“1. Playful,” from Moods for Piano, by Lettie Beckon Alston.
The Four Moods for Piano were composed in 1993. The first (Playfully) uses the upper and lower extremes of the piano for contrasting effects. Although a lot of Alston’s music has driving rhythms, this piece sounds rhythmically improvisatory, especially at the beginning. The style is dissonant, with unusual harmonies and clusters of notes. It is also more percussive than some of her other piano works, which have a clear melody.
A student could learn a lot through the rhythms of this piece. There are often rests on beat one, which requires the player to internalize the rhythm and feel the rests as part of the music. The rhythmic figures are not always intuitive, and would require excessive counting in order to learn. Then, making the music sound improvisatory or spontaneous would be difficult, especially while maintaining the correct rhythms. Unpredictable harmonies are a useful thing to learn how to manage as well. This would require the student to take concepts like shaping and phrasing and apply them in a harmonic context that is less familiar to most classical pianists.The large jumps in register also are a challenge for the ear, and the player has to use a volume and tone that lets the upper and lower notes be clear, while still contrasting.
Lettie Beckon Alston was born in Detroit in 1953. She received her doctorate in composition from the University of Michigan. She composes for orchestra, piano, voice, strings, and other instruments as well as synthesizers and electronically produced sounds.