Congratulations to everyone who participated. Your pieces were great! Hundreds of students sent in compositions about the Arctic and Antarctica with music about penguins, polar bears, walruses, and other animals as well as pieces about the polar landscapes and oceans! As always, it was difficult to pick just a few, but we are pleased to announce the 2020 winners.

10 and younger 11 and older

1st Place: A Polar Bear’s Lullaby by Beverly Horton, age 10 Teacher: Terry Doremus 2nd Place: The Arctic Fox by Maggie Miller, age 10 Teacher: Jessica Olson 3rd Place (tie): Arctic Waves by Jillian Williams, age 9 Teacher: Jessica Olson Tundra by Harry Graves, age 10 Teacher: Alison Siener Brown Honorable Mentions: Jumping Arctic Foxes

by David Beamer, age 9 Teacher: Barbara

Azevedo Cold and Beautiful by Marissa DiChiaro, age 10

Teacher: Mark Raimondi

1st Place: Lullaby of the Northern Lights by Colleen Leacock, age 16 Teacher: Lydia McCool 2nd Place: The Penguin Strut! by Elisa Lipkin, age 17 Teacher: Diana Wan 3rd Place (tie): Snowfall by Audrey Schultz, age 11 Teacher: Maggie Casey The Groovy Walrus by Ella Miller, age 13 Teacher Jessica Olson Honorable Mentions: Waltz of the Polar Bears by Eli Minasian, age 14 Teacher: Reese Ancheta Guided by the Northern Lights by Marina Prikis, age 17 Teacher: Nancy Osborne A Sled Dog’s Day Off by Shawn An, age 18 Teacher: Diane W. Higgins

Winning Pieces will be printed in upcoming issues.

2020 Composition Contest Winners

The Polar Regions

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3

Bartók’s Childhood Béla Bartók was born in a small town in

Hungary in 1881. His father played cello, and his mother was a talented pianist. Bartók’s mother gave him his first lessons when he was very young. He was supposedly able to play 40 different pieces on the piano by age 4. He played his first public piano recital and per-formed one of his own pieces when he was 11.

His father died when he was only 7 years old and his mother became a teacher to support the family. Because Bartók was so talented, she wanted to move to a town where her son could study with good music teachers. They moved Pozsony, Hungary, and later he attended the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest, which is a major city in Hungary. There he studied piano and composition under several famous teachers. He also met Zoltán Kodály, another famous Hungarian composer and they became close friends.

Bartók began composing music for orchestra, as well as piano music, and later taught piano at the Royal Academy. Many of Bartók’s stu-dents went on to become famous musicians, including conductors Fritz Reiner and Sir Georg Solti.

Composers who Inspired Him In 1902, Bartók attended the premiere (first)

performance of Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra in Budapest. Bartók was very impressed by the music and even met Strauss after the performance.

Another composer who influenced Bartók was Claude Debussy. Bartók loved the har-monies in Debussy’s music. Bartók also greatly

Béla Bartók was a famous Hungarian composer. Much of the music that he wrote was based on folk music from Hungary and other places he visited. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century.

Béla Bartók

(1881-1945)

Budapest

admired the music of Brahms, Bach, and Beethoven.

Bartók and Folk Music

Bartók also became interested in music from a different tradition. On a summer vacation, he heard a nanny singing folk songs to the children she cared for and immediately became fascinated with it. After graduating from school, Bartók spent several months in the countryside discovering the rich folk music of his native land.

He studied the songs, melodies, and rhythms played by people who lived in small villages and in the countryside. Bartók then made these musical elements part of the music he was composing. Sometimes Bartók would take a melody from folk music and use it in his own music without any changes or with only slight alterations. Other times Bartók would write music that imitated the folk music he had heard.

Some people criticized Bartók’s use of folk music in his pieces, saying that he was not really writing original music. Bartók disagreed with this criticism, and he pointed out that many famous writers and playwrights, like William Shakespeare, wrote stories and plays based on well-known stories.

It also required a lot of hard work and travel for Bartók to discover this folk music. Since there were no tape recorders or computers in the early 1900s, Bartók had to travel to the villages and small towns of Hungary to hear folk music. He also visited towns in neigh-boring countries and regions such as Romania, Transylvania, Turkey, Serbia, Croatia, and even North Africa.

