Which is better: to have as much legato as you can or keep consistent with the s!
Question: Which is better: to have as much legato as you can or keep consistent with the same type of legato!?
I am playing The Tempest sonata and I had a question, which my teacher is not going to answer until she's back from the US!. I am pretty deperate, so please help!
There's these broken octaves in the third movement, most of which I can play legato using my fingers, but I have to cut the flow of the phrases because I can connect only upto a major tenth (the distance it makes from C) and some of them are perfect 11ths and it's a lot of pain for me to reach that interval!. Should I pick up my hand for each octave and legato-pedal the entire phrase or should I connect as many as I can and then use my foot for the ones that are physically impossible!?
The two types of legato sound quite different!. Is consistency more important or is it just the concept that matter (to have all the octaves slurred)!?
There's no slur marking on the phrase!. Do I even have to connect them!?
Thanks!Www@Enter-QA@Com
There's these broken octaves in the third movement, most of which I can play legato using my fingers, but I have to cut the flow of the phrases because I can connect only upto a major tenth (the distance it makes from C) and some of them are perfect 11ths and it's a lot of pain for me to reach that interval!. Should I pick up my hand for each octave and legato-pedal the entire phrase or should I connect as many as I can and then use my foot for the ones that are physically impossible!?
The two types of legato sound quite different!. Is consistency more important or is it just the concept that matter (to have all the octaves slurred)!?
There's no slur marking on the phrase!. Do I even have to connect them!?
Thanks!Www@Enter-QA@Com
Answers:
I'm guessing that you mean that section measures 66-76!. Please tell me if I'm wrong and I will be apropriately abashed!. I'm also unsure of the distinction you make between the two types of legato, but I will describe how I play that particular passage!.
In the first instance when the octaves are comming back down, it should be fairly easy for you to simply jump from the high E down to the C, then from the high C down to A, using only the first and fifth fingers!. You should put the pedal down right as you hit the first note, and take it off as you hit the last one!. To be consistent, you should pedal the same way in the measure preceding this, even though you can surely play the middle notes with your second finger!. To make reaching the tenth easier, make sure that your wrist rotates a bit from right to left, so that the hand isn't in the same position for such very different fingers!. This makes big intervals and rolled chords quite a bit easier!.
In the next varriant, where there are four notes, do the same thing; pedal on the first of the four, take it off on the last!. Even on the way down, you still want to use only fingers five and one, because no normal person's hand could reasonably be expected to reach from E to E to C like that!. It will mean jumping your thumb down a third, but it sounds just the same if you pedal it right!. You will need less rotation of the wrist here; a little bit within the broken octave, but none when you jump the thumb!.
Regarding articulations and the use of pedal; make sure that you pedal ONLY those three/four notes!. Note that after the last one in each, there is a sixteenth rest!. Be sure, then, to release the key all the way for that rest!. The mark on the eighth note at the end of each phrase is NOT a staccato mark, but an accent!. The rests are very important here, because they indicate how long the preceding notes should be held for!. Don't make the easy mistake of pedaling over them, especially in the opening phrase and ones like it!.Www@Enter-QA@Com
In the first instance when the octaves are comming back down, it should be fairly easy for you to simply jump from the high E down to the C, then from the high C down to A, using only the first and fifth fingers!. You should put the pedal down right as you hit the first note, and take it off as you hit the last one!. To be consistent, you should pedal the same way in the measure preceding this, even though you can surely play the middle notes with your second finger!. To make reaching the tenth easier, make sure that your wrist rotates a bit from right to left, so that the hand isn't in the same position for such very different fingers!. This makes big intervals and rolled chords quite a bit easier!.
In the next varriant, where there are four notes, do the same thing; pedal on the first of the four, take it off on the last!. Even on the way down, you still want to use only fingers five and one, because no normal person's hand could reasonably be expected to reach from E to E to C like that!. It will mean jumping your thumb down a third, but it sounds just the same if you pedal it right!. You will need less rotation of the wrist here; a little bit within the broken octave, but none when you jump the thumb!.
Regarding articulations and the use of pedal; make sure that you pedal ONLY those three/four notes!. Note that after the last one in each, there is a sixteenth rest!. Be sure, then, to release the key all the way for that rest!. The mark on the eighth note at the end of each phrase is NOT a staccato mark, but an accent!. The rests are very important here, because they indicate how long the preceding notes should be held for!. Don't make the easy mistake of pedaling over them, especially in the opening phrase and ones like it!.Www@Enter-QA@Com
well i am a pianist, but my fingers are almost too small to reach an octave, so either i go really fast (with my fingers) to reach the interval, or i pedal really lightly!. so i would say that I would pedal for all of the octaves really lightly!.Www@Enter-QA@Com
I am not a pianist by any creative stretch of the imagination, but I would think that consistency would be more important here!. I would guess that you would want all of the legato sections to have the same style!. As far as the markings and slurring, I would defer to your teacher on that one!. I'm sure if you listened to enough recordings you could find pianists who articulate it differently!. However, articulation should be an extension of your style, not a way to cut corners!. If you take the slurs out it should be because they sound better to you that way, not because they are easier to play!.
I remember burning the midnight oil on this piece!.!.!.my theory teacher wanted a complete analysis of the whole thing!. Beautiful piece, but pulling it apart like that kind of killed the magic for me!. Good luck to you!Www@Enter-QA@Com
I remember burning the midnight oil on this piece!.!.!.my theory teacher wanted a complete analysis of the whole thing!. Beautiful piece, but pulling it apart like that kind of killed the magic for me!. Good luck to you!Www@Enter-QA@Com