Étude Op. 10, No. 8 and 9

Story time:

The other day I was at my locker in the music building pulling out my two pages of Chopin to sightread when one of my colleagues, Scott Troyer, came up to me grumbling something about not being able to compose choral music in the manner of Eric Whitacre.  He is composing a piece for our choir to perform next year (which I'm looking forward to!)  I  say to him, "Scott, it's not  that hard."  I then tell him to follow me into a practice room and I have him sit at the piano.   By this time he's thoroughly confused, especially when I grab his hands.  I then drop his hands on they keys and say "there you go, that's your first chord."  I walk off as I hear him laughing behind me.

As I said in one of my earlier posts, I started sight reading a few beginner piano books so that I could feel good about myself while I try and make it through these etudes.  The books are, for the most part, in chronological order.  One thing that I've noticed is that I really enjoy classical and romantic children's pieces rather than 20th century or contemporary children's pieces.  The more classical pieces in general make so much more sense and make for better one-page pieces than the later pieces.  Playing a binary piece comprised of mostly I, IV, V, a few sevenths, and maybe a modulation makes for a more coherent and whole piece, with a beginning and end, than a more modern through composed work with almost atonal dissonance.  From the perspective of a child, the classical pieces would make more sense and would probably be less frustrating to play and practice.  One of the pieces in the book was titled  Penguin March (or something like that)  The left hand was playing I V I V I... etc. in the key of Db, however, the right hand had a melody comprised of only white notes, thus the penguin (black bottom, white top.)  Cute idea, but I believe it was poorly executed and too dissonant for a children's piece.

Etude 8 was a decent sight read, although I was not a fan of the constant 16th notes in the right hand.

Etude 9, however, was a lot of fun to play.  Even playing it slowly I was able to get a feel for the piece.  It has a beautiful melody with a constant 16th note bass figure outlining the chord.  Being only three pages long it is shorter than some of the etudes, but it still remains very expressive (trading off between f pp p f pp ff pp and finally ppp at the end.)  Chopin wrote expressions into the piece in great detail using words such as "with passion, a little agitated, very smooth, like a whisper, with force, and leggierissimo - meaning very light."

Total time spent sight reading: 1 hour 20 minutes
Total time spent writing: 40 minutes

Étude Op. 10, No. 5 (mm. 24-end) - 7

In the spring of 1834 Chopin went with Ferdinand Hiller, a fellow pianist, to attend a music festival in Aix-la-Chapelle, known today as Aachen located on the western edge of Germany.  At this festival he and Hiller became friends with the composer Mendelssohn.  From Mendelssohn we can learn a bit about Chopin and Hiller's personalities as well as playing styles.  Mendelssohn wrote a letter to his mother saying that

He (Chopin) and Hiller have considerably improved their technical equipment.  Chopin is now the first among pianists.  His playing provides us with as many surprises as we find under Paganini's bow.  Hiller is also a virtuoso full of strength and grace.  Unfortunately they both have the Parisian mania for the tragic pose.  They exaggerate the sentiment, and time and rhythm suffer for it.  But since, for my part, I go to the opposite extreme, the result is that we complement each other.  I seem a perfect pedant, while they are like modish young exquisites. (Bidou 106)

So when performing Chopin or Hiller, exaggerate rubato, the musical line, expression, and bring out the emotion in the piece.  When performing Mendelssohn, use rubato, but remain much more reserved and never lose a sense of time.

I considered yesterday one of my better sight reading days!  Etude 7 came rather easy and is a beautiful piece. In my piano lesson on Monday my teacher had me sight read a hymn, as she often does, out of the blue Mennonite hymnal.  The sight reading came much more naturally than it ever had in the past and for the first time she simply said "good" and we continued with the lesson.  It seems that even after two weeks this has been paying off!  I also decided to supplement my sight reading with a few beginner piano books.

Since I am now blogging every other day I will add up my time for the last two days:
Total time spent sight reading: 1 hour
Total time spent writing: 30 minutes

Étude Op. 10, No. 3(mm. 26-end) - 5 (mm. 1-24)

Regarding Technique and Originality:

In the autumn of 1831 Chopin arrived at Paris.  His early years in Paris were spent performing, later spent composing.  A few performances were done in concert halls, however, he later chose more intimate Paris Salons as preferable performance spaces.  It was in these Salons that Chopin met many prolific composers and virtuosic pianists of the time.  One of these pianists was the composer and teacher Friedrich Kalkbrenner.

