Week 4: Discovering Schubert Month: Reflections and Watch Party
Dear Pianists,
I'm excited to share that the date for our Watch Party for Discovering Schubert Month will take place on March 2 at 11:00 AM Pacific Time! I'll soon be in touch with the individuals whose videos I've chosen to feature, to ask for your permission, and to invite you to share a couple words about your piece and your work this month.
In this last week of Discovering Schubert Month, I'd like to challenge you to polish up your Schubert piece! Polishing up a performance and tying loose ends pushes me to make an active commitment to the artistic, technical, and presentation details that deepen my relationship to the music. The process of sharing my music with my colleagues, as you have been doing all this month, is an essential part to growth: learning how others hear your playing and react is key to developing an artistic identity. The variety between everyone's playing is what sustains musical performance of these beloved classical works. Learning how to appreciate different performances, pianists, and interpretations helps us build internal understanding of the full range of what we can do at the piano. Just like learning about the world through conversation and interpersonal interactions, we develop our selves both in conjunction and in reaction to others!
Here are some reflection questions for you, as well as things about yourself to share, for this week:
1. What particular aspects of your playing do you feel that your Schubert piece highlights?
2. What are your musical priorities when you play your Schubert piece?
3. Can you describe a range of qualities that go into creating your ideal Schubert sound? Be as specific as possible!
4. What strengths do you think others hear in your playing?
And, last but not least: Feel free to post a final recording of your work. I'll be choosing between the Week 3 and Week 4 posts for the Watch Party videos. And one final prompt to spark some conversation: What was your process for recording the video clips you post on this forum?
I'll post my own recording of the Schubert Moment Musicaux No. 4 in the thread below! Thank you all so much for your enthusiastic participation in Discovering Schubert with me! See you on the other side in March, for one of my favorite composers..... Bach!
Stay musical,
Hilda
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Sharing my performance version of the first movement. I tried three attempts and I kept making random mistakes in different places. It is so frustrating. However I felt that this was the best attempt tone wise out of the three. I took the tempo a bit slower in attempt to try to get better control of my dynamics. It's still to loud over all but I really feel like it's such a big improvement from when I started at the beginning of February. I hope you all can tell all the work I put into this ;)
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Michael Beautiful work! Thank you so much!
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Michael I love the tempo you picked. You are such a speedy learner, and memorizer! (I didn't even finish my Impromptu in time, LOL!)
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Plucked up my courage to share even if it has been only tail-end days of the challenge that I’ve practiced. The sharing here is not perfect, but the experience of wanting to complete the challenge has brought me thus... I pray it still somehow inspires.
Answering the questions posed by Hilda for this 4th week:
1. I think perhaps that the particular aspect of that this Schubert piece highlights in my playing is the musicality God gave. To God be the glory!
2. When I play this Schubert piece, my musical priority and hope is to play it as closely as Schubert may have envisioned the piece.
3. The range of qualities that go into creating my ideal Schubert sound includes being able to emote or identify with a whole range of emotions or states of being— tranquil, reflective, in motion, dynamic, engaging, sad, joyous, grand, and the like, and being able to physically produce such a tone or affect on the piano.
As for the mode for recording, I had to revert to YouTube unlisted except when made available (as in this case).
Thank you again, Hilda, for this amazing platform of an experience — enriching guided conversations and a getting into deeper touch with Schubert. I have been inspired by the music and thoughts shared by you and other artists in the community. Thank you all so much!
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Rudelle Gaje oh Rudelle, you play this so beautifully! I was able to go through all the emotions with you, made me cry! Absolutely fantastic! Thank you so much!
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Rudelle Gaje So beautiful!
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Rudelle Gaje Wonderful playing, Rudelle! Thank you!
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Andrea Buckland Aww...thank you, Andrea. To God be the glory!
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Vidhya Bashyam Thank you so much. Praise the Lord!
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Juan Carlos Olite Thank Juan. All glory to God!
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Rudelle Gaje So musical...you truly bring out all the beauty Schubert intended.
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Gail Starr Thank you so much, Gail. To God be the glory!
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I decided not to make another recording of my piece because I burned out a bit trying to force it to be ready when really it needs more time, but I will answer Hilda's questions because I find them interesting:
1. What particular aspects of your playing do you feel that your Schubert piece highlights?
The G-flat Impromptu is Schubert at his best. It's beauty is more than skin-deep. It's a masterful composition in three (sometimes four) voices: Wonderful lyric melody, mostly played with the 4th/5th fingers of the right hand; a driving obligato accompaniment in triplets (also played by the right hand!); and an underlying bass/baritone voice that provides a harmonic anchor and some perfectly placed trills at key emotional moments.
2. What are your musical priorities when you play your Schubert piece?
Bringing out a beautiful, singing melody, of course. But also very clear articulation of the triplets. A common way of playing this is to blur these triplets (the "ripple" effect), to the point where the notes disappear into a murmur that sounds like a tremolo. I strongly disagree with this, because all of Schubert's harmonic ingenuity is contained in these triplets: key modulations, augmented and diminished triads, suspended 4 chords, and even 11th chords, all used to great effect, and it all gets lost without clear articulation and rhythmic drive. The melody is the soul of this piece, but the triplets are clearly the heart, and in my ideal interpretation I want to hear each and every note clearly. I also think that the piece requires some passion from the performer in the development, because there is some real emotional turmoil expressed. It is often played too lifeless and dull, IMO, as if the performer is trying not to wake up a sleeping beauty. The piece is tender, but not dormant!
3. Can you describe a range of qualities that go into creating your ideal Schubert sound? Be as specific as possible!
I think the ideal Schubert sound depends on the piece, and since this Impromptu is the only Schubert I have played (aside from some dances and waltzes), what I described above defines my ideal sound. I would also like to again mention the importance of the finger substitutions that I tried to learn this month. They are needed in a modified strophic phrase that repeats several times (measures 13-14, 21-22, 33-34, 49-50, 67-68, 71-72). They are rather difficult but really worth learning as they allow me to bring out the melody in a much more cantabile way without killing it with too much pedal. As for the overall sound, I think it needs a lot of dynamic variation, but also with a very smooth and elegant delivery, because it is a very elegant piece. Not easy to pull off!
4. What strengths do you think others hear in your playing?
A lot of my ideas about this piece were negated by a performance anxiety that started setting in as I became more aware that I was sharing with others, but there were a few moments when I felt I was getting a singing melody and capturing some of the driving spirt of the triplets. Even though my left hand is rather clumsy, for some reason I was able to pull off the trills pretty well. Maybe because of the information overload of the right hand, the left hand was able to go about it's business without any interference from my conscious brain... I intend to keep working on my interpretation and if/when I finish it I will put it in my (as-yet uncreated) practice diary.
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Charlie Gesualdo Your comments are simply perfect! Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
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Gail Starr Thanks, Gail, I'm happy you think so, as I was just getting ready to delete, because I thought I came across as a know-it-all who can't play what he preaches! Also I want to say that I respect and admire your musicianship.
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Well, I finally learned the rest of my Impromptu, but it will take at least another week to make a new recording because I found the jumps in the LH really require memorization! I'll keep plugging away at it, even though we are already in March.
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Gail Starr I think we are all eagerly waiting to hear your interpretation :)
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Vidhya Bashyam I'll try my best...maybe I can record over the weekend. Next time, I will start the Challenge piece earlier. I had no idea that what I picked was so hard, LOL!
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Gail Starr , what you've already shared sounds wonderful. I'm just starting on this piece, so won't be able to share anything until later in the year. Look forward to listening to the rest of the variations from you.
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