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With St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, I thought we’d have an Irish theme this week. But I didn’t want to feature the music of Ireland in a stereotypical way, built around folk tunes or Celtic gestures.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’ve taught plenty of jigs and reels over the years. But instead of stereotype, I went looking for perspective.
Music written by someone who’s actually living and working within that culture, whose musical perspective comes from a different place. That search led me to the music of Ailbhe McDonagh.
I’ll be playing three of her pieces today suited for intermediate level students. And there’s not a jig among them. Stay tuned for music that moves and breathes and even travels through time.
Coming up next on the Piano Pedagogy Playlist. Greetings and welcome. I hope your day is going well.
My name is Luke Bartolomeo. I’m a pianist, a teacher, and also the developer of Apps for Music Education, including Flashnote Derby.
Each Monday, we explore some of my current favorites from the contemporary repertoire of piano music written for students, all by living composers. Ailbhe McDonagh is an Irish composer and teacher. And she performs internationally as a cellist.
She teaches at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and she has collaborated with pianist John O’Connor, who was actually her piano teacher for many years when she was a child. If we could all be so lucky.
So she comes out of a serious classical performance background, but she’s also very involved in creating pedagogical music, for a variety of instruments, including a sizable output for ukulele students.
But it’s her piano music that we’re interested in today, and the first piece I’m going to play is a piece called The Estuary. I have to admit, in my mind I kind of had an idea what an estuary was, but I had to look it up for sure.
Put simply, an estuary is where a river meets the sea. Where freshwater and saltwater mix together. It’s a place of flow and blending and subtle movements.
And that image helps us unlock this piece. The teaching notes describe the piece as needing a flowing pace for a kind of rippling effect.
There’s a moment of two against three where the rhythms are overlapping, almost like currents moving against each other. For me, this piece has a quiet majesty. It creates an atmosphere.
It asks the student to really listen. Here is The Estuary by Ailbhe McDonagh. Long, long melodic lines in that piece.
You might guess that the composer was a string player. Our second piece today is called Time Travel. And if you thought you had an idea of what this composer was about, based on what you heard in the first piece, you might be in for a surprise.
Where the estuary was driven by melody, time travel is driven by rhythm. The composer describes it as an atmospheric piece that helps develop a strong inner pulse.
There’s a long, gradual build that comes to an abrupt stop before resuming its journey through time once again. It would be so easy for a student to make this piece sound harsh, even grating.
When I play it, I really strive to keep the dynamics constantly shifting ever so subtly.
Even where no dynamic change is indicated in the score, the piano starts to sound overly percussive if you’re just repeating the same chords at exactly the same intensity. See if you can hear what I’m talking about.
This is Time Travel by Ailbhe McDonagh. If you have students like I do who are really into the music from the movie Interstellar, which great music, by the way, I think they might go for this piece also. There’s something cinematic about it.
That’s definitely giving the sci-fi vibes. Our final piece today is called Asana Olea, and it might be my favorite of the three, even though it is the simplest.
If any of you out there are yoga practitioners, like I am, you already know that the term Asana comes from yoga, and it refers to a pose or a position, oftentimes something balanced and grounded. And that’s how this piece feels.
It’s short, only one page long, but it asks the student to slow down, to shape the sound, to use the pedal carefully, and to let the music breathe.
Sometimes a piece of music appeals to me as a teacher because it’s useful for some technical or musical purpose, and sometimes it’s appealing because of the way it feels, or the way it makes me feel. This piece feels very centering.
And it’s a reminder that student repertoire doesn’t always need to excite or entertain. Sometimes it needs to calm. When I consider these three pieces together from our St.
Patrick’s Day episode, they don’t really sound Irish in any obvious way, no cliches, nothing that feels like a souvenir version of Ireland. Instead, just one composer’s voice, shaped by her own unique experience as a performer and a teacher.
I think that’s why this music feels so genuine. Ailbhe McDonagh brings the sensibilities of a professional musician to the level of developing students.
If you’re looking for repertoire that develops listening and storytelling, these pieces are definitely worth exploring. There will be links to all three pieces in the episode description, and they’re all available individually as digital downloads.
You can also find them by visiting us at pianopedagogyplaylist.com. This is episode 31. And just like that, it’s time to close the lid on today’s episode.
Whether your week eases in like the tide, races like time, or asks you to slow down and take a breath, I hope you and your students can find a little beauty in the small sounds, the moments that don’t try so hard to impress.
I’ll look forward to seeing you again next Monday, when I’ll share more of my current favorites from the Contemporary Piano Teacher’s Repertoire. Until then, keep nurturing the music, and have a great week!