My review: Romance Nº 1 is a piece in three sections, with an accompanied melody texture and a tranquil tempo, creating an atmosphere of calm and reflection. The thematic unity and the constant accompaniment of arpeggios give the piece a sense of cohesion, with a second development section and a third recapitulation section. In fact, it is constructed from a harmonic progression (accompaniment) upon which small variations on the main theme melody are layered. Gimenez's social links: Facebook YouTube SoundCloud Enjoy "Romance Nº 1" , performed by Carlos Marín Trigo:
Today, musical pedagogy has advanced a lot (in the long career of musical studies at the conservatory which, in our time as students in Spain, was 15 years, for three of us we had the subject of Specialized Musical Pedagogy), although, when we go back in time, we discover that it has not always been like this.
Since the 20th century (and I'm focusing on piano studies in particular), we've observed an increasing proliferation of graded piano methods; and when we say graded, we mean that the pieces that make them up, whether original works by a composer or compilations of famous pieces by other composers, are ordered according to a criterion of technical difficulty, that is, from easiest to most difficult, which poses an ever-increasing challenge for the student.
For example, we can find the famous Mikrocosmos by Béla Viktor János Bartók, the Modern Course for the Piano and Adult Piano Course methods by John Sylvanus Thompson (as we see, this composer and pedagogue distinguished between a method for adults and another for children) or, to name a more current method, Back To Basics Piano Method by the composer Marlene Moore.
In this sense, we can highlight the particular case of two composers, such as Charles-Louis Hanon, with his method The Virtuoso Pianist, a set of purely technical exercises, scales and arpeggios, without any aesthetic intention beyond strengthening the fingers equally, as well as Ferdinand Beyer, with his Preparatory School of Piano, in which the pieces do not appear graded per se, but rather, little by little, he introduces all the elements of a score beyond the musical notes, which is studied in the subject of Music Theory.
Going back a bit further, in the 18th and 19th centuries there were the famous technical studies (composers like Carl Czerny, Henri Bertini, and Johann Baptist Cramer are examples), no longer as graded pieces, but as pieces that aimed to help solve specific technical problems. In other words, if someone had trouble with scales, they would practice scale studies, and so on.
Eventually, there were composers who created pieces for children, but not as a pedagogical thing (at least not always), but only because they were relatively easy pieces to play or possible for smaller hands.
Going back a little further, to the 17th century, we observe, firstly, that the piano as such did not exist, but its predecessor, the harpsichord, did, and secondly, that both children and adults learned with the pieces that composers created.
In this sense, the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach made several compilations of famous pieces (some of his own) forming anthologies, such as the Little Book of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (dedicated to one of his sons) or the Little Book of Anna Magdalena Bach (who was his wife); in this last anthology appears an iconic minuet in G major, and I say iconic, because 99.9999...% of pianists have played it at some point, perhaps in our early years of study, on which the work we present today is based.
Let us remember that a minuet is a small traditional dance that originated in the French region of Poitou.
During the 20th century, it was thought that the minuet in question was by Bach himself, although it does not coincide with his compositional style, so today it is attributed to the German composer Christian Petzold, a contemporary of Bach.
If you are unfamiliar with the minuet in question, I invite you to do a simple search on your favorite video platform, entering "famous Bach minuet in G major for piano" and listen to it, since, to this day, there are still many people convinced that it was composed by Bach.
Composer Davide Riva presents us with a "recomposition" (as he himself defines it) of this minuet, entitled "A Minuet Into The Waves".
Manteniendo la estructura de un minueto clásico, aunque con una velocidad ligeramente superior, se trata de una pieza cuya textura es de melodía acompañada. Siendo tocada la melodía, como es natural, en la mano derecha y el acompañamiento en la izquierda.
Focusing on the accompaniment, we will point out that it is a rhythmic and constant design throughout the entire piece, which, true to the title, makes us feel like we are on gentle waves of the sea.
For the melody, Riva has taken the various musical motifs that make up the original minuet, rearranging them in a different way, as if it were a puzzle, and separating them with an original rhythmic-melodic design that gives the work a certain air of freshness.
We are struck by the fact that the changes in tone are sudden, without a cadential process of preparation, creating a feeling of fluidity and that the piece is composed in a single stroke, from beginning to end, without any cadence being able to hinder or stop that fluidity (this reinforces, in a way, the analogy with the waves of the sea that come and go tirelessly).
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