Ballade bender
Hi folks. I'm Ken, in Toronto, Canada. I've been intrigued with this part of the platform since I joined. However, I didn't really understand how the diary was supposed to work for a while, but I think I get it now. By the way, nice to see some familiar names from Adamant!
My intention with this entry is to share my work on the Chopin Ballades #1 and 3. I first learned #1 in a different millennium as part of my program to finish at the Conservatory here. I've reconstructed it and I'm trying lots of new ideas out. #3 was familiar and I could read through it, very slowly, until I decided to get serious and really learn it. It's a work in progress.
I prefer to learn these works in chunks and get them functioning at a basic level, before trying to stitch them together. I will probably post the segments as I work on them, then assemble and try to perform the whole thing. #1 is much closer to that goal as I start this.
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Ballade #1
First some thoughts on what I'm trying to do here. I usually have a narrative in my head for any piece I learn. Here is my current one for the g- Ballade.
(TL;DR - it gets weird).
+ Starts with an intro that has puzzled me forever. It seems like it doesn't relate in any way to anything coming after it. These days I conceive of it as a declamation, almost summoning you to hear the story that follows. A fanfare of sorts? It's heroic, then sort of... wilts. Into the dissonant chord...
+ Which brings in the first theme - which resolves the dissonance into home key. I think of this as the narrator building the scene for the story that follows. I try to make it a call and response, almost improvised at first, then building to a story line that leads to...
+ The dance. A mazurka-ish thing that starts off delicate then seems to get out of control, something bad is happening, then the building is crumbling around us, and there's this demonic laughter like thing flying around, then omg we are descending into the PIT... And big waves of lava or fire or something really bad are all around us... And then...
+ The second theme. The smoke clears over the brunt rubble and we see something being born. Sometimes I think of green shoots after a forest fire, but these days I think it's more like a newborn idea, just uncurling from a fetal pose, starting to stretch itself, an idea of healing, starting to beckon us to follow it as it rises to the sky...
+ Then the narrator is back, with the first theme, this time slower and mournful, dragging that low E natural like a ball and chain, reminding us of what used to be, getting more and more desperate, with the low E like a heart beat as the narrator hyperventilates to release...
+ The triumphant return of the second theme, now a strong young adult idea, muscular and passionate, coming to save the world, unfurling itself like a banner to lead us, but then...
+ Chaos. I don't know why there's chaos, but there it is. Weird rhythms like things scurrying all over the place, with a distorted mocking return of a dance too fast, waves of apprehension, and the clatter of a whole lot of stuff falling down, with a hot wind blasting us, before...
+ The wind becomes a cool breeze, turning into rain, drawing us to the shore, where the second theme emerges from the crashing surf, a monarch, strong, dignified and wise, leading us, but then... fades. Only to be replaced by...
+ The narrator, now old and sick, bringing us the ashes of the first theme, the low D like a kettle drum getting louder, as the narrator gets more and more desperate to tell us the terrible truth, the devastation, the big bang, and then...
+ This dance, the coda, fast, spinning, the onlookers clapping in time with our feet, egging us on, faster, faster, we are losing control again, it's not fun anymore, and once more things collapse...
+ Then there are fireworks. Or bombs? A call to battle.
+ Then the world ends. The End.
I never said it would make sense. It's a story of impressions I guess.
