Lead Yourself To Music: Bach. . - Keyboard - book review

American Music Teacher, Dec, 2001 by Amy Greer

Lead Yourself To Music: Bach, by Susan Cheung. Futurific Music, (2299 Dundas St. W., Ste. 302, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6R 1X7), 2001. 11 pp., $3.95. Intermediate.

As a child, I loved playing my big-note arrangement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. As a teacher, however, I have mixed feelings about the practice of dumbing down the classics even for pedagogical purposes. Some teachers intentionally teach easy arrangements of masterworks in order to introduce important works to students. Others shun such practices, standing firmly on the conviction that there is enough literature of all levels without resorting to diluted arrangements of dearly loved music. Teachers of integrity and conscience will continue to wrestle with this issue.

The author of this collection, Susan Cheung, clearly stands on the side of those who believe in the value of arranging great music with the purpose of introducing students to major themes and composers. This collection consists of eight arrangements of Bach works such as Italian Concerto, Largo from the F-minor Concerto, Wachet Auf and Sheep May Safely Graze.

The music is clearly printed with a beginning student in mind: The notes are nearly big-note version in size; the music is predominately in two voices, and the arrangements range in length from four to 'twenty-two measures. Therein lies the first problem. While the arrangements are tastefully done, they are so short as to be jolting to the ear. For the first several measures the listener hums along undisturbed by the simplified version; the rhythms are authentic and the harmonies (simplified though they may be) are correct. But due to the brevity of the arrangements, within a few bars the music takes a sharp and often abrupt turn to the final cadence in ways that are disruptive to a listener or a pianist familiar with the original themes.

Assuming this collection is written with a beginner in mind, the authenticity of the rhythms poses the second problem. While it is refreshing to see the rhythms left gracefully intact, they include micro-divisions of thirty-second and sixty-fourth notes, not rhythms with which the average beginner is terribly familiar. While the two-voice texture does indeed simplify the music, because of the complex rhythms it is not particularly easy music to play. I would not assign a student to play sixteen measures of the Gavotte from Suite No. 3 in D Major from this collection if that student, with a little stretching, could play the original with every measure intact.

Clearly, there is a large difference between the beginning student and a student ready to take on the Italian Concerto or the Bach Suites. For whom are these arrangements intended? The music is too difficult for beginning students and too reduced to be taken seriously for other levels. Indeed, the collection is treated almost like a wine-tasting dinner--try four bars of this delightful Bach tune, spit it out and try the next one. I feel teased by these tiny arrangements--for the music is rhythmically authentic and musically tasteful. I want to hear more before slamming into the final cadence. Perhaps if the author had chosen to arrange entire themes instead of simply the first several phrases, more obvious pedagogical purposes would surface.

I want to see more of Cheung's work, for she has captured my attention, but I would like to see her complete the musical ideas--both her own and the composer's. There seems to me to be an unspoken rule regarding the integrity and honor with which one edits music of great composer's. In so many respects, Cheung has approached this music with honesty and care, but Bach deserves more substance than is given in these morsels. I am left unsatisfied by these bites of Bach; I am afraid students will be, too.

Amy Greer, Boston, Massachusetts.