5. Il Penseroso

Il Penseroso by Stephen Heller is an interesting piece for having the melody in the left hand. In fact, that was the principle of its inclusion based on J. T.'s requirement that every lesson contain something new. It also previews (I think) some of the  techniques required for Chopin's Prelude in B Minor coming up at the book's halfway mark. That has left-hand melody, too, and even the text looks a bit like it! The arpeggios in the right hand are the challenging part of the text, however, despite their supporting role. I think it's a bit odd that this piece should feature the left hand and still have the right hand doing the difficult manoeuvres. Not only is it surprising that the main role should be so simple (compared to the accompaniment) and still be able to stand out, but also that it doesn't require more of the left hand—since that's the hand whose technique gets neglected all the time. The opening above shows the first fluttering arpeggio, and notice they should be played lightly (leggiero). The overall direction for the piece requires pacing and tenderness. So... light and tender. The landscape of the arpeggio is rugged. Five separate notes alternating between black and white keys, and it does stretch the hand much in the same way Chopin's chords did in Prelude in C Minor. In this case, however, the hand must travel fluidly from one end to the next, and that requires some work. It's paying work, though. The arpeggios that follow are of a similar order.

The chord progression in the first bar pictured here (right) sounds great. It goes from a diminished C in second inversion to a G minor struck twice. The progression in the next bar from the E octave (with G added) to C has a vaguely familiar sound to it and passes satisfyingly on to an F-B♭ dyad, which I can never settle on holding with 5-3 or 5-2 fingering (LH). It should be 5-3. Let's see if I remember that.

The middle section moves on to these octaves. They begin with D's and then switch to G's, and each set moves a semitone to the left before resettling on their respective notes. Note the legato slurs between the bars. I think it requires that my fingers slide off the F# / C# and then back down to the G/D, but I haven't quite perfected that manoeuvre. Notice how the pedal breaks strategically to ensure that it provides no help with that aspect of the performance. Thanks, Heller! The right hand accompaniment to that is a three-pronged semiquaver group that flutters atop the octaves in a peculiar pattern that repeats later on when the opening theme is repeated. This is a good thing: it means this form isn't learned in vain but transfers to later parts of the song.

Next we have some ascending broken chords that look a bit like those found in Bach's Prelude in C Major (from The Well-Tempered Clavier). I compared the texts as soon as I noticed the resemblance. No cigar. Anyway, these are interesting. On the page the first group looks like an A minor broken triad, but since E's are flattened (the song is in B♭ major), it ends up being a diminished chord followed by... something for which I have no name—a progression of notes. But then the left hand takes this opportunity to travel up an octave or so and then back down to the notes with which the song began.

Not surprisingly, the opening repeats, but this time with variation. All left-hand notes not previously covered with right-hand flutterings now receive some. An example is shown here. The chord progression I commented on earlier now receives a lengthening of the duration for which the first chord is held and a corresponding shortening of the second chord. The right hand also comes in for one of those three-note semiquavers I mentioned before. The entire theme is played with these sorts of modifications and then the middle section (and this theme) is repeated once more before the ending ensues.

It is introduced thus:

The left hand travels from B♭ down to an F octave and then transitions to a perfect fifth (B♭-F). The right hand does some interesting chordal stuff, too, apart from the arpeggios, which themselves contain a progression of notes that harmonise with that of the left hand. (Incidentally, the RH arpeggio has been repeated quite a bit throughout the piece, so it's already quite familiar. Just one more note is tacked on before A-C and B♭-D  are played with the dyads mentioned above.) Then, repeat.

Finally, the left hand joins the right in a longer progression down the keyboard, one that plugs the gaps previously sustained in the left hand (but still with the right hand sneaking notes in between the quavers). This ends with chords similar to the ones named in the paragraph above, but then they're repeated two octaves higher to really punctuate the song's conclusion. The hands cross in a sort of bird-wing fashion to hold them, too, so that the middle notes of the four-note chord are held by the thumbs and the end notes by the fourth fingers in each hand. Thus it's a visually as well as aurally aesthetic ending. Nice job, Heller :o)

Alan Chan's rendition