4

Bartók (center) collecting folk songs in a small country village in 1908. He used an Edison phono-graph like the one below to record the music.

A Great Pianist During his lifetime Bartók was prob-

ably better known as a pianist than as a composer. He performed at concerts and made recordings, both in Hungary and after he came to the United States. Some of these recordings still exist so we are able to hear how he played and listen to him perform his own music. This gives us a good idea of how he intended his music to be played. For many other great composers who lived long ago, all we have are descriptions of how they played. Mozart is said to have been a very exciting pianist to see perform, but since he lived so long ago, we have no recordings of his per-formances. Beethoven played the pre-miere performances of his piano con-certos, but we do not know what he sounded like. Bartók at the age of 18

Around the time World War I started, it became too dangerous to travel around Europe, and Bartók had to remain in Hungary. This was disappointing to Bartók, who once said that collecting folk songs “is the one thing which is as necessary to me as fresh air is to other people.”

In addition to the hardships of travel back then, recording the folk music he heard was a real challenge. Since this traditional folk music was passed down from person to person and learned by hearing it, these songs had never been written down before. Bartók had to either by write it down after listening to it or record it on an early phonograph.

It is estimated that Bartók collected more than 5,000 folk songs and dances. When Bartók used it in his own pieces, he introduced the folk music of Hungary and the other places he visited to people around the world. If it were not for Bartók, some of this music might never have been heard.

Moving to America

Hungary became a difficult place to live dur-ing the years between World War I and World War II. In 1940 Bartók and his wife and son moved to the United States. Bartók was not happy about leaving his beloved homeland, but he wrote some of his best music after he moved to America. Bartók became sick and died several years later in New York.

His Compositions

During his lifetime, the music of Bartók was not fully understood or appreciated. This is probably because the music he wrote seemed unfamiliar and unusual to the people who heard it. The folk music sounds Bartók includ-ed in his pieces were very different from the traditional German music that audiences were used to hearing.

Bartók also wrote music that did not follow the usual major and minor scales. His melodies and harmonies often have unusual disso-nances. He also used tricky rhythms, and sometimes changed time signatures in the middle of a piece. One measure might have three beats, while the next would have five.

Because he was a pianist, it is not surprising that Bartók wrote a lot of music for piano. He composed three piano concertos. He also wrote Mikrokosmos, which is a series of piano

153 pieces. Bartók wrote them for his son Peter’s music lessons. They are designed to teach students how to play unusual rhythms and chords.

Bartók also composed six string quartets that are frequently performed, violin concertos, one opera, and two ballets. Bartók wrote some of his best music in the final years of his life. His most famous piece, the Concerto for Orchestra, had its premiere performance in 1944. The piece was well liked when it was first heard, but Bartók did not live long enough to see how popular it would eventually become. Some of Bartók’s other famous pieces were not finished at the time he died, but peo-ple close to Bartók, including one of his stu-dents and his son, were able to finish and pub-lish these works.

Because Bartók’s music was so different and much of his best music was written late in life, people did not realize in Bartók’s lifetime that he was one of the great composers of the 20th century. In the decades following his death, appreciation for Bartók grew, both in Hungary and around the world.

Folk Music in His Compositions He is also known for his many folk song

arrangements. Below is a part from Bartók’s Paraszttanc (Peasant’s Dance): Allegro mod-erato from First Term at the Piano, which is an example of his use of folk music:

&?

#

#C

C

œ œ œ œn œ œ œ œœœ œ œœ œf Jœ̂ .œ ˙̂

œœ œ œœ œ

&?

#

#

œ œ œ œn œ œ œ œœœ œ œœ œ

jœv .œ ˙œœ œ œœœ œ

In the 1980s and 1990s, his face was on Hungarian money.

5

6

Most little kids learn to play a mallet percussion instrument before they learn to walk! Little toy xylo-

phones are mem-bers of this instru-ment family. A percussion instru-ment includes anything that can

be hit, struck or shaken to make noise. Mallet percussion instruments can play musical notes (just like a piano) and are hit with sticks called mallets.

Mallet percussion instruments are not just toys for kids. They are found in orchestras and bands playing important parts in pieces. They include the xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, and glockenspiel.

These instruments have many similarities to pianos. The bars that the player hits are arranged like a piano keyboard. In the picture below, notice how there are two rows of bars. The ones at the bottom of the picture are the same as the black keys on the piano and are also arranged in groups of two and three.

