according to Elisabeth L.

according to Elisabeth L. Lomax. Mel Bay Publications, Inc. (PO case 66, Pacific, MO 63069), 2002 70 pp $1795 Intermediate.

Elisabeth L Lomax has compiled an interesting and varied appoint of ten American folk canzonets for inclusion in her collection, 21st hundred years Americana. Some of the fit dispositions are traditional favorites such as "Down in the Valley" and "All the fair Little Horses." Others, such as "Bold Jack Donahue" and "The Housewife's Lament," are les familiar to us today. Each air has been set in a particular name usually suited to its expressive easy in mind and its text. Styles include waltz variations, boogie, hippeds fandango and new age, among others. Included with each folk hymn is a simple presentation of the unaccompanied concord with its full text, historical information about the proper mood its circumstances, a brief undecayed recording bibliography, practice suggestions for the learner a secondo piano part and a general MIDI accompaniment in CD format. Additionally, there are interesting research questions sometimes provided to generate pondering and discussion about the more provocative folk texts

The hymns Lomax selected are high-quality and enduring American folk anthems quite sing-able, each with unique expressive features. The solo piano arrangements are authentically and appealingly wager in the selected style. For each arrangement and within the choiceed style, Lomax has provided significant textural variety for multiple poetrys Melodies are cleverly designed to appear in several locations within the make and require substantial skill forward the student's part to bring them to the fore. Accompaniments are usually free-voice--not requiring strict adherence to a particular number of voices. As a be derived there is a disappointing lack of attention to contrapuntal interchange and any inconsistent stemming of chordal webs making the arrangements more difficult to read initially and sometimes awkward pianistically. Bass lines oftentimes move around with open fifths upon top, providing extended harmonic plateaus and evoking a folk cast of instrumental playing. Occasional harmonic oddities are scattered from first to last the arrangements.

The secondo parts are placed at the extreme point of the book and are generally not as difficult as the solo parts. The pieces are most numerous effective, however, when performed with the secondo part. The MIDI accompaniment CD contains the secondo part performed forward a digital keyboard with the typical electronic special drifts The practice suggestions are friendly and engaging, offering uninjured advice and highlighting more difficult passages.

The layout and binding could perhaps be improved in a next to the first printing. The information for each poem (tune, practice suggestions, arrangement and thus forth) appears in a variety of orders, making it confusing to determine whether to inflect forward or backward locate things. The binding is unlikely to stay spread on most piano racks.

All in all, although Lomax has created an entertaining means of acquainting upper intermediate piano close examiners with some of America's finest folk music. Reviewed at Timothy Shafer, University Park, Pennsylvania.

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