[Kalkbrenner's] playing was smooth, sustained and harmonious, not seeking after an effect of power, but delightful in its sonority of tone and perfect in its evenness, pure rather than impassioned in style, and based exclusively upon finger-work. (Bidou 95)

Kalkbrenner even invented a "hand-guide" which was a bar of wood placed under the pupils wrists to raise them in order to teach the fingers to acquire firmness and produce tone and quality of sound by themselves.  All of Chopin's contemporaries recognized that Chopin's technique was superb, however, it was not the result of practice.  Chopin's father wrote to Chopin that "your mind has been more employed than your fingers.  Other have passed whole days working at the keyboard, but you have rarely spent a whole hour practicing the works of others" (96).    That is to say, Chopin spent a great deal of his time fiddling around at the piano and composing instead of practicing technique.  Needless to say, Kalkbrenner was appalled the first time he saw Chopin perform!  "[Kalkbrenner] was scandalized at the boldness of Chopin's fingering" (96).  Kalkbrenner, in attempt to civilize Chopin's technique, offered him lessons for three years.  Chopin consulted his family about the issue.  Elsner, his original teacher, wrote Chopin saying that he must not become a copy of Kalkbrenner's technique lest he lose his originality, which is what makes him notable and prolific.  Chopin wrote Elsner back saying that "I shall never be a copy of Kalkbrenner; he will be powerless to turn aside my intention, which may be bold, but is a noble one: namely, to found a new epoch in art" (99).  Chopin took a few lessons, but decided not to continue, however, he dedicated the Concerto in E minor to Kalkbrenner out of thanks.

I can't wait until I'm finished with the etudes and into more relaxed, and much less technique heavy, genres.  The required virtuosity to even sight read SLOWLY these pieces is simply not in me.  I find that more often I am simply taking the pieces a chord at a time to find out how the pieces are put together.  The melody is still there, it just lacks the specific rhythm and meter that makes it a work of art.  Oh well, it is interesting to analyze these pieces.

I believe No. 4 is a brief study on a trade off in melodic line between the left hand and right hand in order to keep the melody consistent and recognizable.

From the first part of No. 5 I can guess that the etude works on arpeggiations to the jumpy nature of the right hand melodic line.

Total time spent sight reading: 30
Total time spent writing: 1 hour

Posts...

... may end up being every other day.  And so the busy life of a music major ensues.

Étude Op. 10, No. 1 - 3(mm. 1-26)

I am now moving on from preludes to etudes.  Etudes as a genre started to be seen around the early 19th century.  An etude, a French word meaning study, is a composition usually designed to aid the student of an instrument in the development of his mechanical and technical ability. Such technical skills  are scales, arpeggios, octaves, etc.  Chopin created the concert etude which is designed not only for study purposes, but also for public performance and which combines technical difficulty with high artistic quality. (Harvard Dictionary of Music)

The first set of these etudes were published in 1833, although the first two etudes were written as far back as 1829 (when he was 19 years old!)  Bidou writes that "we may find in the Etudes a compendium of Chopin's musical idiom.  At the same time he concealed his pianistic science behind the magnificence of his art" (118).  Basically saying that the pieces remained as beautiful as any piano work while still remaining as technical practice.

Above is a video of the Op. 10, No. 1.  For now my sight reading will be very slow until I can finish these etudes.  I'm not looking forward to the next couple of weeks.  No. 1 works on arpeggios, No. 2 on chromaticism.  As far as I can tell, No. 3 works on distinguishing melody in the right hand while many other notes are being played.  All have been beautiful so far, but I think I like No. 3 the best so far.  I'm more of a fan of Chopin's slower and more romantically emotional pieces.

Total time spent sight reading: 30 minutes
Total time spent writing: 40 minutes

24 Preludes. Op.28. 24(mm. 17-end)

Finished with the preludes!  The only trouble I really had with prelude 24 were the long runs in the right hand.  I could never manage to run theme while still playing the bass with a consistent tempo.  User error: PEBKAB (problem exists between keyboard and bench).  When it boils down to it I'm just not very coordinated.  I'm playing Mozart K381 duet with my piano teacher and I always have issues with trills in the right hand (or both hands for that matter) while the left hand is playing accompaniment.  Something I'll have to work on in the future.

