Unsung heroines: contributions of selected early twentieth-century women to American piano pedagogy

American Music Teacher, Dec, 2002 by Debra Brubaker Burns, Anita Jackson, Connie Arrau Sturm

Samaroff developed her own flexible teaching style that successfully groomed talented pianists. She tried to foster her students' musical independence and their broader human development. Alex Weissenberg, who studied and worked under her at the Juilliard School of Music, said that she "was one of the few teachers I have met whose pupils all played differently. Individuality was something she respected. She had great insight into the personality of her students, and she let people develop their own way." (30)

Samaroff emphasized the importance of concentration during practice, (31) the observance of phrasing, pedaling and expression marks during early stages of learning (32) and the benefits of studying the score away from the piano. When teaching interpretation, she relied more on mental images and suggestion, rather than technical or mechanical details. Samaroff expected her students to perform frequently and worked hard to open performing opportunities for them.

Samaroff's educational influence extended beyond her piano teaching. In 1928 she helped found the Schubert Memorial Foundation, which gave the annual contest's winner the opportunity to play with the Philadelphia Orchestra. For two seasons, she wrote music reviews for the New York Evening Post (1926-1928). To foster music literacy for the general public, she developed Layman's Music Courses with lectures, slides, music selections and books; she gave these presentations, often assisted by her piano students, in New York's Town Hall from the 1930s until her death in 1948. She also trained and inspired many other teachers to become missionaries of music appreciation throughout the United States.

Angela Diller and Elizabeth Quaile

Angela Diller (1877-1968) and Elizabeth Quaile (1874-1951) were among the leading music educators who established pre-college piano programs in the first half of the twentieth century. (33) Diller headed the theory department (1899-1916), and Quaile headed the piano department (early 1900s-1916) of New York's Music School Settlement until they left with David Mannes to establish what is now the Mannes College of Music. In 1920, they founded the Diller-Quaile Music School, which provided music instruction to early elementary through pre-college levels. Their school's innovative curriculum consisted of private piano lessons combined with coordinated classes in musicianship and theory. The school continues today as a community music school, offering a wide range of early-childhood music classes, private voice and instrumental study, theory, chorus, chamber music, orchestra and adult courses. (34)

Diller and Quaile also collaborated to author the Diller-Quaile piano method series. Their First Solo Book, published in 1918, sold more than two million copies. The piano-teaching series was popular particularly in the 1930s and 1940s. Their forty books, thirteen of which are still in print, include The Diller-Quaile Solo and Duet Books, 25 First-Grade Pieces, Off We Go, Off We Go Again, First Pedal Studies, Tunes from Many Lands and When All the World Was Young. They also published the Bauer-Diller-Quaile Course (1931) with Harold Bauer, and published separately.