Search  for anything...

Piano Works, 1913-1990 (Dover Classical Piano Music)

  • Based on 3 reviews
Condition: New
Checking for product changes

Buy Now, Pay Later


As low as $6 / mo
  • – 4-month term
  • – No impact on credit
  • – Instant approval decision
  • – Secure and straightforward checkout

Ready to go? Add this product to your cart and select a plan during checkout. Payment plans are offered through our trusted finance partners Klarna, PayTomorrow, Affirm, Afterpay, Apple Pay, and PayPal. No-credit-needed leasing options through Acima may also be available at checkout.

Learn more about financing & leasing here.

Free shipping on this product

This item is eligible for return within 30 days of receipt

To qualify for a full refund, items must be returned in their original, unused condition. If an item is returned in a used, damaged, or materially different state, you may be granted a partial refund.

To initiate a return, please visit our Returns Center.

View our full returns policy here.


Availability: Only 1 left in stock, order soon!
Fulfilled by Amazon

Arrives Wednesday, Nov 27
Order within 3 hours and 3 minutes
Available payment plans shown during checkout

Description

"There is a remarkable force to all of Ornstein's music—a burst of energy, a frenzy and a passion which are ever refreshing to the tired musical ear."—George GershwinThis original anthology is the first single-volume edition of the works of American avant-garde composer Leo Ornstein (1893–2002). Characterized as a futurist and ultra-modernist, Ornstein created daring, dissonant works that excited both admiration and contempt. A steadfast follower of his own musical instincts, the composer retired from his career as an internationally renowned pianist in the 1920s and continued to compose in obscurity for another half-century. Ornstein founded a Philadelphia-based music school, enjoyed a renaissance of popularity in the 1970s, and completed his eighth and final piano sonata at the age of 97.These sixteen compositions span eight decades and demonstrate a remarkable diversity of styles, from lyrical to atonal. Contents include Three Moods, Impressions of the Thames, Impressions of Chinatown, A Long Remembered Sorrow, A Morning in the Woods, and other works. Aaron Copland declared a performance of Wild Men's Dance as the most controversial moment of his young life, and as recently as 2002, The New York Times pronounced it "a shocker." Many originally published from 1914 to 1925, these pieces were long out of print until their return in this unique edition, which is sure to captivate intermediate to advanced level pianists and all fans of avant-garde music. Read more


Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dover Publications (December 19, 2012)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0486490777


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 79


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.6 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.3 x 0.5 x 11 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #367,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #265 in Coping with Suicide Grief #594 in Classical Music (Books) #1,436 in Piano & Keyboards


#265 in Coping with Suicide Grief:


#594 in Classical Music (Books):


Frequently asked questions

If you place your order now, the estimated arrival date for this product is: Wednesday, Nov 27

Yes, absolutely! You may return this product for a full refund within 30 days of receiving it.

To initiate a return, please visit our Returns Center.

View our full returns policy here.

  • Klarna Financing
  • Affirm Pay in 4
  • Affirm Financing
  • Afterpay Financing
  • PayTomorrow Financing
  • Financing through Apple Pay
Leasing options through Acima may also be available during checkout.

Learn more about financing & leasing here.

