawn. Apropos of dogs, though, classical music can have a calming effect on dogs. Here is a sampling.

Starting on a somber note – and one of Tomoko’s favorite composers – Chopin’s Prelude in E minor uses a descending melody line that can act as a way to move a dog to slumberland.

Another one of Tomoko’s favorite composers is Bach. His Air on the G String, with its sustained notes, can soothe a savage beast.

While some movements, such as “Fossils,” of Saint-Saën’s Carnival of the Animals might wake up a sleeping day, to let sleeping dogs lie, “The Swan” movement can work well with its tone of gently rippling water.

Similarly, the “Lullaby” movement from Stravinsky’s 1945 Firebird Suite can put a pooch to sleep – unlike the spritely “Scherzo Dance of the Princesses” movement.

A more recent addition to the composer line-up is Ludovico Einaudi, whose music can remind one of the classics. His piece L’Onde, which was inspired by Virginia Woolf’s novel The Wave (hence the musical title) has a softly flowing rhythm that may seem like a lullaby for your wagging pal.

These lovely pieces can also work on humans….

If Music Be the Food of Love, Play On

 In the play "Twelfth Night," Shakespeare wrote: "If music be the food of love, play on." In reality, food can inspire composers. Tomoko appreciated good food herself, and likely played to fuel her own soul Here is a sampling for you to taste.

Probably the most famous food-related piece -- and comic opera -- is Bach's Coffee Cantata. Bach himself liked coffee, and it is told that this piece was performed in a coffee house. The underlying story tells of a young woman's obsession with coffee, which her father wants to curb. 

Prokofiev's opera (which has been arranged for piano) Love for Three Oranges tells a fanciful tale of a prince cursed by a witch to search for three oranges, and finds love on the way.

Another performance piece, in this case a ballet, that food inspired is Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, especially "The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies." The then new piano-like instrument the celeste, with its high-pitched glittery tone, evoked the crystalline texture of sugar plums.

Schubert was inspired by the unlikely food-related song "The Trout", which used the metaphor of fishing as a girl "hooked" a mate. He transformed the piece into The Trout Quartet, which is performed by a piano and four stringed instruments. The work is rather melancholy, as was Schubert at the time. 

Want to play a piano duet about food? Taste-test Satie's piano suite Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear (which actually includes ten morsels). It's a very playful set of miniatures with a surprising variety of moods. Get you get the joke about pears and (piano) pairs?

The (food) take-away? Food-inspired music can be a buffet of delight to feed the soul.

Here Comes the Bridal Piano

 

In the US, June has been the traditional month for weddings. Music is also a traditional part of weddings, and piano piece figure largely. Here is a sampling, all written by composers whom Tomoko admires.

The traditional standard wedding piece is Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Opus 61: IX. Wedding March.  It is often performed in the movies (perhaps because it is in the public domain). A less known wedding choice composed by Mendelssohn, but very endearing, is his “On Wings of Song.”

Tomoko’s favorite piano composer, Mozart, wrote “Serenade, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, K 525: II. Romanza-Andante.“ Its stately, measured pace give the wedding ceremony sweet gravitas. To set a more lively yet majestic tone, the wedding couple might choose Mozart’s overture to The Marriage of Figaro. Or if the couple wants to exult, they can always choose Mozart’s “Alleluja” from Exsultate, Jubilate, K 165.

Planning an elegant and sophisticated wedding? Then Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Arioso” would set the tone. Tomoko appreciates his timeless structure and use of chords.

Beethoven’s love letter in music, “Fur Elise,” resonates even today, and couples can affirm their own requited love. Tomoko knows that this famous piano piece may serve as a rite of passage for aspiring piano players.

“Claire de lune” from Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque is another favorite (as is Debussy for Tomoko). Its dreamy soft theme creates a lovely background for weddings.

Another romantic choice is Saint-Saens’ “The Swan” from his Carnival of the Animals. Its almost melancholy tone that resolves into a major key reflects the transition from singlehood to couplehood.

Another favorite composer of Tomoko, Edvard Grieg, is known for his “Wedding Day at Troldhauen, Opus 65, No. 6.” It bears a surprising resemblance to The King and I’s “March of the Siamese Children.”

