Exploring the Repertoire: Kabalevsky

“You must compose for children the same way you write for adults, only better.” – Kabalevsky after Maxim Gorky

Since 2015 I’ve hosted a series for piano teachers called, “Exploring the Repertoire” at The Art of Piano Pedagogy on Facebook. 3-4 times a year we pick a theme (Women Composers, Bartok, Bach, Sonatinas, etc.) and discuss teaching strategies, favorite pieces, share student and teacher performances, etc.

For our most recent edition, our theme was Russian composer Dimitri Kabalevsky. This proved extremely popular as Kabalevsky’s works for elementary to early advanced students seem to hold a special place in the hearts of teachers and students alike. It also offered an opportunity to explore pieces that were unfamiliar to many teachers, myself included.

In addition to moderating, I recorded 28 of the 30 pieces from, “Music for Children” op. 27 on my home practice instrument. You can listen to my performances here.

Below is a short introduction to Kabalevsky, his music, and his teaching philosophy. In addition I have put together a listening guide to Kabalevsky’s enormous pedagogical output. It is designed to be browsed and used as a reference when looking for new teaching choices rather than devoured in one gulp. When possible I have included corresponding RCM, AMEB, and ABRSM levels. If you are a teacher many of these may already be a part of your teaching repertoire, but no doubt you will find some new gems as well.

Who was Kabalevsky?

Kabalevsky was born in St. Petersburg in 1904. His contemporaries include Russian virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz, who performed many of his works, and Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian.

While modern in style, his compositions are largely diatonic with a little chromaticism, quick shifts from major to minor tonality, quartal harmonies and lots of major 7th chords. As a result of his musical conservatism, he had an easier time as a composer under Soviet communism than Prokofiev or Shostakovich. But while his concert pieces remain popular, particularly “The Comedians” suite, he has not achieved the same status as a great composer.

It is perhaps his pieces for children which have the greatest staying power. This is not an accident as Kabalavsky loved working with young people, first teaching a class of seven year olds at the Scriabin Music School and then setting up a pilot music program whose syllabus was later adopted by every school in the USSR. His writings on the subject include, “Music and Education: A Composer Writes about Musical Education” published posthumously in 1988.

Kabalevsky died of a heart attack in 1987 at a conference in which he was to lecture on nuclear disarmament having devoted the last 30+ years of his life to teaching children music and promoting world peace.

Music for Young People

Of Kabalevsky’s 253 published pieces, nearly half are for children. Kabalevsky believed music for children should fall into three forms: march, song, and dance.

To illustrate this he published “A Story of Three Whales” in 1970. In the story, he relays an ancient slavic myth that the earth was supported on the back of three whales. For Kabalevsky, all larger musical forms (symphonies, oratorio, opera) were derived from the three basic building blocks of march, song and dance.

“Songs, dancing music, and marching music – these three main forms are unnoticeable because they are so easily woven into our lives, yet no one person can do without them, even when he may think he does not like music.”

In comparing music education to literature he believed that folk and fairy tales told to children before they could read formed the groundwork from which the great works of literature could be comprehended. Nationalistic and folk songs with a narrow vocal range play a large role in Kabalevsky’s compositions.

For ease of comprehension textures are generally clear, triads are played in parallel motion, melodies are often in five finger positions, and many pieces are written with the hands playing in unison. Virtually all of Kabalevsky’s writing is idiomatic to the instrument and a limited number of concepts and technical challenges are found in each piece, so as not to overwhelm the student.

Pedagogical Approach

Not unlike Kodaly, Suzuki, and Gordon, Kabalevsky took a sound-before-sight approach to teaching children. He believed that “music is experienced first through listening, then singing, and finally through seeing.” For Kabalevsky the role of the listener was as important as that of the composer and performer. At the core teaching children was the development of what Kodaly called “inner hearing” – hearing music inside one’s head without those sounds being externally present.

