Day 66: Practice on a Local Piano...

So, I finally managed to make the time to go to a local church and practice on their baby grand today.  I didn't practice for long because my time management skills seem to be lacking lately.  It quickly became very apparent to me that I definitely need to make more of a solid effort to practice on a real piano at least three times a week. At first, I had trouble controlling the dynamics of the music.  That is, I was having trouble controlling how loud  was playing.  After about 15 minutes, I got used to the piano I was playing and had a much easier time producing the range of dynamics from piano all the way to fortissimo.  The other problem I was having though was playing notes cleanly.  You see, with my keyboard, I do not get any resistance when I play a piece.  When I play a real piano, I get resistance because I am causing the hammer to strike the strings on the soundboard instead of depressing just a key that connects a circuit to produce the sound electronically.  This meant that some of the areas of the pieces I have learned thus far that are pristine on the electronic keyboard didn't come out sounding quite so clean on the real keyboard.  So, again, the only solution here is for me to get more practice in on a real piano.  I am quite well aware now why my piano teacher was made to practice on a weighted "dummy" piano when she was learning.

Anyway, Golliwogg's Cakewalk is complete, but the measures that were giving me trouble are not quite up to tempo.  So very close, though.  I still think I can manage a recording before the end of the week!  Next up: Maple Leaf Rag!

Day 64: The Line-Up for New Pieces

Since I have passed the half-way point in re-learning my old pieces, I have taken a little time perusing my music books for the "new" pieces I will learn.  I believe I have my selections.  I will learn, in no particular order:

1. Arietta, Op.12, No. 1 by Edvard Grieg
2. La fille aux cheveux de lin (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair) by Claude Debussy.  This is No. 8 of 12 Preludes, Book 1.
3. Scott Joplin's New Rag by Scott Joplin (redundant, eh?)
4. Elite Syncopations by Scott Joplin

Why two ragtime pieces?  For symmetry.  I am re-learning two Grieg pieces, two Debussy pieces, and one Joplin piece.  For the sake of balance, I thought it only fair to Joplin to pick up two new pieces by him so that I would have three pieces by each composer in my repertoire.

Golliwogg's Cakewalk is almost done.  I only have two measures that are still a little bit of a problem, but if history serves as a lesson, I should be playing those two measures just fine by tomorrow.  Expect a recording posted to Youtube before the week is up!

A Word About My Pal Claude Debussy

Claude Achille Debussy (August 22, 1862 – March 25, 1918), was the composer of impressionistic classical music.  He was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Yvelines, France. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire from 1872-1884 and then as the 1884 Prix de Rome winner, he went to Rome from 1885-1887.

Debussy had quite a private life.  At the age of 18, he started an eight-year affair with Blanche Vasnier, who was the wife of a wealthy Parisian lawyer.  This relationship ended when he won the Prix de Rome.  When he returned to Paris in 1889, he began a rocky nine-year relationship with Gabrielle Dupont, with whom he cohabitated.  He also carried on an affair with the singer Therese Roger during the same time and was briefly engaged to Roger. He left Dupont for her friend Rosalie Texier, whom he married in 1899.  Debussy became frrustrated with her lack of musical sensitivity and intellectual limitations and started a new affair with Emma Bardac (wife of a Parisian banker) in 1904.  Debussy left Texier for Bardac and they had a child, Claude-Emma, born in 1905.  Claude-Emma died from diptheria in 1919, not long after Debussy passed away.

 

His planned set of six sonatas was not completed due to his death in 1918 from rectal cancer.  He died in Paris on March 25, 1918 during World War I.  The siege by the Prussian army on Paris prevented much fanfare in his funeral.  He was reburied after the war with a more fitting tribute. 

Rudolph Reti points out these features of Debussy's music which established a new concept of tonality in European music:

1. Frequent use of long pedal points
2. Glittering passages and webs of figurations which distract from occasional absence of harmony
3. Frequent use of parallel chords which are 'in essence not harmonies at all, but rather 'chordal melodies', enriched unisons.'
4. Bitonality, or at least bitonal chords
5. 'Use of the whole-tone scale.'
6. Unprepared modulations, 'without any harmonic bridge.'

