Resources

Selected English-language resources are given here, with links for material only available online. A number of books and tutors are relatively old, reflecting the fact that these skills were previously commonly studied in music courses. Some historical material is available on IMSLP https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Composers

For demonstrations on improvisation, see the YouTube recordings by Sietze De Vries, Mikko Korhonen and Ronny Krippner https://www.youtube.com.

Downloadable files are marked with an asterisk* and grouped alphabetically at the bottom of the page.

A1. Keyboard skills – general

Benjamin Dale, Gordon Jacob and Hugo Anson, Harmony, Counterpoint & Improvisation, 2 vols (London, 1940)

Francesco Gasparini, trans Frank S. Stillings and David L. Burrows, L'Armonico Pratico al Cimbalo [1708] (New Haven, 1963), IMSLP

William Pelz, Basic Keyboard Skills (Boston, 1963)

Derek Remeš, Compendium of Voice-Leading Patterns from the 17th and 18th Centuries to Play, Sing, and Transpose at the Keyboard (Lucerne, 2020, https://derekremes.com/

J. Raymond Tobin, How to improvise piano accompaniments (London, 1956)

A2a. Improvisation – writings

David Dolan, 'Back to the future: towards the revival of extemporization in classical music performance', in George Odam and Nicholas Bannan (eds), The reflective conservatoire: Studies in music education (Aldershot, 2005), pp.97-136.

Massimiliano Guido (ed), Studies in Historical Improvisation From Cantare super Librum to Partimenti (Abingdon, 2017)

Kyle Schick, 'Improvisation: Performer as Co-composer', Musical Offerings, iii/1 (2012), Article 3, https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/musicalofferings/vol3/iss1/3

Gabriel Solís and Bruno Nettl (eds), Musical Improvisation. Art, Education and Society (Urbana and Chicago, 2009)

Joshua Vigran, The Rise and Fall of Piano Improvisation in Western Classical Music Performance: Why Today's Piano Students should be Learning to Improvise, DMA dissertation (University of North Texas, 2020), https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1703338/m2/1/high_res_d/VIGRAN-DISSERTATION-2020.pdf

A2b. Improvisation – methods and practices

Jan Bender, Organ Improvisation for Beginners: A Book of Self-Instruction for Church Musicians, Op.59 (St Louis, 1975)

Marcel Dupré, trans John Fenstermaker, Cours Complet d'improvisation a L'orgue, 2 vols (Paris, 2008)

Gerre Hancock, Improvising: How to master the art (New York, 1995)

Ronny Krippner, Organ Improvisation in the Anglican Cathedral Tradition: A Portfolio of Professional Practice with Contextual and Critical Commentary, PhD dissertation (Birmingham City University, 2018), https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/8520/

John Mortensen, Improv Planet, https://johnmortensen.com/site/improv-planet/

Jan Overduin, Making Music: Improvisation for Organists (New York, 1998)

Hennie Schouten, Improvisation On The Organ (New York, 1955)

Timothy Shewmaker, Pathways to Proficiency in Organ Improvisation, DMA dissertation (Texas Christian University, 2020), https://repository.tcu.edu/handle/116099117/42805

Sietze de Vries, Online course, https://www.youtube.com

A2c. Improvisation – historical styles

*Patrick Ayrton, A Practical Guide to Improvising a Chaconne or Passacaglia (2015)

*Patrick Ayrton, A Practical Guide to Improvising an early Italian Toccata (2016)

*Patrick Ayrton, A basic Impro Kit (2024)

Dana Gooley, Fantasies of Improvisation: Free Playing in Nineteenth Century Music (Oxford, 2018)

John J. Mortensen, The Pianist's Guide to Historic Improvisation (Oxford, 2020)

John J. Mortensen, Improvising Fugue: A Method for Keyboard Artists (Oxford, 2023)

Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, Bach and the Art of Improvisation, 2 vols (Ann Arbor, 2011)

*Mike Zachary, 'Learning Improvisation from C. P. E. Bach', National Early Music Newsletter, vi/1 (Spring 2022), pp.81-115 and 'Learning from C. P. E. Bach: Probestücke Sonata No.2', National Early Music Newsletter, vi/2 (Autumn 2022), pp.38-53

A2d. Improvisation – partimento

Jesper Christensen, Robert Gjerdingen, Giorgio Sanguinetti and Rudolf Lutz, Partimento and continuo playing in theory and in practice (Leuven, 2017)

Massimiliano Guido (ed), Studies in Historical Improvisation From Cantare super Librum to Partimenti (Abingdon, 2017)