The Mallets The ends of the mallets are made of lots of

different materials – anything from yarn to brass. Percussionists usually have many dif-ferent types of mallets, and change from one type to another (even in the middle of a piece) to get different sounds.

Although these instruments are usually played with two mallets (one in each hand), percussionists also learn to play these instru-ments with four mallets (two in each hand) as shown in the previous picture.

The Marimba

The marimba is the mallet instrument that percussionists play the most, especially in solo recitals. It has bars that are often made of rosewood. It has the largest range of the mallet percussion instruments, usually 4-5 octaves. Because the instrument has such a wide range, marimba music is sometimes written in treble clef and sometimes in bass clef. Some marimba music uses a grand staff with both clefs like piano music.

The Xylophone The xylophone has a

more piercing sound than the marimba and is high-er-pitched. The bars are made of rosewood or other materials, and the range is usually 3-4 octaves. The xylophone was first used in an

Instrument of the Month

Mallet Percussion

This quartet has four marimbas playing together!

7

Bartók’s music often includes many sharps and flats. When you play pieces that frequently use the black keys, try to move your hands a bit closer to them. The closer you are to those hard-to-reach keys, the faster you will get to them. This will make passages easier to play, and they will sound smoother, too.

To see how this works play the example below

twice. The first time place your fingertips at the very edge of the keys. The second time, move your fingers in a bit closer to the black keys. Do you notice any difference? Which way is easier for your hands? Which one sounds better and smoother?

Playing Closer to the Black Keys

& 44 œ œ œb œ# œ œ œ œ œ œb œ# œ œ œ

2nd Time

1st Time

Go to www.peforkids.com to listen to some mallet percussion music.

orchestra in the 1870s in Camille Saint-Saëns’s Dance Macabre to represent the rat-tling of bones.

The Vibraphone

The vibraphone gets its name from a motor attached to the instrument. When the motor is turned on a valve underneath

the bars opens and closes, producing a vibra-to effect. The vibraphone has a sustain pedal, just like the piano. The vibraphone is most commonly seen in jazz ensembles, con-cert bands, and drum corps. Its bars are made of aluminum (metal).

The Glockenspiel

The glockenspiel (pronounced glock-un-speel) is extremely high-pitched – so much so that glockenspiel parts are written two octaves lower than they sound. This instru-ment’s bars are made of steel, and it is played

with extremely hard mallets. The sound is very pure and projects well. It is usually smaller than a xylophone with a range of about 3 octaves.

8

Many student piano pieces use a basic five-finger position for each hand. There is one note for each finger.

In more advanced music, you play across more than just five notes. You sometimes stretch fingers across more than one key. The thumb may move under the other fingers, or you may move other fingers above the thumb to bring the hand over into a new position. This is called thumb crossing.

This is an example of a spot in which the thumb stretches underneath the third finger to go to the next note.

In this case, the third finger crosses over the thumb to play the next lower note.

Thumb Crossing Under

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#œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ Œ œ Œ4 3 1

2 4

Your hand will look like this:

Crossing Over The Thumb

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#œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœ Œ ˙̇2 1 3

24

15

Your hand will look like this:

Remember: Stay flexible and relaxed – tension is never good. Always keep

the thumb in the correct position.

ExercisesPlay these examples with thumb crossings.

Right Hand Left Hand

& œ œ œ œ œ1 2 3 4 5

? œ œ œ œ œ1 2 3 4 5

& 44 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ2 1 3 4 5 4

3 2

w1

& 44 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ1 2

3 1 2 3 2

? 44 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ2 1

23 1 2 3? 44 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ

3 21 3 2 1 2 3

w2

Thumb CrossingWhat is Thumb

Crossing?

9

A M I K R O K O S M O S

B M U H T V O D A N C E

E A I U Y B I F K M T Y

S L N N S T P O E N A E

T L D G H C E L L O V N

A E B A R T O K R I E O

B T E R A D P M S E N H

M C Z Y Y E E U A R I P

I J E V B K R S N U Y O

R K T I O N A I P N E L

A N O I S S U C R E P Y

M A N T S E P A D U B X

Bartok Budapest cello dance folk music Hungary key

mallet marimba melody Mikrokosmos note octave opera

percussion piano thumb violin xylophone

Word Search

Jokes Q: What is the most musical bird?

