Piano lesson Oct 31, 2005

Played the Chopin Polonaise Brilliante Op.3 for Professor N. My performance of the piece was decent (B/B-). Afterwards, she commented that she liked the overall ‘style’ of my playing. The main area for improvement was in the pedaling. There were moments where my pedaling sounded more like ‘hiccups’ that slowed down the overall flow of the piece. I suspect one of the sections she was referring to was b.215-216. She recommended that I spend more some time thinking about the pedaling and how that it can help my performance/interpretation. We spent the first 45 minutes on the Polonaise Brilliante, and last 15 minutes on the Gershwin Prelude.

The Gershwin Prelude I was tricky–at least rhythmically. I learned to count sixteenth notes (“One e and a, Two e and a, etc”). I probably wouldn’t have ever known about this way of counting if I wasn’t taking lessons.

Chopin Polonaise Brilliante Op. 3

• Watch your pedaling! This is a polonaise (think of waltz-rhythm), so be judicious in where you decide to down-pedal and when to lift the pedal. Example: In b. 108-111, down-pedal on the first beat, lift up right before third beat, and leave un-pedaled through the third beat. Repeat this.
• There’s no fermata marking at the end of the first phrase—good to do a quasi-fermata, but don’t overdue it. Make it more subtle.
• In b.3-4, b.7-8, be careful with the rhythm.
• You play tense at times. Loosen up and let the music carry you (own observation).
• Watch rhythm in b.76. Don’t pretend there’s a fermata there.
• Don’t lose the triplets in b.78-79 (your playing sounds more like duplets).
• Watch dotted rhythms in b.88, b.91-93, etc.
• In the cantabile sections, make sure that the duet is discernible. Right hand melody and left hand notes (circled).
• Pedal according to the motivic structures, especially in b. 223-228.
• Hold down pedal from b.229 (all the way to the last note in the phrase, which is the first note of b.230).
• Pedal again for the last three cords. Hold down the last note and pedal and lift at the same time (after extended fermata).
• Read up on pedaling in Anton Rubenstein and T. Carreno’s pedal book.

Gershwin Prelude No. 1 (1927):

• Write in bar notations.
• To count 16th notes, count “1 e & a, 2 e & a, …”.
• The most challenging aspect of this piece is the rhythm. Write down how you would count for every measure (except for the measures with only triplets).
• Pay attention to the dynamics (accented notes, where ff juxtaposed with f.
• Follow the pedaling. Try to figure out why Gershwin put the pedal markings where they are. In the first two pages, the pedaling seems to help punctuate the accented first beat/note of each measure. By accentuating the first beat, the ear expects a repeat of an equally strong beat in the second beat, but because it’s a rest, creates a type of syncopation. Why do some measures contain no pedaling?
There is more pedaling on the second and third pages.
• In Section A’, there’s an accent on the fourth sixteenth note—adding more syncopation—along with a pedal marking on this offbeat.
• In your Section “C”, understand the structure and pedal marking.
• What to make of the measures that contain triplets? Do these seem out-of-place? What’s the intent?
• What to make of b.36, b.41, etc?