Total time spent sight reading: 20 minutes
Total time spent writing: 15 minutes

24 Preludes. Op.28. 22(mm. 2-end) - 24(mm. 1-17)

Continuing off of March 19th's theme of the importance of influences in a composer's life, in July of 1829 Chopin headed to Vienna.  The purpose of the trip really being simply to "make a name for himself" as the cliche goes.  Bidou writes that "he was famous at Warsaw.  But this local praise was no longer enough for him" (40).  Chopin desired to be judged by the same audiences who had heard Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.  When he arrived he met with a publisher named Haslinger who announced that Chopin's Variations on La ci darem la mano  would be published the following week.  In order to "stimulate the sales" Haslinger encouraged Chopin to give a concert performing the variations.  If you are in the music business you must be flexible and adaptable:

The concert took place on August 11, 1829, at the Imperial Theater.[...]  Chopin was to perform the Variations on la ci darem la manoand the Krakowiak for piano and orchestra.  But the orchestra had recieved Chopin with sour looks at the rehearsals, and made so many mistakes, that, by the advice of the manager, the composer had to replace the Krakowiak by two improvisations.[...] He sat down at the piano white with rage.  Perhaps his rage was an advantage.  "I was in despair and yet the Variations made such an impression it was followed by a thunder of applause and several recalls. (42)

Chopin then gave a second concert, this time playing the Krakowiak (apparently the orchestra just needed some practice).   It is interesting to think of composers not only being performers, but being such virtuosic musicians that they are able to give a performance based purely on improvising on a few themes!  In today's musical culture, improvisations are usually done with a background band or ensemble.  It's hard to picture going to a performance where the musician simply sits down at a piano, completely exposed, and improvises on a theme, sometimes a theme chosen from the audience then and there.

While in Vienna Chopin met Gyrowetz (conductor and composer of over 150 works), played works for two pianos with Czerny (a composer of over a thousand works), made acquaintances with Schuppanzigh (first to interpret Beethoven's quartets), met the violinist Mayseder, met the composer Konradin Kreutzer, composer Franz Lachner (only 26 at the time), and the composer Seyfried, among many others.

Chopin left Vienna after having made the impact he was hoping for.

Prelude 22 was a wonderful piece once I finished it, although I did take it quite slow.

Prelude 23 was also taken much slower, however, I don't think that it took away from the piece.  Looking at the piece initially I was hesitant due to the non-stop 16th note melodic line, however, within the context of the piece it made for a beautiful melody.  This is the only prelude so far that does not have a definite end!  The 16th notes in both hands simply run straight into a quarter note with a fermata without any written ritardando. It is the Eb that occurs in the second to last bar that makes the piece sound like it ends on a I7.

One page into prelude 24 is not enough to write about, more tomorrow.  (I feel like this is becoming a theme.)

Total time spent sight reading: 30 minutes
Total time spent writing: 1 hour

24 Preludes. Op.28. 20-22(mm. 1-20)

Today was another busy day, luckily I was graced with three fairly simple preludes.  They were wonderful to read and I truly believe that my sight reading has been improving.

Prelude 20 is a very simple 13 measure piece in c minor.  Set at Largo (very slowly) the piece was easy to sight read near performance tempo (with molto rubato).  The piece almost sounds as if a person is trudging along at a very slow pace, tripping every couple of steps.

Prelude 21 is also fairly simple due to the melody being in the right hand while the left hand plays chromatic 8th notes.  Eventually when the right hand does play 8th notes along with the left hand the two hands play in octaves, making it easy to look at the music for one hand and think the same for the other.

Only a page of prelude 22 was left for today so I'll write more tomorrow when I finish it.

As my junior recital draws nearer I begin to realize how unprepared I am.  Three of my five pieces are now memorized, however, two are not (one being french) and the other is a piece I picked just last week and haven't sang with my accompanist yet.  The recital hearing is on the 26th.  Less than a week away.

Here is another excerpt from my recital program notes:

Total time spent sight reading: 30 minutes
Total time spent writing: 40 minutes.

