24 Character Preludes.

by Dennis Alexander. Alfred Publishing Co., Inc. (16320 Roscoe Blvd., P.O. Box 10003, Van Nuys, CA 91410-0003), 2001. 39pp.; $7.50 for book one, $17.50 for book with CD. Late intermediate-early advanced.

This collection of preludes for piano is a treasure waiting to be explored. Composer Dennis Alexander has provided an excellent stepping stone that can assist students with the progression from intermediate-level teaching pieces to the more complex works of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century master composers.

These pieces move through all the major and minor keys. The sequence is in the tradition of J. S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. Each major key is followed by its parallel minor. In every piece, the student is presented with a different challenge. Some of the technical difficulties include a variety of scale passages (including chromatic and whole tone scales), alternating hands, large leaps in the left hand and rolled chords. Musically, these pieces provide a number of pedagogical concepts to explore. The rhythms are complex. Rapidly evolving note values will present issues with keeping a steady tempo. Time signatures include five and nine beats per measure in some pieces. But the most difficult element for many students to face would be key signatures such as B major, G-flat major, D-flat major, C-sharp minor, G-sharp minor, E-flat minor and B-flat minor. Voicing in many pieces is made more advanced by placing the melody in the same hand as many moving sixteenth notes or triplets. The dynamics are clearly marked and widely contrasting. The mature musicality of these pieces requires a sensitive student.

A very enticing aspect of this collection is that the pieces are all one to two pages in length, making them accessible to more slowly progressing students who may struggle with memorizing more advanced pieces because of their length. The shorter length of these pieces also will enable the faster progressing student to explore a larger number of works.

In the forward of this collection, the composer gives insight to what he was striving to accomplish. He lists the following composers as being stylistically influential in these preludes: Bach, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Ravel, Gershwin, Prokofiev and Copland. As you can see, there are a variety of musical flavors to absorb from this one collection. The listening CD that accompanies this book is very well done. It is a very inspiring example that will enhance students' perceptions of what can be achieved in every prelude. Reviewed by Rebekah Jones, Bogart, Georgia.