Publisher's Synopsis
(English) Il maestro e lo scolare (The teacher and the pupil) is the title of a collection of four-handed piano pieces composed by Joseph Haydn, which based on a "responsive" structure: The "teacher" proposes a musical motif and the "pupil" repeats it and completes the musical phrase. Hence it is clear the pedagogical aim of the composition: The teacher shows, by increasing the level of difficulty of the execution gradually, the model and the pupil imitates it. The didactic aim is also at the basis of this collection of variations on the original Haydn' theme. These variations have been composed to highlight how different patterns, styles, and forms can be embedded in the same harmonic structure. During training activities addressed to students, teachers, educators, rehabilitators it has proved useful to exemplify the psychological mechanisms underlying the meaning of music by means of pieces inserted in a unitary frame and grounded on the same model. The variations on the same theme are well suited for this purpose, even since they allows trainers to engage learners, once they become familiar with the harmonic model, in activities in which they are asked to predict, analyse, and re-elaborate the musical motives. Beside this main educational purpose, there are other secondary goals. Unlike Il maestro e lo scolare, the variations collected in this book fail to follow a sequence of increasing difficulty, but rather are arranged so to explore the features of different composers, musical styles, languages, and forms. This suggests a further way to use this book, so to address notions concerning the history of music, musical theory, and formal analysis, or to induce people to reflect on how emotional meaning is conveyed by music. In addition, whereas in Haydn's variations the pupils repeats ad litteram what the teacher played, in some variations collected here the imitation shows some changes. Thus pupils can be asked to discover these changes so to be sensitive to the structural aspects of musical language. See: www.psyprint.jimdo.com (Italiano) La presente raccolta di variazioni sul tema originale di Haydn de Il maestro e lo scolare è stata composta per mettere in luce come, su una medesima struttura armonica, si possano innestare forme, stili e figure musicali diversi. Nel corso di attività di formazione rivolte a studenti, insegnanti, educatori, riabilitatori, si è rivelato utile poter esemplificare i meccanismi psicologici attraverso cui si costruisce il significato della musica per mezzo di brani inseriti in una cornice unitaria e riportabili a un identifico modello di base. La formula delle variazioni sullo stesso tema ben si presta a questa finalità, anche perché permette di coinvolgere attivamente i formandi, una volta acquisita familiarità con il modello armonico, in giochi e proposte di anticipazione, analisi e rielaborazione dei pattern musicali presentati. Le variazioni possono diventare anche occasione per affrontare nozioni di storia della musica o di teoria musicale o di analisi formale o per invitare a riflettere sulla valenza emotiva degli elementi musicali. Vedi: www.psyprint.jimdo.com
