Background
Sol Berkowitz was born in Warren, Ohio, and lived in New York from 1925.
( A classic sight-singing anthology featuring an ideal bl...)
A classic sight-singing anthology featuring an ideal blend of newly composed melodies and music from the literature. A New Approach to Sight Singing combines author-composed exercises with carefully selected excerpts from the literature, all arranged for an ideal pedagogical progression.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393284913/?tag=2022091-20
(We have all read of the amazing improvisational accomplis...)
We have all read of the amazing improvisational accomplishments of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Liszt, to name only a few of the giants of the past. But what of the eighteenth-century instrumentalist who improvised the cadenza to the concerto he was performing, the church organist who had to improvise during portions of the service, the keyboard player who had only a figured bass part as a guide to his performance, and the operatic singer who was expected to improvise embellishments during the course of an aria? What has happened to the lost art of improvisation? Improvisation Through Keyboard Harmony deals with this very problem. To show how to succeed at the keyboard with the harmonic language of the past, the student is first led through the steps for harmonizing simple melodies with only the tonic and dominant chords. This is followed with melodic lines requiring the use of a larger harmonic vocabulary and more sophisticated accompaniment patterns. The final chapter deals entirely with extended improvisation in a wide variety of musical styles. The material also guides the musician in using figured bass and jazz notation as additional tools for improvisation. Basically this book helps the student to "play by ear" through developing one of the most gratifying skills of practical musicianship - improvisation.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0134534727/?tag=2022091-20
( The most innovative and user-friendly introduction to s...)
The most innovative and user-friendly introduction to sight singing. Widely used for over two decades, A New Approach to Sight Singing contains original melodies composed by the authors for the express goal of teaching sight singing. The new edition retains the user-friendly organization professors and students love. New to the Fifth Edition are more exercises in atonal and post-tonal twentieth-century idioms, a section of unpitched rhythmic exercises, and a topical index that makes key concepts easy to find.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393911500/?tag=2022091-20
Sol Berkowitz was born in Warren, Ohio, and lived in New York from 1925.
He studied piano with Abby Whiteside and composition with Karol Rathaus, Harold Morris and Otto Luening.
He received music degrees from Queens College (City University of New York) in 1942 and Columbia University in 1946. Berkowitz was a professor at Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College from 1946 until 1999, with a brief hiatus (1961–1967) to pursue a career as a theatre, film and television composer. Known as a teacher of music theory, orchestration, ear training and musicianship, Berkowitz wrote the music textbooks A New Approach to Sight Singing and Improvisation through Keyboard Harmony.
Berkowitz composed musicals, ballets, orchestral works, chamber music, and hundreds of choral works and songs.
His musical score Nowhere to Go But Up! was produced on Broadway in 1962. Among Berkowitz"s students are jazz pianist Mal Waldron, jazz guitarist Billy Bauer, musicologist Lewis Lockwood and composer Bright Sheng.
(We have all read of the amazing improvisational accomplis...)
( A classic sight-singing anthology featuring an ideal bl...)
( The most innovative and user-friendly introduction to s...)