Date of Award

Spring 2021

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

School of Music

First Advisor

Sara Ernst

Abstract

Indonesian composer and pianist Ananda Sukarlan (b. 1968) has written a significant body of piano works which contribute to the fields of music education and piano pedagogy. Among his collections, Alicia’s Piano Books has great potential for piano teachers and students. It is a set of six books that consists of 183 piano pieces ranging from elementary to early advanced levels.

The purpose of this study is to introduce and promote Sukarlan’s Alicia’s Piano Books for educational purposes. Among the collection, this study documents 41 pieces that are based upon specific classical models. The selected models are common in Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras, and are canon, fugue, variations, and waltz. Theoretical and pedagogical analyses and applications of these classical pieces are addressed in this study. In addition to exploring the musical traits, all pieces studied are further categorized into levels in this document, using two leveling resources as references: Jane Magrath’s The Pianist’s Guide to Standard Teaching and Performance Literature and Cathy Albergo and Reid Alexander’s Piano Repertoire Guide (5th ed.).

This study consists of five chapters, a bibliography, and appendices. Chapter one includes an introduction; biographical information on Sukarlan; research justification; purpose, need, and limitations of the study; research questions; methodology; literature review; and outline of the study. Chapters two, three, and four provide Sukarlan’s writing inspirations, definitions, brief histories, ordering of difficulty, stylistic analyses, and overviews of the classical pieces in Sukarlan’s Alicia’s Piano Books. These three chapters introduce the models from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras respectively. The final chapter addresses the traditional and non-traditional features, levels, and pedagogical benefits and goals, as observed in Alicia’s Piano Books. Additionally, concluding remarks and recommendations for future research are provided.

Rights

© 2021, Karen Kai Yuan Yong

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