Summary: | German-born composer Ernst Mahle (b. 1929) holds a respected position in the music field in Brazil, his adopted country since 1951. Mahle is the artistic director and co-founder of the Escola de Musica de Piracicaba, one of the most important musical institutions in Brazil. His work has focused on conducting, composition, and elementary music education. The main focus of this research will be to examine Mahles four concertinos for piano and orchestra intended for young performers.
This paper will also provide information regarding Mahles sixty years of musical legacy in Brazil and his pedagogical idiom for piano solo. For a better understanding of Mahle in this context, the paper is divided in four chapters. Chapter I consists of a biography of the composer, the contextualization of him on the musical scenario from Brazil and his close association with the Escola de Música de Piracicaba. Chapter II discusses the factors that have influenced Mahles eclecticism and his compositional development. Chapter III includes a pedagogical overview of Mahles works for piano offering some characteristics of each piece regarding historical backgrounds, musical forms, harmony, and materials used, as well as levels of difficulty, timing, available editions, and a list of pedagogical features. Finally, Chapter IV provides a study of the concertinos for piano and orchestra and the discussion of my pedagogical edition of the concertinos. Chapter IV also includes a historical background and analysis of the concertinos form, harmony, phrase structure, and materials. In addition, there is an analysis of the works pedagogical featurestheir challenges and the skills that each piece helps the young pianist develop, and suggestions for how to address these issues.
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