Embracing Contemporary Chamber Music with Improvisation
in Week 2
This course aims to bring contemporary music within reach by actively involving its participants in improvisatory games.
The group chamber music sessions focus on selected works of contemporary composers, highlighting the piano cycle, Games (Játékok) by Hungarian composer, György Kurtág. The Games cycle represents a novel piano pedagogical approach by introducing the youngest learners to reign over the entire keyboard and to play on it with their whole body.
Games has a highly valuable pedagogical aspect that can be readily used for teaching children of any background and age. Sessions are regarded as experimental workshops, where – during the process of discovering selected pieces from the cycle – we will perform them in groups, improvise with their elements and musical gestures, react to each other’s playing in shifting roles. Thus, we engage in playing, listening, reacting and inventing.
In addition to Kurtág’s piano pieces we will sniff into the worlds of various contemporary composers (László Sáry, Gyula Csapó, John Cage, Steve Reich, Cornelius Cardew) performing selected pieces together. No instrumental knowledge is necessary for this course. But bringing your instrument is most welcome as it enhances and enriches the course.
