To begin, I sight read the Etude by Rubenstein this week. I did not try to play it up to speed immediately, simply because there were so many notes flying around in-between hands, and I wanted to concentrate on accuracy and dynamics rather than speed and agility. It was a rather difficult piece for me to sight read. I’m not sure if it was because of the accidentals and extravagant stretches that the hands had to reach, or if it was simply that the amount of notes was daunting to me. Either way, I muddled through the piece, and found that I rather enjoyed the melody and the playing became slightly more bearable, if not even a little bit easier. Since it was such a long piece, I decided to count it as two entries, because I didn’t have time to play through the entire work at one time. So then next time I went to practice, I brought it with me again and played the last half, and some more of the beginning again. It’s a lovely piece, and I hope to play more of Rubenstein in the future.
Next, I played the second etude in the packet by Czerny, I believe. (It was in Russian, so I’m not sure I read the name right.) This was a challenging etude because of the extended chords throughout the inner voices and the melodies in the bass and soprano were hard to accentuate. Plus, the key signature was crazy and the accidentals were frequent. I attempted to play through the piece once all the way through, and it was slow going, but I managed to here the soprano part almost all of the time. It was difficult to shape the melody, however while the left hand was holding out bass notes and plunking out chords for the most part. To make it a little easier for myself, I decided to play the melodies in both the bass and soprano alone so that I could hear their contours and understand what they were trying to sing, so that I could accentuate the parts while playing them with the other voices. I found that this helped immensely, and I frequently use this method in my own practicing.
Afterwards, I did a chunk of the Toccata. This piece reminded me of sections in Beethoven’s Thirty-two Variations where the chords are broken and repeated once or thrice before transitioning to the next chord. Then once both hands began their runs, I was fumbling all over the keyboard, struggling to make heads or tails of the piece. I had to dramatically slow down and concentrate on playing the correct notes and using the right fingers so that I didn’t run out of them. This is an extremely challenging piece to play, and I found it very difficult. I think with more practice I would be better at it, but for the most part, I went through it very slowly and tried to listen for the large crescendos and melodies that both hands eventually played out. I also looked at the chord progressions, which helped to give me a sense of direction for the piece.
Since I had the opportunity to sight read some of my own music, I chose to look through some of my Cramer Etudes in order to practice my sight reading skills. My old piano teacher used to have me practice these pieces so as to improve some part of my studies in technicality. Cramer uses his Etudes to help practice a certain aspect of music, such as scales, or arpeggios, or triplets over eighth notes, or even octaves for example. I decided to play through some of the ones I had never gotten to, including some in the middle with arpeggios. By looking over the piece first, I was able to recognize the chords that the arpeggios outlined and it made my practicing easier. I played through three different etudes, concentrating on my sound. Since Cramer is familiar to me, I spent more time focusing on being musical rather than worrying about hitting all the right notes. Instead I followed melodies. I enjoyed pulling out this old book of music, and I hope the opportunity comes around again in the future. I’m glad to say that I can always fall back on Cramer when I’m practicing a specific technique.
From Patrick, November 12, 2007
The first song I looked at this week was the Rubinstein Etude. Upon first glance, I was shocked—it looked extremely complicated! Once I began to read, however, I realized that what appeared to be countless notes were either simply repeated over and over again, or chord patterns repeated downward or upward. This made the reading much easier. The other line was a simple melody. I had to make sure the more “complicated” line didn’t overpower the actual melody.
The second piece I chose was the Toccata by Czerny. Like the Rubinstein Etude, this piece consisted of a lot of repetition. Once I understood the basic pattern of the song, I could play it much easier. The accidentals (sharps especially) came out of nowhere, but once I realized what chord it helped form, everything fit into place. I also made sure to crescendo and decrescendo to form forward motion. The longer stretches were the easiest by far.
My third piece was an accompaniment—“As My Dear Old Mother” by Dvorak. I found the underlying rhythm to be the same throughout the piece. I paid close attention to the grace notes, which added a nice flavor to the accompaniment. There are dramatic crescendos and decrescendos that I made sure to bring out. I also heeded the “morendo” at the end, and made the accompaniment slowly die away.
