Thursday, June 25, 2015

Sonata in C (K545) Mvt. 1


It's actually been about six weeks since I moved on from Mozart's Sonata in C, so this post is woefully overdue. I made a note to myself on April 29 that said "Got the run faster and more even today," and that was about two weeks after I'd memorized it. Actually, this is only the exposition from the first movement, and even though it was a bit of an ambitious attempt for me, it was also somewhat reasonable. What prompted me to learn it is that the third movement of this sonata appears in the second half of John Thompson's Fourth Grade Book. Since that will be coming up, and it's been rated as harder than this movement (by Henle), I figured I'd learn it. Naturally, the trilly parts were hard, but actually so were the Alberti bass phrases pictured above, particularly because I hadn't had very much exposure to them yet. (Something similar had shown up in Schumann's Melody and Boccherini's Minuet.) So I recall having enough trouble with this opening that it took three or four sessions (with large gaps of days between) to get them feeling comfortable under my fingers. Incidentally, I'm working on Bach's Little Prelude in F right now, and I think it would have afforded me better preparation for this Mozart piece. Nevertheless, the opening to K545 was within reach of my capabilities, so I learned it and I'm glad I did.

I'm missing a picture of those long runs that characterise the piece. The main difference between these and a stringing together of scales is the fingering. You have to cross with the 4th every time. If you remember that, you'll be okay in the right hand. Then you'll be free to focus on the left hand chords. 

This is perhaps the most difficult section of the exposition, and I actually recall trying it out way back in January when I first bought The Sonatina Album that contains this piece. I'd been listening to the accompanying CD and automatically knew this part would be hard, so I singled it out as as technical drill. Boy was I right. That left hand arpeggio was brutal at first. Switching back and forth from G to C like that was murder on the fingers. Doing that preparatory work really helped with getting it up to speed this time when learning it for real. In fact, this arpeggio simplified a similar arpeggio I had to play in Bach's Little Prelude I mentioned earlier. So. 

This is another brutal section. I still mess it up, though I have an uncanny knack of always playing it right the first time, but messing it up pretty much every two times after that. smh. It really gives the left hand a work out with those alternating notes. What really messes you up is the second bar (only half pictured) where the alternating pattern itself alternates. Again: smh. And I think I did the wrong trill here at first. I started on the note lower than the one indicated, but should have started on the higher one. Had to fix that. Wasn't fun. I figured I'd spent that time not learning the wrong trill, but simply learning an additional (and perfectly legitimate) trill. Just one that wasn't in this song.
This trill isn't so bad. It's not easy by any means, and I've tried not to just do a free floating trill, but to time it to be 32-notes and to perfectly fill the grooves in the left-hand accompaniment. The hardest thing about that is getting the end to sound smooth and not make that G seem like a sharp edge. Plus you have to remember to stop. The trill's so long, the fingers might feel like they should just go on with it forever.


Finally, there's this melodious end that is a maze for the fingers. It gave me some preparation for a similar maze in Elfin Dance (yes, I actually learned this before Elfin Dance, and I'm just now writing this blog entry). It also reminds me of a little star-shaped manoeuvre in La Styrienne. It's difficult, but sounds great. You play it first two octaves down from the middle and then you move one octave lower. I think it sounds better the second time around. The final chords are in G and reminds me of the ending of The Juggler. The G chord means the exposition's going to be in the dominant key.

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