24 Preludes. Op.28. 18(mm. 8-end) and 19

Behind every great composer lie teachers, experiences, influences, and years of hard work.  Even Mozart, who  is arguably considered one of the most prolific child prodigies, was coached by his father at a very young age.  In 1824 (14 years old) Chopin's parents sent him to the Lyceum at Warsaw and requested that Jozef Elsner be his music teacher.  Bidou writes that "Elsner, though lacking in genius, seems to have been an excellent teacher. He had the merit of not opposing his pupil's original bent. [...] He allowed [Chopin] license with regard to the rules and usages of music, saying that extraordinary gifts demanded extraordinary methods" (10).  Part of Chopin's genius is derived from the fact that Elsner allowed him to freely compose without being constrained by classical rules.  This allowed Chopin to flourish as a Romantic composer.  While taking lessons, Chopin studied the music of classical composers such as J.S. Bach and Haydn.  Chopin wrote in a letter to his friend Fontana: 

I am correcting for my own use a Parisian edition of the works of Bach; not only are there misprints in it, but, I believe, mistakes in harmony, committed by those who set up to understand Bach.  I am not doing it with any claim to understand him better than they do, but in the conviction that I can sometimes guess what it ought to be. (8)

While it may be somewhat pretentious to be editing Bach's works, Chopin does it somewhat humbly in that he states he may not have it correct, but it is what he thinks is correct.

Ultimately it is important to understand the relationship between composers and the music they studied.  Every year Bluffton University hosts what they call the "Bach Festival."  A major work is performed, while not always necessarily Bach, combining the choral ensembles and community choir with an orchestra and soloists.  This year we performed Haydn's Mass in Time of War No. 10 Hob. XXII:9.  As part of my major I get the opportunity to record the work and produce a CD for the department.  On the recording I used a combination of Mid-Side technique, suspended XY, subtle ambient mic, and a stereo pair on the soloists.  Below is the last movement of the Mass.

Today I finished up the 21 measure 18th prelude.  As stated previously: interesting and similar to prelude 14.  The last six measures are the most interesting, contrasting, confusing, random, and beautiful measures that I've read so far.

Prelude 19 did not make me happy.  The entire piece is comprised completely of 8th note triplets with the melody being the uppermost note.  However, consistently found throughout the piece are jumps ranging from  an octave to a 13th or 14th.  Seriously?  How big were Chopin's hands? Not a fun read, considering the melody just got lost in the jumble of notes.  My hands still hurt from being stretched to their max.

For lessons I picked up a Bach Invention as a last minute piece for the semester.  The day I got it I tried to play through it and my hands were just not working together as they should for a fugue so I gave up. However, today I looked at it again and I was surprised that I could read it a bit better and I was able to make sense of the 16th notes in the left hand.  So... sight reading every day must be working.

Total time spent sight reading: 30 minutes
Total time spent writing: 1 hour

24 Preludes. Op.28. 17(mm. 22-end) and 18(mm. 1-8)

I picked up prelude 17 where I left it off yesterday, which is to say, in the middle of a modulatory section.

Excerpt from prelude 17

I have a feeling we're not in Ab major anymore... In fact we're modulating to E major which will eventually lead back to Ab major for a restatement of the main theme.  At this point I gave up worrying about the key signature because it was almost always rendered obsolete.  However, look at this passage.  The piece is slowly chromatically progressing downward made evident by the progression of the bass note.  Not only did I have to worry about all the accidentals, but the changes between bass and treble, as well as what ledger lines I was looking at.  All in all, besides the accidentals, the piece was a nice read.

Prelude 18 is very interesting and in some ways related to prelude 14.  The musicality of the piece comes from the contrast of 16th note phrases and homophonic (chordal - consisting of more than one note) interjection.  The similarities between 18 and 14 occur in that the 16th note phrases are often played in both hands in parallel octaves.  I only made it measure 8 today, I'll write more tomorrow.

Total time spent sight reading: 20 minutes
Total time spent writing: 20 minutes

24 Preludes. Op.28. 16(mm. 14-end) and 17(mm. 1-22)

Today was the first day that I was not looking forward to sight reading and blogging.  This may have been due to the fact that I'm a college student with a million things on his mind, but I honestly think that it was because I knew I would have to pick up where I left off on prelude 16...

Prelude 16 is a truly beautiful piece don't get me wrong, however, it makes for horrible sight reading because the melody is never ending line of 16th notes.  It is considered the hardest piece in the set due to the fast nature of the piece and almost impromptu (improvised) style melodic line.  The harmonic structure and support of the piece lies solely in the left hand accompaniment.  Seriously though, let's talk about these ledger lines!

Sadly I mostly gave up on prelude 16 and moved on to 17 which raised my spirits.  It is, however, 90 measures long and I only managed to get through one page today.  However, what I did read I thoroughly enjoyed.  The piece is simple in that the piece is mostly comprised of eight notes, the upper voice being the melody and the rest being chord tones. More analysis tomorrow when I hopefully find time to finish.