Top Amazon Reviews


  • Piano Music of Leo Ornstein in Score
Leo Ornstein (1893 --- 2002) was a child prodigy as a pianist in Russia who immigrated to the United States in 1906 with his family to escape the pogroms and spent the rest of his long life in the United States. Ornstein studied at what is now the Juilliard School of Music and became renowned as a virtuoso pianist while still young. In 1913, Ornstein became notorious for his dissonant, futuristic and iconoclastic piano compositions. At the height of his fame as a pianist in the 1920's, Ornstein withdrew from the public eye. For many years, he operated a music school in Philadelphia. In the 1970s, Ornstein was rediscovered and achieved a limited second fame. He continued to compose well into his 90s. I have become devoted to Ornstein's music even though I did not know of him until late in my own life. The literature on Ornstein includes a thoughtful biography by Michael Broyles and Denise Von Glahn, "Leo Ornstein: Modernist Dilemmas, Personal Choics" (2007) Leo Ornstein: Modernist Dilemmas, Personal Choices together with CDs of Ornstein's extensive solo piano music by Hamelin Leo Ornstein Piano Music: Suicide on an Airplane / La Chinoise / Poems of 1917, Op. 41 / Arabesques (9), Op. 42 / Piano Sonata No. 8 , Sarah Cahill, Leo Ornstein: Fantasy and Metaphor ,Janice Weber Ornstein: Piano Sonatas , and two CDs by Arsentiy Kharitonov Ornstein: Piano Music, Vol. 2 . While recordings of Ornstein have become available, it has been difficult to find scores for his work. This gap has been filled by this new volume, "Leo Ornstein: Piano Works, 1913 -- 1990" published by Dover Press. The volume includes a useful introduction to Ornstein's music by Broyles and Von Glahn, the authors of the biography mentioned above, and a Foreword by the composer's son, Severo, who has devoted much of the past 20 years to organizing and publishing his father's music. The book consists of 16 of Ornstein's piano compositions, ranging from early in has career to the Eighth Piano Sonata written in 1990 when the composer was 97. The compositions range from short works of a few pages to lengthy sonatas. Ornstein wrote in a variety of styles throughout his life. It is often thought that his music became more conservative after his iconoclastic early years, but this is at best an oversimplification. Ornstein composed in what he called a "modernistic" and an "expressivist" style, and he used them both throughout his life. With all its dissonance, angular and shifting rhythms, and virtuosity, Ornstein was essentially a melodist. He was heavily influenced by impressionism, Russian music, and the Jewish music of his youth. Much of his music has a spontaneous, improvisatory feel. His compositions tend to be loosely programmatic. The short early compositions that made Ornstein notorious, such as "Suicide in an Airplane" and "Wild Men's Dance" are included, but there is much more. Ornstein's works will be unfamiliar to many, and it thus is probably worthwhile to list the contents of the volume. Suicide in an Airplane (1913) Three Moods (1913) Wild Men's Dance (1913) Impressions of Chinatown (1918?) Piano Sonata No. 4 (1918) Impressions of the Thames (1920) Impromptu No. 1 (1950s) Fantasy Piece No. 3 (1961) Tarantelle (1963) A Long Remembered Sorrow (1964) Metaphor No. 3 (1964) Waltz no. 5 (1966) A Morning in the Woods (1971) Waltz No. 12 (1979) Waltz No 9 (1980) Piano Sonata No. 8 (1990) Almost all the music in this book is virtuosic in character and beyond my limited abilities to play. Oddly enough, the piece that may be within the range of amateurs is part of the extraordinarily difficult 8th sonata. The middle movement consists of four short pieces, throw-backs to the composer's childhood, that probably can be learned, with effort. There is much to be learned from using this book together with recordings. All the pieces in the book are available on one or more of the CDs I mentioned, with other versions accessible online. Ornstein frequently did not provide tempo indications, wrote on three staffs, and often shifted rhythm from measure to measure. Thus, effort is required even to follow a recording with the score, but the reward is an enhanced knowledge of reading scores and a greater appreciation of Ornstein's music. The print in the volume is large and easy to read, for all the music's difficulties. The book stays open easily and rests comfortably on the piano. The works I most enjoy are the two lengthy sonatas, the highly impressionistic fourth sonata and the challenging, fierce eighth sonata of Ornstein's old age, together with the impressionistic "A Morning in the Woods" which is found on several of the available CDs. Ornstein's extraordinarily late collection of 16 waltzes is included in full on Kharitonov's CD, with scores for three of the waltzes in this book. Dover Press, Broyles and Von Glahn and Servo Ornstein deserve thanks for this volume of Ornstein's piano music. It will be invaluable for those seriously interested in Ornstein and in 20th Century modernism on the piano. Robin Friedman ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2013 by robin friedman

  • 20th Century Piano Music
The music is for the very adventurous. The music is very difficult and dissonant. You can purchase CDs with Marc-Andre Hamelin on Hyperian and Janice Weber on Naxos playing. Also, Toccata Classics has issued two CDs. The music is fun to work on. I purchased two of his pieces in the 1960s and enjoyed playing them. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2013 by R. J. Campbell

Can't find a product?

Find it on Amazon first, then paste the link below.