Twentieth-Century Piano Music

The piano is central to the music of our century. From the simple beauty of Claude Debussy's piano compositions to the bold and confrontational works of Frederic Rzewski more than 70 years later, the piano has simultaneously been the focal point for both this century's formal and its most experimental compositions. But many pianists have not had the opportunity to become acquainted with more than a small fraction of this seminal repertoire. David Burge offers a personal and inviting overview of the often challenging music written for solo piano during this century, an artistic response by a pianist and educator widely acclaimed for introducing much of this literature to the repertoire.

Divided into four sections, each covering a key historical period, Twentieth-Century Piano Music examines the development of different styles and compositional techniques, and integrates historical and artistic details with a sophisticated and accessible approach to the music Burge offers cogent performance suggestion for selected works of Aaron Copland, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, John Cage, George Crumb, and others.