{"id":45959,"date":"2024-08-16T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/e22e36b0-d3be-4af1-86de-ce30f7840538"},"modified":"2024-08-17T01:07:17","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T23:07:17","slug":"philip-glass-piano-etudes-a-pleasurable-way-to-improve-your-piano-technique","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/philip-glass-piano-etudes-a-pleasurable-way-to-improve-your-piano-technique\/","title":{"rendered":"Philip Glass Piano Etudes – a pleasurable way to improve your piano technique"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By <\/p>

Published: Friday, 16 August 2024 at 10:00 AM<\/p>

\n\n

Read on to discover more about the popular – and playable – Philip Glass Piano Etudes…<\/strong><\/p>

Philip Glass – the composer<\/h2>
Now 87, Philip Glass<\/a><\/strong> continues to add to a body of work he began in earnest in the early 1960s. After his initial education in the US, he travelled in 1964 to Paris to study under Nadia Boulanger, a period in which he felt himself increasingly moving away from modernism. <\/p>
And then, encountering the minimalist work of Steve Reich<\/a><\/strong> at a concert in New York further inspired the development of his own now-distinctive style, with its mesmerically repeated phrases and tonal harmonies. One of the most influential composers of the last 50 years, his output has covered everything from solo piano works to operas.<\/p>
Glass Piano Etudes – a work for amateurs and professionals<\/h2>
He has written dozens of operas, symphonies, concertos and film scores, but Philip Glass says, \u2018If I\u2019m to be remembered for anything, it will be for the piano music, because people can play it\u2019. And it\u2019s true that his piano works, in particular the Etudes, have become some of his most popular pieces with both amateur and professionals alike. <\/p>
<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Yuga Wang performs Philip Glass’s Etude No. 6<\/figcaption><\/figure>The virtuoso <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/yuja-wang\">Yuja Wang<\/a><\/strong> often plays the Sixth Etude as a recital encore; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/vikingur-olafsson-the-brilliance-of-the-icelandic-pianists-bach-interpretations\">V\u00edkingur \u00d3lafsson<\/a><\/strong> recorded Glass for Deutsche Grammophon with the same reverence he brought to his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/johann-sebastian-bach\">JS\u00a0Bach<\/a><\/strong>. Over the past 12 years, since the Etudes were completed, there have been over a dozen complete recordings, while many more musicians, including Glass himself, have recorded one of the books or a personal selection.<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/the-brilliance-of-philip-glass-seven-leading-musicians-discuss-his-style-and-influence\">The brilliance of Philip Glass: seven leading musicians discuss why the minimalist composer has stood the test of time<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-glass-piano-etudes-improving-technique-and-stamina\">Glass Piano Etudes – improving technique and stamina<\/h2>As the title suggests, the Etudes had an educational purpose \u2013 to begin with, at least. A performer with his own busy live performance schedule, Glass wanted to improve his piano technique. Like so many other pianists, he dug out a copy of Charles-Louis Hanon\u2019s The Virtuoso Pianist in Sixty Exercises<\/em> and got to work at the keyboard. <\/p>But you can\u2019t keep a good composer down, and it was perhaps inevitable that Glass would end up creating his own exercises for a workout. The idea snowballed and went public; the conductor-pianist Dennis Russell Davies commissioned six of the Etudes for his 50th birthday in 1994 \u2013 and the first ten, which became Book 1, were dedicated to both him and to production designer\u00a0Achim Freyer.<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/relaxing-piano-music-the-most-soothing-pieces-in-classical-music\">Most relaxing piano music<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>For any pianist who has ever flexed their fingers playing Hanon studies, their influence is not hard to detect in Book\u00a01. There are even hints of Dohn\u00e1nyi\u2019s uniquely painful (but effective) Essential Finger Exercises<\/em> in the repetition of patterns and chords. Glass said he wanted to \u2018explore a variety of tempi, textures and piano techniques\u2019. Luckily, his minimalist style, with its repeated blocks and looping ideas, offers any pianist a good chance to build stamina and perfect an even touch. Different technical aspects are challenged: the strength of the right hand\u2019s fourth and fifth fingers in No. 3; the evenness of the left hand in No. 4; trills in No. 7. The Sixth Etude demands the player to repeat the same note over and over, turning it into a\u00a0haunting melody.<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/easy-piano-songs\">Best tunes for piano beginners to play<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-conjuring-the-right-mood\">Conjuring the right mood…<\/h2>Even with the strong didactic focus of Book 1, and even within the parameters of his trademark minimalism, conjuring a mood is all important. Like the many composers who have written Etudes before him \u2013 think <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/helene-de-montgeroult\">H\u00e9l\u00e8ne de Montgeroult<\/a><\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/frederic-chopin\">Chopin<\/a><\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/claude-debussy\">Debussy<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 Glass turns exercise into an artform. In Book 1, that means the pianist needs to draw out the character of the angsty triplets of No. 1, find the dreamy off-kilter lilt of No. 2 and lean into the sober quality of No. 5. (Any fans of the TV series <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/tv-and-film-music\/succession-on-now-tv-who-wrote-the-music-and-theme-tune-and-can-you-buy-the-soundtrack\">Succession<\/a><\/strong><\/em> may wonder if Nicholas\u00a0Britell is paying homage to Glass\u2019s Eighth Etude in his brilliant score.) For Glass, the experience of playing Book 1 paid off. \u2018I learned a great deal about the piano,\u2019 he wrote, \u2018and in the course of learning the music, I became a better player.