Author: Ray Alston

I teach an online music theory and composition course, and I’ve recently started using your Piano Practical Editions in class. Today, I gave an impromptu analysis of Debussy’s Des Pas sur la Neige (Centenary Edition, 2018), and I wanted to thank you — your edition made an enormous difference.

The clarity of the layout made the piece’s harmonic structure immediately visible. My students could easily see how the contrasting sections (D minor vs. Eb minor) supported and reharmonized the primary sonority. Your flexible staff system — temporarily dropping or adding staves as needed — highlighted registral and voice-leading changes in a way that standard editions often obscure.

What really struck me was how the visual design resembled the spirit of a Schenkerian graph. While there’s no reduction of notes, the visual simplification functions similarly: it clears away clutter and guides the eye toward deeper structural relationships.

I also appreciated how your engraving avoids the usual “four-bars-per-line, five-lines-per-page” box format. Instead, the systems feel like organic musical phrases — grouped by logic, not by page geometry. This subtle shift made it dramatically easier for my students (and for me) to analyze the music in real time. I’ve realized that I actually prefer reading multiple ledger lines on a single staff rather than using a bulky grand staff—even though bass clef comes naturally to me—perhaps because it keeps my eyes moving laterally across the page.

If you’re open to it, I’d love to have your blessing to continue using your editions in my class when available. They’ve proven to be an invaluable tool for both performance insight and theoretical analysis.

Thank you again for such thoughtful and elegant work.

Steve Steele

12 July 2025

https://www.stevesteele.com/

Further revisions have been posted today.

With warm greetings and a Happy New Year from France.

A long overdue revision of my earlier edition from 2018 has provided a splendid opportunity to rediscover this extraordinary creation from Albeniz’ last years — 12 nouvelles Impressions. They are thoroughly reexplored and published here in four volumes as first presented by the composer in 1906-8.

Messiaen never tired of pointing out to his disciples how he had come to appreciate dissonance after listening to Iberia, and to help understand how these clusters work, they are sometimes exchanged with acciaccaturas.

For early 20th century publishers, much of Iberia must have been an engraver’s nightmare. This edition therefore addresses the problem, by removing a minimum number of notes and suggesting alternative ways to perform this sublime, passionate and rewarding music. To clarify the text some adjustments have been made to non-essential counterpoint and unnecessary rests have been omitted. In a quest to remove challenging accidentals, a number of appropriate key signatures have been inserted.

Granados described the music of Albéniz as quite unique: “an elegance that smiles with sadness and progresses by degrees until it achieves a mastery both commanding and serene; like Goya’s Maja, Iberia evokes memories of our ‘golden century”. To have some idea of their worth, it is useful to read Debussy’s appreciation of Eritaña (book IV): “les yeux se ferment comme éblouis d’avoir contemplé trop d’images”.**    

The days of March have been agreeably brought to a close with the unraveling my earlier edition of Ravel’s most beautiful and striking piano suite. Largely responsible for establishing the prose poem in French literature, Aloysius Bertrand’s spellbinding creation has been transposed into stunning keyboard wizardry.
As part of a general reappraisal of my work on Ravel, PPE presents a thorough reworking of this masterwork, another audacious effort to replace that of January 2018. 

With Easter greetings from France.

Ravel writes an antique dance suite and the title refers to a tomb… so does this mean we are dancing on Couperin’s grave? In a sense, we are… and in a field of cornflowers and poppies.

As part of a general reappraisal of my work on Ravel, PPE presents a thorough reworking of this masterwork, another audacious edition replacing the earlier publication of September 2019. In addition to some adroit solutions I hope you will find a generally improved layout.

Plus other updates and corrections

With tongue in cheek Ravel thus presents his Valses Nobles et Sentimentales : ‘I have never, in writing, sought anything other than the delectable and ever new pleasure in a frivolous pursuit’. (Taken from a novel by Henri de Régnier — Les Rencontres de monsieur de Bréot). PPE presents another definitive, audacious and turbo-charged edition, replacing the earlier publication of September 2017. In addition to the usual adroit solutions to problems posed in the challenging text, you will find a few adaptations taken from Ravel’s orchestral score and some preparatory exercises. I have also taken the opportunity to correct a number of regrettable errors, both large and small, sometimes pinpointed by the readership, and to generally improve the layout.

Scriabin : Sonata Nº 4 Op 30 

Debussy : Pour les degrés chromatiques“

Debussy : 3 morceaux … in particular l’Isle Joyeuse

Ravel : Jeux d’Eau

PPE presents a definitive, audacious and turbo-charged edition, replacing the earlier publication of September 2017. In addition to the usual adroit solutions to problems posed in this extremely challenging text, you will find a few adaptations taken from Ravel’s orchestral score and some preparatory exercises. I have also taken the opportunity to correct a number of regrettable errors, both large and small, sometimes pinpointed by the readership, and to generally improve the layout.

Noctuelles : This deliberately “clumsy” piece moves between key and time-signatures as often as a noctuid moth seeks nectar from a flower. In spite of over 25 changes of key, Ravel preferred to stay with a key-signature of 5 flats, which results in a raft of (dare I say gauche) accidentals. 

With greetings from France.

With a definitive version of the Debussy Preludes now successfully completed, I am turning my attention to early editing attempts at Ravel, and have been much enjoying revising his delectable Sonatine. I am happy to announce that quite a few cunning solutions have been found within the composer’s intricate and ofttimes challenging text. 