Total time spent sight reading: 20 minutes
Total time spend writing: 20 minutes

24 Preludes. Op.28. 15-16 (mm. 1-14)

Op. 28, 24 Preludes, was composed between 1835 and 1839 and is comprised of 24 short pieces for piano, one in each of the 24 keys.  Term "prelude" is used loosely because normally a prelude is generally thought of as an introductory piece, however, Chopin's preludes represent stand alone thoughts.  The longest prelude is 90 measures long (prelude No. 17) and the shortest, No. 9, is only 12 measures long.  Bidou accounts that the preludes were not initially met with wide acceptance, writing:

      It was this rudimentary development of the Prelude which later disconcerted Shumann.  "I must confess," he says, "that I had imagined them to be different, and treated, like his Etudes, in the grandest style.  Almost opposite is the case: they are sketches, beginnings of studies, or, if you prefer, ruins, a few feathers dropped by an eagle."  But he at once modifies this harsh judgment. "Yet in every piece," he adds, "there is the same speaking style - which is Frederick Chopin; he can be recognised even in his silences, which are instinct with passion.  He is and remains the proudest and most audacious poetic genius of his time." (174)

Although the preludes are short and often disjunctive, they are beautiful pieces that offer insight into Chopin's creative mind.

The two pages I read today only covered prelude 15 and a page of 16.  Prelude 15 is a beautiful prelude that takes on an almost ternary ABA1 form changing from Db Major, to c# minor, back to Db Major with the enharmonic Ab/G# blurring the key change.  Taken slowly, the piece was a nice sight read.
The below image is Chopin's sketch of prelude 15.

Since I'm only a page into prelude 16 I'll write more tomorrow.

Total time spent sight reading: 30 minutes
Total time spent writing: 40 minutes

24 Preludes. Op.28. 12 (mm. 48-end)-14

Once in a blue moon I find enough time in the day to get my homework done, as well as spend enough time in a practice room to be relatively productive.  Today was one of those days.  I managed to finish the required program notes (excerpt to follow) for my junior recital hearing which is in *gasp* two weeks, on top of running through Tchaikovsky's Prelude in c# minor a few times, sight reading, and finding some time to compose.  I've found that my composition technique has become increasing chromatic and dissonant, more so within the last two days than it has been before.  I credit this to Chopin.

I picked up the 12th prelude where I ended yesterday, which was fairly unsettling due to the dissonant nature of the piece, luckily it settled back into the key towards the end, ending on a purely root V-I cadence which, as far as I can tell, is odd considering Chopin often chooses to fill out chords.

The 13th prelude is interesting in that the bass could be analyzed as outlining the chord in a melodic manner by presenting the root, then two non chord tones (the last being an appoggiatura), leading to the chord tones.  This bass motif is found throughout the piece.  The melody fills out the chords on the down beat while presenting the melody in the uppermost voice.  Once I understood the left hand pattern sight reading became easier, especially with the chording and very simple melody in the right hand.

The 14th prelude is a monster of itself!  Not a hard piece to sight read, but very very interesting.  The first odd thing about the piece is that both the right hand and left hand are playing the same melody in octaves for the entire piece.  Second, Chopin presents a motive in tonic, but immediately uses accidentals, thus the sense of key center is lost.  He then transitions upwards (almost atonally!) to the dominant where the sense of key is restored.  The piece then continues this pattern of transitioning between tonic and dominant eventually ending in eb minor (tonic).  The piece is only 20 measures long.

As promised, an excerpt from my program notes:

Total time spent sight reading: 30 minutes
Total time spent writing: 50 minutes

24 Preludes. Op.28. 10-12 (mm. 1-47)

My freshman year at Bluffton University I happened to pick up a 1927 copy of Henri Bidou’s Chopin at a book sale.  Most, if not all, historical references to Chopin in this blog will be from this book.

Frederick Francis Chopin was born on February 22, 1810.  (Four days before my birthday!) Bidou writes that “it is not hard to believe that from his earliest infancy Frederick was so sensitive to music that it made him burst into uncontrollable tears” (8).  It is with this raw emotion that Chopin composed and it is this emotion that I fell in love with the first time I heard Nocturne No. 1.

Needless to say I did not read Prelude 10 anywhere near performance tempo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS8TeLEHX44&feature=related), but I was able to stumble through it.

Prelude 11 reminded me why I love preludes: it was short and sweet. Again, to be performed vivace, but read much slower.