\u2019<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/best-ways-to-memorise-music\">Memorising music: top tips for learning music by heart<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-glass-piano-etudes-the-second-volume\">Glass Piano Etudes – the second volume<\/h2>That wasn\u2019t the end of the story. After a break to work on other music, Glass returned to his Etudes. By 2012, he had added a second book with another ten pieces, bringing the complete set to 20. And the focus had shifted. \u2018I found the music was following a new path,\u2019 he explained. \u2018The music in Book 2 quickly began to suggest a series of new adventures in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/what-is-harmony-in-music\">harmony<\/a><\/strong> and structure.\u2019 Right from No. 11, with its resonant bass notes and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/what-is-a-forte-in-music\">fortissimo<\/a><\/strong><\/em> climaxes, the ambition feels bigger, the canvas larger. There\u2019s a sense Glass is flexing his compositional muscles as well as strengthening his fingers.<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/20-greatest-pianists-all-time\">The 20 greatest pianists of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>Even though they have become popular, the Etudes were personal, private pieces at first. His tour manager Linda Brumbach recalled, in an interview with Classical Music<\/em> magazine, that Glass would \u2018retreat into his dressing room, into his very quiet place, and compose\u2026 they became an extraordinary body of work, but they were meant only to be played by Philip\u2019. <\/p>Yet the composer must have sensed they\u2019d have a wide audience, because in 2014 the complete set was published. \u2018We then started touring the Etudes all over the world, bringing people in to play them from the jazz and pop worlds as well as classical musicians,\u2019 said Brumbach. \u2018Philip just adored building this community around these pieces.\u2019<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"V\u00edkingur \u00d3lafsson \u2013 Glass: \u00c9tude No. 5\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3y4pIYV6yh0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">V\u00edkingur \u00d3lafsson performs Philip Glass’s Etude No. 5<\/figcaption><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-glass-piano-etudes-inspiring-artists-far-and-wide\">Glass Piano Etudes \u2013 inspiring artists far and wide<\/h2>The first complete public performance of them took place in 2014 \u2013 and although it\u2019s quite a feat to play all 20 Etudes in one swoop, there have been other performances since, sometimes with multiple players. Just last year, a lavish new edition was published, including a volume of essays in which artists from a variety of genres paid tribute to Glass\u2019s music, including film director Martin Scorsese, performance artist Laurie Anderson and world champion figure-skater Nathan Chen. Other musicians have borrowed them for their instruments too: for percussion, steel drums, and in a beautiful version by Lavinia Meijer for harp. Pieces that started out as piano exercises have inspired artists far and wide.\u00a0<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/greatest-piano-concertos-all-time\">The greatest piano concertos of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-glass-piano-etudes-the-best-recording\">Glass Piano Etudes \u2013 the best recording<\/h2><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Glass-Complete-Etudes-Anton-Batagov\/dp\/B075ZC8C25\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Anton Batagov (piano), Orange Mountain Music OMM0120<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"\/>When whittling down this list, one of the hardest aspects was finding a set that was consistently good throughout, in which the pianist\u2019s approach could encompass the demands of all 20 pieces. <\/p>One recording that balances all these elements is by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.batagov.com\/entrancen.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Anton Batagov<\/a><\/strong>, captured live in 2017 in a concert in Moscow\u2019s Svetlanov Hall on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/who-invented-the-steinway-piano\">Steinway<\/a><\/strong> piano. Until the applause at the end of the CD, there\u2019s no hint of an audience, but perhaps there is that spontaneity and spark that can come from recording a live event. <\/p>What\u2019s hard to miss is Batagov\u2019s poetic view of the music, which brings out the softer edges in comparison to some other recordings. He brings out details that others don\u2019t, too. There\u2019s a spring-in-the-step of No. 3 that eludes others, for instance, while the inner lines and sculpted melodies of No. 1 shift to the fore, and No. 7\u2019s plaintive refrain feels more profound than elsewhere.<\/p>\u2018When you play it, it sounds so Russian,\u2019 Glass himself told Batagov, so the story goes. Batagov\u2019s reply? \u2018But it is Russian.\u2019 Perhaps his view explains his penchant for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/discovering-music-rubato\">rubato<\/a><\/strong>, not heard to this extent in any other recordings, but never self-indulgent\u00a0or unwarranted musically. <\/p>There are other rewards too, particularly in the variety of tone and colour he conjures across the whole compass of the keyboard, where often other players opt for a one-size-fits-all palette. And, if you\u2019re listening to all 20 in one go, by the time we reach the elusive No. 20, there\u2019s a true sense of having travelled on a transformative journey.