Job Ijzerman, Harmony, Counterpoint, Partimento: a New Method Inspired by Old Masters (Oxford, 2019)

Derek Remeš (ed), Fedele Fenaroli's Partimenti, Book 1 (2018), https://derekremes.com/

Giorgio Sanguinetti, The Art of Partimento: History, Theory, and Practice (Oxford, 2012)

A3. Clefs and score reading

Eric Taylor, Playing from an Orchestral Score (Oxford, 1967)

Annie O. Warburton, Score reading, form and history (London, 1959)

Bach, ed David Aijón Bruno, The Well-Tempered Clavier I, in original clefs (Bologna, 2011)

Bach, ed John O'Donnell, Die Kunst der Fuga (1742) (Tynset, 2020)

*Bach, arr Charles Vincent, The Forty Eight Fugues for the Wohltemperirte Klavier, in score with proper clefs, 2 vols (London, 1891)

*Bach, arr Kyle Rother, The Wohltemperirte Klavier Fugues, in score

Ron Petti, 'Breakin' It Down: The Art of Modifying Orchestral Reductions at the Piano', Piano Pedagogy Forum, xv/1 (January 2013), pp.210-220

A4. Transposition

Steven Fielder, Introduction to Keyboard Harmony and Transposition (Waterloo, 1999)

Anna Heuermann-Hamilton, Keyboard Harmony and Transposition; A Practical Course of Keyboard Work for Every Piano and Organ Student (Chicago, 1916)

Herbert Sumsion and Philip Wilkinson, Transposition Exercises at the Keyboard (Borough Green, 1980)

A5. Harmonization

*Percy Buck, Unfigured Harmony; A Short Treatise on Modulation, Harmonization of Melodies, Unfigured Basses, Inner Melodies, Canons and Ground Basses (Oxford, 1911)

Steven Fielder, Introduction to Keyboard Harmony and Transposition (Waterloo, 1999)

Reginald Hunt, Harmony at the keyboard (London, 1970)

Charles Proctor, Harmonization at the Keyboard (London, 1961)

Paul Steinitz, One Hundred Tunes for Harmonization from the Great Masters (Borough Green, 1963)

J. Raymond Tobin, How to improvise piano accompaniments (London, 1956)

A6. Notation and Ornamentation

Francis Knights, 'Virginalist ornamentation and interpretation', Early Keyboard Journal, xxxiii (2016), pp.7-46

Frederick Neumann, Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-Baroque Music, with Special Emphasis on J. S. Bach (Princeton, 1978)

Richard Rastall, The Notation of Western Music (Leeds, 2/1998)

Manfredo Zimmermann, The Ornamentation of Baroque Music: A Guide for Independent Embellishing (Ettlingen, 2019)

A7. Sight-reading

Ellen Burmeister, Keyboard Sight Reading (Mountain View, CA, 1991).

Dianne Hardy, 'Teaching Sight-Reading at the Piano: Methodology and Significance', Piano Pedagogy Forum, i/2 (1998), pp.49-61

Robert Kay, Piano Geography: The Secret to Successful Sight Reading (2024), see also https://www.robkay.co.uk

Andreas Lehmann and Victoria McArthur, 'Sight-Reading', in Richard Parncutt and Gary McPherson (eds), The Science and Psychology of Music Performance: Creative Strategies for Teaching and Learning (Oxford, 2002), pp.135-150

Dneya Udtaisuk, A Theoretical Model of Piano Sightplaying components, PhD dissertation (University of Missouri-Columbia, 2005), https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10355/4123/research.pdf?sequence=3

Robert T. White, Playing at sight (London, 1920)

A8a. Figured bass – general

Frank T. Arnold, The Art of Accompaniment from a Thorough-bass as practised in the XVIIth & XVIII Centuries (New York, r/1965)

Jesper Christensen, Eighteenth Century Continuo Playing (Kassel, 2002)

Jesper Christensen, Robert Gjerdingen, Giorgio Sanguinetti and Rudolf Lutz, Partimento and continuo playing in theory and in practice (Leuven, 2017)

Hermann Keller, Thoroughbass Method (London, 1965)

Reginald O. Morris, Figured Harmony at the Keyboard, 2 vols (London, 1933)

Livio Ticli (ed), Figured bass accompaniment in Europe (Turnhout, 2023)

David Roblou, 'Aspects of Thorough Bass', Harpsichord & Fortepiano, iv/5 (April 1988), pp.106-112

Hans-Peter Weber, Generalbass-Compendium (Basle, 2018), https://www.fhnw.ch/de/forschung-und-dienstleistungen/musik/schola-cantorum-basiliensis/publikationen/generalbass-compendium/media/compendium_generalbass_nur_text_ohne_audio.pdf