For the bride’s entrance, Strauss’s Radetzky March” Opus 228 makes a bold statement. Strauss’s “Blue Danube” evokes the spirit of Vienna. And while waltzes are not the usual fare at wedding receptions, imagine how lovely the bride and groom would look if this were their first dance.

Tomoko also enjoys the dance music of Brahms. His piece “Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G Minor” strikes a special chord for Tomoko as she married a Hungarian.

Animated Piano

Tomoko enjoys films, and appreciates the music that is incorporated into them. 

One specialized type of film is animated films, which started almost as early as “real life” films. As examples,, Gertie the Dinosaur in 1914 and the first feature-length animated film el Apostol in 1917 greatly attracted audiences. These silent films were often accompanied by piano and organ music, and classical pieces were sometimes used because of their familiarity. Even modern animated films, especially cartoons, continue to incorporate classical pieces. Here is a sampling.

One of most well known cartoons that used classical music was Bugs Bunny’s What’s Opera Doc?, which featured Wagner’s Tannhӓuser chorus. Wagner is less well known for his piano compositions. For instance, his Wesendonck Lieder for piano and voice were studies for Tristan and Isolde.

Several other classical piano pieces have become tropes for cartoons because of their vivid connotations:

·         Rachmaninov’s Prelude in C# Minor

·         Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody

·         Mendelssohn’s “Spring Song” from Leider ohne Worter

·         Rimsky’ Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumble Bee

Probably the first full-length animated movie that comes to mind when linked to classical music is Disney’s 1940 Fantasia. Piano composers who were featured in that movie included:

·         Johann Sebastian Bach with his organ music Toccata and Fugue in D minor

·         Tchaikovsky with his Nutcracker Suite; Percy Grainger arranged the Flower Waltz for piano, and Mikhail Pletnev adapted seven segments of the Nutcracker into a concert suite for piano

·         Paul Dukas with his Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which he also transcribed for two pianos

·         Stravinski with his Rite of Spring, which was also composed as a two-hand and four-hand arrangement

·         Mussorgsky with his Night on Bald Mountain, for which he had written a version for piano and orchestra

·         Franz Schubert with his Ave Maria, for which Franz Liszt arranged in three versions for piano.

 Animated films have helped to popularize classical piano, including exposing children at an early age, to animate their interest. Tomoko would approve.

A Little Travel Music

 

Tomoko has a lifetime love of driving. She bought her first car when she was studying at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and she kept driving to the school during her fifty+ years teaching there.

Composers have also loved cars and used them to inspire their compositions. Here is a sampling of those works.

Probably the best known composition, which has been arranged for piano, is George Gershwin’s 1928 “An American in Paris.” Not surprisingly, the piece was inspired by Gershwin’s time in Paris when he studied with Ravel. The original composition was a jazz-influenced orchestral piece, which even imitated street noises such as taxi horns.

Another French-inspired piano composition, “L’omnibus automobile,” was written by Eric Satie.  This cabaret song, with piano accompaniment, evokes a Bastille Day when an empty bus carrying plaster drove through a crowd.

Frederick Converse was inspired by the early Ford cards in his imagined “The 10 millionth Ford Flivver” orchestral piece. Most of instruments are wind and percussion ones, but an organ is also played.

Even car companies have used classical compositions when naming their models. For instance, Bach’s “24 Preludes” was the inspiration for the Honda Prelude.

Of course, lots of rock and roll music featured cars, such as the Beach Boys and Chuck Berry, but car-inspired music is as class as the cars themselves.

Compose a Museum

 In her travels, Tomoko has visited several museums: Tokyo museums, the Palais Museum in Paris, a Medici house museum in Florence, and Mozart's birthplace in Salzburg, to name a few. She has even performed in museums such as the De Young Museum in San Francisco. Of special note for her are museums about composers. In fact, when she travels she takes opportunities to play on historic pianos for herself, such as performing Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude on his piano within the Chopin Museum in Majorca, Spain. 

Here are some fascinating museums of piano composers whom Tomoko likes.

