Group 3
Improve your listening and playing of polyphony - the art of weaving simultaneous independent musical lines.
By focusing on polyphony you will also achieve a new understanding of voicing and phrasing. While you鈥檙e at it, you will also gain a new appreciation for the beauty and sophistication of the music of J.S. Bach. Magdalena will help guide your discovery and answer questions along the way.
BYOB - Bring your own Bach. This challenge does not rely on specific repertoire, so feel free to pick any Bach piece that best suits your current abilities.
Choose your challenge. During the two weeks, you will be able to adjust the number of exercises you wish to submit.
Pianists of all levels are welcome. You may choose how much of the piece you would like to work on. It can be a phrase or a page.
Course Details:
WEEK ONE:
Goal: Playing the upper part (soprano) independently
Submission 1
- Practice and record the upper part in slow tempo. Think of a tempo beforehand, and give yourself an empty measure before you begin
- To make it more manageable, you may divide the piece into sections and submit a short fragment each day
- Skip the ornaments for now
- Sometimes voices cross. When in doubt, follow the directions of note stems
- Be aware that sometimes the particular voice/part moves between hands
- Submit the recording of just the upper part (with the count-in)
Submission 2
Now that you have recorded one part, sing along with the recording (the same melody, on La La La, or, if you are comfortable enough, you may use solf猫ge)
- pay attention to how your own voice deals with leaps, and the changes of direction in the melody
- When you are holding a long note, make sure to take a big breath beforehand. The goal is to physically experience the phrase
- You don鈥檛 need to have a trained voice - just do your best to approximate the pitches you are playing
- This part may also be submitted in smaller increments
- If you do not have an extra device, just submit a recording of you playing the upper part and sing along with it.
Submission 3 (optional)
Play the recording of the upper part and try to play the lowest part along with it. What are your questions/observations?
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WEEK TWO Assignment:
Playing the lowest part (bass) independently
Perform the same drill as in Week 1, this time with the lowest voice. If your piece has three or more parts, choose the bass (stems going down).
Send in submission 1 and 2 (submission 3 is optional), the same way you did last week, using the prompts above.
FINAL PROJECT
When you are ready, play both parts in a slow tempo, keeping in mind all the discoveries you have made. Record and submit. What did you learn? Share how this progressive exercise has impacted your hearing of multiple voices simultaneously.
- Sign-Up : Thursday, December 1st, 10 am PST
- Course Period: December 5 - 19
- Class Size: max. 4 Groups 谩 10 Participants
- Optional check-In via Zoom: December 13th at 2:15pm
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84980265481?pwd=NUVRVkRyS3hjSmtsNjd3azRUUDF4UT09
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Hi Magdalena, Dominic, and Group 3 friends,
Looking forward to practising some Bach with everyone. I am currently obsessing about inventions, so will likely pick one I haven't learnt yet for this intensive, or some other Bach piece.
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Hello everyone!
It's quite the privilege to have the opportunity to develop in this sense. While I am not the most experienced pianist what I am starting to work on is Invention No. 1 in C Major BMV 772.
This is all quite new to me so I am very much looking forward to learning and developing from those more established!
Thank you!
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Brandon Hi Brandon! Glad to know you are playing an invention for this intensive, and looking forward to your posts.
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Natalie Peh Thank you! I've just seen your posts and wow, you've done well. I'm still in the beginner stages and it's nice to witness another one of the inventions much down the line
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Brandon SUBMISSION 1
https://youtu.be/9fl1rytH34s
Slight rhythmic delay towards the end and have just played what I've learnt. Highlighting the patterns helped a lot. Really shows how smooth the exploration of the theme is! -
@Brandon thanks, Brandon. I started learning this piece before the intensive, and the exercises helped to practice it better.
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Brandon cool idea, too highlight the parts you want to bring out!
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Natalie Peh Thank you! What I'm actually doing though is highlighting the patterns.
So each highlight in a particular colour is literally the exact same pattern.
Bach tends to mix them up by having them in contrary motion (same pattern/intervals just going up instead of down vice versa).
And another one is to play the same pattern except to change the rhythm. So instead of four 16th notes, it would be 4 8th notes in the same pattern.