Peter Williams, Figured Bass Accompaniment, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1982)

A8b. Figured bass – Germany

Carl Philip Emanuel Bach, trans W. J. Mitchell, Essay on the True Art of Keyboard Instruments (London, 1974)

Johann Christian Kittel, Generalbass Schule, https://derekremes.com/publications/sources/ 

Georg Muffat, trans Bernhard Lang, Regule con centum partiturae (1699) (2004), IMSLP

Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, Kurzer und gründlicher Unterricht, https://derekremes.com/publications/sources/

A8c. Figured bass – France

Robert Zappulla, Figured Bass Accompaniment in France (Turnhout, 2000)

Jean Henri d'Anglebert, ed Kenneth Gilbert, 'Principes de l'Accompagnement', in Pieces de Clavecin [1689] (Paris, 1975)

Charlotte Mattax (trans), Accompaniment on the Theorbo & Harpsichord - Denis Delair's Treatise of 1690 (Bloomington, IN, 1991)

Guillaume Gabriel Nivers, trans Robert T. Kelley, The Art of Accompanying on the Basso Continuo for Organ and Harpsichord [1689] (2001), https://www.robertkelleyphd.com/home/nivers.pdf

John S. Powell (trans and ed), A New Treatise on Accompaniment with the Harpsichord, the Organ, and with other instruments by Monsieur de Saint Lambert (Bloomington, IN, 1991)

A8d. Figured bass – Italy

Tharald Borgir, The Performance of the Basso Continuo in Italian Baroque Music (Rochester, NY, R/2010)

Augusta Campagne and Elam Rotem, Keyboard Accompaniment in Italy around 1600: Intabulations, Scores and Basso Continuo (Basle, 2022), https://forschung.schola-cantorum-basiliensis.ch/en/forschung/keyboard-accompaniment-1600.html

Francesco Geminiani, The Art of accompaniment (London, 1756/7), IMSLP

John Walter Hill, 'Realized Continuo Accompaniments from Florence c1600', Early Music, xi/2 (April 1983), pp.194-208

Imogene Horsley, 'Full and Short Scores in the Accompaniment of Italian Church Music in the Early Baroque', Journal of the American Musicological Society, xxx/3 (Autumn 1977), pp.466-499

Arnaldo Morelli, 'Basso Continuo on the organ in seventeenth-century Italian music', Basler Jahrbuch für historische Musikpraxis, xviii (1994), pp.31-45

Giulia Nuti, The Performance of Italian Basso Continuo (Aldershot, 2007)

Marcello Mazzetti (ed), Basso continuo in Italy: sources, pedagogy and performance (Turnhout, 2023)

A8e. Figured bass – England

David Ledbetter (ed), Continuo Playing According to Handel: His Figured Bass Exercises (Oxford, 1990)

Niccolo Pasquali, Thorough-Bass made Easy, or Practical Rules for Finding and Applying its Various Chords (London, 1757)

Derek Remeš, Handels Th­oroughbass Exercises (2018), https://derekremes.com/

Patrick J. Rogers, Continuo Realization in Handel's Vocal Music (Rochester, NY, R/2010)

A9. Accompaniment

J. Frederick Bridge, Organ accompaniment of the choral service (London, 1885)

Marmaduke Conway, Church organ accompaniment (New York, 1952)

Gerald Moore, Am I too Loud? Memoirs of an accompanist (London, 1962)

J. Raymond Tobin, How to improvise piano accompaniments (London, 1956)

B1. Keyboard Instruments – Harpsichord

Donald H. Boalch, rev Charles Mould, Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord, 1440-1840 (Oxford, 1995), online at https://www.boalch.org/

Uta Henning, 'The Most Beautiful Among the Claviers: Rudolf Richter's Reconstruction of a Baroque Lute-Harpsichord', Early Music, x/4 (October 1982), pp.477–486

Peter Holman, 'The harpsichord in 19th-century England', Harpsichord & Fortepiano, xxiv/2 (Spring 2020), pp.4-14

Frank Hubbard, Three centuries of harpsichord making (Cambridge, MA, 1967)

Igor Kipnis (ed), Encyclopedia of Keyboard Instruments, II: The Harpsichord and Clavichord (New York, 2007)

Mark Kroll (ed), The Cambridge Companion to the Harpsichord (Cambridge, 2019)

Edward Kottick, A History of the Harpsichord (Bloomington, IN, 2003)

Michael Latcham, 'Franz Jakob Spath and the "Tangentenflügel", an Eighteenth-Century Tradition', Galpin Society Journal, lvii (2004), pp.150–170

