10. Etude in Style

John Thompson's Etude in Style reminds me of Schumann's Of Foreign Lands and People from his Kinderszenen collection and perhaps takes that song's place in the gradual build-up to harder pieces. This is especially likely since Träumerei (also from that collection) comes up later in J.T.'s text. Etude in Style became a reading piece for me. I realized that technically it wasn't really challenging, but that it had a great deal for me to learn regarding harmonies and modulation—especially true in the ending phrases. It also provided good material for reading, which I also need to work on during this stage of my pianistic development. So I opted not to memorise it, since it was so much longer than the other pieces and my progress through the book was already at snail's pace. I decided it would be much more beneficial to use it as a reading and theoretic exercise. In that respect, this piece worked well. The arpeggiated left hand together with straightforward chords in the right hand made reading it a challenge I could meet. 

I'm a little befuddled about the precise style I'm supposed to perform or imitate in this piece, though, since J. T. didn't include any instructions with it. I pretty much just aim for a smooth legato. The picture to the right shows an interesting D6, but its true nature is left open since the middle note is unstruck. The key signature's for F major, so Dm6 would be my guess. The broken chord in the right hand is a 9th, but augmented—if that's even a thing. (B-natural: a semitone up from 9th.) So who knows what that suggests for the right-hand D chord. It's interesting for the fingers to play though. I'm a bit perplexed by that 1 indicated above B. I don't know how to play that, but I don't recall ever having that problem while playing it. Weird. 

These chords are mostly consonant and the single-note progressions quite melodious. However, that one in the second bar for the left hand is impossible. I simply cannot hold it; my fingers won't stretch that far. It's a 10th. Ninths are my absolute maximum. At ten notes, flesh starts tearing and blood spills. I've opted instead to play them as fast(ish) arpeggios. I do suppose they are quite reasonable for some people. I don't have the biggest hands on the planet, so I imagine male pianists have an okay time with them, and quite a few female ones with larger spans. Therefore, I won't curse J.T. for putting that in. It sounds great, after all, and I love him too much for creating this method.

These are some of the broken chords that show up at the end with major modulation. I find it so interesting the way the composer (J.T.) can change the key by hand, using accidentals in almost every note and having it sound so beautiful. The most beautiful sounds seem, in fact, to be found in those songs whose notes deviate significantly from their prescribed keys. I expect to learn a lot by analysing these chords, and I hope I don't neglect the work involved. I could, you know, since it isn't part of the routine playing and the songs ahead are so seductive. 

Ending. Chords. Modulation. Left. I had some trouble, I recall, reading the second bar. I wasn't getting the accidentals right. Not sure why. Maybe a fluke reading accident that won't ever be repeated in the future?! I wish... 

Anyway, here's another picture I found interesting for some reason. It's got two sharps. I dunno... I mean, it's a basic B Major chord, but a bit out of place in an F-major key, so... 

 Alan Chan's rendition