Abstract

This current study primarily focuses on the contribution of the etudes, which have a significant role in piano education, to musical expression and narration improvement. Starting from this point of view, Op. 65 etudes by Albert Loeschhorn which were released as studies for improving technical and musical expression and with the aim of being used in different stages of piano education were investigated. According to Loeschhorn, the term etude was not considered to be an exercise to overcome a specific technical difficulty. Instead, he constructed etudes that were intended for clearing technical problems and that gave particular importance to students’ expressing the musical sentences by composers, which can be considered among the main factors in music and music education. In this research, the studies that were designed to increase awareness on these issues were analyzed. The etudes that were analyzed in this study were limited to the first Op. 65 book. Several pedagogues and researchers in the field along with parallel views with educators on the importance of musical expression and narration concluded that the etudes by Loeschhorn could be beneficial to resolve various problems by prioritizing musical expression and narration.

Key words: Music education, piano education, musical expression.