During my National MTNA Presidency the MTNA Board of Director’s created a new competition for Piano Duet, one-piano/four hands, Senior level. The inaugural competition took place in 2007-2008. This coming year will be the competition’s fifth year. I would like to urge you to consider entering your students in this collaborative competition. Two special features of this competition are, memory is not required and two teachers may enter the competition with their students for a team teaching experience.
The significant history of the piano duet begins with Mozart. Mozart and his sister Nannerl popularized four-hand playing by their European tours of the 1760s. Among Mozart’s piano four-hand works are three sonatas, K. 358, 497, and 521, all of which sparkle with intricate imitative dialogue between the performers. K. 501, five variations on an Original andante in G major is another noteworthy duet.
The oil painting that accompanies this article is by Johann Nepomuk della Croce. The original is owned by the Mozarteum, Salzburg. The painter was commissioned by Leopold Mozart at Salzburg between late autumn 1780 and early 1781. Wolfgang and Nannerl are shown playing four hands on a fortepiano. Leopold is shown with his violin and his quill, to signify that he is both a musician and a writer. The portrait on the wall is of Mozart’s mother, who had died four years earlier.
The 19th century was truly the golden age for the piano duet. In addition to the piano’s evolution into an instrument whose sonority could take advantage of four-hand possibilities, we should also remember the limited social opportunities of the 19th century. The piano duet provided a socially acceptable way for young people to come together. Note that many works require the crossing of hands. In the preface to his first published four-hand music (London, 1777), Charles Burney requested that a lady who wished to play four-hands remove the hoops from her skirt and urged her not to be embarrassed should her left hand occasionally graze the gentleman’s right hand.
Duet arrangements of symphonies by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms and other composers as well as four hand arrangements of complete operas remained the chief means whereby musicians became familiar with the standard repertory during the 19th century. One of my most positive experiences during my 1966-1969 service in the 74th Army Band was reading through all Nine Symphonies of Beethoven arranged for four hands at one piano with fellow bandsman, Benjamin Sloane. Fortunately, there were no music critics present to document the quality of our readings.
On the other hand, there are many examples of composers arranging their piano duets for other instrumentation and having these transcriptions become better known than the originals. How many musicians know that Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances, Ravel’s Ma mere l’oye (“Mother Goose”) suite and the Brahms’ Waltzes were all originally written for piano duet, four-hands at one piano.
Haydn left us a charming Divertimento titled Il maestro e lo scolare (The Master and the Student) for piano four-hands. The Duet contains eight variations and a minuet. The humorous dialogue between the teacher and student is actually written with both parts being of equal difficulty. Beethoven and Clementi contributed to the four-hand literature, but it was Franz Schubert who truly fulfilled the medium with over seventy works. This body of literature is unequaled by any other composer. My favorite is Schubert’s F minor Fantasy (op. 103, D940). Other personal favorites in the repertoire are Faure’s Dolly Suite, Opus 56 and Debussy’s Petite Suite.
The current sponsors of the MTNA duet competition are prominent husband and wife performers Dallas Weekley and Nancy Arganbright Weekley. They have presented concerts of one piano, four-hand literature throughout the United States and in other parts of the world. Their publication “The Piano Duet: A Learning Guide” published by Kjos Music Company is a very useful source for Duet pedagogical suggestions. Start preparing your students now for 2011-2012.
