Want to write a fugue?

So you want to write a fugue?

Glenn Gould once wrote a brilliant spoof on the 'cleverness' and 'nerves' needed to write a fugue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2JFgfc7c70

Constanze Mozart

And you can imagine in the Mozart household, 'frau Mozart' - venting her frustration about the merit of Mozart's (economical) skills - whilst a vase was finding its way through the air towards 'herr Mozart's head: 


"Why don't you ever write a fugue?"


It was such a baroque thing in those days! 


But Mozart finally did in his Requiem, although the end result frightfully resembled Bach's Well Tempered Clavier!

Bach's WTC II a minor fugue

Beethoven though did have the cleverness and the nerves to write fugues. And made the form classical and his own!


Apart from his 2nd piano concerto, which he really wrote before his first, in his Piano Sonatas already in no. 6 he will start using fugal forms and there is nothing baroque-ish about them! 

Opening 3rd movement Opus 10.2

Beware the tempo though and it is good to consider that this Sonata is a tribute to Joseph Haydn and his 2/4 is really to be thought as 4 8's and not in two! There is hence no need to emulate the dazzling speed chosen by most modern pianists, although it seems to be part of the fun! Let it settle over the years! In typical Beethoven manner this final movement is also in Sonata Form and hence is NO  rondo!

Opus 10.2 opening.

The first movement likewise is in 2/4 and in typical Joseph Haydn style, watch those little motives so typical of Haydn. Beethoven has stepped down to the level of the general piano player of his days and he will have that player in mind for the foreseeable future. The sonata also has only three movements instead of four, which seemed to have suited Beethoven's desire to please the publishers.  


The second movement is Minuet and Trio, but really Scherzo and Trio and like the first movement shouts Joseph Haydn all over! But as a tribute, not as an imitation of Haydn's music!


Beethoven must have been in a really jolly mood when he started his final movement! But the fugue as form will stay with him and especially in his final period will elevate his music to a level which stands on its own, transcended above any musical style, also without any consideration of a the ability of the pianists to play them...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K9dHNH1Wps  


Barenboim plays the second movement with great drama and then the fugue... starting at 4.14. Don't try that at home! Even he at 5:23 looses a bit of control, well.. hardly!

Grand Sonata

Opus 7

Eb major or C minor is Beethoven's favourite key for sure. Composers do certain things in certain keys and the texture of a work in a certain key often is elaborated upon in later works in the same key. 


Study of the Sonatas, which have 3 flats is an enlightening enterprise in itself. 7 out of the 32 sonatas use that key signature and you can follow the development. Beethoven final sonata will be in C-minor and..... refer back to the Pathetique.


Opus 7 is his fourth Sonata and is a grand sonata. After this sonata Beethoven, during a long period, will scale down the length of his sonatas. Beethoven probably realised it is one thing to write grand sonatas for the piano, but it is another thing for the general public to be able to play them!

Opening Opus 7

The opening of this sonata will be elaborated upon in the famous Pathetique Sonata (no. 8), which also claws back material from sonata no. 5 also in C minor. 

Pathetique

Pathetique final mvnt

Opus 10 Middle Mvnt

Beethoven then keeps building on what he has done in previous sonatas en continues to refer to material already used. That is nothing unusual. That is how composers develop and how you can see that a work is written by a certain composer. 

J.B. Lully Royal Music-standard Enforcer

But in Beethoven's art it goes well beyond what composers do in the baroque period, namely writing the same music again and again. 


Handel is a notorious example. 


Or for instance Jean Baptiste Lully, who at the age of 18 concluded he now had mastered the art and knew it all. And put himself at the head of the Royal controlled art establishment to inspire other composers to do likewise...


Nothing like that in Beethoven's art. Beethoven continues to develop and explore what more can be done with the same material.

Opus 7 mvnt 2

The second movement is absolutely divine and one of my favourites. The long lines and long pauses give it so much momentum that it captivates the listener. "Ah", said the lady sitting next to me in the concert hall, whom I had never met, after listening to this movement. "This is so much better than sex". 


Further down Beethoven will give his staccato left hand above which the right hand plays a beautiful line in legato. An effect he will use very often in his later sonatas. 

