For the DipABRSM music performance exam, the recital time given is 35 min + or - 10%. Would like to find out from all of you who have taken DipABRSM, roughly how many pieces would that translate to? How many pieces did you play for the exam? Thanks

I think I did about five or six.. It's nice to have some variety but not too much that it gets silly...

My recorder pupils all did about five pieces, of varying lengths from 3 - 7 minutes per piece (mostly at the longer end of the range). Remember that the time allowance includes breaks between movements, changing music over between pieces, sips of water, wiping hands if necessary etc - it's not 35 mins of continuous playing, and the examiners won't want the recital to be presented in a rushed manner anyway!

Surely it depends on the instrument and the pieces? For clarinet, it's theoretically possible to get away with just two pieces - the Rossini Introduction, Theme and Variations and the Hindemith sonata are long enough to form a diploma recital if played together (although my inclination would be towards three or four shorter pieces). That said, there are seven movements in total in the Rossini and four in the Hindemith, so this would be a total of eleven movements. Only two works on which to write programme notes though!

The nature of vocal repertoire means that singers tend to do alot of shorter pieces (e.g. most lied don't last as long as a Hindemith sonata movement!). Barcarolle played three pieces for her piano diploma in the summer.

I would have thought that a contrasting programme reflecting your very strongest points was far more important than the number of pieces.

Oh!! I always thought barcarolle was a man!!

No, she's definitely female.

I agree that it depends on the instrument. As Deborah pointed out, for a singer it will probably be around eight or nine works.

Cheers

Katyjay

I was planning five pieces if I I ever get round to it. Gomez, Weber, Stanford, Berkely and Messager, and that seemed a lot.

I will do 4 pieces in piano, one for each musical period. However, it is too short and sometimes it does not reach the lower limit of time.

I did four pieces for flute: the Handel G major Sonata, the Berkeley Sonatina, Taffenel Andante Pastorale and Scherzettino and, naturally, Mozart's Andante in C.

Recently got the music to this - not really tried properly to learn it well as yet, but I can already see why you love it so much

Hi

I did my DipABRSM almost 2 years ago and played:

Bach Partita in C minor
Sinfonia and Capriccio

Mozart Sonata in B Flat

Brahms Intermezzo in A major

I think for piano you can get away with three pieces, but do remember you will be asked why:

1) The piece is representative of the period

2) Why, for example, i didn't play any 20thC music?

I played a pair of Scriabin préludes, a Beethoven sonata, a Szymanowski étude, a Bach prelude & fugue and a Debussy prélude, in that order. Counting the prelude and fugue as one piece, that's six pieces overall. The Scriabins were quite short, though.

Agree with everything so far about it being dependant on instrument and the repertoire chosen: sonatas are usually longer but count as 'one piece'; études are often shorter but only count as one piece etc.

I think the overriding principle should be to programme as if it were a professional public recital - for piano I think one 'needs' a longer work programmed, like a sonata or other substantive piece, as is common with most piano recitals.

I've got 11 pieces (!) and I'm starting to worry that it might be too many...however, I've timed them all carefully (recorded myself with my teacher several times and rounded up to the nearest 5 seconds) and it comes to 33.5 mins as a conservative estimate. Add 15-20 seconds per changover and it's between 36 and 37.5 mins - still within the 10% extra that you're allowed to go. I haven't factored in the 5 minute break that singers are allowed - I feel that if I stop for that long I won't be able to start again.

My programme is (not necessarily in this order):
Et Exutavit (Bach)
O, lead me (Purcell)
Batti Batti (Mozart - from Don Giovanni)
Le Colibri (Chausson)
Ave Maria (Verdi - from Othello; own choice item)
Die Mainacht (Brahm)
The Water Mill (Vaughan Williams)
Song to the Seals (Bantock)
Sleep (Gurney)
Ein Traum (Grieg)
The Nurse's Song (Britten)

My shortest song is just under 2.5 mins so I could drop one, although we could then be bordering on short time unless we make sure the changoevers are fairly leisurely (bearing in mind I rounded up all timings). However, I love all of these numbers and don't really want to see any of them go.

What do you reckon?

PS Don't talk to me about programme notes...100 words per item to show how knowledgeable and insightful I am...
PPS Are you expected to announce/introduce each piece? This could change the allowances I make for changeovers.

thouston: you might find that 15-20s per changeover isn't actually enough, especially in a recital with that many items... I've been criticised myself for rushing into the next piece.. Experience has shown me that 20s-30s is more likely range.. how would that affect your timings?

...hmmm...puts me exactly on the upper limit (35+10%) 38.5 mins. I think that as well as recording individual pieces, I'm going to have to record batches of numbers with suitable gaps. Thanks for the advice - maybe one piece has to go after all *sigh*

Thouston, have you rehearsed your transitions from one work to the next with your accompanist? I got a bit of a surprise when I did that - it was slower than I'd anticipated. 30s is not an unreasonable assumption, and you may be a shade over time.

Cheers

Katyjay