Music Theory and Analysis
  •  
  •  

Biography

Ralph Hedges

Ralph Hedges was born in Denver, Colorado of musical parents.  His father was music professor at the Denver University, and his mother was harpist with the Denver Symphony under Saul Caston.  Mr Hedges' early training was at the Lamont School of Music where he was a scholarship student. He earned his Masters degree at the Manhattan School of Music in New York studying piano with Robert Goldsand and theory with Ludmila Ulehla.  Concurrenly he studyed with John Mehegan at the Juilliard School of Music.

He has written many books on theory and especially on the music of Chopin.  He is beginning to get wide acceptance for his theories on piano study.  The practice period is devoted to the memorization of the students' repertoire, with little or no study of what is there.  However, contemporary theory has no possibility of being applied to the practice period.  Chord qualities vs chord functions are not discussed in any theory manual.  Whole compositions or parts thereof are not analyzed with the result that the student does not hear or listen to what he or she is learning.  Notes seem to be the sum total of what is learned. 

The solutions are found in his 'The Dominant; an identity crisis', 'The Diminished; a functional issue', and 'The Trichord; its functions'.  These papers and others are applied to the analysis of the works of Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin.  His work is unique and will not be found in traditional books on music theory.