| There are numerous collections of piano music on the market today. These books vary greatly in format, focus, content, and editing. Most of these collections are simply compilations of piano pieces. Others contain additional information, ranging from historical influences on select piano works to relevant teaching materials. With the number of new piano collections increasing yearly, along with their expanding format styles, many teachers have difficulty keeping up with the musical resources available for their studio. This document describes the development of a computer database which will aid teachers in the selection of appropriate piano repertoire from collections of piano music designed for intermediate to advanced students. The database includes twenty-three collections, each containing works by various composers rather than by a single composer. Collection entries include the following information: title of collection, editor, publisher, price, and table of contents, as well as editorial comments regarding the collection. Each piece within the collection is cataloged as a separate entry. Information regarding the repertoire includes the composer, opus number, title translation (if applicable), key, meter, tempo, technical difficulties, and comments. The user can access the database to retrieve information about pieces within a collection, or choose the best collection for a student based upon other repertoire in the collection. This database has been developed in the Hypertext Markup Language (better known as HTML) for the twenty-three collections listed in this document. Included in this document is a brief history of collections for keyboard instruments and user instructions for the database program. |
