Week 3: Expression over Perfection
At this point in the challenge, you've likely become more comfortable with the notes and structure of your piece. Now it's time to shift focus toward interpretation and emotional depth. This week is about exploring what the music means to you and how you can communicate that meaning through sound.
Assignment:
Define the Emotional Landscape
Take a moment to reflect: what is the emotional world of your piece? Is it reflective, playful, tragic, or unsettled? Write a short reflection (1ā2 sentences) describing the feeling you want to convey and how that shapes your approach.Record a Passage with Intention
Select 8ā16 measures that feel emotionally significant. Focus on tone, voicing, and timingānot technical perfection. Record and share your performance, along with a brief note on what you aimed to express and why you chose that section.Engage with the Community
Watch another participantās video and leave a thoughtful comment. Offer one observation about what worked well!
Guidance:
Schubert's music often blurs the line between clarity and ambiguity, joy and sorrow. Rather than striving for a ācorrectā interpretation, embrace the nuance and let the music unfold naturally. Sometimes the most moving performances are the ones that feel the most personal.
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Schubertās Moment. Musicaux, Op 94 No 4 is filled with tension seen in the contrast of staccato in the left hand and legato in the right. This tension carries even during the times when both hands are legato. The center section is more mellow, but there is still an underlying tension seen in the accents on the āandā of the first beat, and the multiple accidentals.
But there are surprising areas of peace and beauty in the midst of the tension. The portion I have recorded here is in the middle section, 12measures beginning at the repeat. It is filled with accidentals, and subtle accents, and subtle staccato various places. Then, at measure 12, it resolves to this beautiful D flat major chord. The beauty at this particular moment really resonates with me.
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Jennifer Mehta the dissonance makes that section so beautiful and you play it was such grace
I can certainly hear your legato to stacatto even though it was subtle. Great job!
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All the best laid plans...
We are living on the Isle of Wight, which is a small island off the south coast of the UK.
We had a buyer for our house on the mainland but the sale has fallen through so it looks as if we will have to return to the mainland in October, so lots of packing to do.
This and other issues has meant that we have had three trips back and forth over the last fortnight but I have tried to engage with this challenge despite the travelling.
I have been working on the Liszt transcription of Schubert's Standchen in addition to working through all the Tonebase lessons on Schubert. Henry Kramer on the Wanderer Fantasy is a must for everyone!
My edition says to use the sustain pedal on each detached chord but I have decided to experiment with the sostenuto pedal instead.
I have been trying to use the 'una corda' pedal and the sostenuto pedal simultaneously in some passages, but this seems to cause a problem in the mechanism, as the dampers are then lifted other chord notes as well as the bass note. This may be a 'regulation' issue. Does anyone know whether it should be possible to use these two pedals together?
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Hi all! Ok so here is my first recording of the piece that I selected for this super fun challenge - Gretchen Am Spinnrade.
I chose this piece 1) because itās gorgeous, and 2) because it required me to really work on my voicing. Voicing just isnāt something that Iāve had a lot of practice with and so I wondered it maybe this was more than I could chew in 4 weeks but I really think Iām doing better than I expected. While the melody line still needs to be brought out even more (or really I need to subdue the non-voiced notes more), I can at least clearly hear the melody line throughout the entire piece. I can also finally get through all of it but it is still quite slow. I have really enjoyed learning this piece though and on a side note I now also know why my bench seems to have gained more squeaks because I can see in my video that I have these little body bounces when I play the melody notes
so clearly relaxation is also an area for me to focus on lol! Anyway Iām looking forward to watching everyone at the watch party next week -
Andrea LeVan Iām ashamed to say that Iāve never heard this piece before but itās just lovely. Thanks for posting! I think you are doing a great job of bringing out the melody and keeping the complex accompaniment under control, while keeping a steady pulse throughout and evoking the spinning wheel.
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Hazel ps. I find WD40 works a treat on my squeaky bench!
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Andrea LeVan this is a marvelous piece (new to me as well) and very well played! I particularly like how you bring out the stormy emotion towards the end. Iāll have to put this on my to-learn list.
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Andrea LeVan Great work in such a short time! Yes, itās such a gorgeous piece!
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Here is an excerpt from Schubertās Moment Musical #2. The piece starts out calmly in A Flat Major, then starts descending into sadness in this f sharp minor section. It feels like a soliloquy at this point- alone, emotional but still serene.
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Vidhya Bashyam just lovely! A very rich and beautiful sound; you definitely bring across the sadness of the piece. I love how artfully you slightly delay the melody compared to the accompaniment in places where you want to enhance the melancholic expression. And towards the end of this section, the little echo effect in the repeated notes in the right hand was very effective.
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Alexander Weymann Thanks! So glad you noticed the echo effect- it felt so right to add it in the moment of sadness.
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Vidhya Bashyam lovely heartfelt playing, Vidhya! Gorgeous!
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Vidhya Bashyam that's very beautiful, I like that singing melody.
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Vidhya Bashyam Very beautiful. It's one of this pure Schubertian moments: intimate, haunting and soul touching.
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Vidhya Bashyam you played that so beautifully. I definitely heard the melancholic soliloquy.
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Phew... I am at this point in practice now, where things are getting worse again. I mess up so often now!
Listening back to this recording I still realize that my inner tempo feels faster than it actually is.
I like the withdrawn emotion, those lonely inner thoughts which open up at some spots. For me the emotion I want to go with is solitude, peace, reflection, a part where dreams open up a bit and get sparkling or maybe thinging back at times that were more socializing, but then reality is back and it's just me and the piano again. But because there is music it is not lonely, it is caring and tender and all fine. Or like maybe an older person who is at peace with herself, thinks back to times when there were more people around, and then is back at the beach, sunset, just enjoying the moment.
Unfortunately the more emotion I put into it, the more mistakes I actually make.
I notice that perhaps I should think in bigger phrases beyond the small ones, maybe that will help. And I will try to find target notes and resting points. I would so much love to perform this at the recital end of next week, but not sure if I can bring it to enough security.
If anyone has any more tips, please share. Especially on how I can reduce those random mistakes which happen at all different spots now. Because there are no more "difficult " sections, I have it all sorted out and practiced and know the chords, the progression and all. But still mess up randomly...
Side note: this school grand only can go full pedal and only if you press 100% down, so the bad pedaling is partly because of the bad instrument, as are some notes that I played but came out too silent or not at all.
