Group 4

Serene I think that's perfect.  Definitely clearly multi-player.

Daniela 

Sorry for the late submission. The piano tuner has been working on the really old piano for abt a week now. (I live in Nepal and we don’t really have trained piano tuners here). 
 

Thank you for your time. And looking forward to your feedback. 

https://youtu.be/RxC8NJJpzFM
 

Serene I love it Serene.  You definitely do a good job of bringing out each line.  On the second page there's a dialogue happening in the right hand.  Do you see 2 horns or something else playing against the horn?  What about the middle voice of 23? I definitely hear your vision in m. 27. Beautiful phrasing btw!

Daniela 

Thank you for the week 2 videos. Really enjoyed them and learnt a lot! 
 

Tried to apply what I have in my playing.  Here is the link 

https://youtu.be/lDE17FtrDIU

A question… will the different playing techniques produce different tones on a touch sensitive electric/digital piano? 
 

5-10 descriptive words: 

1. sweet

2. grand, majestic

3. calm

4. bright

5. gentle

6. light/heavy

7. Melancholic 

Serene Hi Serene, I'm not able to see your video.  (It's coming up as private).  If you can post in another way.

To answer your question, the "touch sensitivity" should mean that the instrument will respond to different attacks.  To what extent will really rely on the quality of the keyboard I believe, but it's definitely in there!  I feel the same can be said for an acoustic piano, however.  The better the piano, more more it will respond to the subtleties of your approach.

Daniela 

sorry Daniela. I’ve changed the setting for the video. You should be able to view it now. 
 

thank you. 

Serene beautiful Serene. The difference in sounds is very clear and just noting the attack of the winds vs. brass shows a wide spectrum of sounds you’re able to produce. Shout out to the bass clarinet and your high school music teacher!

I recorded just a tiny excerpt of the beginning. I love the way you approach the first note of the clarinet. The first time I play, I tried to play with a relatively flat finger and across the key on that first note and then flat fingers to reduce the attack from then on but because the line is moving and legato sometimes it’s hard to think about playing also those other notes from across the key. It’s not necessary but it does keep the idea of the woodwind throughout the opening line.  The second time I tried that same attack on most of the notes through the first 2 measures. See if you notice a difference. 

Serene I forgot to mention I love your descriptions of the sound qualities. They are so varied for such a short character piece which is based on one idea. 

Daniela 

Posting my final ‘performance’. 
https://youtu.be/QXzAJo3lEkM

I added the una corda to hopefully highlight the sound quality between the clarinet and the oboe. I have big time performance anxiety and hope I’m doing the music justice.  
 

Yes. Autumn is my favorite season… often evoking different emotions. 

Once again I want to thank you for your really insightful instructions and your kind encouragement. I really enjoyed the 2 weeks of learning and practice. 

Thank you, Daniela. 
 

PS.. just want to assure you no child/bird/chicken was harmed during the recording process. Thankful none of my kids barged in like they did during my other flopped recordings. :p

Serene beautiful nuances Serene. Thank you for your contributions. We all gained a lot

Taylor Ma Welcome!

Daniela Here is my analysis. Hope I could play it better. 😓

Taylor Ma Hi Taylor! You are playing good and you have good ideas for your orchestra. I have played this piece two years ago. Looks easier as it is. I was practicing each voice alone- the melody the bass line and the middle voice (accompaniment as soft as I can and ppp) and than put it together. Keep going. 👍

Kerstin Thank you for your encouragement! 💪

Taylor Ma Great example.  Tons of instrumental writing in the sonata in general.  In fact, he marks the first chord of the piece forte-piano, which seems a rather silly instruction for piano, don't you think? (Achieved through attack to a certain extent but not nearly as effective as it could be from the orchestra.)

In m. 37 The articulation between the upper melody and the bass is so different, perhaps the dialogue of strings to winds is happening between the registers?  The portato in the triplets there feel like they would make more sense on a bassoon, perhaps?  You noticed a similar idea in the accompaniment in m. 51.  The pattern changes in articulation from before, and so you chose a different group of instruments which I whole-heartedly agree.  Certain patterns are more easily executed with a bow, etc.  Here, it seems cumbersome.

In m. 59 - YES to flutes.  Maybe basses and bassoons in the bass there for the counter-melody.

Also did you give any thought to harp anywhere? I can hear it peeking through maybe at the end. 

Fazil Say actually orchestrated this movement if you want to see his thoughts. It's at the 8 minute mark, here: https://youtu.be/UnD4G85i-20

Daniela Your suggestions are great. It feels like the whole orchestra can be fully deployed. My analysis was a bit limited to only some instruments! Your advice helps a lot. Thanks!

Taylor Ma 

My descriptive words:

Warm

Groan

Airy

Ah-ha moment

Blink-blink

Eerie 

Percussive

Angelic

Meditative

Metallic

Shiny

Bell like

Leslie Chong Beautiful playing Leslie.  I have to say that when I constructed the class, I didn't even have Debussy in mind.  What a fantastic idea!  So much color in the writing but also in your playing.  You talk about the qualities of sound of instruments, "some warm strings", "regal sound" of the horn.  I think this is why your playing shows so much color, because you are thinking like this.  SO, I'm going to make you work!  With all of this great detail you gave, how many different QUALITIES can you think of.  You have warm and regal, perhaps shimmering, haunting... I'll leave the rest to your imagination. You don't need to share them all if you chose not to (although we can all benefit from a wider vocabulary of sound qualities) but this will serve you for assignment #2.  

Really enjoyed your video!

Leslie Chong 

Beautiful, Leslie. 

Leslie Chong It sounds really beautiful, Leslie! With very appropriate associations.

Daniela 

Thanks everyone for your kind words! Thank you Daniela for this enlightening course. I am finding this to be a great framework to develop an interpretation of a piece. Sometimes when I'm working on something, I struggle to concretely define what exactly I'm going for, and it's very helpful to think in terms of the colors/timbres of the orchestra. I’m really enjoying the activity and looking forward to applying this to other pieces as well. I’m so glad I decided to join the class!

I tried to come up with sound qualities (or in some cases just descriptive words). Also, when I was looking at the piece tonight, I changed some of my instrumentation from the first time around. This time I thought it’d be easier to attach the score with some annotations.

Changes in instrumentation:

- Previously I said flute for measure 12 and 15, but actually now I think I hear more of a  trumpet – the sound has more robustness and mass than a flute.

- I’m not sure if this is a little bit weird, but in measure 24-27 I think I hear human voice/drone/chanting.

Some descriptive words. (I actually find it pretty hard to pinpoint words -- I guess my vocabulary is limited!):

A. simple, clear, direct, pure

B. warm, sonorous

C. radiant

D. tender, shimmering, also something that means “gently flowing/falling” but I can’t think of a word for this

E. anticipatory

F. open, expansive, majestic, awe

G. distant, reflective, questioning, (quiet) yearning, poignant

Thanks for the suggestion! Looking forward to learning/exploring more.

-L

Leslie Chong  I think my favorite thing about this assignment is the fact that you went back and changed your mind.  It shows that your decisions aren't arbitrary, but you really used the context to pinpoint what you (and Debussy most importantly) were after.

One of the things that I didn't talk a lot about but I'll mention here if you find yourself applying this elsewhere: One of the things I've noticed with this type of work is that it gives my playing a much better sense of punctuation.  Thinking that one instrument ends and another begins helps me finish each phrase with a better spacing into the next.  Kind of a happy side-effect.