Chords that are broken up sequentially are called arpeggios. The usual sign, of a wavy
line, indicates an upwards arpeggio. The rarer downwards arpeggio is indicated by grace
notes or by notes written out in the necessary note values. Chords that are not broken up
sequentially are called broken chords. Both types form the basis of many piano textures
including Alberti basses. These may usefully be practised as unbroken chords.
ARRAU
Claudio Arrau (1903-1991), Chilean born, naturalised American pianist, studied as a
child prodigy with Liszt pupil Martin Krause. Like Arthur Rubinstein, Arrau had a very
wide repertoire, had an exceptionally long and celebrated career as both a concert and
recording artist, and was an important link between the old and the modern schools
(although it seems neither ever practised melody delaying or arpeggiata). Arrau became
principally known for his interpretations of the piano concertos and piano music of
Beethoven and Brahms although he performed and recorded Chopin, Schumann and Liszt.
ATONALITY
Music that lacks a tonal centre or key is said to be atonal. Atonality describes those
compositions written since about 1907 where a hierarchy of pitches focussing on a single,
central tone is not used as a primary foundation for the composition. Atonal
compositions do not conform to the system of tonal hierarchies which characterised
classical European music between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.
Atonal music is usually regarded as excluding not only tonal music but the twelve-tone
serial music of the second Viennese school such as Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg and
Anton Webern.
Liszt’s ‘Bagatelle sans tonalité’ of 1885 is one of the first piano pieces without a tonal
centre. Composers such as Alexander Scriabin, Béla Bartók, Paul Hindemith, Sergei
Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky have written music for the piano that is wholly or partly
atonal.
Swiss conductor and composer Ernest Ansermet has argued that classical musical
language is a precondition for musical expression with its clear harmonic structures and
that a tone system can only lead to a uniform perception of music if it is deduced from a
single interval, the fifth.
AURAL TESTS
Most piano examinations include ‘aural’ tests, also called ‘ear’ tests.
Aural tests on CDs are commercially available but singing in a four-part choir will not
only provide the pleasure of singing but will improve one’s aural skills.