He concludes that Debussy's achievement was the synthesis of monophonic based 'melodic tonality' with harmonies, albeit different from those of 'harmonic tonality'. (Reti, 1958)

Sources for this information are 8notes and wikipedia.  

Day 63: Grieg Piece Chosen

I spent part of my practice today, sight reading a few measures of a few selections in my big book of Grieg lyric pieces.  I think I have settled on Arietta, Op. 21, No. 1.  It is very short at only a page long. The brevity of this piece isn't why I chose it, though. It is quite simply the most beautiful of the pieces I was considering. Of course, I will not be starting it until I finish Golliwogg's Cakewalk, Maple Leaf Rag, and Clair de Lune. Speaking of Golliwogg, I am on the precipice of completeness.  I literally only have three measures that are causing some issues still. Expect to see a completion video posted to Youtube this week as I move on to Maple Leaf Rag!

Day 62: Ragtime Influence

If you have already looked up Golliwogg's Cakewalk to get an understanding of the piece I am working on, something may be nagging at you.  Could it be that the piece seems to be influenced perhaps, by ragtime?  Yes, ragtime was wildly popular at the time Debussy wrote Golliwogg's Cakewalk and this piece was obviously influenced by ragtime, albeit in Debussy's own way, of course!

I bring up ragtime because, well, my next piece I will be re-learning is Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin.  This was Joplin's first published rag and one that other ragtime composers modeled their rags after.  I also bring up ragtime because my ears are enjoying the feast of ragtime music on my Scott Joplin Pandora station this morning.  I am listening to not only Joplin, but Zez Confrey, Jelly Roll Morton, Eubie Blake, Claude Bolling, Thomas "Fats" Waller, James P. Johnson, and Jimmy Blythe (just to mention a few). I know there are some more popular names that I am leaving out, but those are the ones that have rolled through my playlist this morning.  Such invigorating music!

Anyway, Golliwogg's Cakewalk is about done.  There are just a few measures left that are shaky, but they should be taken care of in the next couple of days!

Day 59: Still On Golliwogg

Well, measures 61-86 (where Golliwogg pleads) are taking a little bit longer than expected.  Part of this is because I haven't been devoted to practicing every single day like I should.  I'm turning that around this week.  I can't lose the lead time I have gained by finishing the Grieg pieces faster than the 30 days allotted for each.  I have had excellent practice both yesterday and today on these middle measures.  Once these are nailed down, there are really only about five measures remaining that are different than the front 46 measures, so the piece should wrap up quickly once I have mastered the middle section.

I still need to put up a short bio of Debussy.  That shouldn't be a problem to do either later today or tomorrow.  After Golliwogg's Cakewalk is completed, I will move on to Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin.  After that, I will finish out this initial phase of my project with Clair de Lune by Debussy.  If I can remaster Golliwogg's Cakewalk by the end of this week (approximately 62 days), then I'm looking at having Clair de Lune wrapped up by no later than the end of May.  This is with a little extra time padded in because remember, I am budgeting 30 days per piece.  Per my budget, I would have been finishing Notturno right about now, but I am closer to finishing Golliwogg's Cakewalk, so I am pretty far ahead of schedule.  I realize I could be even farther ahead of schedule if I really sat down and practiced with the same intensity that I devoted to the Grieg pieces, so I am working to correct my "falling off" of how hard I was working.

Since I work best when constrained by a schedule, I am writing out a schedule today that will allot time at the piano I have access to locally at least twice a week.  This will help me improve as I move through this first phase and into the next phase where I learn "new" pieces!

Day 53: Stubborn Little Golliwogg

While I have only about 19 measures left in Golliwogg's Cakewalk at this point, I am far from being done with this piece.  I am having success with the left and right hands separately, but having a bit more difficulty putting them together for some reason.  It may be another week before I'm done with Golliwogg.  He is a stubborn little guy.  If I complete Golliwogg's Cakewalk in another week, I will have re-committed three pieces to memory in 60 days, 30 days ahead of the goal time.  I have a feeling that I will need that extra time to work out Clair de Lune and Maple Leaf Rag.


I have access to a baby grand for the next several days, so I intend to get some good, quality practice in.  Maybe I'll be coming back home in the next few days with Golliwogg whipped into shape?  We'll see!