Listening Guide

Below I have put together an overview with video examples.

a. Music For Children op. 27 and 39

b. 35 Easy Pieces op. 89

c. Variations

d. Rondos

e. In the Pioneer Camp op 3/86 and From Pioneer Life op 14

Op. 27 30 Pieces for Children

Was written from 1937-38 and later revised. The pieces range from intermediate to early advanced and feature many studio favorites.

Fairy Tale (n. 20) was a favorite amongst our participants. It also provoked some controversy. It features a beautiful melody on top of broken first inversion chords. The controversy was in regards to the tempo marking: ‘andantino’. Andantino generally implies a little faster than one would walk but many teachers preferred a slower tempo to bring out the beauties of the line and harmony. Other teachers felt that too slow a tempo loses the child-like innocence of the piece.

For comparison I’ve included my own quicker recording with Diane Hidy’s beautifully crafted slower performance.

Etudes in A minor (n. 3), F major (n. 24) and A major (n. 26)

These are a wonderful ways to work on technical patterns in the context of exciting music. Both F and A major require the students to play arpeggios in one hand, scales in the other. I used ‘adult’ tempos but they needn’t be played so fast.

Toccatina (n. 12) and Sonatina (n. 18) are perennial favorites. Both are in A minor and are rhythmically dynamic without being too hard. I chose to interpret Kabalevsky’s slurring literally in the Toccatina but some teachers prefer longer phrases.

Playing Ball (n. 5) is an etude of sorts for playing fast repeated notes. It’s also a lot of fun as the ‘balls’ jump all over the keyboard. For the three repeated notes we had a wide variety of favorite fingering choices: 2-2-2, 4-3-2, 4-3-1, 3-2-3, 3-3-2, 3-3-3, and 3-1-3. The choice which received the least love was 3-2-1. To be a contrarian I recorded with this fingering.

Waltz (n. 1), A Little Song (n. 2), and A Night at the River (n. 4) are the simplest pieces of the set. The Waltz is music box like, the other pieces hauntingly sad and quintesentially Russian.

A Little Prank (n. 13) is playful and great for working on fast five finger patterns.

Song of the Calvary (n. 29) is regularly performed at festivals and competitons. Playing the left hand melody against the right hand chords is not easy to coordinate but well worth the effort.

Meadow Dance (n. 17) sounds like it belongs in a Miyazaki film. The left hand chord leaps are deceptively difficult.

Novelette (n. 25) was another favorite amongst are members. It is Schumann-inspired and tells a sad story.

Op. 39 24 Pieces for Children

Features some of Kabalevsky’s most beloved works. The first 12 pieces are at a late elementary level, the second twelve early intermediate. I’ve used my Art of Piano Pedagogy co-admin Jason Sifford’s recordings. You can listen to his complete performance of the set here.

Melody (n. 1) a simple three note tune with diads in the l.h.

Polka (n. 2) is a happy dance with a legato melody in the l.h. and staccato diads in the right.

A Little Joke (n. 6) is capricious with parrallel motion between the hand mixing staccato and two note slurs.

A Funny Event (n. 7) features copy cat play between the two hands.

A Little Dance (n. 9) is a jolly folk dance great for students working on primary and 7th chords.

March (n. 10) uses a short-long rhythm to create a pompous march. The black keys sections can be taught by rote.

Scherzo (n. 12) is heavily patterned and sounds harder than it is. This is always a favorite in my studio.

Waltz (n. 13) Melody in the r.h. with diads in the left and a little mode mixture.

Jumping (n. 15) is a fun coordinational challenge with the hands playing the same melodic figures but with different rhythms.

Clowns (n. 20) polled as our favorite Kabalevsky. The rapid switching between major and minor seems to represent the happy and sad painted faces.

Slow Waltz (n. 23) uses off beat chords in the l.h., single notes and sixths in the right. This is a funny and sometimes sardonic dance.

