Week 3: Improving your interpretation and performance!
This week, we will now study our written analysis from last week, and apply to performance interpretation. Some ideas to apply, but not limited to:
1. Looking at your labeled phrase groups and the overall form of the selected prelude, create a mind map of the architecture of how the piece is structured. What can we do to make each of those phrases/larger sections special in their unique ways?
2. Key areas and harmonic content: how can we utilize this knowledge to decide on what type of color and character to apply in our performance in dynamics, style, and articulation.
3. Please feel free to upload your performance recordings from this week, and share about how this practice shaped your interpretation!
Please reach out to Dr. Eloise Kim below with any of your questions!
36 replies
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Welcome back everyone! I am excited to hear about how the previous week's challenge impact your overall learning experience and application to performance this week. Please feel free to share any notes, recordings, or ask questions if you have any :)
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Hello Dr. Kim, Thank you for your insights on the value of analysis in interpreting music. I have found my analysis of Chopin Nocturne Op. 37 no. 2 to be very helpful in shaping my interpretation. This composition is so interesting and loaded with possibilities. I'm sure I will discover more ways to interpret it as I study it in the future. Thanks again!
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Hi !
I'd like to share both assignments (weeks 2 and 3) in this message, because I couldn't find the time last week to complete the first one. I've attached my attempt at the harmony and form analysis, and now I'd like to share a few thoughts on the performance aspect. The piece I chose is Étude Op. 10 Nº5, the "Black Keys" Étude.
Doing this analysis has been very helpful in understanding the symmetry of the piece, how it is constructed, the harmonic plan, etc. To be honest, this is not something I usually do with the pieces I try to play.
As a result, the different phrases and periods in which the piece is divided are now much clearer. That's very helpful for phrasing, knowing where to breathe, where to place emphasis, where to make small pauses, and so on.
The left hand is absolutely essential, as it provides the rhythmic and harmonic foundation, and even more, it carries the main "small melodies" of the piece. I think it was Nathan Perelman who recommended memorizing and practicing the left hand separately as an excellent preparatory exercise (something that my Tonebase couch Stefan Chaplikov has recommended me too).
Another important point is attention to dynamics. Thanks to the harmonic and form analysis, we can see how detailed and varied they actually are, much more so than one might notice with a more superficial look.
With all these points (and more) in mind, I'll try to record a video performance next week. You know, it's quite a challenge! 😅.
Thank you for this extraordinary opportunity and how you've organized it.
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Thank you Dr Kim, I am working on the C~ minor Nocturne. I shall take sections of it and approach them applying harmonic analysis/progression to them.
I have focused my practice on the trills and where the grace notes fit harmonically with the notes in the bass, similarly with the ornamental scale runs from Bar (Measure) 57 onwards that have contain a range of numbers of notes: 18; 35; 11; and 13.
The run in Bar 58 appears to me to be modal. I think it would be Mixolydian if we were taking the key as its relative, E major. I am not sure how the modal relationships work when we're in a minor key.
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Thank you, , for your feedback on the other thread! I've been practicing Chopin's etude op. 10 no. 4 slowly with metronome each day, and it's been helpful. I found that spots I was messing up at a fast speed I was also messing up at 1/3rd speed...it's a good diagnostic tool. I also identified an issue at the end--I was skipping a 16th beat and ended up unable to keep to the metronome--and so I'm still working on fixing that issue.
In this video there are other technical problem spots that still need ironing out, even at this not-as-fast-as-marked speed. On that note, 88 bpm is quite daunting...should I aim for it or, as an amateur, just content myself with a ~150 bpm target? it's still pretty exciting at 150ish I think.
My forearms were getting tired after 4 takes or so. I'm trying to keep wrists supple but I think I may be muscling my way through certain sections too much.
I also need to think harder about the harmonic analysis I did and how to incorporate it into the interpretation. I think I'm tending to focus more on the technical problems at the expense of dynamics and the "big picture", so that's something I need to work on also. 😅
The kids also enjoyed adding their flair to the video, haha. I know this is a "last hour" submission, but any feedback you could give would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for your guidance!
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Hi , I've been working on musical intention this week, and exploring different ways to build energy/drama without relying on speed. Here's a playthru of Op. 53 from this evening (after attending a Body Mapping workshop this weekend - where I played the intro to this polonaise for feedback - and a piano lesson this afternoon). Lots of takeaways that I'm still digesting, but I was inspired by this week's challenge to record a progress video (the first video I've recorded in months!). Already hearing a lot of things that weren't super apparent while I was in the midst of playing it...like how some of my articulations and phrase endings aren't in line with what I'm hearing harmonically.
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Hello all,
Unfortunately, it seems I have been working on Op. 27 no. 2, not Op. 37 no.2. However, too late to go back now and all I can do is apologise. I have analysed all the chords and as Dr Kim says there are a considerable number of seventh chords and secondary dominants so for example if I look at the end of bar 12 I have a F7th secondary dominant chord which leads to the B-flat minor chord in the next bar, this B-flat chord then becomes a secondary dominant which leads to the E flat minor chord at the beginning of bar 14. A series of dominant/tonic progressions. Each one fulfilling expectations within itself but a slightly unexpected feeling as well as it is not the dominant/tonic of the home key. Another feature would be the use of chromatic bass lines so for example in bar 22 we start with a C which goes to C flat, repeated Cb flat which goes to B natural to A natural which becomes B double flat and then to A flat your dominant cord which finally takes you to back to Db the tonic chord. A resolution that is even sweeter because of the changing chords and this chromatic bass line that leads up to it. There was also use of pedal notes, for example the last page uses the Db tonic note as a pedal note virtually throughout. Bars 62 to 65 use the D-flat pedal note with a cascade of diminished seventh chords above up to bar 65 where we get Ab 7th dominant chord over the D flat pedal note finally giving us the tonic chord of Db flat in bar 66. Only need to start moving again with another series the same, different melody line, and finally resolving at bar 70. Keeping the dominant/tonic alternating chords over the Db bass note the piece finally comes to rest at bar 76.
It is tempting to almost describe it as kind of through composed piece but with a recurring melody starting at bars 2, 26, 46. Each time the melody is in Db but is further developed and decorated until the last page where the music winds down, chromatic harmonies over the Db pedal, simple melodic patterns finally finishing in a scale in 6ths leading simply to the Db chord. Three variations and a coda??
I’m admiringly the recordings so far. I hope to record mine after the weekend- if it’s too late it’s too late- more apologies!
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Hi Eloise! Thank you so much for this challenge and your instructional videos. Like Juan Carlos and others, I'm combining my submission for Weeks 2 and 3 here.
Score analysis pics are attached, the first two pages. The piece is essentially in A-B-A format. The exposition and recap essentially alternate a lot between V and I chords, B major and E major. Chopin constructs pretty long phrases — usually 8 or 12 bars, with 4 bar sub-phrases within that.
The development is interesting and was complex to analyze harmonically. He starts with a new theme, in B major which is repeated in the darker C# minor. Things slowly build and more chromatic and then really loud, where it's a whole bunch of ascending chromatic double fourths and diminished chords that I don't even know how to describe (!)
The climax of the piece is probably the big loud B major chord in bar 46 and it's extended via a tense 8-bar con bravura passage of diminished double sixths (bars 46-54) that lead to a more placid 8-bar transition back to the home theme finally at bar 62. This marks the beginning of the recap and home stretch.
Attached is a video. One thing I'm struggling with is how to execute the rubato hairpins faithfully without sounding stilted or weird. The hairpins appear everywhere and right away even in the opening bars!