I couldn't wait to get to Hungarian It's in A minor, and you know me and those minor keys. I was also eager because I thought those fast runs it contains would present a challenge, and it made me happy that J.T. thought I'd be ready for those challenges by then. And here I am. As it turns out, these triplets are a kinda tricky too. (See first bar in pic above.) I didn't know this part would prove difficult, but the 2-3-4 fingering for the fast triplet is actually kind of tough, especially because the 2nd finger's on a black note and the other two in the gutter. It's an awkward placement, and I had to practise a lot just to get it somewhat smooth. I kept omitting the middle note. I did find it a bit easier to replicate it a bit higher up the keyboard on a variation a few bars on. It seems that playing with the right hand a little to the right of my body made the whole thing a bit harder. (Note that both hands begin in the bass clef.)
This is the second of two sets of three sustained chords. (The first is pictured at the end.) The third chord is the hardest because it's got a grace note an octave down and it's a three-note chord. Jumping up from that to accurately hit three notes at once is... well, murderous enough to justify splitting that infinitive. I practised it a lot though. The run that follows is a back-handed ascending melodic A-minor scale. It starts on E so that the half with the raised 6th and 7th is played first. It's kind of cool. And weird. At first it looks like it's gonna be an E major chord, but then the tail flattens out and it just... isn't. So it sends you running to scale catalogues (in your mind or online) to find out just what it could be. I've just been plodding like a snail through this book, and I'm hoping that I truly have gained quite a bit of technique up to this point. [Note: it took me 5.5 months to complete the third grade book. I'm closing in on 5 months now in this text, and I'm not quite halfway through yet.] The good news is, I do recall thinking that despite the need to really practise these triplets and runs, Hungarian as a whole didn't seem so hard to learn. The memorization process went much faster—perhaps because so many of the passages repeat. It's a little shorter than Scarf Dance; both a two full pages here but only two-thirds of Hungarian is repeated. Scarf Dance repeats in its entirety and extends to four pages in the original, in which the repeats are written out. So maybe it's not especially sanguine that I learned Hungarian somewhat quickly by comparison?
I'm still practising it, but it's coming along.
These semiquavers contain repeated notes that make an interesting melody, and they're followed by a pair of triplets that at first scared me a bit because I thought I needed to fit each into the space of two semiquavers. Luckily I was only half right: the space of four semiquavers is a lot easier on my fingers. That B that crushes into the A on the first triplet is one of several crushed notes in this piece. But with this group it is a little tricky because they're staccato. I try to do delicate staccatos here; it just seems called for. Then because the leap to the chord is of a different size in each hand, I have some trouble making it in good time without messing up at least in one hand. I'm messing up less and less now, so that's a good sign.
Here the main difficulties are those grace notes right at the beginning of the measure and then that dyad of adjacent notes (G and A) being held by fingers 4 and 3. The hard part isn't holding them; it's releasing them and then hitting F with the third finger. Sounds simple, but it was surprisingly awkward. I think the space between my third and fourth fingers is too small. Needs stretching, and I think this piece'll be the one to do it. The rhythm on this run is pretty sweet. It's the same as on the above semiquavers, and is basically the defining rhythm of the piece. So I have to watch those two note slurs. They're very important... and very fun. 
In this measure, we have a fast sextuplet group. Notice how the first chord indicates the B should be
held with the 3rd finger. Then the B switches to the 2nd finger for the
fast trill. I just hold the B in the first chord with the 2nd finger
from the beginning and save myself the confusion. It's a little tricky
to strike the supporting chord at precisely the right instant. It's also
a bit tricky to start the trill at the right time. I think this bar can
be stretched out a little bit using a bit of artistic license.
It's followed by a really long version of the run run we saw in the second picture above. It finishes up with that back-handed A minor, so here "all" I have to do is learn the first three notes and then attach it to the one I already learned. The difficulty here is the way the 2-3-4 fingers have to roll to and fro above the thumb. That's 4-3-2 to the left, then thumb, then 2-3-4 etc. Pretty spiffy. Ah, the precision piano requires...
Then we have this run. It's simpler than the previous ones because it's pretty much an extended C major scale that starts on E. It's trickier than the others in the left hand, however, because the accompaniment enters in a weirdly syncopated manner. The hard part is getting them in at the right time so that the speed of the right hand doesn't leave the left hand behind. This is also a factor in a couple of the single triplets (not pictured), but here the difficulty is compounded times three in both hands! 
These broken chords in both hands come upon me suddenly every single time. I always feel like there ought to be a couple more notes before I have to play this. I get the feeling it deserves a bit of slowing down, too, before launching into these final semiquaver groups--and that last demisemiquaver before the big finish. But there's no ritardando indicated. Not sure if I'm advanced enough yet to start taking liberties with the tempo. Maybe I can plead rubato?
Okay, so maybe the finish isn't so big. See, it ends on a diminuendo. But it's a great finish. That grace note trio does about the same thing as the 32nd group did before, just a bit slower. And the final chord has just got that wonderful closing ring befitting a minor chord. I rather love this ending.
Extras:
The first grace-note chord located very near the beginning in the 4th bar.
Alan Chan's rendition
No comments:
Post a Comment