Week 1 Thread: Exploring the 18th Century!
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)
Most of the time, the music for keyboard instruments written during the 18th century is defined as simple, pleasing, and overall superficial. And yet, the works written during this period contain the seeds for the development of larger musical forms.
This week we will start looking at music from a different perspective and consider the musical elements as building blocks of a structure that is meant to communicate a message.
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!
Post in the forum what you discovered playing your piece and your goals for this challenge!
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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- Piece(s) you have been working on:
German Dance in D major, Hob IX:22, no 2.
- Things you found easy:
It's my entry piece after about 30 years without playing classical piano. I played for 3 years starting 6th grade and I was trying to pick what I thought was the easiest from the suggested repertoire of this challenge.
- Things you found difficult:
I find the articulation and dynamics hard. I'm imagining a real dance to influence these and it takes my rhythm all over the place. In this sense it's actually easier to play the whole thing faster.
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Antonella Di Giulio thank you so much for the feedback and the advice. Yes, I think I understand what you mean about the grouping. But I'm not sure about the repeated chords (which should be loud and which soft). Do you mean something like the even bars are a softer response to the odd bars?
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Roy let me try to make a video for you… just a few minutes
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Roy Haydn… loud/soft
https://youtu.be/TGtmpQdfRr8 -
Antonella Di Giulio yes, thank you for making this for me!!! I think I understand now. Will work on the groupings and the dynamics of the repeated chords and will post again :) I also subscribed to your channel, looks like some very interesting topics and interviews.
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Roy my pleasure!
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Roy well done, Roy!
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Roy You are doing a great job making the feeling of a dance come through. Now, with Dr. Di Giulio's extra video help you'll do even better.
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Roy this is really lovely, so musical and thoughtfully played. I think Antonella’s idea (loud-soft) will add a dance-like lilt and will make every even more perfect.
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Monika Tusnady thank you! I'm working on the loud->soft concept and the grouping of bars that Antonella Di Giulio suggested. It adds a new dimension to my interpretation of what I'm playing, every different choice I make in the dynamics changes the interpretation (and vise versa... even when it happens by mistake, my lack of skill actually generates ideas at times).
Also, different speeds of play generate/require totally different dynamics and interpretation (an elegant dance bow/gesture cannot be done quickly).
I guess this can also relate to the topic of codes that was introduced in the live presentation.
I'm not sure how much of this is in my head and how much is conveyed outward to someone that can't read minds, but it sure makes practicing more fun for me.
Thinking about it again, even when listening to my own recording, my interpretation changes :) so I guess it's more like drawing a cloud... (and this is a piece of 16 bars! looking forward to playing something longer - I'm also working on minuet in G major in my practice log which I started before joining this challenge). -
Roy I always try to think of learning like to a “modeling” experience. And so… when you are performing a piece, you unconsciously think to models you have in the catalog of your brain.
And in case such models are not there yet, we have to create some:
I think you are doing a great job in creating your galant style model
If you might want to expand your unconscious knowledge on that, try listening to some repertoire from that period for instruments other than piano and maybe to vocal music.
making music should be fun! -
Antonella Di Giulio this is really interesting and puts me in a bit of a conflict with my plans on how to proceed from here. I was planning to study Bach's two part inventions or little preludes next, but am now not sure if I should look for a progressive plan (in difficulty) within this Galant style. I really love both... do you think there's any advantage to begin in either of the two?
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Roy Oh… I think that the more styles you work at, the more you will learn the differences. Bach’s son was one of the main theorists during the galant style and many wrote music according to his books.
Abd so… Bach is always a great choice.
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Antonella Di Giulio I didn't know that :) Ok, think I'll continue with the invention then and see from there (it's also the next piece in the course I'm following here in tonebase).
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Roy very cleanly played and nice flow! Sounds great
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Susan Rogers thank you :)
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Roy Nice playing, great job!
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I love to play Mozart, but it's so difficult! I thought I was playing well until I started to record.
The challenge for me is to keep steady tempo. I always start slow and then speed up as I play. in this recording I start to rush at the very beginning on those trills. maybe I need to practice more with metronome!
Evenness is another challenge.
And left hand! it's hard to play soft at for example the piano parts like at 0:54, when the right hand comes down on volume but left hand did not match up.
What is easy is to learn the notes I guess. But that's not very useful if notes are learned but not played well!
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Qingzhi Awesome! You have already taken notes of the things you do not like in your recording, which is a great way to improve. Now... how would you correct the things you pointed out?
On a different... note, pay attention to the slurred notes: the first note should be a bit louder than the second one, and the second one is just softer and detacher from the next part, but the second note sounded staccato in the recording. Did you want them that way?
You are doing great though! Just keep noticing the details you might want to improve, and maybe compare your performance to some other recordings you like: what do other pianists do differently?
You plat really well... now work on the details
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Antonella Di Giulio
Thank you for giving me the feedback!!
how would I correct those... maybe more slow practice. practice with metronome. breakdown phrases for the uneven part, practice scales. I am by nature not very patient so I have to give myself extra patience!
the slurred notes: no I didn't want them that way, I watched back to the recording and found you are right. Thanks for pointing out!
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Qingzhi Qingzhi Sergio Fiorentino, one of the great Italian pianists of the per century, gave me a wonderful advice long time ago. He said… playing slow is much more difficult than playing fast. When you want to learn how to play something fast, first play it several times slow but by paying attention to all the details, like in a movie watched in slow motion.
So… I would say the same to you: rather than playing faster, I would expand the tempo like you would in a slow motion movie and try to use the dynamic and details you would like to add. Have fine with that!
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Qingzhi this is fantastic, Qingzhi!
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Qingzhi Awesome work! Listening to this brings so much joy. Looking forward to hear more!
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Qingzhi Sounds great!
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Qingzhi I love your energy! You have a really fluid technique which is great for Mozart...and the little areas of concern are the same things I struggle with.
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Qingzhi I really like your playing - it has such good energy. What I also love is your choice of Sonata: it’s funny, in a Mozart kind of a way. The opening reminds me of a little boy knocking down a tower of blocks - Wham, Bang! Crash! - then suddenly smiling sweetly at his mother when she comes to see what is the matter. These contrasts always seem to have a storyline for me in Mozart, so I’d better stop here… Again, really well done!
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