My fourth piece was “Postludium” by Erno von Dohnanyi. The repeating left hand pattern had some interesting fingerings involved. I ended up playing the top notes with my right hand. This strategy, although challenging at times, proved to be effective. Although the song was technically in C, there were many accidentals to change the theoretical key. Once I looked at the piece as a whole, I saw the gradual chord progression.
My final piece was “Sonatine, Opus 79.” This was a fairly simple piece. Its structure was similar to many other sonatas I have played, which gave me a good general feel to model my playing after. There was almost constantly a flowing line, whether in the right or left hand. My new scale fingerings were put to good use at these points. The staccato articulations added a needed excitement to the song. This song was a nice, fun read, with a lot of melodic potential.
From Jessica, November 12, 2007
Etude, Op. 2 No. 1
This andante etude modulates through several keys, beginning in c-sharp minor, moving to b-flat minor, into A-flat major, and back to c-sharp minor again. The texture consists of five voices, the uppermost of which usually has the melody. The lower two voices are primarily repeated eighth note chords, forming pedal tones and defining the harmony. The upper voices appear to be chords as well, but the melody must be brought out in the top voice in the right hand. The rhythms are simple, and the left hand provides a steady pulse. The right hand plays repeated eighth notes with the left hand, but the melody features a dotted-eighth and sixteenth note figure against the eighths, and occasionally eighth note triplets in a brief two-against-three rhythm. Harmonically this etude is not difficult to read, as there are few accidentals; I did have to pay attention to the key changes, however.
Toccata, by Czerny
This toccata begins in C major and moves through several keys by the use of accidentals. It features alternating sixteenth note chords, primarily in the right hand, though there is approximately equal emphasis on both hands. The fingering is crucial, especially in the right hand, and there is much chromaticiscm. Perhaps the easiest sections to read were the scales of two-note slurred dyads in both hands, moving in contrary motion. I had to sight-read this piece very slowly, and I tried to accurately play every note. The rhythm is almost exclusively sixteenth notes in both hands, with occasional chords in the left hand.
Etude, Op. 23 No 1
This etude strengthens the fingering 4-5-4-3-2-1 in the right hand and 2-1-2-3-4-5 in the left hand, with a fast repeated sixteenth note figure. The sixteenth note figure switches between sextuplets and quintuplets. The other hand plays a simple melody, doubled in octaves. This texture and balance between the hands remains the same for the first several pages, though sometimes the two hands share an accelerating arpeggio that lasts one measure. The melody was easy to read, but there were frequent accidentals and chromatic scales in the sixteenth note figure.
In the middle of the etude, there is much greater interaction between the hands; first they share the sixteenth note figure, then the right hand continues with the sixteenth notes while the left hand plays triplets. Then the right hand has 32nd notes against groups of four sixteenth notes in the left hand, accelerating into a series of chords in the left hand and large chromatic gestures in the right hand. The texture from the beginning returns, until both hands play in unison to the end.
Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs, by Bela Bartok (7-15: Old Dance Tunes)
These songs are all variations; I sight-read all of them, but 7-15 (subtitled “Old Dance Tunes”) are quite similar. They all have a similar texture of left hand accompaniment and right hand melody (though left hand and right hand trade off in variation 7). The articulation and tempo change more from variation to variation than texture, in which the melody is a steady dance rhythm of eighth notes with lots of leaps in the accompaniment. Harmonically they are quite easy to read, with keys in major and minor from A minor to E-flat major. The 15 variations contain a wide range of tempos, but 7-15 are lively allegro or allegretto, with the slowest being variation 11 (assai moderato). I played most of the faster variations without much rubato—except for variation 12 and 13, which are very free, almost flirtatious.
Praeludium IV, Book I, in c-sharp minor, J.S. Bach
This slow Praeludium is in 6/4 time, with three voices and lots of sustained dotted half notes. It is very contrapuntal, with a recurring theme of six eight notes followed by a dotted quarter, eighth, and quarter, handed back and forth between the right hand and left hand. There were many accidentals, but the tempo was slow enough that I could focus on accuracy. Rhythmically the voices fit together well, and I felt the 6/4 meter as three groups of two eighth notes per measure. It was difficult not to let it drag, and I tried to maintain a sense of forward motion without plodding along, always aware of where the phrases were heading.
