Bertold Hummel
Tastenspiele - Piano music for children

10 piano pieces for children, op. 56b (1974/79/82)
Sonatina for piano, op. 56a (1975)
Tastenspiele Little piano album for my grandchildren op. 103d (2000)
from "Mimi's keyboard fun" (2001/2002/1995)
Kleine Fanfare - Little Fanfare - Petite Fanfare
Good Mood - Good Mood - De bonne humeur
Kleiner Fasnachtsmarsch - Short Carnival March - Petite marche de carnaval
Three waltzes for 2 and 4 hands op. 95f (1994/2001/1998)
(with Birgit Urban)

Markus Bellheim (piano)

Recording April 2006

Keyboard games

In spring 2002, shortly before I left for Greece, I discovered a volume of sheet music entitled TASTENSPIELE by Bertold Hummel in the window of a music shop in Munich. I bought the book and took it with me to the desert island, where I played from it every morning before going to work. These miniatures had a great effect on me and always brought me back to myself.
This CD brings together pieces from the years 1975 to 2002, almost all of which were composed for children, for the six sons (also for the daughter-in-law for her wedding), for the wife and for a friend. They resemble Bartók's piano cycles FOR CHILDREN and MICROCOSMOS in their clarity and determination, in their musical pedagogical aspirations.
What is appealing is that Bartók's "acoustic scale", derived from the overtone series with the famous 4th degree, runs like a red thread through the pieces. It appears for the first time in the last movement of the SONATINE from 1975, manifests itself in the BIMMELBAHN and in the MARCH OF THE TIN SOLDIERS from the 10 PIANO PIECES FOR CHILDREN and can be found again in the PRELUDIUM and in the SMALL MELODY from the TASTENSPIELE.
Despite the greatest freedom and melodic expansion, the compositions never leave the ground of tonality. As a pupil of Harald Genzmer and grandson of Paul Hindemith, Bertold Hummel always felt the need to write for the next generation of musicians. The title "TASTENSPIELE - Kleines Klavieralbum für meine Enkelkinder" says it all. Children should learn how to play the keys in a playful way. The composer incorporates the most contrasting musical styles into his miniatures without blinkers: church music in CHORAL, tonal clusters in BARCAROLE, bitonal echoes in SCHERZANDO and BIMMELBAHN, brass band parodies in MARSCH DER ZINNSOLDATEN, animal imitations in KUCKUCK and KLAGENDEN NACHTIGALL, jazz elements in BUDENZAUBER and CLOWN.
The 16 keyboard pieces were composed for the grandchildren Anna, Klara, Rafael, Charlotte, Silja, Josephine, Viola, Mirjam, Fabian, Sven, Laura Sophia, Simon, Jakob and Julia. When the cycle was completed and already printed, the 17th grandson Johannes Augustin was born, to whom a LITTLE FANFARE was dedicated. They are all small character studies, which also cast a significant glance at the respective dedicatee. Although the pieces are self-contained, there are musical cross-references within the 16-part cycle and beyond.
A particular attraction for Hummel lies in his use of numerical symbolism - for example, the waltz for his wife Inken on her 67th birthday is exactly 67 bars long - and in playing with sounds that can be derived from a name. His own musical autograph consists of the five notes B-E-RTOL-D H-UMM-E-L. The ascending tritone and the descending fifth, which - original and transposed - are characteristic of many of his pieces. In the composition KLEINE FANFARE for 12 August 2001, the five notes are combined with the 9 notes JO-H-A-NN-E-S A-U-G-U-S-TINH-UMM-E-L, which are derived from the name of the newborn grandson Johannes Augustin Hummel. This short composition, which consists of just 15 bars, gives the impression that the grandfather is carrying his grandson safely through the world, at a pulse of 88 beats per minute, the magical number of 88 piano keys. 10 months later, Johannes Augustin is given a little march (GUTE LAUNE) with ascending and descending second steps. Here, the grandson's first attempts at crawling seem to have found a musical equivalent.
The only piece on the recording that was not composed for a family member was written by Hummel for the 73rd birthday of the Würzburg bishop Paul Werner Scheele, with whom he wrote the oratorio DER SCHREIN DER MÄRTYRER. In this piece, too, Hummel plays with the musicalised name of the dedicatee: P-A-ULW-E-RN-E-RS-C-H-E-E-L-E. In this 73-bar waltz, the ascending tritone and the descending fifth of the composer's name also haunt the piece and they also conclude the composition, which ends with transfiguring, Lohengrin-like A major chords.
If you take Erich Kästner's words to heart: "Only those who grow up and remain a child are human", then you will understand why the waltzes for the wife, the Würzburg bishop and the young bridal couple Gabriele and Stefan David are being released together on a CD of piano music for children.

Wilfried Hiller

A photo in the booklet shows the 77-year-old composer Bertold Hummel, who was born in Baden, surrounded by no fewer than 16 grandchildren. So it's hardly surprising that Grandpa Hummel didn't skimp on piano pieces for children, "Mimi's Keyboard Fun" and a small piano album for his grandchildren entitled "Keyboard Games". Hummel's 10 Piano Pieces op. 56b, composed between 1974 and 1982, are pieces full of rich sound, folkloristic melodies and sometimes unexpected depth. They include simple but imaginative exercises such as the superficial "Ostinato", but also a deeply sad nightingale and a tinkling railway that waltzes ponderously along the tracks rather than jingling. The young pianist and winner of the International Messiaen Competition Markus Bellheim plays them full of esprit and dedication. Where he is given more space for larger sections, as in the Sonatina op. 56a, his full creative scope and richness is revealed. The tonal pieces, which are stylistically reminiscent of fellow composers of the same age and practitioners such as Herbert Baumann, who lived in Munich, are certainly anachronistic in some respects. But at the time of composing these endearing works, shortly before his death, Hummel was beyond the point of having to seek a connection to modernism. Markus Bellheim impressively proves that he wrote wonderful music even without this.
Helmut Peters (piano news 5-06)

The Baden composer Bertold Hummel, who died in 2002, undoubtedly had reason enough to write for children. After all, we see him on the cover in a photo surrounded by 14 grandchildren. His miniatures about tinker trains, lyre boxes and tin soldiers, played by Markus Bellheim in an unpretentious manner, are full of love. Those who prefer a more classical and formal approach should listen to his piano sonatina, which lasts just six minutes. For piano students and those who want to become one, this is a real treasure trove!
Helmut Peters (fono forum 03/08)