How true, Dan. I think I saw one time that the Mendelssohn Nocturne
was a grade 3 on the Texas list. Strange that pros pale at the
prospect of something slow, sustained, and achingly beautiful because
it is such a challenge; and music educators tend to just count the
notes per inch!
Cheers, Paul
On Tuesday, June 15, 2004, at 02:52 PM, Dan Phillips wrote:
On Jun 15, 2004, at 1:26 PM, jlmthompson wrote:
Is this grading system really only a 'New York' area thing?
No, but as others have pointed out, there's very little correlation
between different states' and countries' rating systems.
How do they avoid getting a grade 3 arrangement when they had
wanted a grade 5 or vice versa?
They don't. The only way is to look and/or play through the pieces
which interest you. Difficulty ratings are sometimes wildly
inappropriate or just plain stupid. For example, the Illinois junior
high class B solo list includes Schumann's Adagio and Allegro. I guess
someone looked at the first page and saw that it had lots of half and
quarter notes. That same reviewer probably would think that the slow
movement of Mozart K447 is more difficult because it has some 16ths.
Political and economic factors also influence the content of various
graded lists. For example, the Illinois lists include (or have in the
past) several very poor quality issues from one particular Illinois
based publisher.
Bottom line is, use all those various grading systems as a rough guide
and then make your own judgment.
Dan
================================
Dan Phillips
Professor of Horn, University of Memphis
webmaster: http://music.memphis.edu
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