Piano Notes

Among the world's instruments, the piano stands out as the most versatile, powerful, and misunderstood -- even by those who have spent much of their lives learning to play. In Piano Notes, a finalist for a 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award, Charles Rosen, one of the world's most talented pianists, distills a lifetime of wisdom and lore into an unforgettable tour of the hidden world of piano playing. You'll read about how a note is produced, why a chord can move us, why the piano -- "hero and villain" of tonality -- has shaped the course of Western music, and why it is growing obsolete. Rosen explains what it means that Beethoven composed in his head whereas Mozart would never dream of doing so, why there are no fortissimos in the works of Ravel, and why a piano player's acrobatics have an important dramatic effect but nothing more. Ending on a contemplative note, Piano Notes offers an elegant argument that piano music "is not just sound or even significant sound" but a mechanical, physical, and fetishistic experience that faces new challenges in an era of recorded music. Rosen ponders whether piano playing will ever again be the same, and his insights astonish.

查尔斯·罗森(Charles Rosen 1927-)不仅是当代最著名的钢琴家之一，而且还是音乐界一位极其敏锐的评论家，其论著曾两次获格拉美奖（Grammy Award）提名.他的代表著作《古典风格--海顿、莫扎特、贝多芬》（The Classical Style）曾获得美国国家图书奖,并且一版再版,被列为音乐家的必读书。此外他还著有《浪漫主义的一代》（The Romantic Generation）、《奏鸣曲式》（Sonata Forms）、《阿诺德·勋伯格》、《艾略特·卡特的音乐语言》等多部著作.前些年他在意大利旁提那音乐节（Pontina Festival）举办了一系列的讲座和演奏了全套贝多芬三十二首奏鸣曲之后,写下的《贝多芬奏鸣曲》一书,有可能成为这一类参考中的经典著作.