The first movement was written for a competition in 1903 promoted by an Anglo-French magazine, the Weekly Critical Review, which eventually cancelled and went bankrupt. 

I have also taken the opportunity to correct a number of regrettable errors, both large and small, sometimes pinpointed by the readership, and to generally improve the layout.

Five years after issuing the initial selection, PPE has finally delivered the entire first and second books of preludes in two volumes. I have taken the opportunity to correct a number of regrettable errors, both large and small, kindly pinpointed by the readership and to generally revise and improve the layout.

Ray Alston November 2023

PPE EDITIONS

PPE is celebrating just over five years of publication, and is here responding to various comments, in particular how they differ from editions which first appeared about the time of their composition. Apart from being able to start afresh with an excellent score-writing application and a completely clean palette, I was able to redesign the layout without any limitations, including  paper economy, a non-negligible cost in the past. Always with respect for composers’ wishes I aim to produce clear working texts, and list below some of the basic principles which define it :

• barlines — sometimes modified to draw attention to changes of metre — use of dotted barlines to show phrase lengths
• beaming and time-signatures — sometimes modified to facilitate reading and memory
• key-signatures — sometimes modified to reduce or eliminate accidentals 
• phrase marks — often eliminated to avoid overloading the page — I believe that these curved lines should serve a more meaningful purpose than mere legato
• spelling of accidentals — sometimes modified to reduce their number
• note size — modification to underline melodic or harmonic importance
• staves — use of one or three instead of the automatic two, generally with a maximum of five per page to improve spacing and clarity
• page turns and repeats — layout planned to make this easier
• changes of clef on a single stave — avoidance if possible
• articulation signs — avoiding overload
• rests — avoiding the unnecessary
• fingering — avoiding overload by omitting the obvious
• dynamics — there are sometimes too many — I believe that artists need more freedom to inspire individuality
• sustaining pedal — only indicated when not obvious. As Debussy once said… “pedalling cannot be written down. It varies from one instrument to another, from one room, or one hall, to another.”
• sostenuto pedal — First shown in Paris at the Industrial Exposition of 1844, the invention was not immediately taken up by piano builders. In 1874, is was perfected and patented by Steinway, soon to be fitted on all their grands and better uprights. One obvious commercial reason for not including the sostenuto pedal in musical scores must have been the thought of excluding buyers whose pianos didn’t have it. Debussy and Ravel certainly played such Steinways in the Paris salons. One could say that it took over 100 years for it to become widespread, and PPE suggests its use whenever possible — always within the confines of “good taste”.

Ray Alston  

February 2023

elimination of unfortunate misprints and new layout

Rachmaninov

Étude Tableau Op 39 Nº 5

Schumann

Song Transcriptions 1840

Ravel

Sonatine

Menuet Antique

Jeux d’Eau

Debussy

Images book I

Images book II

Pour le Piano

Chopin

Op 10 Vol II — Nº 5 – 8

With gratitude for useful input from colleagues in the U.K. and Spain, two Ravel works suffering from misprints have received a fairly decent makeover. 

An upload of the third volume (9 — 12) now completes the first book of studies.

PPE has completely redesigned the layout, spreading out the text for easier reading. Each étude has a short introduction and includes for what it is worth my personal fingering and ‘arrangements’. There is also an appendix following in the footsteps of Cortot, with a few preparatory exercises and ideas to help solve technical and musical problems posed throughout these amazing works.

Ray Alston

Many thanks for all the useful feedback; I have recently revisited my 2019 revision of Ravel’s Mother Goose, making significant corrections and improving the layout. This fascinating exploration resulted inevitably to a new two-hand arrangement, which I believe will make an exceptional addition to the composer’s solo repertoire. There is extensive use of the sostenuto pedal and glissandos can be found in a wide range of dynamics. Le Jardin Féerique is an excellent study for the magical timing of arpeggiated chords. My favourite is no doubt Les Entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête, an eloquent waltz with unusual phrase lengths, indicated with dashed barlines; it also features a ravishing and pertinent coupling of the two themes. 

Ravel often preferred the company of the young to that of adults and said : “Writing music to describe the poetry of childhood encouraged me to simplify my style and to refine my means of expression”. The contrast between Ma Mère l’Oye and Gaspard de la Nuit, from the same year 1908, is staggering, yet the fundamentals — melodic design, exquisite harmony and the evocation of enchantment — is evident in the two works.

l’Aventure de Pan et de Syrinx

I must thank a kind Ravelian sleuth for having discovered a small number of errors; a serious revision of the composer’s transcription published today includes the corrections.

I must admit that the piece sounds more complete with Ravel’s extraordinary orchestral palette, but it is nevertheless pianistically challenging and gratifying, with echoes of Valses Nobles, Ondine and Jeux d’Eau. In under 7 minutes of gorgeous music, there is some bitonality and 24 changes of key, and who cannot be seduced by Pan’s exquisite flute solo? 

a transcription for solo piano by Ray Alston

Nº 2 mit innigem ausdruck A minor page 1

Nº 5 nicht zu schnell B minor page 7

Nº 4 Innig A flat page 13

These are taken from Six Studies in Canonic Form Op 56, whose unfortunate academic title hides music of great beauty and originality. In an effort to publicise their worth they have been sexily renamed Preludes in Counterpoint. I have transcribed three personal favourites for solo piano — the two outer pieces, both lyrical and romantic, frame a mischievous staccato canon in the style of Mendelssohn.  

Following an error report, with profuse apologies, a corrected version (bar 106 LH) has just been uploaded (See 3 morceaux).