Ben Schwendener’s
THE CREATIVE PIANO
Volume’s I & II
In Ben’s words: "This music was selected from works inspired by and created for my private piano students over the past 15 years. In creating works specifically for
and with my individual students (of all ages but most often very young) I have aimed to produce works that could potentially stand on their own in an amatuer (recital) as well as a
professional (concert) venue.
In all cases, the pieces included in these Volumes were selected and edited for their thematic integrity as well as their unique imagery. The content
and progression of pieces in these books follow a specific design; each 'Volume' contains graduated individual pieces that students may learn and perform separately, while formally
a complete ’Volume (or suite)‘ may be performed in its entirety.
Each ’Volume‘ is broken into ’Parts‘ which contain works matched roughly by ability and thematic consistency.
Pieces within a ’Part‘ loosely segue. A brief pause occurs between each ’Part‘ (or Movement, if you like). In each Volume, works progress from very simple five note pieces to
moderately difficult polyphonic compositions.
In the back of each book is a CD recording of the entire Volume — performed ’live‘ by a trio of piano, bass and drums (Volume I features Michael Calabrese and Bridget Kearney,
Volume II is performed with Blake Newman, Bass and Steve Chaggaris, Drums). The piano part I’m playing for the most part strictly follows the written music of the Volume. The reason
for including a recording of a trio performing essentially piano sheet music, is that it is hoped that the student can gain a better understanding of an entire musicial — rhythmic
as well as possible atmospheric — context, perhaps more so than a metronome marking or directive word or phrase is able to provide."
Each Volume includes book and CD.
Purchase Volume I via PayPal
Purchase Volume II via PayPal
