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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part One Memoirs
- Part Two Reflections
- Part Three Essays
- 6 Elliott Carter's Double Concerto (ca. 1973)
- 7 On Editing Bach's Goldberg Variations: For Arthur Mendel (March 31, 1973)
- 8 RK and Music at JE (1983)
- 9 The Equipment and Education of a Musician (1971)
- 10 Bach and Mozart for Violin and Harpsichord (ca. 1944)
- 11 The Early Piano (Broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Music Weekly, September 23, 1973)
- Part Four Lectures (Yale University, 1969–71)
- Appendixes
9 - The Equipment and Education of a Musician (1971)
from Part Three - Essays
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 August 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part One Memoirs
- Part Two Reflections
- Part Three Essays
- 6 Elliott Carter's Double Concerto (ca. 1973)
- 7 On Editing Bach's Goldberg Variations: For Arthur Mendel (March 31, 1973)
- 8 RK and Music at JE (1983)
- 9 The Equipment and Education of a Musician (1971)
- 10 Bach and Mozart for Violin and Harpsichord (ca. 1944)
- 11 The Early Piano (Broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Music Weekly, September 23, 1973)
- Part Four Lectures (Yale University, 1969–71)
- Appendixes
Summary
Ear: Discrimination, at least relative if not necessarily absolute, of all discernible pitch that meets the ear; ability to recognize all forms of meter and to recognize all rhythmic values that have any discernible consistency of proportion; ability to recognize the basic chords and functions of conventional harmony; sufficient aural memory to recognize thematic organization; sensitivity to differences of timbre and volume.
Voice: Ability to emit a sound on pitch and in time corresponding to any note in any composition in any style whatsoever.
Hand: For instrumentalists, ability to negotiate the entire known literature of the chosen instrument; for non-keyboard players, the ability at least to play chorales and chordal accompaniments in such a way as to show that, while not necessarily agile at the keyboard, they are capable of deciphering the musical sense of any score; for singers, the ability themselves to perform at the piano all that is usually demanded of the average accompanist of average skill; mastery at least of the rudiments of conducting.
Eye: Ability to sing or read fluently at an instrument in all clefs; ability at an instrument to read fluently average, nonacrobatic keyboard music; to read open vocal scores at least up to four parts; to read orchestral scores that do not make exceptional demands on physical coordination; in short, to be as independent as possible of any need for the use of piano reductions of instrumental ensemble music.
To the above mentioned categories of physical skill, I would add the cultivation of breath, bodily movement, and dance with special reference to their use and connotations in music. To the above-mentioned physical skills, I would add a list of correspondingly desirable intellectual abilities and accomplishments: an ability to speak and write the native language correctly; a knowledge of grammar and of rules of written language; an ability to write simple expository prose, to confront ideas and to organize them in terms of their relative importance or in terms of logical categories; an ability to reduce anything to a logical and orderly outline.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Reflections of an American HarpsichordistUnpublished Memoirs, Essays, and Lectures of Ralph Kirkpatrick, pp. 105 - 109Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2017