University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations 2015 H. Leslie Adams’ Twenty-Six Etudes For Solo Piano: A Performance And Stylistic Analysis Aaron Balthazar Mathews University of South Carolina Follow this and additional works at:http://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of theMusic Pedagogy Commons Recommended Citation Mathews, A. B.(2015).H. Leslie Adams’ Twenty-Six Etudes For Solo Piano: A Performance And Stylistic Analysis.(Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved fromhttp://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/3728 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. H. LESLIE ADAMS’ TWENTY-SIX ETUDES FOR SOLO PIANO: A PERFORMANCE AND STYLISTIC ANALYSIS by Aaron Balthazar Mathews Bachelor of Arts Morehouse College, 2008 Master of Music Georgia State University, 2010 __________________________________________________________ Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Pedagogy School of Music University of South Carolina 2015 Accepted by: Scott Price, Major Professor Charles Fugo, Committee Member Joseph Rackers, Committee Member J. Daniel Jenkins, Committee Member Lacy Ford, Senior Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies © Copyright by Aaron Balthazar Mathews, 2015 All Rights Reserved. i i DEDICATION To Mom, Dad, Aliya, Allison, and Yasmin i ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My deepest gratitude goes to my parents, grandparents, sisters, family members, friends, church families, colleagues, and students. Your love, support, encouragement, and prayers have given me the strength to keep my eyes on the prize. Special thanks go to my piano professors, Dr. Scott Price, Dr. Sergio Gallo, Dr. Jeff Ethridge, and Mrs. Tena Hehn for their stellar example of scholarship, musicianship, and pedagogy. I would like to extend a huge thank you to my advisor Dr. Scott Price for his guidance, mentorship, and friendship. In addition, thank you to Dr. Charles Fugo, Dr. Joseph Rackers, Dr. J. Daniel Jenkins, and Dr. Sarah Williams for serving on my committees. Thank you to the staff at the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College Chicago for their assistance in my research. Lastly, I am sincerely grateful to H. Leslie Adams for his brilliant and captivating music. Thank you for your willingness and eagerness to share your thoughts, comments, and advice with me. i v ABSTRACT H. Leslie Adams (b. 1932) is a prolific and well-respected American composer, performer, and educator. He currently works as a full-time composer and travels the country promoting his music. Past faculty appointments of H. Leslie Adams include serving as an Assistant Professor of Music at Stillman College, Florida A & M University, and the University of Kansas. Over the years, he has received numerous commissions, honors, and awards including the Composer Fellowship Award from the National Endowment for the Arts to study in Bellagio, Italy, the Yaddo Artists Colony fellowship, the Jennings Foundation, and grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Cleveland Foundation. He has published three sets of works for solo piano – Contrasts for Piano, Three Preludes for Piano, and Twenty-Six Etudes for Solo Piano. The focus of this study is a performance and stylistic analysis of the Twenty-Six Etudes for Solo Piano, Adams’ largest and most important contribution to the solo piano literature. The analysis includes an examination of form, melody, harmony, rhythm, and keyboard usage in each etude. In addition, the study provides biographical information on H. Leslie Adams, an overview of his compositional style, and a transcript of a phone interview. The goal of this study is trifold—to stimulate significant interest in Adams’ works, to provide new information to the musical community, and to facilitate the assimilation of the Twenty-Six Etudes for Solo Piano into the standard repertory of pianists and pedagogues. v PREFACE This document is part of the dissertation requirement for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Pedagogy. The remaining portion of the dissertation consists of two public recitals. Copies of the recital programs are bound at the end of this paper, and recordings of the recitals are on file in the Music Library. v i TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................................v PREFACE .......................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. ix LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................1 About the Composer ................................................................................................3 Pedagogical Piano Literature ...................................................................................5 Overview of the Musical Elements ..........................................................................6 Methodology for Analysis .....................................................................................10 Purpose of the Study ..............................................................................................10 Need for the Study .................................................................................................10 Limitations of the Study.........................................................................................11 Related Literature ...................................................................................................12 Design and Procedures ...........................................................................................14 CHAPTER II: BACKGROUND ......................................................................................15 Biography of H. Leslie Adams (b. 1932) ...............................................................15 About the Etudes ....................................................................................................17 Inspiration for the Research ...................................................................................20 v ii CHAPTER III: STYLISTIC ANALYSES OF THE TWENTY-SIX ETUDES FOR SOLO PIANO BY H. LESLIE ADAMS (b. 1932) ......................................23 CHAPTER IV: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ....................................................100 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................102 APPENDIX A: AN INTERVIEW WITH H. LESLIE ADAMS ....................................106 APPENDIX B: RECURRING MOTIVES, TEXTURES, AND ENDINGS .................110 APPENDIX C: ADDITIONAL CHARTS AND TABLES............................................116 APPENDIX D: PERFORMANCE HISTORY ...............................................................120 APPENDIX E: PERMISSION TO REPRINT MUSICAL EXAMPLES ......................124 APPENDIX F: PERMISSION TO PRINT INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT ....................125 APPENDIX G: RECITALS ............................................................................................126 v iii LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1 Generations of Black American Composers ........................................................2 Table 3.1 List of Symbols and Abbreviations ...................................................................23 Table 3.2 An overview of Part 1, No. 1 Etude in G minor ................................................24 Table 3.3 An overview of Part 1, No. 2 Etude in G major ................................................27 Table 3.4 An overview of Part 1, No. 3 Etude in A minor ................................................30 Table 3.5 An overview of Part 1, No. 4 Etude in C major .................................................34 Table 3.6 An overview of Part 1, No. 5 Etude in D minor ................................................36 Table 3.7 An overview of Part 1, No. 6 Etude in D major ................................................39 Table 3.8 An overview of Part 1, No. 7 Etude in B minor ................................................41 Table 3.9 An overview of Part 1, No. 8 Etude in G-flat major ..........................................43 Table 3.10 An overview of Part 1, No. 9 Etude in B-flat minor ........................................46 Table 3.11 An overview of Part 1, No. 10 Etude in D-flat major ......................................49 Table 3.12 An overview of Part 1, No. 11 Etude in C-sharp minor ..................................51 Table 3.13 An overview of Part 1, No. 12 Etude in E-flat minor ......................................54 Table 3.14 An overview of Part 2, No. 1 Etude in E major ...............................................59 Table 3.15 An overview of Part 2, No. 2 Etude in A-flat minor .......................................61 Table 3.16 An overview of Part 2, No. 3 Etude in D-sharp minor ....................................63 Table 3.17 An overview of Part 2, No. 4 Etude in F-sharp minor .....................................66 Table 3.18 An overview of Part 2, No. 5 Etude in C minor ..............................................69 Table 3.19 An overview of Part 2, No. 6 Etude in B major...............................................72 i x