Hi Folks - do you give pieces you are playing a personal title? If so - is it at the beginning of the learning process or later? Are titles descriptive, emotive or narrative?
Tricia

Bach`s "Das Wohltemperierte Klavier" is now known to me as"The Happy Piano"

I like it but, er, no.

On the other hand, I can think of several I might give: "The Girl With The Flaxen Hair" by Debussy might become "Old Blondie"

Yes, if the piece has no descriptive title, I tend to think of one, or think of a poem, or colours, secenery etc... anything to help me interpret ...

I actually tell my pupils to give "study" a title, rather than "Study in A" or "Allegro in G"... I really think this helps for children to communicate...

hero

Not really. Between friends, I might refer to the pieces as 'the beast' or 'the legend'. Or just 'The Bach' or 'The Beethoven'.

I dont, but it's an interesting concept. Maybe i'll think about doing it.

Well, to my friend who thought Fur Elise was by Mozart (who doesn't know the difference between Beethoven and Mozart) i'll just say 'the one by Beethoven and not Mozart'. Stupid, ignorant people!

I've done it on occasion with pupils - Tedesca (A3 grade 1) became "Tescos" with one girl, and The Pear Tree Is Laden With Fruit became something equally strange............. and if my pupils do composition in the lessons with me, the choice of title is often very interesting.........

Oh and my dad and I nick-named Poulenc "Plonkety Plonk" (we used to play his piano sonata for 4 hands duet together which had some wonderful sections with huge chords full handfuls of notes and parallel 7th bits........mmm lovely!)

...umm no, can't say I've ever done this before! Even with compositions, I normally gave them quite generic names like 'Nocturne' etbut I lost it with the old computer, aargh! Then again, I didn't like the middle section of it anyway...

~Wobby~

My teacher used to call everythng Thingy-Bob. If I played the wrong one he'd ask me to play "the other Thingy-Bob".

I tell my students to give a name to the piece... even if it's a little study! they get happy and turn creative, and add character to the piece.

The names I give to certain pieces are probably best not mentioned on here .

I've played some of those too.

Thanks - good to hear the different views. I find some of Bach Inventions have a story inside them and then it is easier to learn. Not sure if my fingers tell the same story as the one in my head!
Tricia

Of course, most of the Chopin studies have nicknames. So far as I know, none of these names were known to Chopin.

. . . and the Moonlight sonata was given it's name by a critic when Beethoven (who subtitled it Quasi Una Fantasia) was already dead.

pretentious people

No 3 son has composed several short piano pieces lately. He played the first chord of one and asked me to identify which one it was. I suggested it would be easier if he gave each of the pieces a name.

'OK', he said, and played a bit. 'This one's John' and played a bit more. 'This is Billy, and', playing another extract, 'this one's Susan'.