Then follows the minuet and trio of which really the trio is remarkable. Presented in Eb minor (6 flats) it is truely captivating. When you hear it the first time, you will stop with what you are doing and drop your pencil in amazement. 


The final movement is Beethoven's first attempt to write a rondo. A real rondo that is, not a sonata form movement. And the simplicity of the form is just not for him! The B-sections deviate into variations and at the end Beethoven does something, which (thank God!) he will never ever do again. 

The Lloyd Webber modulation!

That is: you end in a certain key: just move up a semi-tone and repeat the whole thing a semitone higher. Andrew Lloyd Webber does it all the time, and he should be forgiven, you can't expect BritPop to know about modulation! 


But at least we can say, indeed Beethoven has done it all and isn't it cute he has done one thing in his youth he probably has regretted for the rest of his life?!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqJaLbbDXD4

Barenboim youtube recording stops exactly at the point of above mentioned modulation! Couldn't stand it either?....


But this little experiment by Beethoven, quickly forsaken, has made Lloyd Webber into the wealthy man he now is (apart from using a lot of out of copyright classical themes)...

Learning Curve

Learning Curve 

Apart from the works by J.S. Bach the full cycle of Sonatas by Beethoven is one of the most enlightening paths in understanding the structure and process of composition. 

At least - you may say - for the style of Music they stand for, because every style of Music defines its own rules. 

Joseph Haydn

It is a miracle for instance that the first Piano Sonata Mozart wrote has such a mature Sonata form. Written around 1774 it raises some questions. Apart from the fact that this keyboard virtuoso started writing Piano Sonatas so late Haydn, who one has to admit created the foundation for the Sonata Form ,  only after much experimentation became satisfied with the model for the Keyboard Sonata around 1790. 

But Beethoven's Sonatas form one solid path in the development of his art. And when you go through them all, you will discover that Beethoven has done it all. For that reason there is no composer who has done so much for the place of the piano in modern music as Beethoven has done. His Piano sonatas are symphonies and in some odd instances concertos. 

Young Beethoven

At the age of 18 he wrote his first set Opus 2 no. 1,2 and 3. It was a tribute to the fact that he understood the intentions of Joseph Haydn very well. Haydn's music shines through in many Sonata movements, especially when Beethoven writes in 2/4 and this Opus 2 set was dedicated to Joseph Haydn.  

The first of the set no.1 in F major is still my favorite and is of the purest Sonata form ever. It is not otherwise possible for a 'first'. But even there in his last movement Beethoven sets himself apart. He has a free spirit. Normally the last movement in a Sonata - as model created by Joseph Haydn -  is supposed to be a light-hearted lively Rondo, with simple form A B A C A etc.... Right from the start it becomes apparant that he doesn't like Rondos in this form. Beethoven can't handle it and the first Rondo of this type will appear in the Pathetique's last movement. By all means that was Beethoven 8th Sonata! 

Hence Beethoven will write a lively movement as final for Opus 2 no. 1 allright, but it is dramatic, it's in Sonata form and actually a mini Sonata in itself. The development section namely is very cleverly reworked into a slow section! 

Likewise his Opus 2 no. 3 was the foundation for Beethoven's Piano Concertos. Remains Opus 2 no. 2. One of the hardest Sonatas by Beethoven I find. A grand Sonata at that, surely intended to bring a piano Sonata up to the level of a Symphony. 

With Opus 2 then Beethoven has set his style for his entire life and that includes his final period. 

Beethoven will continue to build on what he did in Opus 2 and this we are going to explore in following blogs on this topic.

Two very different interpretations to listen to:
Glenn Gould, Sonata F-minor 1-3

Barenboim Sonata no. 1 F minor 1-2

'At home everything went so well'...

'AT HOME EVERYTHING GOES SO WELL'

Every teacher is familiar with the announcement of the student:

"At home it went so very well".

Apart from the fact that there is really no need for the student to proof anything during a lesson, and that a lesson is also there to set good practise standards and for that reason is practise, I recently ran into a very good explanation of this experience.