Darryl Martin, The English Virginal, PhD dissertation (University of Edinburgh, 2003), https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/7226

Peter Mole, The English Spinet with particular reference to the Schools of Keene and Hitchcock, PhD thesis (University of Edinburgh, 2009), https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/3274

Grant O'Brien, Ruckers: A harpsichord and virginal building tradition (Cambridge, 1990)

Stewart Pollens, A History of Stringed Keyboard Instruments (Cambridge, 2024)

Raymond Russell, rev Howard Schott, The Harpsichord and Clavichord (London, 2/1973)

Leonard Schick, 'Harpsichords in Bach's Germany: an overview', Harpsichord & Fortepiano, xxvi/2 (Spring 2022), pp.10-20

David J. Smith (ed), Aspects of Early English Keyboard Music before c.1630 (Abingdon, 2019)

Eleanor Smith, The History and Use of the Claviorgan, PhD thesis (University of Edinburgh, 2013), https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/8865

Sandra Soderlund, How Did They Play? How Did They Teach? A History of Keyboard Technique (Chapel Hill, NC, 2006)

B2. Keyboard Instruments – Clavichord

Donald H. Boalch, rev Charles Mould, Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord, 1440-1840 (Oxford, 1995), online at https://www.boalch.org/

Bernard Brauchli, The Clavichord (Cambridge, 1998)

Igor Kipnis (ed), Encyclopedia of Keyboard Instruments, II: The Harpsichord and Clavichord (New York, 2007)

Stewart Pollens, A History of Stringed Keyboard Instruments (Cambridge, 2024)

Raymond Russell, rev Howard Schott, The Harpsichord and Clavichord (London, 2/1973)

Joel Speerstra, Bach and the Pedal Clavichord (Rochester, 2005)

B3. Keyboard Instruments – Piano and Fortepiano

Eva Badura-Skoda, The Eighteenth-Century Fortepiano Grand and Its Patrons: From Scarlatti to Beethoven (Bloomington, IN, 2017)

Richard Burnett, The Company of Pianos (Goudhurst, 2004)

Martha Novak Clinkscale, Makers of the Piano 1700–1820 (Oxford, 1995) and Makers of the Piano, Volume 2 1820–1860 (Oxford, 1999), online at https://earlypianos.org

Neal Peres Da Costa, Off the Record: Performing Practices in Romantic Piano Playing (New York, 2012)

Cyril Ehrlich, The Piano: A History (Oxford, 2/2023)

Edwin M. Good, Giraffes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos - A Technological History from Cristofori to the Modern Concert Grand (Stanford, 1982)

Donna Louise Gunn, Discoveries from the Fortepiano: A Manual for Beginning and Seasoned Performers (Oxford, 2015)

Arthur J. Hipkins, A Description and History of the Pianoforte and of the Older Keyboard Stringed Instruments (London, 1896).

Katalin Komlós, Fortepianos and their Music (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995)

Rosamond E. M. Harding, The Piano-Forte - Its History traced to the Great Exhibition of 1851 (Cambridge, 1933)

Richard Maunder, Keyboard Instruments in Eighteenth-Century Vienna (Oxford, 1998)

Robert Palmieri (ed), Encyclopedia of keyboard instruments: The Piano (London, 2003)

Stewart Pollens, The Early Pianoforte (Cambridge, 1995)

Stewart Pollens, Bartolomeo Cristofori and the Invention of the Piano (Cambridge, 2017)

David Rowland, A History of Pianoforte Pedalling (Cambridge, 1994)

David Rowland (ed), The Cambridge Companion to the Piano (Cambridge, 1998)

B4. Keyboard Instruments – organ

Stephen Bicknell, The History of the English Organ (Cambridge, 2012)

Barbara Owen, The Registration of Baroque Organ Music (Bloomington, IN, 1999)

Eleanor Smith, The History and Use of the Claviorgan, PhD thesis (University of Edinburgh, 2013), https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/8865

Nicholas Thistlethwaite, The Making of the Victorian Organ (Cambridge, 1990)

Nicholas Thistlethwaite (ed), The Cambridge Companion to the Organ (Cambridge, 1999)

Peter Williams, The European Organ, 1450-1850 (London, 1966)

Peter Williams, The Organ in Western Culture, 750–1250 (Cambridge, 1993)

Michael I. Wilson, The Chamber Organ in Britain, 1600-1830 (Abingdon, 2/2016)

B5. Keyboard Instruments – harmonium

King Hall, The Harmonium (London, 1878)

Robert F. Gellerman, The American Reed Organ and the Harmonium (Lanham, MD, 1997)

