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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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.
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Sindre Skarelven great progress! Thanks for sharing, you inspire me!
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Sindre Skarelven Sounds great! Memorized too! Definitely appreciating Haydn more after hearing all of you play these great works.
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Sindre Skarelven very nice performance! You are doing a great job. Now that you have learned the piece, I would think a bit more to how to phrase… imagine you have to sing the right hand: how would you breath?
great job though! -
Susan Rogers Thank you, Susan! I'm glad to hear that!
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Vidhya Bashyam Thank you, Vidhya! Yes, Haydn is probably not so familiar to many, but has many great works we can appreciate!
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Antonella Di Giulio Thank you so much for the feedback! I will start working on it! :)
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Sindre Skarelven thank you Sindre, for that performance of a really humorous Sonata! What kind of piano is that? How do you like it?
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Sindre Skarelven great playing, as always!
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Monika Tusnady Yes, it's delightful piece, thank you! The piano is a Yamaha p125. I bought it to have it standing here on our family cabin. It's a great piano considering the price, and meets the demand here! For more regular use I might have gone for the Clavinova series.
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Andrea Buckland Thank you, Andrea!
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Sindre Skarelven I have a Yamaha P95, and I wish I had yours instead. I don't think they even manufacture the P95 any longer, but I need a keyboard I can put in my car!
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Sindre Skarelven I love how easily you memorize! Great job!
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Sindre Skarelven I also bought a p125 for my studio about a year ago, instead of getting a second piano. It was a good value.
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Gail Starr Yes, the P125 is very a light-weighted and slim piano, so great to fit in a car! Sounds good, Susan . Agreed, good value.
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Sindre Skarelven Great job, Sindre, it is going very well, looking forward to hear more...
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Juan Carlos Olite Thank you, Juan Carlos! I plan on recording the whole first movement later today. Looking forward to your see your recording of Haydn!
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Sindre Skarelven Well, I'm learning the three movements at the same time, so I cannot play one movement from beginning to end yet
... Maybe this weekend I will make the video or at the beginning of the next week. Otherwise, I love the sonata. -
Juan Carlos Olite That is a very nice approach. There are a lot of similarities in the movements of a Sonata. I usually start learning the difficult part of the piece I am studying and then go backward and forwards from there.... Or I learn small sections here and there and then connect them together. But it all depends on how the piece is structured
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Juan Carlos Olite Yes, learning all the movements simultaneously is a good idea! Especially with the time-limit we got going on here!
That way every movement get enough maturing.
Antonella Di Giulio I also usually start with the most difficult parts! In this Haydn it seemed to be the first movement. But I'm guessing the other two movements might surprise me to be more difficult than anticipated! I have to get going with them.
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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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Roy Very nice playing! I like your articulation and dynamics.
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Roy Sounds great!
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Roy very beautiful! It is very good: do not be too hard on yourself. It really sounds like a dance
When I play such pieces I usually think of groups of measures: that might make it easier to connect the measures into longer phrases.A small thing you might correct right away and easily are the repeated chords… Always imagine them as two different elements: loud soft.
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Vidhya Bashyam thank you so much.
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Sindre Skarelven thank you!
