This project combines a performance recording with musicological research on Louise Farrenc’s four sets of piano études (Op. 26, 41, 42, 50). It highlights the remarkable piano works of the French female composer Louise Farrenc, exploring representative selections from Farrenc’s four progressive sets of educational piano études. I intend to draw attention to these extraordinary compositions and elevate their position in modern-day piano repertoire. These are essential works from the nineteenth-century piano repertoire, which provide significant pedagogical value as they were composed based on Louise Farrenc’s (1804-1875) own teaching experience of pupils. In addition, a growing appreciation for the aesthetic and educational merit of women composers’ compositions is rapidly emerging in contemporary scholarship, while people tended to focus on prominent male composers’ work in the past. This discussion centers around the technical goals of each set, musical expression and interpretation suggestions, and analysis of important influences to create a comprehensive pedagogical guide for performers and teachers. The lack of documentation and analysis of piano compositions by female pianists is a great loss to pedagogy and keyboard literature, and the purpose of this project is to contribute to change in promoting the works of female composers.This pedagogical study is organized into four chapters. Chapter 1 offers a concise biography of composer Louise Farrenc, exploring her personal journey and the artistic landscape that shaped her work. I emphasize the societal expectations on different genders as musicians in the nineteenth century. The first part of Chapter 2 embarks on a chronological development of études, commencing with their seventeenth-century inception and culminating in their peak during the mid-nineteenth century. The second part of Chapter 2 discusses Farrenc’s études and her pedagogical values. Chapters 3 and 4 provide an overview of the relevance and progression between the four sets of études based on form, texture, and technique. Finally, a pedagogical guide to the études demonstrates the recommended teaching processes and goals for each set and the études as a collection.

Ge Gan-ru (b. 1954) is considered one of the most innovative composers of his time and is referred to in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians as “China's first avant-garde composer.”[ Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press,( January 29, 2004): 258.] In 1986, Ge composed Ancient Music, a piece employs extended piano techniques to express the composer's reimagination of ancient Chinese music. This project explores the life and music of Ge Gan-ru by providing a historical background of Ge’s life as a composer during the Chinese Cultural Revolution[ The Chinese Cultural Revolution was a decade-long era of political and social upheaval ignited by Mao Zedong's attempt to restore his authority over the Communist Party through the mistreatment of the Chinese people. ] and the changes after he came to America. In addition, a technical analysis and performance guide of Ancient Music are included, in order to discuss how he expresses his individual compositional language and integrates Chinese musical concepts into a western contemporary compositional system. In this document, I take a close look at Ge Gan-ru’s perspectives on Chinese music and the revolutionary reforms he made. Chapter One is a review of sources about Ge’s life and study in China and America and a brief introduction to his Ancient Music. Chapter Two discusses why the concept of composer in the context of Western music is missing in Chinese music, as most traditional Chinese works were not created by a single person and therefore do not reflect the individual voice of one composer. This point can also be extended to explain why Chinese society has historically encouraged homogenization including in music. Chapter Three serves as a performance guide, as well as a musical and technical analysis of Ancient Music. This will involve outlining and comparing the performance of traditional Chinese instruments with the internal piano techniques employed throughout this piece. Chapter Four is a summary of Ge’s Ancient Music and his musical contributions.

ABSTRACT Alexina Louie (b.1949), Chen Yi (b.1953), and Vivian Fung (b.1975) are three highly respected Asian female composers in the contemporary classical music world. This written document concentrates on three works by these composers: I Leap Through the Sky with Stars (1991), Guessing (1989), and Glimpses (2006, rev. 2016), exploring their overall structures and influences of the pieces. It also includes brief biographies of each composer and the stylistic characteristics of their solo piano compositions. The first chapter provides a general description of the changing role and importance of female composers in musical history, as well as in the present day. In addition, this chapter offers a brief comparison of these three composers’ musical languages. The three subsequent chapters offer a deeper exploration of each individual composer and discuss a major work written by each. Through these works, a fusion nature of Western and Eastern music is revealed. Chen Yi composed Guessing based on a Chinese folk song and employed the form of theme and variations; Alexina Louie demonstrates different timbres of Asian instruments and adopts the Asian philosophy of Yin Yang in her composition, I Leap Through the Sky with Stars; and Vivian Fung composed Glimpses as a prepared piano work to imitate the many timbres of Gamelan and Oriental instruments. Finally, the fifth chapter summarizes these elements and demonstrates the need for female voices in the male-dominated Western classical tradition. Additionally, my interpretative suggestions and practice notes are included, in order to help those who are learning these pieces or pieces in similar styles. Overall, this document offers some approaches for understanding this music and pieces in similar styles and examines their potential as pedagogical and performance works.