Suggest piano voluntaries
  • davido
    Posts: 1,191
    Father has some students who have offered to play piano music for his spoken Masses at the college. Looking to me for some suggestion on rep.
    I recommended playing from the hymnal or even better, playing from Gregorian chant accompaniment books.
    No idea what the talent and ability level is like. I am assuming he is having them play before and after Mass, maybe at offertory and communion

    Any suggestions? There is lots of Baroque keyboard music on IMSLP, but a lot of it is difficult or not pianistic.
  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 703
    There is lots of Baroque keyboard music on IMSLP, but a lot of it is difficult or not pianistic.

    For sake of context, the piano (more specific, the “pianoforte”) was (some argue still is) banned from being used during Mass, so you may struggle to find appropriate piano music. Chant accompaniment is written for sustained notes to help support the chant. Pianos can’t do this, so it’s not going to sound good.
  • davido
    Posts: 1,191
    Irrelevant people make the argument about the piano being banned.

    Pianofortes have sustain pedals. It will sound different, but it will sound fine.

    Looking for constructive input. Thanks.
  • GerardH
    Posts: 655
    When called upon to accompany funerals on piano, I have used Priere de matin by Tchaikovsky and the Bach Prelude in C from the Well-Tempered Clavier.

    Durufle's Opus 1 for piano solo is unfortunately unpublished: Tryptique: Fantaisie sur des thèmes grégoriens.

    Potentially there may be useful material in Tournemire's Op. 58 ‒ 12 Préludes-poèmes.

    EDIT: Also the second movement from Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata.

    EDIT 2: And there's the piano solo version of Liszt's Via Crucis.
    Thanked by 1davido
  • irishtenoririshtenor
    Posts: 1,434
    I've played from this before, and it was fairly nice: https://giamusic.com/resource/light-from-the-east-piano-collectionbarnhouse-print-017334
    Thanked by 1davido
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