I began my sight-reading session this week with a simpler score: Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni’s Laudate. I heeded the fact that I needed to put the tenor line down an octave. As I read through, I was reminded of the need to practice vertical reading. I improved my comprehension speed once I began to see the four lines working together to form chords. The piece’s repetitive nature also aided me—often an entire measure consisted of the same chord played three times. Laudate eased me into the concept of score reading for the day.
I chose Johannes Brahms’ Liebeslieder Walzer as my second score. I occasionally forgot a D-flat (since we were in the key of A-flat), but I made sure to be as careful as possible. The soprano line moved more often than the other three lines. After measure 10, I had to make some ridiculous finger adjustments—who ever heard of playing an 11th interval with a single hand? At these tricky spots, I switched the tenor line to my right hand, and then returned to the normal split shortly afterward. The only things that made this piece somewhat hard were the awkward jumps near the end.
To tell you the truth, I’m not entirely sure of the title of my third score. It was labeled “79.” This piece was by far the hardest of my selections. The tenor clef threw me off. First I familiarized myself with the top two parts. Then, I slowly worked the tenor and bass lines into my interpretation. When the tenor clef split into two parts, I paid extra close attention. The accidentals in the end confused me, too. This piece showed me the importance of running through a score slowly at first.
I picked “Der Leiermann” as my fourth piece. I tried singing (“la’s,” not the actual words) and playing this one since the melody and the accompaniment work together. Most of the riffs in the piece consisted of A harmonic minor scales. Since this piece was so simple, I made sure to integrate as much emotion as possible. When I finished it, I realized that this piece was probably too easy. I needed more of a challenge.
Schubert’s “Der Tod und das Madchen” was my final piece. This song’s arrangement proved to be extremely chordal. The beginning of the piece’s right hand chords slowly ascended, making use of C-sharps and E-flats to create unique chords. I made sure to keep the entire piece at a pianissimo dynamic level, with slight variations, letting the music flow while still adhering to the piano range.
From Bob Logan, October 1, 2007
1. Allegro assai (from example H80 in the handout packet)
Like many pianists, I'm not nearly as good at reading alto clef as I am at treble and bass clef, so the hardest part of reading this score was the alto clef line. Before I started to play the score, I looked it over for similarities between the voices (conveniently, the top two voices are exactly the same), important cadences, and repeated notes or patterns. This was a rather difficult score because the voices overlap in range sometimes and there is always triplet motion in at least one voice.
2. Adoramus te Christe (Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina)
I don't think I've ever seen the time signature 2/1 before. It's not as easy to read as the conventional time signatures, so I had to think about the rhythm a little more than usual. Because this is a slow piece, I looked about half a bar ahead as I played it, scanning up and down in a zigzag motion. The reading became more difficult once the voices began to cross over each other.
3. Quartet in B-flat Major (Schubert)
This was easier for me than the other two scores. When I looked through the piece prior to playing it, I noticed that the viola and the cello are an octave apart for the entire second line. This made reading that line easy; all I had to do for the left hand was look at the cello part (which was written in bass clef) and turn it into octaves instead of single notes. Temporarily eliminating the alto clef from the picture made it easier to read the score.
4. Sonatine, Op. 79
Most of this piece wasn't hard to sight read because each section has something that makes reading easier. In the beginning, the left hand follows a simple back and forth pattern. The arpeggios in measures 12-22 are predictable and easy to play. The scales in measures 24-35 are easy if one pays attention to the accidentals and thinks about the scales within the context of the key signature and the notes in the other hand.
5. Canzonetta
This piece has a lot of accidentals and unexpected chord changes, but fortunately it has a slow tempo. I played the melody line on the third staff in addition to the accompaniment, where possible (sometimes the range was too wide). I like this song a lot. I wonder who wrote it – it seems like it came from the middle to late Romantic era.
From Jessica Schallock, October 1, 2007
Sonata in E-flat Major by Joseph Haydn
The allegro movement of the Sonata in E-flat Major was charming and fun to sight-read. The movement is in ¾ time, and begins with patterns of four sixteenth notes in the right hand and eight note dyads in the left hand. The right hand has the melody, and the left hand accompanies or harmonizes. I found it helpful to count to myself consistently, as the right hand often enters off the beat; a short inhale before the sixteenth note passages in measures 8 and 25, for example, helped with phrasing and accuracy. On the second page of the excerpt, the right hand has ascending scales followed by descending eighth notes, and the left hand plays alberti bass. As always, I tried to see the alberti bass as chords, looking ahead as far as I could—often a measure or two. Towards the end of the second page, the right hand crosses over the left hand several times, the left hand maintaining the alberti bass.