Researchers at a University discovered that people tend to forget what they are doing, when they walk into a different room. Entering a different room, the brain seems to allocate and address a different and new part of the brain and for that reason we often forget what we were doing or leaving the previous room for. And hence we have to rethink what was the reason for going into a different room.

Our brain hence, is very much at ease in our practise room at home, and we can reconstruct the things we were practising with ease, but going into the lesson room our brain has to adjust and we have to 'retrain' to some extent what we have practised.

It is therefore a good idea to start the lesson with a practise attitude in mind and less so a performance attitude. Gradually make yourselves comfortable in your lesson environment and you will more easily remember and focus on what you have learned when you were practising during the week.

It is for this reason also a good idea whenever you have a performance to have a rehearsal session in the room, on the stage where you will be performing.

When a couple of years ago the students of a primary school were having a show in the local town hall in the evening, there was one little boy, who in the afternoon walked into the hall, soaked up the atmosphere of the room and got used to the idea that he would be playing there that evening. It was this boy who that evening performed with the most confidence and won the first prize that evening...

In Support of Art

IN SUPPORT OF ART

 

Over the course of nine years of living and working in New Zealand, Art Zegelaar has carved out a nice little niche for himself. His one-man piano-teaching business is flourishing, to the extent that his modest school now boasts a waiting list of potential pupils keen to avail themselves of his services.

The usual measure of a good businessman is the burgeoning of his balance-sheets. By this criterion, Art is not a good businessman, but that’s only because financial gain is far from being his top priority. Art sees what he does as a vocation. Above all else, Art cares – he cares about his students and he cares about Whangarei’s classical musical culture.

 

Art is a not only a dedicated and imaginative teacher, but also an enthusiast, brimming with ideas and possessing the wherewithal to bring these ideas to fruition. His students benefit not just from his teaching, but also from his constant efforts to keep costs within the reach of as many people as possible. On the one hand his fees are more reasonable than most, whilst on the other a goodly proportion of the profits of his “extracurricular adventures” go straight into the pot labelled “Money to Help My Students Pay Their Examination Fees.”

 

An Example

 

A fine example of Art’s extracurricular adventures was his “Beethoven Project”. In 2009, he started a series of lunchtime concerts (proceeds to the aforementioned pot) featuring Beethoven’s piano sonatas. On 16 December 2010, which just happened to be the composer's 240th. birthday, Art finished what turned out to be, to the best of my knowledge, a unique Beethoven piano sonata cycle.

 

Top-flight pianists seem to churn out live and recorded Beethoven cycles like there was no tomorrow. These are all, of course, polished to perfection long before they're allowed anywhere near our ears. However, the unassuming Art boldly went to the opposite extreme. This skilful but otherwise relatively "ordinary" pianist performed this supreme pinnacle of the piano repertoire almost in its entirety – not as a finished product but, remarkably, as "work in progress". If there were any nagging reservations regarding "washing dirty linen in public", these were soon dried out by the unfolding of this ingenious idea.

 

Eavesdropping on Art was a revelatory and ultimately very moving experience. The slick virtuoso, by definition, can show only what comes out, whereas Art, crucially, showed what goes in. Having spent 50 years of my life, off and on, gaining an appreciation of Beethoven's art, in that 15 months I came to appreciate Art's Beethoven!

 

However, it didn’t end there. At the final concert someone remarked on certain dance-like qualities in the sonatas, even going so far as to declare that “Beethoven is Dance”. A minute or two later, Art was asking, “Why don’t we put it to the test?” He took the idea to Alys Hughes and her amateur group, Dance Inc. Northland, and only a couple of months later, at the Capitaine Bougainville Theatre, they staged “Beethoven Dance”.

 

A good experiment doesn’t succeed or fail, but provides new knowledge to guide further progress. The choreographers, both in responding to Art’s question and in picking up Beethoven’s gauntlet, pushed their brave young dancers right out to the edge – which is exactly how it should be. The Beethoven Project was a good experiment, even unto exemplifying the “knowledge/progress” aspect, and exactly the sort of thing that does the culture of a provincial town a power of good.

 

What’s Really Important?

