Commissioned
by Clavier
By Denes Agay
In 1752, English organist and writer
John Avison gave his opinions on how to select music.
His advice is sound and teachers will find his comments
to be pertinent today as well. He wrote, “There are
but three circumstances on which the worth of any musical
composition can depend: melody, harmony, and expression.
When these are united in their full excellence, the
composition is then perfect. If any of these are wanting
or imperfect, the composition is proportionally defective.”
Avison was well ahead of his time. He
sets the conditions of excellence for a type of piano
composition that began to proliferate several decades
later and has been popular ever since. These are pieces
with soprano-line melodies in the right hand supported
by moving chord-sequences in the left hand; the ubiquitous
song without words, in all its varieties. Timothy Brown’s
“Once Upon a Time,” our newest Commissioned by Clavier
piece, belongs in this category.
Avison identified the qualifications
of compositional excellence and defined the task of
the performer: “To do a composition justice by playing
it in a taste and style exactly corresponding with the
intention of the composer.” Certain inherent shortcomings
of our notation system sometimes make a composer’s intent
unclear, though. The melody is usually discernible because
the notation of pitch is exact, but the indication of
rhythm can be ambiguous at times. The harmony is also
represented accurately through the notes. It is in the
vitally important area of expression that notation generally
falls short of being precise. Indications of articulation,
dynamics, touch, and tempo fluctuations are, at best,
only approximations of the originally intended sound.
Composers often avoided this problem by indicating espressivo
in their manuscripts, thus transferring the responsibility
to the performer, who is then expected to breathe life
into a piece.
That is the task students face with
this commissioned piece, which is technically within
the abilities of early- intermediate-grade students.
The clearly defined melody has an attractive narrative
flow that fits the title of this lyrical miniature.
The four brief sections consist of 20, 16, 16, and 8
measures. The phrasing marks are explicit, indicating
a somewhat asymmetric pattern in which four- and two-
measure phrase lengths alternate to provide a steady,
forward momentum. A pronounced cantabile touch
in the right hand should be present throughout and can
be achieved by applying a bit of extra weight on the
melody notes.
The largely diatonic harmonic vocabulary
is inventively spiced with quasi-dissonant seventh chords,
and the left-hand accompaniment should be softer than
the melodic line but luminous enough to provide solid
chordal support. Students should change pedal as indicated
to avoid harmonic overlapping. The entire mood and interpretive
style should be songful story-telling. An emotional
zenith in the third section, from measure 31, then the
mood relaxes from measure 43 and slides into the tender
resolution of the last eight measures.
This is a lovely, easy piece that presents
no technical hurdles, but it requires more than simply
reading and playing the notes correctly for a truly
successful rendition. It needs expression, the third
important condition of compositional excellence as prescribed
by Avison. To spin a pleasing melodic tale out of these
simple pianistic ingredients, encourage students to
use their imagination and play with sensitivity. After
successfully performing this piece, students should
be ready to work on the unsurpassed prototype of this
genre, Chopin’s Prelude in E Minor, Op. 28, #4.
Preview page 1
Preview page 2
Preview page 3
 Meet
the Composer, Tim Brown
Timothy Brown holds a masters degree in piano performance
from the University of North Texas. His teachers include
Rebecca Wilthide of the Cincinnati College Conservatory
of Music, Walter Baker, Newel Kay Brown, and Adam Wodnicki.
Besides performing frequently with his wife, Mi Won
Choi Brown, as duo-pianists, he teaches piano at the
Lakeland Piano Studio in Lewisville, Texas and group
piano and music composition at the Harry Stone Montessori
Magnet School in Dallas, Texas. As a composer, Brown
writes in a wide variety of musical styles and genres
and recently taught composition to children in the Create
Your Own Opera program sponsored by the Metropolitan
Opera Company of New York City.
Editor of the Commissioned by Clavier
series, Denes Agav has a worldwide reputation as a composer
and editor of educational piano music.
Reprinted Clavier. April 1997
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