The literature of the piano: A guide for amateur and student [Hardcover]

Ernest Hutcheson (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 436 pages
• Publisher: Hutchinson; 2nd edition (1969)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0090335821
• ISBN-13: 978-0090335824
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,797,063 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A worthy book on the literature of the piano, December 23, 2005

By 

M. Levitt - classical music buff (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Literature of the Piano: a Guide for Amateur and Student (Hardcover)

This is a book I have known, consulted and treasured for years. I suppose that a reason it has not been reviewed by anyone is that it might be considered dated, having last been published in 1964, edited, in its third edition, by pianist Rudolf Ganz, and arguably eclipsed by much more recent surveys of the piano literature. Yet it covers the piano literature so thoroughly, knowingly, and is such an interesting and illuminating read as to set a standard for instrumental literature surveys.

Ernest Hutcheson, the author, who wrote The Literature of the Piano, was a pianist and pedagogue. His book is basically a chronological survey and evaluation of the keyboard literature ranging from early harpsichord literature to the piano literature of the 1950s/ 1960s. The book is aimed for students and amateurs, though Mr. Hutcheson's standards for "amateurs" seems broad. For example, Rudolf Ganz, the editor of the third edition, writes, in a footnote to Mr. Hutcheson's suggestion that Ravel's Le Gibet (from Gaspard de la Nuit) is suitable for amateurs, that "I would like to meet the amateur who can conquer Le Gibet without hanging himself."

Some chapters cover periods of music, or composers by nationality, while other chapters focus upon single composers, e.g. Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt etc. There are other chapters on The Instrument, Living Composers And The State of Music Since Hutcheson (including the magnetic tape and concrete electronic music), and two appendices by Ganz on Technique and Fingerings; fourteen chapters overall, 436 pp, with an extraordinarily detailed index listing pianists, composers, pieces cited (over 30 pages long).

The chapters on major composers, for example Brahms, not only cover the entire spectrum of works (solo, chamber, concertos), but go into discussing individual pieces, short but very thoughtful characterizations of the compositions, important stylistic, performance nuances with musical quotations, and analyses of the strengths and weaknessses of various editions of the composer's music. Interspersed also are interesting, and sometimes witty, personal references such as Rachmaninov responding, when Ganz asked if Rachmaninov had written a Fifth Piano Concerto, "There is no Fifth Concerto. The Depression is everywhere!"

This book was evidently quite popular in the United States and Great Britain, and Hutcheson a keen evaluator of music for the piano. As a non-pianist, I have been alerted numerous times to quality music and composers I either knew only partially, or not at all. The scope and evaluation of composers and music, however seemingly minor, is astonishingly comprehensive and thoughtfully considered, particularly for a one volume book.

If there are shortcomings to The Literature of the Piano, they might be 1) that the book does not include recordings; 2) the references to pianists relatively unknown today; 3) the probability that at least some music editions referred to might not be procurable today; 4) the list and analyses of composers needs updating (Benjamin Britten's music isn't mentioned at all, and Prokofiev is given short shrift); 5) the bibliography, though thorough, probably could be updated also.

Yet there is a timelessness to this book. It is written by men who know and obviously love the piano and its music, and who were undaunted by the challenge and problems of writing a detailed survey of its literature. (Earnest Hutcheson, as noted, was a pianist and teacher, Rudolf Ganz an internationally known and well regarded concert pianist.) A highly valued and frequently referred to book in my library.