Chopin and Improvisation with Mackenzie Pierce

Chopin and Improvisation with Mackenzie Pierce

This talk will explore the role of improvisation in the musical culture of Chopin’s time, with a special focus on the expectation that accomplished pianists would improvise preludes as introductions to, or transitions between, pieces (“preluding”). We will consider what traces of this improvisatory practice are audible in the Op. 28 preludes, and we will ask how the nineteenth-century improvisatory practice of  preluding might inform present-day approaches to Chopin’s music. I hope this will open up a broader discussion about improvisation in the teaching of piano performance today.

Mackenzie Pierce is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Michigan, School of Music, Theatre & Dance.