Alfred's Basic Piano Library: Theory Book 2: Piano Book

Dr. Willard Palmer was an internationally recognized musician, educator, and scholar who composed 789 published works across multiple genres and instruments. His output encompassed accordion and piano methods, guitar and Hammond Chord Organ instructional materials, numerous solo pieces, and choral compositions. Many of his publications reached audiences worldwide through translations into German, Japanese, French, Dutch, and Spanish. For many years, he served as choir director at Memorial Lutheran Church in Houston, Texas.

Palmer's musical gifts emerged early; he performed piano on the radio at age 13 and studied both piano and accordion under Mae Vardeman, whose instruction in proper technique helped develop his improvisational skills. He attended Whitworth College in Brookhaven, Mississippi and Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, where he continued performing on radio broadcasts and in campus ensembles. Following his bachelor's degree from Millsaps, he earned a two-year scholarship to study at the Conservatory of Leipzig in Germany. He later completed post-graduate work at the University of Houston and joined that institution's music faculty as a pioneering instructor, teaching the first successful college accordion courses for eighteen years.

Palmer's later career focused on rigorous musicological research, particularly in Classical and Baroque music and pedagogical methods. He became recognized worldwide as an authority on Baroque ornamentation, a specialization that informed the acclaimed Alfred Masterworks series. In 1971, he received a Doctor of Humanities degree, followed by a Doctor of Music degree in 1983. He served as director of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute and held memberships in the American Federation of Musicians Local #65, the American Accordionists' Association, and ASCAP.