 

Sadly, though, Art’s current lunchtime series, of piano preludes by Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninov and Shostakovich – again presented as “work in progress” – has been rudely interrupted: Art’s work permit has not been renewed and he is therefore required to depart New Zealand’s shores.

 

Earlier, he had tried to obtain residence through INZ’s Arts and Sports Category, but this had been turned down, apparently because he is not important enough. I am forced to wonder: what is meant by “important”? The rules talk about exceptional talent and international reputation, though arguably, particularly in the field of classical music, the latter implies the former. So, am I to conclude that “importance” equates only to the applicant’s international celebrity? It rather looks like it!

 

If this is the case, then it has to be conceded that people like Art are every bit as important. For, without them to nurture budding talent, the high-profile professors would be starved of their influx of students, and NZ’s opportunities for basking in the direct glory of home-grown talent would subsequently nosedive.

 

“Importance” is thus not limited to those with celebrity status, but should extend to those who are (for want of a better word) useful in supporting the emergence of NZ’s own international celebrities. Such people are useful in terms of the benefits they bring to individuals, to communities, and indeed to the nation as a whole.

 

The other main path to residency is for those who immigrate to fill skills shortages. Art also loses out here, simply because such as “piano teachers” and “lively contributors to local culture” don’t appear on the lists.  But, don’t his full books and waiting list, as well as testifying to his exceptional talents, suggest that there actually is a shortage of people with his skills? 

 

The “bottom line” is that there is more than enough reason for INZ to be actively seeking a way of keeping Art here – simply to send him packing, as dictated by the rigid rulebook, seems plain daft; it smacks of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.

 

Paul Serotsky Classical Music Reviewer for Northern Advocate and Seen and Heard International.

 

Pedalling

The Art of Pedalling

In teaching the techniques of pedalling are often getting not enough attention. And yet for a fully expressive performance the way the sustaining pedal is used can do so much to enhance the performance. 

The sustaining pedal does so much more than just delaying the damper to stop the sound of the strings. It puts every expressive intention of the music to the forefront and the attention of the audience, which by the way includes the performer, because you are always the listener of your own performance. 

You please yourselves...


A piano has two or three pedals. The pedal on the right side is the sustaining pedal, the left one is the 'una corda' pedal and the middle one is either a study pedal or a more advanced type of sustaining pedal. 


The 'una corda' pedal - if you have a higher range of piano, shifts the keyboard a centimeter or so to the right and instead of three strings you will only strike one string, which gives a softer sound. 


I use it rarely, because I like to achieve the dynamics with my hands, but the 'una corda' string does change the character of the sound - often drastically - which by the way is the real reason I don't want to use it for dynamics reasons solely.

But sometimes that is exactly what I want. For instance in music by Prokoviev, it often is very effective to change the character of the sound for a few bars and then I will use that pedal.


The sustained pedal on the right side is what we are dealing with today. You place your foot in the same direction as the pedal with your heel on the floor. Do put a shoe on, if you are not wearing any, and place your foot in such a way that the toes of are above the end of the pedal.


This way the angle your foot uses to press and release the pedal is the smallest. Take good care, when you release the pedal, to not take your foot off the pedal, because in that case you will generate all sorts of side noises, which you don't want. 


All pedal marks in published music are only the basics and in fact you want and have to do a lot more with the sustained pedal to use it to create the effect you desire.


The basic way is to pedal each chord span - often a whole or halve a bar - by pressing the pedal immediately after striking the first note and upon the first note of the next chord span quickly releasing and pressing the pedal again. Take care not to release any keys, before the pedal is down again. The difficulty the student has to master is the fact that when the key stroke goes done the foot goes up, hence hand and foot go in the opposite direction.


To create a 'portato' effect hand and foot actually go in the same direction albeit sometimes the foot stays on the pedal a bit longer as the hands do, which play staccato.


A good example to practise these two types of pedalling is 'Reverie' by Claude Debussy. In the second halve of the the piece exactly this 'portato' effect is called for. But further this music by Debussy is still in his early 'classical-romantic' period, which doesn't call for the advanced techniques of pedalling you can use in his later piano music. 