The Composers Quarter in Hamburg consists of six museums, each of which features one or more classical composers who lived in the areas. Each museum is housed in a restored historical building, and each museum contains a multimedia collection of the composer's works and life. See the list and details of each museum at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composers_Quarter_Hamburg

The Museum of the Johann Strauss Dynasty in Vienna has collected artifacts of Strauss gnerations, from the “Biedermeier” era to the 1880s. The museum includes fourteen themed areas, which are accompanied by related audio music. See more at http://www.strauss-museum.at

Speaking of musical families, the Bach Museum in Leipzig honors this family of musicians. Bach's organ and a violin from his orchestra are seen here – as well as many other family artifacts. The museum is interactive and offers summer concerts. See details at https://www.bachmuseumleipzig.de/en/bach-museum

Also located ins Leipzig is Schumann-Haus: the restored home of Clara and Robert in their first years of marriage. Visitors can experience how the couple lived and entertained, and the museum's sound garden provides interactive fun. See more at https://schumannhaus.rahn.network/en/museum/

A third composer's museum in Leipzig is Felix Mendelssohn's home. Visitors can see illustrated letters and music sheets as well as Mendelssohn's own watercolor efforts. The museum also includes a salon where morning concerts are held. See details at https://www.mendelssohn-stiftung.de/de/

The Beethoven House in Bonn features his life and work, and is located in Beethoven's birthplace. It includes a research center and a chamber music hall, and its garden showcases several busts of Beethoven. The museum was opened for the first time in 1893 during the second chamber music festival in the area. Now it includes digital collections for visitors to examine. See details at https://www.beethoven.de/

Handel's childhood home in London now holds exhibits about him. It even contains a miniature baroque theater stage that shows a virtual Handel performing “live.” See information about the museum, which also houses Hendrix, at https://handelhendrix.org/

Preserving the works and artifacts of classical piano composers keeps them alive and enables generations to experience them almost first hand. 

"Chill' July Piano Composers

 

Summertime can heat up; one way to “chill” is with a good piano selection. And there are several piano composers with July birthdays, so you can celebrate the month AND their music at the same time.

Tomoko studies composers as part of her preparation for performing, and she considers the style of each composer when she chooses pieces for her students. Here are some of Tomoko’s favorite July composers.

Number one on the list for Tomoko has to be Mozart, born on July 26, 1791. “I have a natural feeling about Mozart,” Tomoko says;“I could play a piece of his twenty  times, and not tire of it.” And Mozart has helped Tomoko’s career. For instance, while at the conservatory student on a US visa, Tomoko had to audition to prove that she was a serious music student. She played a Mozart concerto as her audition piece, which showcased her expertise and self-confidence; her performance enabled her to stay in the conservatory’s program.

Two July-born composers, Field and Granado, are featured on Tomoko’s CD Baroque-20^th Century. John Field was born on July 26, 1782, in Dublin. His music was considered one of the most influential of the early Romantic period, inspiring several of Tomoko’s composers, whose music she plays regularly: Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, and Schumann.  In contrast, Spaniard Enrique Granados was born on July 27, 1867. He is known for both a romantic style and for nationalistic pieces such as Spanish Dances. Some of the compositions have been transcribed for classical guitar.

Also linked with folk music is Percy Grainger, who was born on July 8, 1882 in Brighton, Australia. He led the movement of reviving British folk music as reflected in his arrangement of the folk dance tune Country Gardens. Many of his other compositions are experimental, including the use of music machines. Tomoko values traditional musical forms, which express a sense of communal culture.

Tomoko is also a devotee of Bach. One July piano composer with a good sense of humor is Peter Schickele, who has composed parodies of Bach’s music using the alias of P. D. Q. Bach; sample titles include “Canine Cantata” and “A Little Nightmare Music.” Schickele has also composed music for Joan Baez, and done more serious compositions as well. Schickele was born on July 17, 1935. He was also a music educator, and hosted a long-running weekly radio program called Schickele Mix.

One 20^th century Japanese compatriot piano composers born in July was Yasushi Akutagawa, born on July 12, 1925. Akutagawa attended the same university as Tomoko: Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. His compositions were influenced by several composers whom Tomoko likes: Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev. Akutagawa was also a music educator like Tomoko.