Halfway through the third page, the development begins with the second theme. The left hand now has even eighth notes, and the right hand plays two voices: the melody in the upper voice, and a middle voice which I took care to bring out.
“Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ” (BWV 639) by Johann Sebastian Bach
This is a beautiful piece in four voices, originally for organ, transcribed for piano. It is in f minor, common time, Andante. The left hand has eighth note pedal tones; though score has little articulation marked, I played the bass notes portato, with slight separation. The bass is almost entirely in octaves. The right hand plays two voices; I tried to bring out the upper voice. The middle voice has sixteenth notes throughout the entire piece, which could be easy to focus on, but they should be primarily textural and not take away from the melody. The left hand has fuller chords on the second page, but the balance between voices remains the same. Rhythmically the piece is very repetitive—the harmonic progressions are what make this piece so beautiful. In fact, the rhythm may be repetitive so as not to take attention away from the harmonies.
The bass part is simple enough that I was able to focus on brining out the melody and keeping track of the accidentals in the middle voice. My eye movement was about two beats ahead of my hand. I also tried to understand the shape and direction of the big phrases, giving the music a sense of forward motion.
String Trio in E flat, K. 563 (5th movt., Trio 1) by Mozart
I sight-read several excerpts from “An Introduction to Score Playing”, by Eric Taylor. The first was an excerpt from a string trio in E-flat major, the allegretto movement, in ¾ time. I read slowly, focusing on the viola part in alto clef. The first eight measures are repeated, with the melody in the viola part, and quarter notes in the violin and cello. I played the violin and cello parts with my left hand, and the viola part in my right hand. In measure nine, the violin has the melody, and the viola and cello have the same rhythm in intervals of fifths and thirds. The viola has the melody again from measure 26 to the end; the viola and cello parts are the same as the first eight measures, and the violin has an eighth note pattern that was probably pizzicato in the original trio. The excerpt has an ABA form; the repetition was helpful. I focused on the alto clef part, and my eye movement was about a measure ahead.
String Trio in E flat, Op. 3 (4th movt.) by Beethoven
I also sight-read an excerpt from a string trio by Beethoven, also in E-flat major. This excerpt is in 2/4 time, and the tempo is adagio. Again I had to focus on the alto clef; the viola begins with sixteenth notes in an alberti bass on an E-flat major chord. The violin has the melody, and the cello has a very slow stepwise scale. At measure 11, the violin takes the sixteenth note alberti bass, and the viola and cello have the melody in thirds. In the last six measures of the excerpt, the violin has the melody again, and the viola and cello interact to form an alberti bass together (the cello plays eighth notes, and the viola syncopated sixteenth notes). As in the Mozart, there was much repetition and material that was handed back and forth between voices. The “anchoring” technique was helpful in the sixteenth note alberti bass passages in the viola and violin, as the lower note changed only every five measures. I found myself reading more horizontally than vertically, and was able to look a measure or two ahead as I sight-read.
Excerpt from “Ave Verum”, by W. A. Mozart
This is a 14 measure excerpt from Mozart’s “Ave Verum”, written for two tenors and two basses. It is in G major, common time, and the tempo is adagio. The clefs were easy to read, as both the tenors were in treble clef and both the basses in bass clef, so I was able to focus on playing exactly what was on the page, rather than grabbing for the chords. I paid close attention to the harmonic structure: the voices begin on a G major chord in the first measure, followed by an a-minor seventh chord; I noted the chromaticism in the Tenor I part. The first cadence is a half cadence on D major, the dominant key, in measure 8. The appearance of C-sharps beginning in measure 10 shows that we have modulated to the key of D major.
The rhythms were simple to read; the upper two voices have the melody and the lower two voices have a bass accompaniment that moves primarily by step. In measure 10, the basses are more active, with a quarter note passage in contrary motion with the tenors. My eye movement was about half a measure ahead, and I tried using the “anchoring” technique or noting which notes change and which notes stay the same from beat to beat and measure to measure.
From Halle Houge, October 1, 2007
I began this week’s sight reading quest with Schubert’s Quartet in B-flat Major for two violins, a viola and a cello. I glanced at the key signature, the dynamic markings, the alto clef, and I judged the distances that my hands would be reaching across. I figured this would be the biggest challenge, stretching my hands out far enough to reach all the parts. As I progressed through the piece, I found this to be true, since it was difficult to immediately judge the distance between notes and decide which fingers to use so as to be the most comfortable.
