This week for Keyboard Skills, I decided to begin with Tchaikovsky’s Allegro non troppo piece. The key was simple and the rhythms precise, because of all the chord progressions through the entire piece. I realized the most difficult part of the piece would be the larger jumps found in the left hand. But other than that, the piece was mostly chords with lots of repeats, allowing for an easy glance over the music. As I played through the music, the hardest part was maintaining a steady beat and holding myself back from rushing the tempo. Also, sometimes I found the dynamics hard to obey, but that was simply because I was not paying attention to them with the detail I should have been.
Moving on through the packet of music, I decided to play the piece following Tchaikovsky. As I skimmed across the staves of Schumann’s “An Important Event”, I knew that the painfully obvious octaves would be my most difficult obstacle. Having suffered from severe tendonitis for extended periods of time, I knew that my best approach to this piece would be to take it at a less vigorous tempo, so as to concentrate on relaxing my wrists and arm muscles and take caution as to what my hand and finger posture was. I played through slowly the first time, concentration more on relaxing my wrist rather than the dynamics, which I found to be sloppy of me. So I played through the piece again, faster this time and paid close attention to the articulations of the piece.
Finishing the Schumann, I strategically avoided the next Bach piece, and went straight to “The Gypsies” by Burgmuller. I quickly took note of the key signature, the tempo, the dynamics, and the note articulations, and then proceeded to plunge into the music. This song I found very intriguing and it was easy for me to sight read, because I liked the general melodies and overall portrayal of the music. There were no outstanding problems for me to read this piece, just the simple wrong notes and sometimes fumbling fingers. Otherwise, this piece was a joy to play.
Next I thought I should try to play through the Copland again, because I find contemporary music very difficult for me to understand sometimes. I’m always baffled by the odd rhythms and syncopated beats, not to mention the sometimes bizarre accidentals and dissonant sounds. Playing through this song slowly and on my own was very beneficial to me, because it’s sometimes easier to concentrate on the music when there aren’t other pianists performing the same exact piece along with you.
Finally, I knew I had to go over a score piece, so as to help myself become more acquainted to sight reading orchestral and choral scores, which I find to be the most challenging of music to sight read. I decided to go slightly easy on myself and go over a choral selection instead of an orchestral. But I figure it is okay, because I’d like to be a choir teacher in the future, so this will be beneficial to me either way. I chose to play “Oh dear! What can the matter be?” by Kubik. I glanced at all the parts, and tried to pick out familiar chords as I progressed over the bar lines, humming the soprano part to myself as I did so. To my surprise, I recognized the melody, and immediately the song became more approachable, and even possible. So I began to muddle my way through the song, and I was able to play the piece rather well, considering my previous doubts. I was proud of myself and how I handled the four part harmony.
From Patrick Kenney, October 8, 2007
I began my sight-reading exercise this week with a score: Robert Schumann’s “Thema,” arranged by E. Burmeister. As I first examined it, I noticed that often the rhythms of different lines corresponded to each other; for the majority of the time, if one line possessed a certain rhythm, another would play that same rhythm either at the same time, or echo it later in the measure. This score was easier to read, because, well, to put it honestly, there was no tenor clef. I could just paste the two bass clefs together in my head and play that unified version. I observed the constantly occurring accidentals of E-flat and F-sharp. This piece did not pose any colossal problems, minus the semi-alternating interplay of the rhythms.
“Sonata” by Domenico Scarlatti was an enjoyable, short piece to sight-read. The rapid triplet notes did not pose a challenge, since they were merely broken chords. Timing out the trill in measure 20 threw me for a loop for some reason. I paid close attention to random accidentals such as the constant C-sharps, which brought a “key of D major” feeling into the piece. In the third measure from the end, there was an extremely awkward jump from a lower D to a higher A. What a strange interval.
I chose “Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ” for my third piece. That was a mistake. This piece is extremely challenging for a sight-reading assignment. I believe it was originally written for the organ, which would explain the huge amount of voicing. Sight-reading extremely slowly, I trudged through this piece, heeding the F-minor key signature. It was difficult to know when to switch hands for each voicing. Finding a flow was not as hard as I originally thought, though. All in all, this piece was frustratingly complex for a single run.
