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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Gail Starr and I are LOVING learning the Haydn b minor together. It's challenging enough to engage us, yet doable enough for us to concentrate on its structural and musical aspects. Here is the Minuet and Trio.
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Antonella Di Giulio Dynamics - YES! The have to feel exaggerated to the player, don't they, to sound right to the listener?
I held the first of four sixteenth notes as (almost) quater notes on purpose, thinking it would clarify the voice-leading. Should I just just make short, marked staccati?
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Gail Starr FLUFFY trills! How adorable
!!! Starting the trill on the lower note (and phrasing out, thinking decrescendo) changed everything! I practiced with the metronome to get a better idea of how much time I have for the trill - you'd think that I can count to three, but...well...you know...IT'S HARD! -
Monika Tusnady Great! Beautiful and light with some drama too! Will have to study your lovely trills more closely- my piece is full of trills so its very helpful to see yours. Can’t wait to hear the rest!
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Monika Tusnady I think that more than staccato, you might want to think those notes as “portato”
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Monika Tusnady Wonderful playing, Monika! I also enjoy your trills! Looking forward to hear more.
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Antonella Di Giulio I get the portati at the end of those phrases. It might help the phrase come to a more elegant close, instead of sounding loud and clunky.
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Monika Tusnady Monika Tusnady yes, agree
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Monika Tusnady Counting to three WHILE I play is harder than it looks!
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Monika Tusnady Great playing, Monika, you always play with bright pulse, I love it!
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Completely enjoying practicing the lovely Sonata in C Major by Galuppi. New composer for most of us. Feels like Mozart with the many slurs and playful quality at times. Also feels like Scarlatti (lots of trills!). Here is my practice of the 1st half of the first movement.
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Vidhya Bashyam This is so wonderful! Glad that you chose to learn this piece, so we all can get to know Galuppi!
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Vidhya Bashyam this is such a delightful piece and you play it so well! Juan Carlos wrote something about the Barricades Mystérieuses, saying that it was written purely for the enjoyment of music, not for big public performances. I learned that piece, too, and it was a thrill. This, too, seems to fall in that category.
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Vidhya Bashyam great job! In fact, Galuppi is somehow between Scarlatti and Mozart. At his time, he was not known for his keyboard sonatas, but he was a very active composer and appreciated musician.
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Monika Tusnady Thank you! You are absolutely right- it feels so good to play this piece! The second half is even better. Still trying to find time to learn Barricades Mysterieuses in between our fun tonebase challenges and a few Chopin preludes that I have been working on for a while.
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Sindre Skarelven Thank you Sindre!
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Vidhya Bashyam I really enjoyed listening to your performance. It almost feels like listening to Michelangeli
. I would work next on two main things: let the phrases feel like in one breath and small details like for example differentiating the accented notes from the not accented notes when those are repeated. Very beautiful job though!!
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Antonella Di Giulio Thank you! So happy you shared this composer and Michelangeli’s performance. A great inspiration for sure. Will try to follow your advice on the phrasing and accents. I am sure I will have questions as I work more on the piece.
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Vidhya Bashyam brava, Vidhya!
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Vidhya Bashyam You really convey a light, playful feeling! I'm so glad you are introducing us to this composer1
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Gail Starr Thanks Gail!
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Andrea Buckland Thanks Andrea!
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Vidhya Bashyam Beautiful and graceful, Vidhya!
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Juan Carlos Olite Thank you!
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Vidhya Bashyam that sounds so elegant!
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I felt inspired to share a little "on the way" video as well. I´ve been working on two pieces for this challenge. One is Haydn Hob XVI 38 Sonata in Eb, and the other Mozart Rondo K. 485 in D. After a couple of days of familiarizing myself with the pieces, I've started memorizing. Here is the exposition of Haydn.
