Selected renaissance keyboard canzonas for the student pianist: Historical significance, performance practice and teaching suggestions

This thesis examines the historical significance of the late Renaissance keyboard canzona, and encourages the use of this genre in the piano studio as a gateway into the copious pre-Baroque keyboard literature. The objective is to expand the scope of repertoire to include keyboard canzonas written by composers born before 1600 for performance by the intermediate to advanced piano student.;Seven canzonas are reviewed to provide strategies for the teaching of selected musical concepts, technical challenges and performance problems that are representative of Renaissance music. Each review suggests a performance level based on the criteria established by existing collections of graded repertoire and syllabi. The selection of canzonas is limited to composers active within the Italian peninsula, such as the schools of Venice, Florence, Rome or Naples, from the beginning of the genre in the 1500s until the canzona lost importance during the seventeenth century. Canzonas by composers born after 1600 are excluded from this thesis.;Often overlooked in piano studios, Renaissance keyboard literature presents a unique combination of musical challenges and offers an opportunity to examine a different understanding of music that not only preceded tonal harmony, but also led to it, thus benefitting the development of comprehensive musicianship of piano students. Renaissance keyboard canzonas were used in this study in an attempt to bring awareness about this exciting historical period to teachers and students of piano, and to persuade publishers and curriculum writers to include Renaissance music in their keyboard literature.