Group 4

Paige Keiser-Rezac What a fun and memorable event you created for your students!  Can you post a little video of your Schubertiade?

Paige Keiser-Rezac what a terrific idea for for a recital.  I havw never even considered doing that.  I love that your students were able to all dig into one composer.  

Gail Starr 

I didn’t get a video of the event, but the parents did. I will need to get a copy from one of them. It was very fun— we did poetry readings, some pre-planned banter as if Schubert were talking about his music to other composer friends, and a segment where we pretended to go into the garden in the evening to play our last few pieces of music (in the dark with twinkle lights that each audience member held). I think immersing the students in a “pretend” Schubertiade helped them remember him in a prominent way— less likely to forget another composer’s name. I also enjoyed it too! I love how music can take you back in time or to a special place— even if you never experienced it, you can still imagine it. Thanks for your lovely comment! I am looking forward to meeting everyone in this Schubert course! 

Beth Lester 

Thank you Beth for your reply! I look forward to this Schubert course and getting to know everyone. 

Paige Keiser-Rezac it sounds absolutely magical and wonderful and transformative. High praise to you for giving your students these moments of beauty, poetically lifted above this present, more prosaic time. What a great concept. 

Alexander Weymann 

Thank you for the kind words! I appreciate that very much! I look forward to getting to know everyone in this Schubert intensive and hope to make some fellow music friends while improving and sharpening my knowledge of music— especially harmony! 

Beth Lester sorry about that! Working to get that link fixed for everyone. Meanwhile, here it is: Schubert MM 6 

Ben Laude   Thank you!!

Roy James-Pike Op. 142 No. 2 (also in A-flat) is a good starter if you want to play an impromptu. And, those two scherzi are underrated pieces (B-flat is a little easier than the D-flat).

Looking forward to working with you!

Ben Laude Thanks for the suggestion.  I am going to start working on this tomorrow, as it is now 21:21 in the UK. 

I have done a lot of theory over the years, which I love to do.  I'll do your theory course as a revision and to join up the dots.  Isn't an augmented sixth the same as a dominant (flattened) 7th, apart from the enharmonic naming of the two notes?

Roy James-Pike The interval of an augmented 6th is the same sound as a minor 7th (which is found in the dominant 7th chord), yes. But the "augmented 6th" is also the name of a chord with a specific function, and that function is decidedly not a dominant function. In fact (as I discuss in the video), the augmented 6th is a pre-dominant chord.

"Augmented 6th chords" (there are different variants) are build on the flat-6th scale degree, which – if you stack an augmented 6th interval on top of – reaches up to sharp-4th scale degree. The chord is then filled out with scale degree 1, and an extra note may be added as well (either 2 or 3). Those are all variants of the "augmented 6th chord."

So, if your tonic is C, the basic augmented 6th chord is Ab - C - F# (scales degrees b6 - 1 - #4). That spelling is crucial, because the A-flat moves down to G (5th scale degree), and the F-sharp moves up to G an octave higher (also 5th scale degree).

That's what makes the augmented 6th chord a powerful "pre-dominant", because it has two half-steps "folding out" to the 5th scale degree, where you can build your dominant.

Click the time-stamp in the YT description of my video and you'll see an augmented 6th chord in action in a Beethoven Sonata. They're actually ubiquitous in music going back to the baroque, but certain composers used them more memorably than others (like Schubert).

Ben Laude I should have watched the video before asking the question but it’s late here. Of course, it makes total sense when the augmented sixth is not simply from the tonic but is in a chord transition that is moving to a resolution. It pulled towards the F when I played it, making an F minor chord in 1st inversion. I’ll listen to your video tomorrow, look out for their use in Schubert, and include them in my own palette of colours. Thank you Ben.

Roy James-Pike for me the best way to think of the augmented sixth chord (let's say, for convenience, in C major), is just what you said: take the IV chord, make it minor (if you aren't already in minor), put it in first inversion, and then raise the root of the chord (which is the 4th scale degree) a half step.

If you keep the F# lowered and then move iv6 - I, you still get a wonderful sound. In fact, it's called a "Phrygian cadence", which Scarlatti loved. It's actually the same exact function/movement as the augmented 6th, just without the spicy #4.

 Ben Laude Thank you. I am not sure that I am playing the correct notes, but I like the sound anyway.  This is what I did: LH C3 and the A flat above, with RH on F# above middle C (C4), then holding the C3 and the F#, move from the A flat to G in the LH and then add the E below the held F sharp in the RH.  Very pleasant.

I have not yet watched your video - long day, but I have started looking at the Allegretto.  I am finding some of the slurs awkward to do.  Going down with the wrist for the start of the slur and then releasing up quietly on following chord is quite challenging when going from a white note to a black note, say Bar 8 (the D naturals to E flats).  It's difficult to maintain the lilt of the slur. I must make time tomorrow to see your introductory video.  

Ben Laude What a fabulous description!  I'm watching your Harmonic Analysis crash course this evening.  You do such a great job... not only explaining the concepts, but making us theory-newbies feel less self-conscious about diving into this topic.

Gail Starr Thanks Gail!

Alexander Weymann Thank you for sharing a bit of your background and I'm excited to take this journey with you. I think you'll get a lot out of it.

Stephen D Nightingale The harmony in #2 is especially wild. And he does a kind of reverse picardy third... like, he's riding around E-flat major and then the piece takes this tragic turn and ends in E-flat minor. Beethoven never did THAT. (But, Brahms would... in his op. 119 no. 4, undoubtedly with some Schubert influence there.)