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Hi, I'd like to try for a Diploma (ABRSM) in Music Performace, Piano. Ideally, I'd try it in December, which has closing date for entries at the end of September.

I've been learning the pieces over the summer but am now moving on to my Performance Notes, the discussion of which constitutes most of the marks in the second half of the examination. I aim to have these ready before I enter myself (I think that's necessary anyway, I'm not sure).
I'll quote what it says in the Syllabus regarding Programme Notes:

At both DipABRSM and LRSM levels, your Programme Notes should illuminate the content of your Recital programme in an interesting and relevant way. At DipABRSM level, you should write your Programme Notes as if for a general
concert audience – that is, an audience of non-musicians who are interested in music and are relatively knowledgeable. If your programme contains standard repertoire
works, the generalist audience will probably already know something about them and may have heard either live or recorded performances of them before. Writing about very well-known pieces may initially seem a daunting task (what more can there be left to say about Bach’s Cello Suites or Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata?). But the audience will still appreciate being reminded, or told for the first time, of the background to the pieces, the composers’ intentions, and other relevant information about the works and what makes them popular. Some technical but universally common language may be helpful and necessary, but its meaning should always be clear.


I will have a few lessons (maybe four or five) with my teacher for help as well. But I'd still like some help if anyone's willing to give me any, be it in any form you please. If you have prepared Programme Notes before, either for a performance or for this type of exam, please do enlighten me on how you went about it. Whatever you think I should consider important aspects of the pieces I'll be playing, do let me know because I may not have realised their importance. If you know of any accessible, readable account online on the pieces, please share it with me. I'm looking for anything at all: technical aspects of the pieces; their significance in the composer's output; for whom the pieces may have been composed; what the composer had in mind; even general history at that time if it has reason to be important.


My pieces are the following:

Bach Prelude and Fugue no.14 in F# minor (Book 1),
Beethoven Sonata no.9(?) in E major,
Chopin Study Op.10/4 and Berceuse,
Prokofiev Sonata no.3 in A minor.

I've just started going through the Bach and analysing it's construction (subject, countersubject, etc.).

Any advice would be much appreciated, thank you very much!

I recommend that you go to page 24 of the DipABRSM syllabus and read the sections "Declaration of genuine work" and "Plagiarism" as soon as possible. In a nutshell, you are required to declare that your program notes are your own work, and that you give credit to anyone whose ideas you reproduce or summarize. As I understand it, part of being at diploma level is that you can write good quality notes without seeking or taking advice from others. If someone from Piano World gives you specific pointers regarding your works, and you use these in your notes without crediting the source, you will not be complying with the declaration you have to send in with your application. (You give the actual notes to the examiners on the day of the exam, as explained in the syllabus.)

Please note that I'm not trying to be judgemental or to tell you that you were "wrong" to make this post, just to be helpful. Good luck!

I think by advice, Hopinmad meant by in what ways should the program notes be. I've read the syllabus and I'm a little unsure. Hopinmad, might go beyond the requirements even.

My advice: keep things simple.

PW member Elissa Milne blogged about the process of writing Programme Notes. http://elissamilne.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/talking-about-music/
There's also a link to the actual Programme Notes in there.

hopinmad, you don't need the Program Notes done until your exam, but I think it's great you're preparing already....!

Check out the word count - this will limit the extent of your notes. You might be surprised by how little you need to write.

Ideally your program note will reflect what you are seeking to communicate through your performance. Maybe you've found a light-heartedness in the fugue, or you will be playing the fast movement of the sonata with a sense of melancholy. Connect your performance intentions with what you highlight in your notes. But remember that with comparatively very few words to play with you'll need to cover basics, such as when a piece was composed, or for whom, or similar contextual points that locate the work in the flow of musical history. You are not expected to present an analysis, however!! But a good analytic understanding of the work will be an excellent foundation for a good note.

[Thanks, Syboor, for linking to my blog! I clicked through from that link to this thread....!]

Ok, thanks for your advice.

Can I give this a little bump?

