Herbert [Goff] Ricker was born in Chickasha, Indian Territory, in 1903 and died in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1967. Blessed with perfect pitch, he displayed remarkable musical ability as a child. The celebrated pianist and composer John Powell heard him play and accepted him as a protege while he was still in his teens. Ricker subsequently took up residence in Virginia and enrolled at the University of Richmond, Class of 1925. Upon gradution, he studied in Vienna with Malvine Bree, a major exponent of the Leschetizsky method, and Dr. Hans Weisse, a close associate of Heinrich Schenker. After concertizing briefly in Europe and the United States, Ricker settled in Oklahoma City, where he became a major and highly influential figure in that community's musical scene. He pursued further study in Chicago and later in California, where he proved a valued student of Egon Petri, generally regarded as one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. Herbert Ricker was also a composer, and his most accomplished work, SONATINE, was dedicated to Rudolf Firkusny, who performed it publically.
The six children's pieces of intermediate difficulty that appear here were published privately for the use of Ricker's students and are notable for their melodic, harmonic, and technical sophistication. They are reproduced and made available with the permission of Dr. Eugenia George and her brother Richard.
The SONATINE is reproduced here with permission of Carl Fischer Music, with special thanks to Veronica Cator.