From Kelvin, November 12, 2007
The first hurdle in reading any piece of music, such as the Rachmaninoff Prelude Op. 23, No. 1, or a Toccata by Czerny is not freaking out upon seeing all the ink on the page. The second hurdle is figuring out how that black fits together. The Rachmaninoff Prelude is fairly straightforward, at least for the first few pages. There are two basic figures: a falling six-note figure in sextuplet sixteenths, and a melody in half notes and quarter notes consisting of octaves and chords. The figure begins in the right hand and fits well with the hand, and the left hand opening isn’t difficult. The accidentals beginning in ms. 7 begin to slow reading, but the music grows truly difficult in ms. 9, where the sextuplet figure moves to the left hand. Unlike the right hand, the left hand seems to be unable to play the same figure with a similar fingering, but there is no other alternative to playing the figure 2-1-2-3-4-5. At the bottom of the second page, the figure changes to a five-tuplet, which is much friendlier for the left hand in terms of fingering. I found that my fingering changed based on the interval between the last two notes. Later in the piece, when the hands switch between which one has the fast figure and which one plays the chords, it is vital to read the figure in one hand as a continuation of the previous one.
Even more so than the Rachmaninoff Prelude, the Czerny Toccata was just plan scary. Seeing what are essentially double note trills across the page is enough to scare me a little. What does make reading the piece easier is the fact that the sixteenth notes continue in both hands throughout much of the piece, and so there is less of a need to read the hands individually. It is important to read each trill ahead of time so you know how to shape your hand. For instance, in ms. 2, the first trill is between E-C and C-G, and the second trill is between D-B and G-D. If you finger the first trill as 5-2 and 3-1, you would have a rather uncomfortable position for the second trill. So you need to prepare a change in your hand’s shape for the second trill so you can finger it as 4-1 and 5-2. Otherwise, the standard difficulties of accidentals and note accuracy are prominent in this piece, and to read the moving double note lines with accidentals is very tricky.
From Bob, November 12, 2007
Etude op. 23 no. 1
The first time I tried playing this, I took it way too fast and it fell apart somewhere in the second line. So I started it over at a slower tempo and tried to look ahead more. This, of course, made it much easier. The hardest parts of the piece for me were the sections where the left hand had uncomfortable patterns, and where there are a lot of ledger lines (5 at one point). Playing the polyrhythms (such as 3 against 10) was hard at such a slow speed, but I found that it helped to pay more attention to the hand with fewer notes, and just let the other hand flow.
Toccata (Czerny)
Although this must be a pretty hard song to play correctly at the indicated tempo, it's not especially difficult to sight read because it uses so many repeated patterns. I found myself looking anywhere from 2 to 6 beats ahead, depending on how frequent the chord changes were. Figuring out the fingering was definitely the hardest part. On some of the more chromatic parts, it wasn't obvious from the notes alone what fingering would work best, so I had to look at the fingerings that were already written in whenever I had the chance. Thinking back to previous sight reading journals, I think this is the first time I paid a lot of attention to the fingerings written in the score when sight reading. You have to concentrate a little more and it makes it harder to look ahead.
Piano Concerto in A Minor, Second Movement (Grieg)
I've always liked this movement at least as much as the first one, so I decided to try it. This song is in D-flat major, and shortly after the piano comes in, there is a section that sounds as if it is in E major. However, Grieg simply wrote it in F and added flats as necessary, writing in the key of "F-flat major" rather than suddenly switching to sharps. This made for interesting sight reading. As I played through that section, I kept in mind that most of (if not all) the notes would belong to the E major scale. In some places near the end, I threw in a little of the orchestra part to make it sound more complete (there are places where both hands play in a high register, and Grieg uses the orchestra to fill out the sound).
Warrior's Song (Stephen Heller)
This song is characterized by powerful chords and sharp dotted rhythms. The lower staff switches frequently between treble and bass clef, so I had to pay more attention to it than the upper staff. The chords were mostly simple, so I looked at the general shape and register of each chord rather than the individual notes.
Invention no. 2 (Bach)
Baroque music (particularly Bach's) is often harder to sight read than Romantic or Classical music because in general, it uses more counterpoint and relies less on repetitive accompaniment patterns. Although I did okay with reading the notes in this song, I didn't feel like I was actually understanding it as I played through it – it's hard to listen to the melody being passed between voices or developed when reading through something for the first time. I imagine that this will become easier as I sight read more Baroque music.
