Composition for Piano

Hi guys,

I'm not sure if I ever said this, but surprise surprise, Piano is not a primary instrument for me and as much as I love fooling around on the beast, I'm not skilled at it.

So my querry is this: if I'm writing a piano piece, what are things I should steer clear of as a general rule of thumb. I'm not a skilled pianist and only know ultra modern piano music (Berio, Ligeti, Stockhausen, Crumb, Kurtag) so I don't know what is 'pianistic' and all.

HELP!

Thanks,

Yasamune

That's a pretty vague question. As always when the question comes up of what can and canto be done with an instrument, there are countless variables to take into account... although there are a few guidelines that can be good to respect when writing for piano:

1) Hand spans, chords or not, <= maj. 9th . Quick figuration in octaves is possible and common, but a ninth should be reserved for chordal writing and slower movement. Some players reach a tenth and write it in their own music, but the octave and ninth as the limit of the hand span is a good rule. The hand span can be extended by arpeggios

2)Chord tones - 5 fingers = max 5 tones to a hand. This is an obvious one, although I should mention that 4 tones to a hand is usually better to write, as 5 chord tones are often difficult.

3)speed - extremely variable on the player, but, generally, the wider your figure spans, the slower the maximum speed is.

4)chords - chords get progressively muddier the lower they get. While this isn't undesirable per se, it's good to be aware of it.

These are just a few things to think about when writing for piano... to really get a good idea, study Chopin's etudes (all of them) to get a good idea of what the pianist can do. Talking to a pianist, though, is the best learning experience (as is with every instrument). I'm sure a competent pianis here on YC could answer your questions more completely.

That's a pretty vague question. As always when the question comes up of what can and canto be done with an instrument, there are countless variables to take into account... although there are a few guidelines that can be good to respect when writing for piano:

Hi there ParanoidFreak - thanks for the quick response -

I think the big question I have (and this is one my band director at school has commented on extensively) that my piano parts are "unpianistic." Can someone help me understand what that means?

As to the other advice, that all makes a great deal of sense and I appreciate the help.

Hi there ParanoidFreak - thanks for the quick response -

I think the big question I have (and this is one my band director at school has commented on extensively) that my piano parts are "unpianistic." Can someone help me understand what that means?

As to the other advice, that all makes a great deal of sense and I appreciate the help.

You'll have to ask your band director in what way they're unpianistic... are you using too many block chords? Are you only doing melody parts? Is the piano only a strict duplication of the orchestra's parts? It could also be that he wants parts that sound like Chopin, Lizt, Rach or Beethoven, in this case "pianistic" means "not stereotyped enough" (band music tends to do that a lot)...

2)Chord tones - 5 fingers = max 5 tones to a hand. This is an obvious one, although I should mention that 4 tones to a hand is usually better to write, as 5 chord tones are often difficult.

One not too uncommon way to extend this somewhat is to give two neighboring white keys to the thumb of one hand. Playing two (white key) notes with another finger is possible, but much less secure, especially if tempo is an issue, but playing two such notes with a thumb is very well possible.

And of course there are clusters, but they fall outside of what one typically calls a "chord".

As for "unpianistic writing": Unless your main goal is to make pianists happy with your music, I wouldn't worry -too- much about that, unless your music is really very hard/awkward to play. I've seen way too much music written by performers of an instrument for that instrument that seems to consist merely of "idiomatic gestures", but is really uninteresting musically because the composer merely repeats what's comfortable to play and has thus already been written 200 times.

Sure, it is generally a good idea to consider the possibilities of an instrument when writing for it, but I usually wouldn't go so far as to make this the main musical goal. I've heard so much awesome music that was in some way or another very hard to play and seemingly not "written well for that instrument". Sometimes, even such a kind of awkwardness can be a quality in itself, if you want that.

If someone says that your music is "unpianistic", ask them whether they can play it, and if so, ask them to play it to you. If it -does- sound as you want it, stick to it.

I very much think as Gardener. I would even say that if it is playable on the piano, then it is pianistic.

\I've heard so much awesome music that was in some way or another very hard to play and seemingly not "written well for that instrument".

Hehe. Reminds me of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto.

I don't usually like Tchaikovsky very much, but the piano at the beginning of that one is just awesome! Bash-low, bash-mid, bash-high! And again! And again! And again!

Other things to know about piano writing:

1) Hand distribution and use of the thumb. What a hand may lack in span easily compensates for in agility.

This depends on the training of the pianist - if they have had a solid training and able to play decently repertoire ranging Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, some Listz, Mendelssohn, Chopin and some of his Etudes, Debussy, Prokofiev, and has done some repertoire after this - Kabalevsky, Bartok, Ruggles, Barber, Webern, Schoenberg etc. - you are in good hands.

