Complete Piano Works
From the Publisher
It is quite amazing that the piano works of the English composer Ethel Smyth had remained unpublished until 2003. All of them were written during her Leipzig study years after 1877, a period that Ethel Smyth herself described as the happiest time of her life. In Leipzig, she met such musical giants as Brahms, Clara Schumann, Dvořák, Grieg and Tchaikovsky. It should come as no surprise that these encounters left stylistic traces in Ethel Smyth's piano oeuvre.
Smyth wrote the three piano sonatas in 1877, yet they are stylistically diverse: Smyth raced through a kind of musico-historical evolution. Her point of departure was Haydn and Mozart, who clearly inspired her sonata in C major. It was followed by the impassionate sonata in C sharp minor, which was inspired by the actress Marie Geistinger. The two-movement fragment in D major, reflecting Ethel Smyth’s admiration for Brahms, concludes the sonatas.
Most of the other piano pieces borrow their atmosphere and titles from Baroque models (dance movements, genre pieces) and are technically undemanding. They have been arranged in this edition in order of progressive difficulty.
Contents
- Sonata No. 1 in C major (21')
- Sonata No. 2 in C sharp minor (23')
- Sonata No. 3 in D major (10')
- Piano Piece in E major (4')
- Aus der Jugendzeit!! E. v. H. (2')
- Four Dances (10')
- Suite (6')
- Nocturne (Kanon in Gegenbewegung) (3')
- Kanon in Gegenbewegung mit einer Füllstimme (1')
- Kanon in Gegenbewegung mit Begleitung (1')
- Invention (2')
- Praeludium [in C major] (6')
- Fuga a 3 [in C major] (4')
- Praeludium [in F sharp major; composed by Heinrich von Herzogenberg; erroneously attributed to Ethel Smyth] (4')
- Fuga [in F sharp major; composed by Heinrich von Herzogenberg; erroneously attributed to Ethel Smyth] (4')
- Variations in D flat major on an Original Theme (22')
Item Details
Instrumentation
- Part 1: Piano
Publisher: Breitkopf & Härtel
Publisher's reference: EB 9450
Our Stock Code: 1628609
Media Type: Paperback