Hugo Wolf’s “Lebe wohl” posed a challenge as well, being in the key of G-flat major with many accidentals. Upon further inspection, however, most chords could be interpreted by the structures of the notes. This piece had very specific dynamic markings, which made it easy to “emote” in the process of playing. The marking “mfp” was interesting (we normally see “forte”). Overall, I interpreted this song as a legato, mainly quiet meditation.
My fifth and final piece was Franz Schubert’s Quartet in B-flat Major. The violin 1 and 2 parts were made easy by the realization that they were both the same note, just an octave apart. I was then able to concentrate on the viola and cello parts. Tenor clef is coming easier for me now…I just need to practice with it. Most of the beginning and the end were simply octaves for viola and cello, as well. Thankfully the tenor clef line was mostly simple gestures. I think that by successfully reading this piece without major difficulty, I proved to myself that I have improved my score reading skills immensely.
From Jessica Schallock, October 8, 2007
“Thema”, Op. 68, No. 34, Album for the Young, by Robert Schumann
This short piece in 2/4 time, written in C major but traversing many keys through frequent accidentals, provided some interesting rhythmic and harmonic challenges. I found myself tending to shift the beat backwards; the voices enter after an eighth note rest, and it was easy to lose track of the bar line. I had to count to myself to maintain a sense of where I was in each measure. I did find that the rhythms made more sense when I took the piece a bit faster.
I was not able to look far ahead, as there were frequent accidentals, but I tried to maintain a steady pulse. After reading through the piece twice, I began to understand the structure of the phrases, and also brought out the melody. Both hands are quite integrated; there is no sense of the usual “left hand accompanies, right hand plays the melody”. Because of this, I switched back and forth between horizontal and vertical reading. If I were to study and learn this piece, I would have to make a careful harmonic analysis, but for sight reading I found myself reading note by note.
Rhapsodic Essay, by John Cacavas
I really enjoyed this jazzy score; it’s not quite an open score, as it is written on three staves with no transpositions, but it did provide practice reading more than two lines. It’s not a complex piece, harmonically or rhythmically, so I was able to be more accurate than usual while score-reading. There are more notes farther apart than the two hands can possibly play; the purpose of this exercise was omission. I tended to omit the middle staff, as it was mostly doubled by the other voices. At measures 7 and 8, however, I played the middle staff with my left hand, abandoning the lowest staff briefly. I had to look far enough ahead to decide which notes to omit, but as a default I played the top and bottom staves. Also, when I saw a chord with the third or seventh in the middle line, I was careful to bring that out, lest I lose the harmonic character of the music.
Symphony VI, Op. 74, by Tchaikovsky
This excerpt from Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony provided some challenging score reading. I practiced my zigzagging eye movement, reading from the bottom of the chord to the top. Fortunately the score is simple harmonically, but I found myself struggling with the transpositions. First, I read through the excerpt, just playing whatever I could grab, at a moderately slow tempo. Then I practiced the horn parts, which transpose a perfect fifth lower than written. I noted that much of the cello part was in tenor clef, and the clarinet was in A rather than the more common B-flat.
After rehearsing several different lines together, I attempted to read through the score again, focusing on the “important parts” and identifying doubling where I could. I focused on the first violin part, as it is the easiest to read and gave me a harmonic reference. I also took care to play the double bass line, an octave lower than written; I could at least fill in harmonically based on my knowledge of these two parts.
Allegro non troppo, from Op. 40, No. 2 by Tchaikovsky
The main consideration in this piece was thinking harmonically and paying attention to accidentals. The right hand has the melody in the top voice, which must be brought out, and the remaining voices are taken with almost equal weight by both hands. Rhythmically the piece is very simple; the emphasis is on the beat, and we have almost entirely quarter notes and eighth notes.
The piece is in B-flat major, and the tempo is Allegro non troppo. There is a wide range of dynamics, beginning on piano, a crescendo to mezzo piano, back down to piano again, and then crescendo to forte in the middle of the piece. The dynamics have an arc shape; we decrescendo towards the end of the last page, and the piece concludes in the key of G minor at triple piano.
Valse Sentimentale, Op. 50, No. 13 by Franz Schubert
This playful, delightful waltz is in the key of A major; we assume a sprightly “valse” tempo, not too slow. It has an AB structure, with both parts repeated; the B part has a first and second ending. The left hand plays the accompaniment style typical of waltzes of this period: a single bass note on the downbeat of each measure, followed by two repeated chords, usually inversions. The right hand really plays two voices in this piece, and the four-eighth-note melodic pattern seems to be handed back and forth between the voices. The melody line enters on the second beat of the measure, followed by a half note chord, and a quarter note chord tied across the bar line. This gives the piece a lilting feeling as the right hand is never coordinated on the beat with the left hand. The same rhythm repeats throughout the piece.
