Contemporary Class Piano.

Contemporary Class Piano. Contemporary Class Piano, Seventh Edition, by Elyse Mach. OxfordUniversity Press, 2011. www.oup.com/us; 670 pp., $77.95. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Piano classes for college students offer tremendous opportunitiesfor enjoyable musical experiences for both the students and theirinstructors. On some campuses piano classes for nonmusic majors areamong the most popular courses with large enrollments of enthusiasticstudents eager to move beyond tinkering on their own and motivated togain a strong understanding of musical fundamentals as an enhancement totheir musical experiences. For non-music majors piano classes areusually elective courses while music majors who have not had priorkeyboard experience are required to develop proficiency in using thepiano as a functional tool in accompanying, score study andunderstanding theory concepts better. There are many fine textsavailable for college piano classes, so choosing the text that best fitsthe needs of the students is the first step in planning instruction thatis enjoyable and successful. The seventh edition of Contemporary Class Piano by Elyse Mach isthe latest version of a text that strives to offer suitable repertoirefor both music majors and non-music majors. One of the strengths of thetext is its versatility. Rather than following the text page-by-page,instructors may choose material from among the 10 units and fiveappendices depending on the level of their students, the pacing ofinstruction and specific skills students are developing. This editionfeatures several improvements over earlier editions including a strongerbinding with a metal spiral spine that should remain open more easilyand withstand rough handling from lockers to backpacks between frequenttrips to the practice rooms. It also includes a companion CD withappealing orchestrations by Phillip Keveren and Jason Nyberg. The CDpresents 30 of the repertoire selections each at a practice tempo and aperformance tempo. A set of four MIDI disks with more than 200orchestrations is available from the publisher free to instructors whoadopt this text for their courses. A companion website offers tracklists for the CD and MIDI disks and a set of lesson plans for 45lessons. Instructors who choose this text probably will not find thelesson plans to be very useful. Since the instructional information inthis text is minimal, the text is most appropriate for instructors whocan design their own curriculum and lesson plans and choose repertoireand exercises wisely from the wide ranging options presented here. This text differs from other class piano texts in its organization.Most texts have units or chapters that use progressively moresophisticated harmonies with repertoire, harmonization and sight-readingexercises that reinforce the theory concepts. The technical requirementsbecome more challenging as the theory concepts become more complex.Instructors using Contemporary Class Piano are likely to chooseexercises using cadences with primary chords in Unit 4 while selectingmajor scales and diatonic triads from Unit 5, melodies to be harmonizedfrom Unit 9 and repertoire from Unit 10. Instructors who are comfortablewith this versatile format and can structure sequential learning willfind the materials very appealing. The "Thirty-One PianoClassics" included in Unit 10 offer a wide range of styles and arearranged by period rather than by degree of difficulty. Every unitincludes ensemble pieces that range from an arrangement from a movementof The Four Seasons by Vivaldi for four pianos reading single clefs (pp.166-167) in Unit 3 to an arrangement of "Edelweiss" from TheSound of Music for two pianos (pp. 524-526) in Unit 9. The two ensemblepieces included in the Unit 9 seem out of place since the unit focuseson harmonizing melodies using various accompaniment patterns usingletter-name chord symbols, and these two selections use onlyconventional notation. Instructors using this text for music majors will appreciate themany exercises for reading open choral scores and scores using movableclefs in Appendix A and Vocal and Instrumental Accompaniments inAppendix B. They might be disappointed however to find only a smallnumber of exercises for harmonization that require students to harmonizemelodies without letter-name chord symbols or by realizing Romannumerals. There are some exercises for improvisation that requirecontinuing notated pattern, but there are no exercises for improvisingmelodies above harmonic progressions indicated by Roman numerals.Instructors may want to supplement this text with some additional theoryassignments in playing harmonic progressions in different keys and willcertainly want to consider how closely the piano classes prepare orreinforce theory concepts presented in theory courses. Class piano instructors who have used earlier editions ofContemporary Class Piano are likely to find this edition to be asignificant improvement. Finally this text would be especially practicalas a supplement for use in the private studio. It would serve as avaluable resource in teaching functional keyboard skills includingharmonization and improvisation for high school students in privatelessons and group theory classes.--Reviewed by Kenneth Williams, OhioState University