A: The Trumpeter Swan! Q: What rock group has four guys who don’t sing?

A: Mount Rushmore! Make up a musical joke or

riddle of your own and send it to

editor@pianoexplorer.net

Beginner’s Corner

10

Dynamics ReviewThe word dynamics describes how loud and soft music is played. Composers often

put careful markings for performers to tell them how loud or soft to play each pas-sage. Dynamics are very important, so you should always pay attention to them. When you memorize notes and fingerings, make sure you also memorize the dynamics. It is easier to learn them from the start than to add them in later.

Look at the markings below. Do you recognize all of them? The dynamic words come from Italian – like many other musical terms. Learn

both the full words and the abbreviations so you will notice them in your music.

ff

f

mf

mp

p

pp

forte loud

fortissimo

mezzo forte

mezzo piano

piano

pianissimo

very loud

medium loud

medium soft

very soft

soft

Sometimes, composers tell per-formers to gradually change from one dynamic to another. These are the markings that tell you to go from soft to loud or from loud to soft.

Crescendo

Decrescendo

getting louder

getting softer (This is also called a Diminuendo)

Gradual Changes

11

More Dynamics Did you know that before the Romantic Period, composers mostly just used the dynamics on the previous page – from pp to ff? During the 1800s composers like Beethoven and Brahms wanted to be more dramatic and they added in ppp and fff. Since then, some composers have used crazy dynamics including up to 8 ps and 8 fs! Here are a few famous works that use extreme dynamics: Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony: pppppp (in a bassoon solo) Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture: ffff Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite: ffff Mahler’s 7th Symphony, 3rd mvt: ffff Nielsen’s 5th Symphony, 2nd mvt: ppppp György Ligeti, who was a Hungarian composer (1923-2006) may be the most extreme composer of them all when it comes to dynamics. He has a pppppppp section in a cello concerto and also ends a piano etude with a dimunendo to this pppppppp dynamic. In another etude he start a section at ffffff and crescendos up to ffffffff. The most extreme dynamic is probably found in Florentiner March by Julius Fucik, which ends with 24 fs! These types of dynamics are difficult to actually create. It is hard to say what fff versus ffff should really sound like, but they convey the feeling or attitude of the composer about the inten-sity and sound he or she is trying to express.

Word Scramble

N O I S E S C U R P __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ G R I N S T __ __ __ __ __ __ S A R B S __ __ __ __ __ D O W N O W I D __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ D R A B Y O E K __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

What Instrument Am I?

1. I am made of wood. 2. I sometimes play in an orchestra – but not always. 3. I have double reeds. 4. I am bigger than an oboe. 5. I have a bubble-shaped bulge at one end called a bell. _____________________

12

Surprise Theme and Variations

Have some fun with dramatic dynamic changes with this theme and variations based on Haydn’s famous “Surprise” Symphony. When you get to the ç make a sudden, very loud,

accented note by pressing your arm against the keyboard!

13

Haydn liked to include musical jokes in his music. The most famous is in his Surprise Symphony #94, which begins very quietly and simply. A loud chord comes in abruptly, supposedly, to wake up those in the audience who might have fallen asleep. In this arrangement, Haydn’s loud chord is created with an arm cluster; just lean into the key-board and play as many notes as fit between your elbow and wrist – black and white keys, or all whites. The theme is easy to play. Remember to start very softly, so that the arm cluster is a surprise. Notice the staccatos; they are equally important. The variations get more difficult as you go along.

14

Word Search Words (page 11) Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Dvorak, Smetana, Strauss

piano, zither, organ, violin, viola symphony, opera, dance, concerto, symphonic poem oboe, English horn, bassoon, clarinet, flute

Musical Math Maze (page 14)

Quiz (page 15) 1. b 2. d 3. b 4. a 5. a 6. a 7. b 8. b

How to Contact UsSubscription renewals, quantity changes, address changes: Phone: 888-446-6888 or 847-446-5000 Email: circulation@pianoexplorer.net Online store: magazine.theinstrumentalist.com 1838 Techny Court, Northbrook, IL 60062 Editorial comments or questions: email: editor@pianoexplorer.net 100 Days: Teachers please email # of days, student’s name, age, state, and your name to editor@pianoexplorer.net. (Do not mail sheets.) Piano Explorer website: www.peforkids.com New material for teachers and students will be posted by the start of each month. Note: Music for Young Children (back cover) is an outside advertiser and cannot assist with Piano Explorer subscription questions.