If anyone has any advice about what to include in the Programme Notes for the Prokofiev, pleease do share. I've done the Bach and Beethoven and have a feeling that the Chopin will be ok, but I'm currently really struggling with the Prokofiev. I just don't know what to write. For example, in the Bach I wrote about the influence of the WTC as a whole, both compositionally and for the tuning system, as well as a little bit about that specific P&F; for the Beethoven I wrote about the 32 Piano Sonatas as a whole, their influence compositionally and pianistically, and similarly I wrote about that particular sonata. But I don't really know anything about Prokofiev and don't really know how to get started.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Well, this is the internet... and you dare say you "don't really know anything about Prokofiev"????

Hopinmad: I've always done the program notes for my performances and I love it. (Most recently I've stopped writing them and I just give them verbally, but I know that you can't do that.)


I'm totally with that. Very well said!!


Maybe that's required for what Hopinmad needs to do, but if were talking more generally about program notes, I wouldn't necessarily agree with that, because that's what program notes have traditionally involved!! That might sound odd, but IMO what you described has been such a common thing for so many years that it has become trite. I realize that what I'm saying wouldn't work for everyone and might abhor many people, but for what it's worth, I try to steer pretty clear of that kind of formula. I think it's good to give a little bit of something from it, but best to make the majority of the notes be something different, often including the personal kind of thing that you stated at the top.


Hopinmad: Lingyis is right.
BUT....in line with the above, if I were in your position I would actually use what you just said!

Maybe something like (I dunno, just thinking out loud), "I knew hardly anything about Prokofiev before studying this piece. All I knew was [....whatever, whatever.....maybe mention Peter and the Wolf, or that you knew Prokofiev was thought of as being percussive and fast and loud and weird sounding, or whatever]. And as I studied this piece......[blah blah]."

In fact the piece has a lot that goes against some of the stereotypes about Prokofiev. I don't know that much about him either and I'm not sure if this piece is on the atypical side for him, but I think it is -- and if so, that would be good to mention. I might also talk about what other composers or pieces the sonata brought to mind as you went along, which is something that inevitably goes through my mind a lot when I'm studying something by a composer that isn't that familiar to me and which helps me to connect with the music -- and which also maybe tells something of where the composer fits in music history and what some of his influences may have been.

Don't take any of that too specifically. As I said, I was just thinking out loud. And as I also said, that kind of more personal approach (plus what we might call "idiot approach") might not be acceptable for what you have to do. Maybe you need to include the traditional kind of stuff that Elissa said. All I'm saying is that in my little opinion if someone has the freedom to do whatever he wants with program notes, this more personal kind of approach is far more interesting and revealing than the standard expected kind of stuff.

The ABRSM has published (on line) a 16-page guide to program notes

ABRSM Programme notes

and they do require including background information, from which I quote, in part :

"● a brief introduction to the composer
● a section about the work’s historical context and the circumstances surrounding
its composition
● a description of the work itself
This may sometimes be the best way to present the information, but the structure of any
programme note will be determined by its content. A different degree of emphasis will be
given to the various kinds of information, such as historical, social, biographical, as well as
musical and analytical, within each note.
Historical background
All programme notes need to provide a balance between..."

We can assume that hopinmad has studied the specific requirements for programme notes in detail.

Regards,

^^ (As I said, I figured the traditional model might be what's required here.) ^^

Mark_C: I agree completely. The historical context kind of program note becomes like a 3rd grade book report, although I have to say that here in Sydney I've been really impressed by the great writing in program notes over the past decade - there are innovative ways of presenting the same-old aspects of a program note. The note itself should have something very clear to say about the performance that is being given at that time and the writing should be addressed to the specific audience anticipated for *that* event.

To which end [being appropriate to the specific circumstances of one's performance] the advice I've given in this thread relates specifically to the exam requirements as outlined by BruceD above.

My preference in a program note in a non-assessed situation is very different! Plus, I'm a big believer in the talking-to-the-audience approach - but that requires the pianist to start thinking about the concert as making a connection with the audience through conversation as well as music (which can be a challenging adjustment for some performers!). And that's without starting in on innovative ways of *programming* a concert!!!!

Ok, thanks for your help.