There is still more to highlight on my sheet music but it really helps to highlight the genius of it all! And to think he would improvise much more complicated music! -
Brandon yes, I totally agree, even the inventions are so cleverly written in every detail, yet musical, that it never gets dull practising them!
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Hi Group 3 friends, I love these two-week intensives. I always learn something new. I'm an adult beginner and currently working on Prelude in C Major BWV846. I am not sure if there's polyphony in this? Polyphony means two or more voices? so if a piece has bass, tenor, alto, soprano, it's polyphony? OR Polyphony means two more voices playing at the same time? For the 1st submission, I'll work on the right hand. I will submit some videos soon.
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ALICE Hi Alice! Yes, polyphony involves 2 or more melodies. Hope to hear your submission soon!
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Natalie Peh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP28tlBw7bo
this is my first submission, playing right hand of BWV846. I am still confused. Is this polyphony?
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ALICE that's a good question, I'm not sure now whether it is considered to be polyphonic, since Prelude 1 of WTC I does not have 2 distinct melodies, but instead it has arpeggios played between both the lower voice and upper voice.
Let's see what anyone else thinks.... or maybe we can ask on the zoom call?
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Natalie Peh I agree with Natalie, the prelude is not really polyphonic--check out the associated BWV846 fugue! :-)
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James Bartscher That's too difficult for me. What about little prelude in C major BWV939, polyphony?
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2nd submission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsMjAV7wuv4
3rd submission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7-cxxVOuPo
I didn't count in with the 1st submission and no counting in my play, so the 3rd submission can't be correct : no even space b/w the notes flowing from left hand to right hand.
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ALICE On a very technical level there are THREE voices in this prelude. Notice where the stems are pointing. bass voice is in bass clef, stem pointing down. Tenor voice is in bass clef, stem pointing up. Then the soprano is in the RH with 16th notes. Of course many people may say it doesn't SOUND like 3 voices, but Bach keeps this voicing rule throughout the prelude and I think it's worth exploring! Playing the piece as though there are 3 instruments instead of just one!
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Dominic Cheli Thank you Dominic. Magdalena did mention to look at the stems pointing up or down. Now I understand better. Unfortunately I have singing lesson Tuesday and won't be able to attend ZOOM. Will the session be recorded? I am very interested to watch it later. Cheers!
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ALICE thanks for sharing your video, Alice. I forget how nice the chords sound :)
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week 2 submission bass only: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkaYT3zyXRY
I "hum" the other voices when playing bass only to keep time.
week 2 submission hands together playthough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1340IZNMCU
Through this exercise, I become more attentive to all the voices bass, tenor, soprano.
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Hello,
I am Massimo, a hobbyist musician from Italy. For this two weeks intensive I chose Fuge I BWV846 from Bach's DWC1, a cutting edge example of polyphony, in my opinion.I made a video for the 3 submissions:
https://youtu.be/R-LgUHU52QM1) submission 1: it's challenging without a metronome, also because the fuge starts with the alto and not the soprano
2) submission 2: sorry for the glissando, I have a cold
3) submission 3: the hardest part, because I felt the rhythm differently between the first and second recording, it's challenging to keep in sync, also because I have the tendency to play ahead of beat, when I play with the metronome.
Thank you for the cool opportunity, it's a very interesting exercise.-
Massimo maj you sing well, even with a cold!
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Natalie Peh Many Thanks!
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Hi group 3, thanks for this opportunity to focus on Bach!
I have been working on fugue #7 from WTC vol. 2 (BWV 876), and have always struggled to bring out the inner voices from the texture of 4-part polyphony, particularly when the line in question is passed off between hands. Thus, in what I hope is in the spirit of the exercise, I'm extracting two voices (tenor and bass) from the last page of the piece to focus on exclusively, in an attempt to better internalize the individual lines and their relationship to each other. We are so conditioned to practice one hand alone at this piano, but for some reason it never occurred to me to practice one voice alone (like one would quite naturally at choir rehearsal, for instance).
The first submission is the tenor (higher) part alone--the odd fingering is dictated by the remainder of the (unplayed) voices.
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James Bartscher thanks for sharing! I looked up the fugue you are playing, and you picked such a lovely one to practice! Looking forward to your next submission. Will you be practising the upper voices in the fugue next, now you have done the lower ones?
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