Week Two: Loving the Challenge!

The lyrical (not marked as slower!) middle section of "August - Harvest Song" contains thirty 2-bar segments, all in the same rhythm - but only the first four segments (8 bars) are repeated identically. All others are unique, harmonically as well as melodically. The close similarity of these segments makes the section very tricky to memorize, but equally hard is the task of not letting it sound boring due to the "sameness" of it all. You really have to understand the music and bring out the nuances of each harmonic turn and of the overall emotional arc. Making the middle section the highlight of the piece, between the driving busyness of the repeated "A" sections, could probably be one difference between a good and a great performance - so, that's why I love this particular challenge, because of the little musical subtleties waiting to be discovered there. 

I’m doing March.  I’m enjoying the variations in touch, for dynamics, and sound.  The trickiest parts for me, are starting p.  Being sure it is uniformly quiet, with not one note jumping out while the rest are p.  As I learn this, I can hear the lark singing………I will attempt to upload a video soon.

I agree with Alexander about the musical subtleties.  It is those subtle variations in dynamic and touch that make all the difference with #3, Song of the Lark. 

O.K., since the middle section of "August" is the most challenging for me, I worked on that one first. As I said, I find it very hard to not let it become too static and to get the phrasing of each three-note figure (quarter - eighth - dotted quarter) just right. Once I realized that this section is basically a love duet between a high voice and a low voice singing to each other in simple, heartfelt melodic gestures, it became easier to make sense of the music. The rest of the piece, which is more demanding in terms of speed and agility, should follow at some point in the coming week.