Scarecrow Press
Pages: 153
Trim: 5⅜ x 8¾
978-0-8108-4306-6 • Paperback • January 1993 • $61.00 • (£47.00)
Ruth C. Friedberg, Director of Music and Professor of Piano, Incarnate Word College, San Antonio, TX, has also taught at Duke, the University of Texas, and the New School of Music in Philadelphia. She has concertized and given lecture-recitals throughout the US and Canada and was the keyboard artist of the San Antonio Symphony from 1976 to 1987. Her articles on 20th-century music and composers have appeared in many periodicals as well as in the New Grove's Dictionaries of Music, and Scarecrow Press has published her three-volume set, American Art Song and American Poetry (1981-1987).
Part 1 List of Illustrations
Part 2 Preface, by Lorin Hollander
Part 3 Author's Preface
Part 4 Introduction— The Making of a Pianist
Part 5 I Body
Chapter 6 How Do We See It—or Do We?
Chapter 7 How We Treat It—Principles of Nurturance
Part 8 Diet
Part 9 Rest
Part 10 Exercise
Chapter 11 How We Use It
Part 12 Breathing
Part 13 The Pianist's "Alexander"
Chapter 14 Mirror, Mirror On the Wall
Part 15 And on Arising?
Part 16 From Body to Mind
Chapter 17 New Help for Bodily Distress
Part 18 Why Does it Hurt?
Part 19 An Ounce of Prevention
Chapter 20 Cherchez le piano
Part 21 Endnotes for Part I
Part 22 Bibliography for Part I
Part 23 II Mind
Chapter 24 Motivation
Chapter 25 Organization
Part 26 Practice—Scheduling
Part 27 Practice—Methodology
Part 28 Memorizing
Part 29 Sight-Reading
Chapter 30 Becoming a Musician
Part 31 Musical Style
Part 32 Theory
Chapter 33 Long-Range Planning
Part 34 To Teach or not to Teach
Part 35 The Soloist
Part 36 Professor of Piano
Part 37 Symphony and Chamber Player
Part 38 Accompanist/Vocal Coach
Part 39 Endnotes for Part II
Part 40 Bibliography for Part II
Part 41 III Synthesis
Chapter 42 The "Why?" of Performance
Chapter 43 The "Where" of Performance
Part 44 Recitals and Competitions
Part 45 Organizations
Part 46 Churches and Synagogues
Part 47 Musical Theater
Part 48 Friends
Chapter 49 As a Singer
Chapter 50 Preparation for Performance
Part 51 Synthesis Observed
Part 52 Learning the Program
Part 53 Concert Clothes
Part 54 Securing One's Audience
Part 55 Programs
Part 56 Recordings
Chapter 57 Tension and Anxiety
Chapter 58 Performcane
Part 59 Just Before the Concert
Part 60 During the concert
Part 61 Last Words
Part 62 Endnotes for Part III
Part 63 Bibliography for Part III
Part 64 About the Author
...includes an extensive annotated bibliography that shows the amount of research [Friedberg] has devoted to understanding the particular requirements of artistic accomplishment and performance.
— Reference and Research Book News
...although this skillfully concise but comprehensive book is written for the pianist, the issues that she addresses—diet, rest, exercise; breathing; preventing injuries; practice-scheduling, practice-methodology; memorizing; preparation for performance and performing—are relevant and pertinent for every performing musician...each of the book's three sections—mind, body, synthesis—contains an extensive, annotated bibliography. This learned and provocative book is recommended reading for every professional and amateur musician.
— Pan Pipes (Journal of Sigma Alpha Iota)
That Friedberg has the background to speak with authority is immediately apparent...packed with distilled wisdom...
— American Music Teacher
...another kind of book:one that anyone serious about the instrument would do well to read.
— San Antonio, Tx Times