Let's Play: Spanish Music!
If you missed the FANTASTIC livestream with Magdalena Stern Baczewska this past Saturday, be sure to check it out! She walked us through several centuries of Spanish music, its developments, rhythmic styles, melodic content, and much more - Quite a comprehensive event!
Replay:
A Journey into the world of Spanish Music (with Magdalena Baczewska)
So we decided it would be fun to host a "Mini Challenge" where for the next two weeks we choose a piece to work on and post our progress here!
If you need some suggestions about music to play, check out the livestream or this list that I have compiled! Repertoire below is considered to be on the easier side, due to the nature of this shorter challenge!
Repertoire Suggestions
Editor's Choice:
Sebastian Yradier: El Arreglito (The unknown inspiration for the famous Habanera from the opera, Carmen, by Bizet!)
Advice: Play the piano part, since it pretty much doubles the vocal part the entire time, feel free to add notes from the vocal line into piano part in the final bars!
Intermediate level piece, but one of the most famous and satisfying to play!
Federico Mompou:
A lesser known, but magical composer born in Barcelona! Two options below:
A haunting and gorgeous piece by this famous composer!
Most of his music is very difficult but these short works can prove quite interesting!
Hello Everyone!
If you would like to be featured on our Mini Challenge WATCH PARTY please submit a video of you playing your selected piece by May 15th!
Watch Party MAY 24th at 11am PT!
https://app.tonebase.co/piano/live/player/pno-watch-party-spanish-music-2023
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Excellent! I'm in and I'll try to learn Asturias in 3 days (leaving town and won't have a piano after that!)
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I'm so sorry to have missed this live! However, I have started Estampes by Debussy and not quite done with Pagodes. But in anticipation of this live stream I moved to La soirée dans Grenade. So I will try to work up a page or two of that for this very short challenge! Magdalena's album "Debussy on 5th Avenue" is my inspiration - she plays these pieces amazingly!! You all need to listen to that album!
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What a wonderful idea! I do love Spanish music. This little challenge is a great incentive to work on "Evocación" from Iberia by Albéniz (just about the only piece from that suite that's fairly manageable for most of us).
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Dominic I have a question : does music from Ginastera, or Piazolla, tangos, etc do they count as Spanish music, or is there a concept of Hispanic music that is broader than music from Spain?
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This is a great idea :) just back from a holiday in Spain and need to practice piano again after a few weeks off due to work commitments so this is the perfect motivation. I need to experiment with something accessible and will post an update later in the week!
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Comment about Albeniz Asturias - the shared PDF shows the big right hand octave jumps (starting measure 25) as an 8th in left and a 16th in right where you have to jump back down in the right to play the immediate next 16th. So the first big octave jump is a D chord covering the whole octave and the next note is to jump back down to the D octave below. I found a print version of this that shows these as first the D octave in the left as a 16th followed by the D chord in right as a 16th followed by the D note in the left as the 3rd 16th and so on. That version basically gives you a 16th rest in the right to get back down an octave instead of playing back to back octaves as 16th notes in the right. This makes it a lot easier to do the octave jumps. I've attached a photo for reference as it will be more obvious to look at it. The photo shows the even bigger octave jumps of measure 41 but it should make clear what I am talking about.
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I am glad to join this challenge with a piece by Ernesto Lecuona called Malaguena from Suite Andalucia. Hope I can get out the Spanish "gusto"!
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https://youtu.be/YWA-q3gflew
I would like to contribute this piece by Falla - Spanish Dance no 1 from his opera La Vida Breve. This piece has flummoxed me for more than 10 years as I couldn’t seem to break through a few technical barriers. Only very recently and with very deliberate mindful practice, I managed to break down and overcome them.-
Ching Lee Goh Bravo Bravo!! You definitely overcame everything you struggled with in the past with this piece and delivered a stunning, effortless performance. Really enjoyed it.
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Ching Lee Goh Ching Lee Goh brava, amazing performance and full of Spanish energy! Love that piece of music, especially the rhythm!
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Ching Lee Goh Brava! Such fun to listen to. Thank you for sharing.
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Ching Lee Goh wow! Very impressive. I do play that piece myself and remember well how long and hard I had to work on it to get it into halfway decent shape. It's tricky! Your rendition was beautifully crafted and had the appropriate Spanish flair.
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Ching Lee Goh beautiful playing! It's so inspiring to listen to- you executed this piece so stylishly and effortlessly!
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Ching Lee Goh Love it! Wonderful playing, with a danceable tempo, Bravo Ching Lee Goh!
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Ching Lee Goh Goodness, nice work!
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Ching Lee Goh Amazing playing! Thank you for sharing this gorgeous music!
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Ching Lee Goh Brava! Your fabulous performance reminds me of the many ways in which the piano can imitate the sounds of the guitar...and then some! So fluid and seemingly effortless, as Vidhya Bashyam pointed out. I loved it!
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Monika Tusnady thank you! There're also guitar duet versions of the piece!
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Vidhya Bashyam thank you! What I had to do was to unlearn the wrong techniques and bad habits and tried to look at the score with 'fresh' eyes and start over again. Taking a slower tempo certainly helped!
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Derek McConville thank you!
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Alexander Weymann thank you! One big pbm was trying to sound the triplets properly with the fourth finger and pinkie - took me a long while to get enough strength into them!
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Michelle R thank you!
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Andrea Buckland thank you!
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Natalie Peh thank you! It still feels like a struggle but I think it's going in the right direction ( I hope!)
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Ching Lee Goh Beautifully played, with great spirit! Well done!
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