C1. Keyboard Repertoire – general

Frances Bedford, Harpsichord & Clavichord Music of the Twentieth Century (Berkeley, 1993)

Virginia Brookes, British Keyboard Music to c.1660 (Oxford, 1996)

John Caldwell, English keyboard music before the nineteenth century (Oxford, 1973)

Fenner Douglass, The Language of the Classical French Organ: A Musical Tradition Before 1800 (New Haven, 2/1995)

John Gillespie, Five Centuries of Keyboard Music; an Historical Survey of Music for Harpsichord and Piano (Belmont, 1965)

Peter Hardwick, British Organ Music of the Twentieth Century: The Composers, Their Music, and Musical Style (Lanham, MD, 2002)

Frank E. Kirby, Music for Piano: A Short History (Pompton Plains, NJ, 1995)

Robert Marshall (ed), Eighteenth-Century Keyboard Music (London, 2003)

David Ponsford, French Organ Music in the Reign of Louis XIV (Cambridge, 2011)

Alexander Silbiger (ed), Keyboard Music before 1700 (London, 2/2004)

David Schulenberg, The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach (Abingdon, 2/2006)

George Stauffer and Ernest May (eds), J. S. Bach as Organist (London, 1986)

Richard Troeger, Playing Bach on the Keyboard: A Practical Guide (Cambridge, 2003)

Peter Williams, The Organ Music of J. S. Bach, 3 vols (Cambridge, 1980), revised and shortened as The Organ Music of J. S. Bach (Cambridge, 2/2003)

Christoph Wolff and Markus Zepf, trans Lynn Edwards Butler, The organs of J. S. Bach: a handbook (Urbana, 2012)

David Yearsley, Bach's Feet; The Organ Pedals in European Culture (Cambridge, 2012)

Barry Cooper, The Creation of Beethoven's 35 Piano Sonatas (Abingdon, 2017)

William S. Newman, Beethoven on Beethoven: playing his piano music his way (New York, 1991)

Oliver Neighbour, The Consort and Keyboard Music of William Byrd (London, 1978)

Walker Cunningham, The Keyboard Music of John Bull (Ann Arbor, 1984)

Kerala Snyder, Dieterich Buxtehude: Organist in Lübeck (Rochester, 2/2007)

Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Chopin: pianist and teacher as seen by his pupils (Cambridge 3/1986)

James Methuen-Campbell, Chopin playing: from the composer to the present day (London, 1981)

Jane Clark and Derek Connon, The Mirror of Human Life: Reflections on Francois Couperin's Pièces de Clavecin (London, 3/2020)

Wilfrid Mellers, François Couperin and the French Classical Tradition (London, 1987)

Richard Lester, Girolamo Frescobaldi: A Variety of Inventions (Hebden Bridge, 2022)

Eva Badura-Skoda, Interpreting Mozart: the performance of his piano pieces and other compositions (London, 2008)

William Kinderman, Mozart's piano music (Oxford, 2006)

Bernard Harrison, Haydn's keyboard music (Oxford, 1997)

W. Dean Sutcliffe, The Keyboard Sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti and Eighteenth-Century Musical Style (Cambridge, 2003)

Pieter Dirksen, The Keyboard Music of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: Its Style, Significance and Influence (Utrecht, 1996)

C3. Keyboard Repertoire – duos

Howard Ferguson, Keyboard Duets: From the 16th to the 20th Century for One and Two Pianos; An Introduction (Oxford, 1995)

Francis Knights, 'Early keyboard duets', Sounding Board, xvi (2021), pp.21-33, https://www.harpsichord.org.uk/sounding-board-archive/

Sally Jo Sloane, Music for Two or More Players at Clavichord, Harpsichord, Organ (Westport, 1991)

D. Tuning and temperament

J. Murray Barbour, Tuning and Temperament (East Lansing, MI, 1951)

Peter Bavington, Clavichord Tuning and Maintenance (London, 3/2020)

Carey Beebe, 'Temperament', >Resources>Technical Library >Temperament, https://www.hpschd.nu/

Thomas Donahue, A guide to musical temperament (Lanham, MD, 2005)

A. C. N. Mackenzie, The temperament of keyboard music: its character; its musicality; and its history (Bristol, 2007)

E. Instrument maintenance

Peter Bavington, Clavichord Tuning and Maintenance (London, 3/2020)

Edward L. Kottick, The harpsichord owner's guide: a manual for buyers and owners (Chapel Hill, 1987)

Arthur Reblitz, Piano Servicing, Tuning, and Rebuilding (Lanham, MD, 2/1997)

DOWNLOADS

Selected pdf files are available below.