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START

END

Y A R Y K S V O K I A H C T

E S D E N A G R O A A V O S

N S Y M P H O N Y C R N T E

R T O R B O V E S D E O A R

O R S M E T A N A N P Z V N

H A C P E R I C X P O I I D

H U H I A E V L I S Z T O N

S S D A N C E A O U C H L O

I S Z N A N C R G H K E I O

L O A O E O F I D I J R N S

G M E O P C I N O H P M Y S

N W B E H O R E S V I O L A

E O L N C S E T U L F A Z B

April Puzzle Answers

Editor’s Note

During this difficult time with schools closed and in-person lessons cancelled for most students, we are providing the May/June issue of Piano Explorer as an online pdf only. We are announcing the competi-tion contest winners in this issue but will wait to include the music until the next print issue, so that the winners can have copies of their winning pieces in the magazine.

We will also wait to publish the next group of 100-Days winners until the next issue for the same reason. If you have not yet started the 100-Day Challenge, this might be a great time to start! Take advantage of extra time away from your usual activities to improve your piano playing. Full information on the Challenge can be found at www.peforkids.com.

Links to music in this issue may be found on the Kids page of the website. If you have any questions, please email us at editor@pia-noexplorer.net.

We hope that you and your families remain safe and well!

4 - Bartolommeo Cristofori (1655-1731) Italian harpsichord maker credited with inventing the piano

7 - Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) German composer

7 - Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Russian composer

17 - Erik Satie (1866-1925) French composer

21 - “Fats” (Thomas) Waller (1904-1943) American jazz pianist and composer

22 - Richard Wagner (1813-1883) German opera composer

23 - Alicia de Larrocha (1923-2009) Spanish pianist

30 - Benny Goodman (1909-1986) American jazz clarinetist

1 - Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012) American popular composer

2 - Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) English composer

5 - Martha Argerich (b. 1941) Argentine pianist

8 - Robert Schumann (1810-1856) German composer

11 - Richard Strauss (1864-1949) German composer and conductor

14 - Lang Lang (b. 1982) Chinese pianist 15 - Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

Norwegian composer 17 - Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Russian-American composer and conductor

18 - Ignaz Pleyel (1757-1831) French piano manufacturer

20 - André Watts (b. 1946) American pianist

May June

1. Bartók was a ____ composer. a. German b. French c. Hungarian d. Polish

2. Bartók was known for his study of _____ music.

a. folk b. Baroque c. percussion d. French

3. Bartók was a talented ______.

a. violinist b. xylophone player c. flutist d. pianist

4. _____ is the largest mallet instrument. a. xylophone b. marimba c. vibraphone d. glockenspiel

5. The glockenspiel is a very low-pitched instrument.

a. true b. false

6. A diminuendo ________________.

a. is the same as a crescendo b. is the opposite of a decrescendo c. means to get gradually louder d. all of the above e. none of the above f. a and b

Ann Rohner Callis, editor; Ryan Callis, assistant editor;Malgorzata Bagley, consulting editor. ©2020 Piano Explorer Co., all rights reserved. None of the content may be duplicated or reprinted without advance written permission. Telephone: 888-446-6888 or 847-446-5000 or fax 847.446.6263 www.PEforkids.com, e-mail: circulation@pianoexplorer.net or editor@ pianoexplorer.net. Clavier’s Piano Explorer, ISSN-0279-0858, Vol. 40, No. 9, is published monthly except June and August for $6 per student per year for 5 or more copies, $12 each for less than 5 copies (Canada: groups $12 per student, regular $26; Other Foreign Delivery: groups $17 per student, regular $34) Periodicals postage paid at Northbrook, Illinois & add’l. mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Clavier’s Piano Explorer, 1838 Techny Court, Northbrook, IL 60062.

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Quiz

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It can be difficult to find the right activities for your child. An activity that can have a great impact on their lives. At MYC, we encourage your child to be more creative, inventive, imaginative and expressive through our keyboard-based music education program. We provide children with a unique set of skills that will carry throughout their lives. Whether it’s improving your child’s grades, enhancing coordination skills for your child’s athletic activities, or to learn the rewarding skill of playing the piano; Music for Young Children® is the first key to getting your child there.