Start the New Year Right with Piano Pieces

 

What better way to bring in the new year than with music? And piano music offers a way for an individual to kinesthetically set the tone for the upcoming 365 days.

The new year is a time of creation. As the 18^th century was coming to a close, Joseph Haydn wrote the sacred oratorio The Creation to depict the creation of the world. While it was originally scored for voice and symphonic orchestra, it has also been arranged for solo and four-hand piano.

J. S. Bach thought systematically about the year, not surprisingly; “In dir ist Freude” is a gladsome way to herald the new year. This chorale prelude is one of the preludes collected in Bach’s Orgelbüchlein, which marks various points in the liturgical year.

Particularly in Vienna, people welcome the new by clapping to Johann Strauss’s Radetzky March, composed in 1848. It can be arranged for piano solo and duets. The Champagne Polka is another selection by Johann Strauss that fits for New Year’s Eve parties. He wrote the piece as a little joke, imitating the sound of champagne bottles being uncorked. While the piano version does not “pop” as convincingly, it still captures the spirit of the pol,ka

Since 1936 musicians gather to perform at New Year’s concert in Vienna, and Johann Strauss II’s Pizzicato Polka was played that first year. Another piece by Strauss II performed at the first concert was Die Fledermaus Overture of his famous opera. This Strauss’s Blue Danube is another piece performed at the New Year’s concert, often as an encore. All three pieces have been arranged for the piano.

The modern English composer Ernest Tomlinson appreciated light classical music. In 1976 he created Fantasia on Auld Lang Syne, which uses that traditional song as the main theme, but also weaves in snippets of other 150 other pieces. Another orchestral composition, it has also been scored for the piano.

May 2022 be harmonious….

Artificial Intelligence and Future Classical Music

 

Tomoko hears and feels the humanity expressed in the piano compositions she plays. But now artificial intelligence can play and compose music, even symphonies. What, if anything, is lost in the process? Could there be a future classic?

As one example, overseen by the Director of the Karajan institute in Salzburg, an international team fed a speech recognition program Beethoven’s nine symphonies and preliminary work on Beethoven’s 10^th  as well as other pieces by his contemporaneous composers. Excerpts can be heard at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAgnSr5t1VI.

As the video demonstrates, Google was able to use algorithms to enable Google users to input a few notes that could be manipulated by an algorithm to “compose” a piece in Bach’s style. Chi Cao’s senior theses consisted of a software program he developed called “AI Classical Music Composer.” This program drew upon music theory and knowledge, which Chi Cao transformed into hundreds of lines of code. In this way, more people could have the opportunity to experience the joy of composing music.

On a commercial basis, Aiva Technologies created the software program called Aiva: Artificial Intelligence Virtual Artist. The inventors used deep learning techniques to “teach” the computer to compose music. The generated pieces have been used for film, ads and gaming soundtracks. The company released a album “Genesis,” and Aiva has been given the official legal status of Composer, including copyright status. As such, Aiva is the first AI to gain this recognition.

The question remains: where is the heart of AI-generated music? Maybe it rests in the ears of the beholder. The Turing test states that if one cannot tell if a person or a computer is responding, then it may be considered artificial intelligence. That process can easily be applied to discerning the difference between human-generated and AI-generated music. Of course, such a test probably says more about the listener than the composition. Tomoko would know the difference….

 

Back to Bach

Bach’s music is timeless – and Tomoko has played his compositions much of her life.

Growing up in Japan, Tomoko heard Bach for several reasons. The Japanese government encouraged European classical music as the country was looking to modernize. As nationalism grew, the government would adapt European music, adding Japanese lyrics, and then teaching Japanese children those now patriotic songs.

Tomoko played Bach’s religious music in secondary school and college. Her school, Ferris Academy, was established by the Dutch Reformed Church. Their academic curriculum emphasized classical music training and performance. Tomoko frequently accompanied the school’s choirs during the school’s  religious gatherings. In college, Tomoko was an accompanist at the local Catholic Church, which also valued traditional European religious music such as Bach.

