Accompaniment in America

Contextualizing Collaborative Piano

Chanda VanderHart

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Hardback

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English

Routledge
23 July 2025

Theatre Studies; Keyboard instruments

Piano accompaniment, or collaborative piano, is an invisibilized force driving classical music. This hybrid study, combining text and multimedia, explores its history, evolution, and transformation into a recognized academic discipline through archival research, expert interviews, and digital resources.

This hybrid publication delves into the origins and institutionalization of collaborative piano, tracing its development from the early 20th century to the present day. It highlights a profession often overlooked, introduces pioneering figures including Gwendolyn Koldofsky, and maps the establishment of over 100 degree-granting programs across North America. With an interactive data visualization tool, QR codes linking to compelling first-hand accounts, and extensive archival materials, it offers a vivid, multidimensional journey through the field’s past and present. By contextualizing the profession through analysis of its pedagogical, gendered, and institutional dynamics, this work seeks to foster a deeper understanding of collaborative piano’s past, present, and future, while advocating for its recognition and advancement.

Accompaniment in America: Contextualizing Collaborative Piano is essential reading and viewing for musicians, music students, educators, scholars, and administrators, as well as anyone interested in the intersection of collaborative piano history, performance practice, and academia. It is a valuable resource for both students and professionals seeking to understand the complexities of a field still broadly misunderstood and its pivotal role in classical music.

By: Chanda VanderHart
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm,
ISBN: 9781032887975
ISBN 10: 1032887974
Pages: 144
Publication Date: 23 July 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

List of Figures Chapter 1: Preludes and Preambles Chapter 2: Gwendolyn Koldofsky, Pathfinder and Pioneer Chapter 3: Establishing the Field Chapter 4: Proliferation, History, and Persistent Refrains Chapter 5: 21st Century Collaborative Counterpoint Index

Chanda VanderHart is a pianist and musicologist whose research interests include music history and sociology, gender studies, art song, performance, cultural institution studies, digital humanities, Musikvermittlung, and artistic research. She has been on the faculty of the mdw-University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, since 2017 and is a Senior Researcher at the Universität für Weiterbildung in Krems. VanderHart cofounded the interdisciplinary concert series Mosaïque, the multimedia storytelling platform Talespin, Musical Tales for Big and Small, and the podcast series on gender and art song piano Too Many Frocks.