Next I looked at the vocal piece Ave Maria from the vertical score reading sheets. The key was not difficult, and after a quick glance through, I saw that the tempo was mild and the chords were kind. I realized the most difficult part of sight reading this song would be to remember to transpose the tenor part down an octave. Once again I was able to read through the music efficiently and successfully, with only a few minor setbacks when it came to mentally transposing the tenor part.
After the first vocal piece, I chose to sight read another two more, starting with the Mass in A-flat by Schubert. I scanned the piece for signs of difficulty and found then in the bass part where the voice split into two parts, but only in one measure, and I realized they were simply octaves. I also noticed the repetitive chords and so I decided to focus on the dynamics. This piece was delightful to play, because the chords were interesting and flowed together smoothly. Since the Schubert was a shorter piece, I also decided to sight read Ave Verum by Mozart as well, even though we only had to read three scores. When I first looked at the song, I realized it was composed for the male section of the choir since the parts were for tenors and basses. Therefore, I knew that I had to transpose both tenor parts down an octave, so that I played the piece in the correct register. The key was simple and the tempo was tolerable, so I began to play the piece, and found it to be rather intriguing because of the low and melodious mixture of the lower voices blending together smoothly through a clever chord progression.
The first non-score piece I looked at was Beethoven Sonata Op. 79 in G major. Even though the piece calls for a quick tempo, I decided to go slower the first time through. I noticed the scales and arpeggios and the broken chords scattered throughout the exposition and into the development. As I started the piece, I recognized the melody, and the sight reading immediately became easier since I was familiar with the music and therefore I had the slight intuition that allowed me to hear the next part of the piece before I played it. I enjoyed playing this song, and so I decided to go over it a few times until I was no longer sight reading, but now I was beginning to culture the music and concentrated on the performance rather than the notes.
Finally, I decided to play the Canzonetta, simply because it was the next piece in my binder. I scanned the music, alerted myself to the accidentals and chords, the triplets over eighth notes and the large stretches my hands would have to reach over. This piece was difficult for me because of the stretches my hand had to endure, and also because of the multiple voices I was performing with only two hands. After I ran through it the first time, I went back and played through the melody with my right hand, so that I could understand the piece in more depth. So the second time I played through it I tried to sing the melody in my head so that I could concentrate on accompanying the melody rather than pounding out my own part instead. This was very valuable for me to do, because I found myself adhering to the dynamics more successfully than I had before I played through the melody. Also, I decided that it would be better to play through the melody first before playing through the accompaniment.
From Kelvin Ying, Octobert 2, 2007
I have found my weakest sight-reading skill, namely open scores. Up to two staves, and I’m fine; three and up, and my head explodes. How would I know? This week, I looked at several small examples of open scores, and stuck in the middle was Figure 6.11, a piano reduction of what looks to be a hymn. I had no difficulties reading the many accidentals scattered throughout the score, and I believe this is because when I see more than one note on a single stave, I only have to physically name one note before I can quickly figure out how the other notes in that chord relate to that one note. The only difficulty, however slight, in Figure 6.11 is that it’s easy to forget there is no key signature, and in first measure of the second system, I was tempted to play a D-sharp. Beyond that, the chords are simple to read.
However, after that, I attempted Figure 6.14, taken from Ave Verum by Mozart. Chorale reading shouldn’t be any harder. Instead of the typical SATB, the score calls for two tenors and two basses. This means there are two treble and two bass clefs. Transposing the two treble clefs is not hard, given that they work in the same register. But I had to slow down to read the chords accurately—that is, I struggled with vertical reading. I saw that in m. 3-4, the two tenor voices clearly move in parallel motion. However, the block chords in places like m. 8-9 take me a little longer to read. It’d doesn’t help that in each of those measures, there are two voices which double on a note. Normally that should automatically eliminate a stave from my reading, but what I do I double back to check whether or not the two voices really sing the same note. Another problem I found was in m. 10, where one voice does not shift on beat 2 but the other three do. I had to separate the voic
es in my head in order to hold down Tenor II’s A while the other three move in contrary motion. It happens again in m. 11 but to a greater extent. First, Tenor I moves on beat 2, then Bass II moves on beat 3, then all voices move on beat 4. Even with the slow beat, I had a hard time keeping up with the chords. I believe that my struggle with vertical reading stems from my tendency to read notes in relation to each other, not separately, and I cannot relate notes on different staves as quickly as when they are on one stave.
