Week 2 Thread: The Era of Haydn and Mozart! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the third week of "Mozart & Haydn - Music from the 18th Century" challenge!
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream! (<- click)
This week, we will talk about the different ways composers were trained during the 18th century and how they could achieve such high productivity through schemas and patterns
Look at a different piece by the same composer you are studying and try to compare the music to the new piece you are practicing now.
If you are ready, post a short clip of the patterns you found in your music! One of the ways we grow is through feedback and self-reflection.
Pick a piece from the suggested repertoire according to your level or share any piece written during the 18th century that you have been working on!
If you want to describe your process, feel free to use the following template.
- Piece(s) you have been working on:
- Things you found easy:
- Things you found difficult:
Happy sharing 
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Here is my update on the Mozart Adagio. This is the second part with ornaments. still so much to do, wrong notes, articulation, generally feeling more secure. Also it annoys me that my hands are seldom together. any tipps for aligning my hands are very welcome. If I try hard my tone suffers…
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Monika Tusnady Thank you, Monica! This is actually the piano in the music school. at the moment I prefer to practice - and definitely to record on this instrument. Our piano at home is quite out of tune and with this weather it doesn’t really make sense to get it tuned before September.
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Beautiful playing there! It's all coming together very well. And what a great musical room!
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Thank you very much, Sindre! I absolutely adore this piece. It is so Chopin-esque somehow.
Sindre Skarelven
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Andrea Buckland True! Maybe it's that major to minor, and the singing nature of this piece? We do know that Chopin loved Mozart, and we can understand why...
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Sindre Skarelven absolutely!
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Andrea Buckland I love your phrasing and dynamics! You really understand where the line is heading and you direct our ears to the top part.
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Gail Starr thank you so much, dear Gail!
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Andrea Buckland Beautiful played, Andrea! It is great the way you phrase the melody with tiny changes in the dynamics!
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Juan Carlos Olite thank you very much, Juan Carlos!
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Andrea Buckland that sounds lovely, I really enjoyed listening to it
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Natalie Peh thanks, Natalie!
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Andrea Buckland how beautiful! I enjoyed your video so much.
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Susan Rogers thank you, Susan!
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Andrea Buckland that was really nice, such a great piece!
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Derek McConville Thank you very much, Derek!
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I am working on trying to establish a number of sequences, which started from George Ko and his sessions on classical improvisation. I was intrigued by the comment from Antonella Di Giulio that classical composers of the 17th and 18th centuries were more akin to pop composers today than contemporary classical composers.
Therefore, I started from the basis for so many pop tunes - Pachalbel's Canon in D, which is a repeated sequence of: D maj, A maj, B min, F# min, G maj, D, maj, G maj and A maj. Each chord begins on the root, followed by a fifth, octave and third.
The first four bars have no melody. The first melody begins at bar 5 and is a descending scale from F# down to A and then back up to C#.
Bars 9 to 12 are chords in the RH: 2nd inversion, root, 2nd inversion, root, 2nd inversion, root, 2nd inversion, 2nd inversion.
This should be straightforward to memorise.
The Pachabel led me to look at Mozart's Lacrimosa [from the Requiem in D minor] - again the sequences are evident, although more complex, of course, than the Pachelbel. Working those out is a little more taxing, chords 5 - 8 set the chordal structure for the sequences.
This led to a very slow interpretation [even the Prestos] of the Fantasia in D minor K. 397/385g [I seem to be obsessed with the key of D?]
My staple piece for this community challenge is Kuhlau's Sonatina Op. 20 No 1. It's in C not D! Wow! It's possibly a little later than would be desired but he was born in 1786, so almost in the time frame.
Leann Osterkamp is such a fabuous teacher on FB. Leann has a one hour lesson on this piece, which I did. The purpose of the piece for me is do several things: learn to be able to do an Alberti bass even when the RH does something more complex on top, sequences in 3rds, double thirds, and scales, that require different fingering from the standard in places, mostly to accommodate the exits from the scale passages. Lang Lang has recorded the piece, which I shall hear when I hear after the challenge.
I chose the Kuhlau because he is known as 'the Beethoven of the flute' and I am really a flute player not a pianist. Kuhlau met and became friends with Beethoven in Vienna and promulgated Beethoven's music in Denmark.
The Doppler brothers are often associated with Kuhlau by flute players. They played fluet duets together in performance. The music was written by Franz Doppler, who was a student of Liszt. There is a story that Karl Doppler, the younger brother was left-handed and redesigned his flute so that it went in the opposite direction from his mouth from his brother's normal flute. This was done to produce a mirror image on stage when the two brothers played together, presumably facing the audience. Completely bizarre!
I am not intending to produce videos as my aim is to use sections of the above as technical exercises rather than producing a finished product.
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Roy James-Pike Great job on analyzing chord progressions! In fact, the Canon in D is a form of Romanesca too.
The bass play 1-5-6-3-4-1 instead of the later 1-7-6-3 while the top voice plays a descending line.
Great choice Kuhalu... I use this sonatina to teach my students fingerings for chromatic scales.
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Antonella Di Giulio thank you. The chromatic shifts are very good for ensuring that one's attention stays focused. I am using 123, 1234 everywhere possible for playing chromatically, e.g. the Rondo Bar 83 to the start of Bar 84, B to G, 123, 13, 1234.
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Roy James-Pike good fingering!
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Roy James-Pike Sounds good, Roy! I enjoy improvisation very much, and it's good to remember that it was very common to improvise in the 18th century. Kuhlau's Sonatina op20 No.1 is very good and fun to play! I also use it with my students! Antonella Di Giulio
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Sindre Skarelven Thank you Sindre.
The Kuhlau is charming. It has to be said that he is known for being the 'Beethoven of the Flute', but Kuhlau compositions are not Beethovian.
There are two golden periods for the flute - the Baroque, JS, CPE and WF, and the late 19th/early 20th century flute repertoire.
These days the baroque repertoire is hardly played on the modern flute. The preference would be for baroque flute but the dfficulty is huge - particularly to do a whole concert in the format that we are used to hearing these days.
I haven't listened to the practice videos yet but I shall try to do so soon - too busy practising myself!
Sorry for not commenting so far but I 'm looking forward to hearing all of the thoroughly excellent performances in the Challenge Concert!
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Antonella Di Giulio I was thinking this also!
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I've been focusing a little more on learning the Mozart Rondo K. 485 this week. Of course memorizing the piece, and I've had time to interpret a little bit. Still some tricky parts I need to work more on! And I will keep working on the overall structure of the piece. Any feedback is welcomed!
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Sindre Skarelven sounds great already! It’s such a fun piece by Mozart, I just love his humor!
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Sindre Skarelven beautiful! Your memory is amazing
I have some suggestions: try to keep the tempo of the theme consistent throughout the piece.
I noticed you were trying to add all those fancy piano/forte and rallentandosi, but they all make sense if they keep belonging to the same context.
left hand might be a bit softer when accompanying the right.I have seen that you approach the keys from a certain distance and that gives you a certain type of sound.
but especially at the beginning of phrases, I would try to make sure I touch the key with my fingers before playing the note. The sounds are much smoother then.
super great job on this piece though!
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