Anyway to play the music with the correct phrasing and dynamics and tempo the left hand will take over voices which appear in the treble staff and vice versa for the right hand. Bach (and Handel) fugues to get all voicves require redistributing the notes between the hands - eg an alto line may be played in part by the left hand then two or three notes caught by the right hand and a return to the left hand. Some stuff which seems impossible - wide spacing between the tenor and bass lines turns out quite easy - the tenor/alto and soprano fit quite nicely in the right hand (much as when you practice keyboard harmony). A great example of music requiring hand redistribution is the Prelude and Fugue in F # minor from Bach WTC II. For the latter case where the tenor and bass are far apart look at Bach's piece for organ manual - BWV 679.

2) Voicing

The piano can be a great instrument for voicing individual lines. Probably the best "old" example of subtle voicing is Mozart. In particular his last sonata in D major, first and second movements. Other great examples are the late intermezzo of Brahms, Listz's Consolations, etc

3) Range and color

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. Composers writing in roughly the middle register ALL the time. By that I mean you write piano pieces as if they were choral transcriptions with a light orchestral obbligato - DULL, VERY FAST.

There are several colors to exploit - the highest range due to the shortness of the string becomes more and more unpitched and bell like. I would demarcate the END of this range as the the third G above middle C. You can stay in this range if you occasionally go to lower ranges. Great example is La Campanella by Listz.

The next range the 1st C above middle C to the third F above middle C the pitch is clearer as the string lengths are longer and a little thicker. You can get a piercing brilliant sound and it serves well as the top notes of an octave. Also can serve as a great area for big two octave leaps, see Beethoven Op 7 1st movement exposition.

Now the C below middle C to the C above it is what I call the choral range where the piano can be a vocal instrument. And one hint in this range - make use of the alto range around middle C. Listz, Mendelssohn and Chopin as well as Mendelssohn found very create ways to make this range fresh. Listz - again the 2nd consolation where you alternate between left and right thumbs to bring a melody surrounded by arpeggios and bass line. Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words have many instances, as well as his Etude in F minor, Chopin the Etude in E flat minor from Op 10.

The area between the first and 2 nd C's below middle C are transitional - it strengths octaves and as you go down you start to loose clarity. But extremely usuable for melodic lines and even gong like effects when you get below the second G below middle C. Note also in many arpeggiated accompaniment you will hear that this is the area where the octaves, fifths , sixths are spelled out as the wider string emphasizes more the fundamental so wider intervals promote greater clarity and resonance.

The are below the second C below middle C is similar to the very top range but in this case the tones take longer to decay therefore making it very hard to achieve clarity in fast passages unless you want that. But with various touches - eg marcato, staccato, or a very soft legato you can have wonderful timbres. Makes for a great percussive sound.

The composer who really uses all ranges orchestrally is Debussy. You could say Debussy opened the doors wide on the colors you can get from the piano. Many of the composers you are familiar are indebted to Debussy and his piano works (especially the preludes and etudes).

To achieve greatest use of the pianos color very easily is hand crossing. A far subtler use is varying the registers you use through -

Texture:

The piano can achieve a sense of greater or lesser activity without ever increasing the dynamics through textural density. A great sonata to explore is the Waldstein (as well as wonderful use of registers). One fine example is in the first movement's exposition where Beethoven has the repeated thirds in the middle register heard again as broken thirds in sixteenths. Without changing the dynamic or leaving the range, Beethoven creates more activity which propulses the piece forward. yet it is quite continuous as when the right goes to a higher register, the left hand plays an Alberti bass in sixteenths which maintains the momentum and clarifies the changing harmony.

Pedaling -

Well if you know Crumb then you may know pedal techniques. It can serve both structural AND color. Too long a topic to go into but think through when you want a pedal point for creating the colors possible (and note - you can have pedal points in the upper registers - in fact they are wonderful ways to create an illusion of a very quiet harmonic, or great way to support a harmony) or structural reason (yeas you need to pedal the D because you are evidently spelling out a harmony or bringing out a portion of a pointillistic melody). However, I advise against getting too specific with the pedaling at first. Unless it is part of your initial idea, I would only start with a rough idea of the pedaling of a piece and then hear the piece performed. If there are certain pedal effects you love from a piece bring the score and ask the pianist about it. Ask th pianist too to bring examples!!

If I have covered ground you know already, sorry for the repetition. And I have left out many composers - one excellent 20th century one - Ornstein who has written great works for piano (check out Suicide on an Airplane).

As what to avoid? Avoid trying too hard to play your piano piece or even compose it at the piano. It can be very discouraging and limiting. I think you do need to clamber through whatever you wrote to hear and feel what you wrote and ask if certain things you struggled with are possible. But do this after you have written sketches away from the piano and studied scores.