engleski

Memorizing the contemporary piano piece of music: the effects of the formal structure, pianist’s segmentation and technical difficulties

The aim of this study was to examine the process of preparing a contemporary piece for performing at an international competition for young musicians. The pianist, a second-year student at a music high school, had recorded her practice of the Fourth Study for Piano (Allegro Vivace) by Boris Papandopulo. Thirty-two recorded practice sessions were transcribed and analyzed with regards to five learning periods: section-by- section, practicing the whole, tightening fluency, memorization and polishing. We examined the effects of the formal structure, the pianist’s segmentation of the piece in addition to the formal structure, and technical difficulties on the amount of practicing in five learning periods. The results showed that practice segments started and/or stopped more often on structural bars and on bars marked by the pianist herself. The effect of the pianist’s segmentation was greater than that of the formal structure in four learning periods. The results also showed that the pianist used repetitions as a practice strategy consistently during the learning process: repeating of difficult bars decreased as the practice progressed, however, repeating structural bars persisted until the end of preparing the piece for performing at a competition for young pianists. The results of this study contribute to the findings previously reported in the literature with students enrolled as participants and confirm that similar strategies are used when memorizing compositions of traditional and contemporary repertoire.

practicing contemporary piano music ; memorizing ; formal structure ; pianist’s segmentation ; technical demands

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