Sophia Gorlin

Music Theory for Young Musicians in the Style of Russian School of Piano Playing Sophia Gorlin

Publisher Marketing: This current volume is the seventh of The Music Theory for Young Musicians in the Style of Russian School of Piano Playing multi-volume collection of books (Music Theory). It is targeted to pre-college students of all levels, both children and adults, and is drawn largely from the materials the author has developed for her own students over the years. This collection was originally conceived as a supplement to the Russian School of Piano Playing (Russian Piano School) book series, which is an English translation of the popular Russian piano method book. A number of piano teachers, both Russian and American, who use the Russian Piano School method, have noted the need for a comprehensive music theory supplement. Music Theory is intended to fill this gap, though it can be used effectively with any piano method. Moreover, the Music Theory books have evolved beyond their original conception as a supplement to the Russian Piano School books, incorporating more advanced concepts and skills than those found in the Russian Piano School series, which stops at intermediate levels. What makes these Music Theory books unique: This collection is expected to be one of a kind written in English language. Such advanced concepts as tonality, functionality, chromatic intervals, enharmonicism, all forms of resolutions, all forms of cadences and modulations, etc. have never been included in any pre-college or college introductory courses; therefore, the books of high intermediate and advanced levels are extremely helpful for the students who plan to continue their musical education in college. The Music Theory collection uniquely combines textbook and workbook, teacher and student book components in each volume, providing greater ease of instruction for both teachers and students at every level. This series of theory books uniquely provides the sheer number of musical examples. It uniquely focuses on the development of student's analytical and logical skills. This is accomplished by offering a number of questions to each musical example about various musical components (key, tonality, rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, expression tools etc.) that lead the student to his/her own conclusion about the uniqueness of a concrete musical work. With every analysis of a musical example, the student's attention is drawn to the style and genre of a musical piece, to the historical period in which it was composed and background (nationality) of a composer. Starting with level 1B, each book includes additional biographical articles about the composers and musical genres either in the footnotes or in the appendix/ endnotes - a concise "encyclopedia" for a student to turn to when he/she needs to answer the questions about genres, styles and composer's backgrounds. The books uniquely include a number of comparison exercises. They present comparative analysis of two or three pieces that share some musical components and features. These exercises largely contribute to the students' understanding of a musical style at its every level - from the historical period in which the music work was written to the individual composer's style and the style of a concrete musical work. This collection offers, through the performance tips throughout the books, the important connection between theory concepts and piano performance. This connection is also supported by musical terminology reviews. Student's attention is consistently brought to the new music terms as they first evolve in musical examples. This helps the student to comprehend and memorize important musical terms in relation to performance. The unique teaching tools offered in this series encourage students to look more closely and deeply at the music, and intensifies their ability to read music quickly and effectively. Upon completion of the theory training in these books, a student should be able to sketch a musical image in his/her mind just by looking at the score, before he/she even begi" Contributor Bio:  Gorlin, Sophia Sophia Gorlin, the author of this book, was born in Odessa, Ukraine, where, at the age of six, she began studying piano at the renowned Stolyarsky School of Music, a preparatory school for gifted children. In high school, Sophia double majored in piano performance and music theory, for which she received her high school diploma with merit. Sophia continued her music studies at the Odessa State Conservatory by Nezhdanova (now the Odessa State Nezhdanova Musical Academy), double-majoring in piano performance, pedagogy and music theory. After graduating from the Conservatory with honors, Sophia was offered a teaching position at the Stolyarsky School of Music. She taught there for almost fifteen years, giving private piano lessons, teaching group lessons in music theory, harmony, solfege, and musical analysis. Since arriving in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States in 1993, Sophia has continued to work as a piano teacher and music theory instructor. Sophia is also the author of several published articles on music theory and analysis, including three articles published in the DSCH Journal in 2007-2008. Throughout her years teaching, Sophia has developed unique materials for piano and music theory instruction that reflect her experience and knowledge of the European musical education system. This multi-level theory book is based entirely on these materials.