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-philip-glass-piano-etudes-three-other-great-recordings\">Philip Glass Piano Etudes \u2013 three other great recordings…<\/h2><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Glass-Complete-Etudes-Anton-Batagov\/dp\/B075ZC8C25\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Maki Namekawa (piano)<\/em>, (Orange Mountain Music OMM0098)<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/08\/OMM0098_cmyk.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-209823\"\/><\/figure>Made in 2014, when the complete Etudes were hot off the press, this studio album features the first recording of Book 2 alongside a complete Book 1. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.makinamekawa.com\">Maki Namekawa<\/a><\/strong> is a wonderful, crisp guide to these pieces. Her approach is less poetic than Anton Batagov\u2019s, and always closely focused on the musical patterns \u2013 so if a more analytical approach is to your liking, this is an album to go for. <\/p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Philip-Glass-Piano-V\u00edkingur-\u00d3lafsson\/dp\/B01NAH92V7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">V\u00edkingur \u00d3lafsson<\/em> (piano), (Deutsche Grammophon 94796918)<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/08\/94796918_cmyk.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-209824\"\/><\/figure>Completists may want to look away now \u2013 recorded in 2016, this album only features 13 of the 20 Etudes. However, it is so brilliant that it is impossible not to include here. V\u00edkingur \u00d3lafsson finds a subtle beauty in each Etude, treating them with reverence and care. The Second Etude floats in with perfect serenity, the Sixth bristles with urgency, while the 20th is like a dream haunted by a half-remembered Chopin nocturne. Plus the album includes several arrangements with \u00d3lafsson\u2019s fellow Icelanders, the Siggi String Quartet. <\/p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Glass-Complete-Jeroen-Van-Veen\/dp\/B075R17KSR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jeroen van Veen (piano)<\/em>, (Brilliant Classics 95563)<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/08\/95563_cmyk.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-209825\"\/><\/figure>This recording was released in 2017 on a budget label, Brilliant Classics, but there\u2019s nothing cheap about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jeroenvanveen.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jeroen van Veen<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s performance. The Dutch pianist is a specialist in minimalist music, and there\u2019s an air of authority about his album. It is recorded in a rather resonant acoustic, on a bright piano, but there\u2019s a lovely clarity to everything. Van Veen is relaxed and straightforward, sounding very much on his home ground, though perhaps doesn\u2019t push to find the imaginative insights of, say, \u00d3lafsson. But it\u2019s still a great place to start with the\u00a0Etudes. <\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-and-one-to-avoid\">And one to avoid…<\/h2>We\u2019ll make no judgement here that an amateur pianist is tackling Glass, or even that this appears to be a vanity recording. But for the prospective buyer looking to add the complete Etudes to their library, it is worth flagging that, with wrong notes making a regular appearance, Nicholas Teague\u2019s recording of 2020 \u2013 available on major streaming sites \u2013 sounds more like a faltering sight-reading session than a serious attempt at mastering the technical and musical challenges posed by these works.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-\"\/> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Published: Friday, 16 August 2024 at 10:00 AM Read on to discover more about the popular – and playable – Philip Glass Piano Etudes… Philip Glass – the composer Now 87, Philip Glass continues to add to a body of work he began in earnest in the early 1960s. After his initial education in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":45960,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"8"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/08\/philip-glass-piano-etudes-a-pleasurable-way-to-improve-your-piano-technique.png",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/08\/philip-glass-piano-etudes-a-pleasurable-way-to-improve-your-piano-technique-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/08\/philip-glass-piano-etudes-a-pleasurable-way-to-improve-your-piano-technique-300x200.png",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/08\/philip-glass-piano-etudes-a-pleasurable-way-to-improve-your-piano-technique-768x512.png",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/08\/philip-glass-piano-etudes-a-pleasurable-way-to-improve-your-piano-technique-1024x683.png",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/08\/philip-glass-piano-etudes-a-pleasurable-way-to-improve-your-piano-technique.png",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/08\/philip-glass-piano-etudes-a-pleasurable-way-to-improve-your-piano-technique.png",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Friday, 16 August 2024 at 10:00 AM Read on to discover more about the popular – and playable – Philip Glass Piano Etudes… Philip Glass – the composer Now 87, Philip Glass continues to add to a body of work he began in earnest in the early 1960s. After his initial education in…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/45959"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}