Recommended Book: PIANISM by Aiko Onishi
PIANISM by Aiko Onishi, CreateSpace, 2009, 134 pp.
Distinguished pianist and pedagogue Aiko Onishi sums up her wide-ranging knowledge about the piano and music-making in Piansim.
What other source describes the different physical gestures required to produce so many different kinds of sound? — not just singing tones, but also, for example, harmonious tones, colorless tones, rich chordal tones, and bell-like tones.
With imaginative metaphors and similes, Ms. Onishi suggests how to analyze a score for expressive musical communication. She supplies us with practical suggestions for learning repertoire, memorizing, and preparing for performance. Just her observations about pedaling make this book indispensable.
“In my view, Aiko Onishi’s ‘Pianism’ is a landmark in the literature about playing the piano. It is an invaluable resource for teachers and for students from the earliest years of study on through the artist level.”
Nelita True Professor and Chair, Piano Faculty Eastman School of Music
Aiko Onishi has concertized and given lectures in over 60 cities in the United States, and has played in all the major cities in Japan. She was a professor for six years at the Toho School of Music in Japan and for twenty-one years at San Jose State University in California. As a teacher, Miss Onishi has produced many outstanding students, some of whom have won top prizes at international competitions–including Leeds, Busoni, Casadesus, Kapell, Chopin, Munich, University of Maryland, and the Washington International Competition. Aiko Onishi was born in Tokyo, Japan. She started learning the piano from her mother, Teiko, an accomplished pianist and a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music. She later studied with Mr. Motonari Iguchi and Miss Aiko Iguchi, his sister. Upon winning a Japan National Competition, she was invited to study at the Eastman School of Music with Madame Cecile Genhart, who gave her a real foundation as a pianist. After earning the B.M. with Distinction, Performer’s Certificate, and Artist’s diploma, she continued to study with Frank Mannheimer; with whom she coached on and off for the next sixteen years. During the winter of 1964-5, she had the great privilege of studying with Dame Myra Hess in London.
Comments
I’m interested in buying Pianism by Aiko Onishi. Where can I get it? Thank you
You can purchase Pianism at Amazon.com.
I have studied the piano in New York City for nearly 25 years, and in all of those years, I have not come across anything like the principles and insights set forth in Miss Onishi’s book Pianism. My only regret is that the book does not come with a CD of Miss Onishi demonstrating the musical examples. Far too few have had the privilege of hearing, first hand, the unearthly sounds she can unleash from the piano!
Indeed a great book. On amazon you can see a few free pages as well.
The first time I heard Aiko Onishi play familiar Chopin Etudes, my jaw dropped. I looked around and I saw many astonished expressions on other audience members. I hadn’t imagined runs could be so silky and seamless, colors in sound so subtley nuanced. I had never heard Chopin played this beautifully. For those of us who have the good fortune of knowing her, she is revered as an inspiration not only as a performer, but, as a teacher and as a treasured friend.
Ms.Onishi was my teacher for a time, and I also would be very interested to hear a recording of her playing because she was not performing much when I was in her studio.