Op. 89 35 Easy Pieces

Was written between 1972 and 1974 and is similar in difficulty to op. 39. It represents a lifetime of experience writing for children and is his last published work for piano. One senses a feeling of completeness as he writes in meters and keys not contained in the earlier sets.

Amongst the simplest pieces are:

At Recess (n. 4) uses almost all thirds played with fingers 2 and 4, played as two note slurs or staccato quarters.

First Waltz (n. 5) Slightly melancholy with the melody in the l.h. Accompaniment and countermelody in the r.h.

Little Hedgehog (n. 8) Contrary motion broken chords and little dissonances depicting the playful, spikey animal.

Little Goat Limping (n. 19) The use of the irregular meter of 5/4 perfectly captures the limp. The drone bass gives the piece the feel of a folk song.

The Little Juggler (n. 21) is a lot of fun with one hand playing a broken octave, the other crossing over and back.

Chastushka (n. 25) A joyous folk song toccata with offbeat “wrong note” minor seconds and lots of crossing over.

Stubborn Little Brother (n. 27) A humorous piece with a gentle melody in the r.h. continually interrupted by accented repeated notes in the left.

More Challenging pieces include:

A Merry Tune (n. 26) is rollicking song written in parallel motion with a brief excursion to the minor (played here by APP member Jackie Sharp).

Rabbit Teasing a Bear Cub (n. 31) The l.h. lumbering bear moves slowly while the r.h. hare flits around interrupting his journey.

Almost a Waltz (n. 33) is a little sad a first but settles into contentment at the end. It is in a crooked 7/8 meter.

Melancholy Rain (n. 34) has ‘rain drops’ in the left hand, a fragmented sad melody in the left.

Trumpet and Drum (n. 20) is a hit with students. The ‘trumpet’ is in the right hand playing broken chords. The drum is in the left repeating a rhythmic ostinato.

Variations

Kabalevsky wrote many variation sets:

Variations op. 40 features two variation sets in D major (RCM 9) and A minor (RCM 10). They are a longer and more technically challenging than op. 51.

Easy Variations for Piano op. 51 features five sets based on Russian and Ukranian themes. These were familiar folk themes to his students and the pieces often sound harder than they are.

1. Five Variations on a Russian Folk Song “The Mountain of Viburnum”
2. Dance Variations on a Russian Folk Song
3. Gray Day Variations on a Slovakian Folk Song “Good night, my dear”
4. Seven Cheerful Variations on a Slovakian Folk Song (RCM 8)
5. Six Variations on a Ukrainian Folk Song (RCM 9)

Variations on Folk Themes op. 87 uses well known international songs such as Sakura and “All the Pretty Little Horses”

Other collections by Kabalevsky include

Four Rondos op. 60 played at the link below by APP member Dan Severino (all are RCM 7). The first three of these pieces exemplifies Kabalevsky’s “three whales.”

1. March – the r.h. play a long-short-long rhythm throughout. The left hand imitates a tuba.
2. Dance
3. Song

The fourth is a tocatta.

www.pianolessonsplus.org/40-p-iece-challenge-2018-2019

In the Pioneer Camp op 3/86 and From Pioneer Life op 14

The Youth Pioneers was a movement similar to that of scouting in the U.S., although they were government sponsored and part of their function was to teach children and early adolescents communist doctrine.

These works that can be played separately or as a set. Op. 14 captures the activities of Youth Pioneers at camp including drumming, sport, vacationing, singing, and march. Op. 3/86 is a day in the life of scouts from early morning, exercises, river hiking, forest and mountain trails, extraordinary events, and an evening by the campfire.

The teacher may or may not want to discuss or not discuss the communist roots, but these are delightful pieces that will be enjoyed by any student who enjoys scouting, hiking, and camping.

I hope you have have found this post informative. I’d love to hear from you regarding your own experiences with Kabalevsky’s music in the comment section!