In the B part, the key changes to C-sharp major, so we must watch out for the accidentals. It was helpful to think harmonically, noting the transition between C-sharp major back to A major.
From Bob Logan, October 8, 2007
1. Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt (Bach)
This piece relies on deep octaves in the left hand to create a somber mood. The bottom notes of the octaves are written on ledger lines that are often far below the bass clef. However, there is no need to worry about these notes – looking at the top note of the octaves is enough. To play this song, it helps to be able to reach a tenth easily. I'm guessing that this was originally written for organ.
2. Laudate Dominum (Pitoni)
For me, the most difficult thing about playing this piece was remembering to transpose the tenor line down an octave. Fortunately, this is a very slow piece, so I had plenty of time to think ahead. I scanned each chord from the top note to the bottom.
3. Hymns and Responses (Persichetti)
The primary difficulty of this piece is the number of accidentals – each measure has several of them. However, none of the chords are particularly unusual, which made sight reading easier. Also, the rhythms are simple. This piece would probably be significantly more difficult to read if it wasn't a condensed score. Seeing the notes clumped together into chords is much easier to understand than seeing them spread out over a wide vertical space.
4. Der Leiermann
The pattern of an eighth note followed by a sixteenth note and a sixteenth rest appears throughout this piece. I wish it were written as an eighth note followed by a staccato eighth note. That seems like a more conventional way of writing it, and is something I'm more used to seeing. In any case, this piece gives the performer more than enough time to look ahead. Every time the right hand drops out and the left hand has two measures with two simple chords, it's an opportunity to see what comes next and plan ahead.
5. The Gypsies (Burgmuller)
This piece has a lot of articulation written in – staccato notes, accents, and slurs that sometimes begin on the second eighth note of a measure. Obviously, it's important to pay attention to the articulation as much as possible, but reading the notes themselves should be the sight reader's first priority. The scales and occasional repeated octaves or chords in this piece create an opportunity to focus on the other hand or to look ahead.
From Kelvin Ying, October 8, 2007
One of the mediocre pieces I sight-read this week was a piece from Schumann’s Album for the Young, “Thema,” Op. 68, No. 34. I had access to two different editions: a piano reduction of four parts, and an open score. As I found out last week, sight-reading on two staves or less is exponentially easier for me than reading three or more in the form of an open score. This held true this week as well. I found the piano reduction relatively simple to read through, whereupon the score presented some problems. Luckily, the rhythms are not overly difficult, and the four voices generally move in pairs and emphasize the same beats. I had trouble, though, reading accidentals along with moving lines, like in the first measure. I had to pause to read the chord on the second beat, composed of an F-sharp, E-flat, A, and C, after playing the second half of the first beat. This recurred throughout the entire piece, but soon, I caught a pattern in how each voice tended to move, and this aided my reading. What also helped was the fact that the score was written with two treble clefs and two bass clefs, essentially splitting both staves from the piano reduction. Finally, when reading this, I had to watch out for tied notes while playing dotted rhythms, such as where ms. 1 leads into ms. 2. Voices 2 and 4 play a dotted rhythm while voice 3 holds a G. But overall, this wasn’t too difficult.
By far the hardest piece was the Rachmaninoff Prelude Op. 23, No. 4. To start, the left hand pattern established in ms. 1 is widespread and jumpy, thus making accuracy difficult. Once the right hand enters in ms. 3, the left hand switches and incorporates both rests and chords. The combination of a drawn-out right hand melody and a scattered left hand bass made it difficult for me to both look at the music and ensure that my hands were playing the correct notes. It gets worse on the second page when the left hand switches to eighth notes against triplets in the right hand. Right away, the right hand plays a low chord, then jumps to play higher triplet lines, and the left hand is still playing scattered notes. Often times I found myself so busy trying to read changes in one hand that I’d completely miss the other. Case and point, in the third measure on the second page, I noticed that the right hand’s downbeat chord changed, so I focused on getting that right. However, the change in the left hand arpeggio went completely unnoticed until it was too late. In general, the problem with this piece was the massive spread of notes in both hands, making accuracy difficult.