Another case of connecting with Bach occurred when Tomoko performed at the Carmel Bach Festival in 1967. The festival began in 1935, and featured four days of concerts. By the time Tomoko participated, the festival had transformed from an amateur to a professional venue. The whole town supported this event, and even hosted the musicians in their homes.

More recently, in 2013, Tomoko performed Bach’s Capriccio in Bb major on KBAQ (Tempe, Arizona) radio.

And even as a tourist Tomoko perform Bach. When she visited her friend in Florence, Tomoko went to a Medici house museum. There she spied an antique harpsichord. The owners let her play: Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C sharp major. It felt as if the centuries melt away.

Now as a teacher, Tomoko recommends Bach for beginning students; “Bach is a good composer for younger students because of his structure and use of chords.”

Yes, Tomoko continuously goes back to Bach because of his rich and compelling work.

Carmel's Bach Festival

One of Tomoko’s strong memories about music festival performance takes place in California by the sea: the now tourist mecca Carmel.

When she performed there, Carmel was a simpler but popular town. A big event back then was a sandcastle contest, begun in 1961. Nevertheless it was already known as an arts colony, visited by authors such as Jack Long and Upton Sinclair. Carmel’s Arts and Crafts Club was established in 1905, and profited from the San Francisco 1906 earthquake as creative people moved to Carmel’s safety. Shakespeare plays were also a mainstay from 1911.

And the Bach Festival was well established by the time Tomoko experienced it. The festival began in 1935, and even then featured four days of concerts. By the time Tomoko participated, the festival had transformed from an amateur to a professional venue. Now it has grown to two weeks of performances and learning in July, with worldwide participation.

From the beginning the Bach festival at Carmel was strongly supported by the community. Tomoko remembers a 96 year old lady who was a regular concert goer. She opened her home to festival performers, and provide them her personal service as a thank you to the visiting musicians.

Tomoko especially appreciated the mutual appreciation and support of music experienced at the Bach Festival. With his range of compositions and his own role in the community, Bach would have felt comfortable with the Carmel celebration and its venue for universal connections.

The Secret Facts of Composers

Piano teachers need to know their music, and it’s useful to know about the composers themselves. Tomoko likes to read biographies – especially those of composers. And she relates stories about them to her students, providing context for the compositions as well as making those composers more human. Here are some of the lesser known facts about some of them.

Vivaldi became a priest when he was 25, and served as a master of violin at an orphanage. Vivaldi suffered from bronchial asthma throughout his life, which kept him from playing wind instruments.

Liszt was very popular when young, and he was quite the playboy. One of his illegitimate daughters become Richard Wagner’s wife. Nevertheless, throughout his life he considered becoming a priest, and took four minor religious orders when 54.

Schubert was famous for his musical parties, which sometimes lasted until dawn. Yet he was very prolific; he wrote more than 20,000 bars of music, including 600 songs. He wrote 8 songs in one day. 

Rachmaninoff's fingers could span 12 keys.  On the other hand 😉, Schumann ruined his performing career by practicing with a homemade finger-stretching device; then he would plunge his hands into slaughtered animals’ entrails to heal himself.

Frederic Handel loved rich food and wine. He would order enough food for three people – for himself. The food caused him gout, and the wine may have caused him lead poisoning. 

Johann Sebastian Bach frequented Leipzig’s Café Zimmermann where he would drink several cups of coffee (which was a luxury beverage at the time). He liked coffee so much he wrote the Coffee Cantata about a woman who was trying to stop her coffee drinking habit.  Bach was also an amateur mathematician, which is evident in his compositions, especially his canons.

Speaking of coffee, Beethoven was so meticulous that he would measure exactly 60 beans when making coffee.

Mozart’s life included many interesting facts. He could write music before he could write words. He could listen to a piece of music just once and be able to write it down from memory perfectly. He wrote half of his symphonies between the age of 8 and 19. was a big cat fan. He would imitate cats when bored during rehearsals. In fact, he liked cats so much that he wrote a song called "The Cat Duet,” in which the husband asks his wife questions and she answers back in meows.