Skip to main content

"The Mad Chase" Section in Chopin

 The Chopin nocturne I am working on has a section that I refer to as "The Mad Chase." This nocturne is a mix of relatively easy passages (i.e., the first sections) and several different, more challenging passages. "The Mad Chase" is one of the harder ones, mainly due to hand stretches (and chord changes) in the left hand, and, to a lesser degree, the brief counterpoint in the right hand.

It took me several weeks to start feeling confident that I even had the notes worked out. I experimented with the fingering, trying one for a few days before trying another, and then another. I'm still not confident that I've worked out the best fingering. Here is where I am as of this past weekend--I still have some work to do, but this section has come along a lot in the past few days.

Yes, there are a few missed notes, and yes, I started the big climactic section of The Mad Chase and decided not to go through with it, but ... a big milestone is that this section has started to feel more comfortable. I'm able to play it at a decent tempo, and I'm able to think about bringing the alto voice out in the RH counterpoint. I'm also able to think about just how I want the LH to sound: agressive and pursuing? thoughtful and tentative? a threatening rumble?

I think I have settled on the threatening rumble. I originally envisioned a chase going on, with the LH the murderous pursuer, and the right hand the victim who is growing increasingly panicked. The falling alto voice is a kind of indication of the fact that, no matter how fast she runs, she's not going to get away.

But now? It's more that she senses a rumbling, or maybe she hears, from far off, the sound of the black horse of death racing in her direction.

Here's how Rubinstein plays it.  Here's how Horowitz plays it.  I think Horowitz has more of a threatening rumble; Rubinstein's notes are more clear, less rumbly But both are beautiful!

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

March Goals Recap/Looking Ahead to April

It's April 1, and time to revisit the goals I set for last month. I practiced a total of 50.45 hours in March, averaging 1.62 hours (or just over an hour and a half) per day. Realistically, I practice about 45 minutes to an hour a day on weekdays, and I usually get at least one longer practice (or multiple shorter practices) in on one or both days of the weekend to bring the average up. CLASSICAL GOALS Chopin, F Minor Nocturne March Goal: Have entire piece by memory and performance-ready. I have about 90% of the piece by memory, but I still have some work to do before it's performance-ready. The only two sections that I don't quite have are "The Agitation" and the "stretto" section with the seventh chords. I'll work on both this week and will have them both memorized before the weekend. April Goal: Finish memorizing, and polish, polish, polish! My focus now is really on phrasing and dynamics. I have the notes down, even in the difficult passages. Fro...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thursday, July 13

I worked in a short practice today. Had piano this afternoon. The short practice involved the usual scales and arps, and a run-through of my pieces. It wasn't so much a practice as a review. Piano was good. She said that the Bach sounded very musical. I asked what I should do next, practice-wise--continue drilling and memorizing HS, or start HT? She said that I "shouldn't hold off any longer" on playing HT, and to keep drilling HS if I want but to begin working HT on whatever I find to be the most difficult passage of the fugue. That's easy. I don't have the music in front of me, but in the Alfred edition, it's the bottom of page two. I played the Liszt pretty well, if a bit timidly. I'm playing it with emotion and paying attention to all of the dynamics and all of that, but I'm still also trying to make sure I get the notes right in several sections. She had all kinds of nice things to say about the Liszt. The 9-against-4 is sounding much better (...
Post a Comment
Read more

I Need an Intermediate Piece

Deborah wants me to pick out an intermediate piece to start learning next week. I went to the ARCT Syllabus guide that Robert so graciously sent me and looked up all of the pieces that I considered "intermediate." They were mostly Grade 6 and Grade 7. Not intermediate enough. I looked up my Beethoven Sonatina in G, my most recent intermediate piece. It's a Grade 3--a very early intermediate. So I'm looking for something in the Grade 4-5 category. And I'd kind of like to work on one of those pieces that everyone loves to hear--Fur Elise, Chopin's Em prelude, the Brahms waltz in Ab--all pieces I learned in junior high, but pieces that I'd like to re-learn, and learn to play well , and not like my junior-high self, whose heart wasn't in the music. And they are pieces I love, and that others love hearing as well. Hmm. Fur Elise is Grade 7. The Chopin Prelude is Grade 8. The Brahms Waltz is Grade 8. Too advanced for an intermediate piece? I'll talk it ...
3 comments
Read more