24 Inventions for Piano
Sheet Music Book
By Ross Lee Finney

I have been using the piano works by Finney as both attractive 20th-21st century repertoire and as useful analytical tools for students with an interest in highly structured composition (academic modernism). Although these pieces may based on the ordering of the 12 chromatic pitches (which is explained in the...

forward of the collection), they are not necessarily 12-tone or serial. The pieces are attractive to students new to modern music because the pitch ordering can suggest tonal structures (ex: triads and chords) without the works being harmonic (unlike thorny atonal works, such as the Schoenberg 6 LITTLE PIANO PIECES). The pieces are often quite contrapuntal and often have a single compositional device which the student is supposed to analyze and figure out on his own. I've also taught from the 32 PIANO GAMES, which are at a beginner level, and YOUTH'S COMPANION, which is more difficult and longer--probably for the Intermediate/Advanced student.