Now we are talking Debussy anyway: There is an exiting prelude 'la cathedrale engloutie', where the performer can just put the pedal down and extend it until the end of a section. Normally such behaviour is strictly a 'nono', but here it can be done to great effect....


Chopin is an example of Music, where the sustained pedal is usually provided for in the published music. But mostly it is very basic and the performer should do really a lot more to be able to communicate Chopin's music well. His waltzes are an excellent vehicle to get the student going here. 


A different way of pedalling different sections in a Waltz, will create a contrast between the sections and underline the musical intention of that section. 


For instance Waltz number 4 in F minor has four different blocks of music. The opening is vibrant and uplifting. Really, the performer does not feel bars of three beats, but groups of four bars. The pedalling in this first block is basic, clearing the pedal on the first beat and sustaining until the next first beat. 


The second block though requires a lot more thought regarding pedalling: The pedal is released on the third beat every other bar, providing for a third beat without sustained notes.

In the third section with the grace notes and staccato chords it is best to not use any pedal at all. 


Very often you will see that Chopin uses, as in his Mazurkas and Polonaises, a quaver (eighth note) with a semiquaver (16th note) rest and a semiquaver note. It would be a lost opportunity to underline Chopin's intention here, but just having the whole lot under one pedal. Rests are music and want to be played and the way you pedal things here  is part of the performance of this music...


to be continued.....

Texture

Texture

Apparently Music has an unlimited scope for melodic and harmonic combinations, yet people wonder how it is possible that we can think of an endless stream of new songs without it ever getting to the bottom of the barrel and we have to conclude 'we have done it all'!


Even in this respect the endless stream of (popular) song is based on a very limited scope of chords I IV V with no end to the inspiration. Of course here we may naughtily apply an observation made by Leonard Bernstein: 


"The British don't like Music, but they do like the noise". 


We may be forced to correct this observation somewhat though. The British exceedingly do like Music, but they like the money stream and the scope for social aspects attached to it even more...


Style of Music is always a response to what has been before. When the busy texture of Baroque, like its architecture, had become a burden, the simplicity and contrast of the Classical Style set in. 


But according to Robert Schumann, there was no Classical Style, only a Romantic style, which was almost by divine decree entrusted to him for further development, if only its Form could be preserved.


This focus on 'Form' by Robert Schumann and his 'league of David', became the platform for the progressives lead by Franz Liszt and Wagner to set themselves off against by dropping 'Form' altogether. For Robert Schumann of course this was only so because Franz Liszt had never matured as a composer to the level as he had as a performer. 


The French school again found an entirely new harmonic platform and since they also were not so good at 'Form' they invented simplicity. 


All this was leading to the Music of the 20th Century, which we will look at later. 


Texture  is the way the various melodic elements or instruments in a piece of music relate to each other and interact. It is quite distinct from the harmonic or rhythmic concepts of a piece of music. Once we understand that we can see why the scope for Musical composition is so unlimited.


Let us look at two entirely different pieces of Music.


The opening movement Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Rachmaninov's Prelude Opus 3.


Both are written for the Piano. Both are in c# minor. 


You may say: "Well, that's about it, the music is entirely different!" But is that so?

What does Beethoven do here? He is setting the key of C# minor in a full chord progression  of I VI IV V I. (He, BritPop are you listening?)


Now, let's have a look at Rachmaninov's prelude...


 
What is Rachmaninov doing first? He is setting the key of C# minor in bass line imitating 'the Bells of Moscow" using VI (IVb) V I.


The structure, the idea and the intention is the same, yet the texture is entirely different resulting in an entire different character and style of the Music. 


Ok, that's just for starters you'll say. That's the beginning!


Let us explore further. Both the Moonlight Sonata and the Prelude by Rachmaninov present after the first introduction of the key the main theme of the piece. And after they have done that both change the tonal center of the music to.... E major. 


Then admittedly Rachmaninov moves to G#, which is the dominant of C#, whilst Beethoven uses a much longer route to get there, through B and F# minor. Then Rachmaninov's Agitato section before taking up the original idea in an exciting climax is much more substantial and meaningful as is Beethoven's middle section. But then you can do so much with basically an identical structure!