Already three days in I feel that my sight reading has improved.  I've found that it's getting easier to take pieces slower and push my way through, even when I completely botch a chord.  Normally when I mess up I either hesitate or go back and correct it.  Ideally, by the end, I would like to be able and set a tempo at the beginning and play straight through a piece without breaking time.

I ended today with The first half of Prelude 12, measures 1 - 47.  The melody starts with a four measure ascending half step phrase, making the sight reading easier, followed by a four measure phrase that settles into the key. The contrasting two phrases act as tension and release which, when paired with the pounding bass, drives the piece along.  I'll write more tomorrow when I can get a feel of the piece as a whole.

Total time spent sight reading: 30 minutes
Total time spent writing: 40 minutes

24 Preludes. Op.28. 6-9

Normally when you get a nosebleed the initial instinct is to find a few tissues, pinch your nose, and wait it out.  However, you know you're a music major when you wad a tissue into a ball, stick it up your nose, and continue to practice.  This was my predicament ten minutes before my piano lesson.  I was determined to get my full ten minutes of practice.

I started off today with prelude number 6 in the key of b minor. Looking over the piece before hand I noticed that it is to be played assai lento (slower than lento), the una corda (soft pedal) is used until tre corde (without soft pedal), and the right hand is to be played sotto voce or softly "under the breath" (Merriam-Webster).  The melody in the piece is found in the left hand with the right hand playing chord progressions similar to the fourth prelude in that it progresses chromatically primarily one voice at a time.  It was a fairly simple sightread and a very beautiful piece.  Preludes 4 and 6 are my favorites so far.

7 was also an easy read in the key of A major.  The piece is only 15 measures long and primarily stays in A major except for a brief modulation in measure 11 and 12.  The piece is to be played slightly faster than andante (andantino) and dolce e semplice (sweetly and simply).

At three and a half pages long the 8th prelude frightened me a bit.  I decided to save my right hand a bit and skip over the grace notes, deciding instead to play only the melody which is found in the alto voice and is comprised entirely of dotted eight note - sixteenth note groupings.  The first page went well at the extremely slow tempo I took it, but after that the piece turned completely enharmonic, basically rendering the key signature obsolete. It was a miracle I didn't get frustrated and quit half way through.

The 9th prelude was a good place to call it a day.  It is simple, fairly conventional, melodically interesting, and has, what I consider, a fun bass line.  The piece is slightly reminiscent of the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata with the melody in the upper voice and a tripletted 4/4 feel.  The piece begins modulating around measure 6 until the main theme is realized again in measure 9.  The piece then briefly modulates again, but Chopin brings it to a resounding E major at the end.  

Total time spent sight reading: 30 minutes
Total time spent writing: 1 hour

Introduction: 24 Preludes. Op.28. 1-5

Three things I’m bad at:

     -Writing
     -Sight reading - the art of playing a piece of music without preparation or previous acquaintance 
     -Sticking with something long enough to finish it

With a freshly printed 1315 page compilation of Frederic Chopin’s music, and a can-do attitude, I invite you to join me on a journey of discovery and self-improvement.  Over the next 365 days I plan to sit down in a practice room and force myself to sight read four pages from the compilation a day.  I will then blog about the experience, things I notice in the music, a bit about Chopin’s life, and maybe a bit of what is going on in my life.  The unfortunate thing is that, other than taking about an hour of my day, there is absolutely no reason that I shouldn’t do this.  

I chose Frederic Chopin's music because I've always felt connected with his music.  Chopin is a true Romantic composer in that his music represents full expressions of the heart and soul.  He often breaks classical conventions, constantly pushing the envelope towards 20th century music.  It is with this musical expression and emotional depth that I have learned to love his compositions.

Today marks the beginning of my journey, how fitting it is that I should start with his collection of Preludes.

One thing the three piano teachers I have had in my live have had in common is that they frequent the phrase "SLOW DOWN."  The fact is that I have always tried to work on the musicality of the piece before learning the notes, thus why I have poor sight reading habits.  Starting off the first Prelude I took it way too fast.  Instead of shooting for hitting the notes I was more focused on what the piece sounded like, which was incredibly hard since the piece is supposed to move fast and the chord progressions are rather unconventional, thus I kept losing my sense of the key center during the piece. In fact, it wasn't till halfway through the piece that I noticed the piece was in triplets.  Embarrassing. The tempo marking for the piece is "Agitato," which is similar to our word for agitated.  The piece even sounds agitated with the fast moving two note melodic phrases coupled with the cluster of accompanimental notes beneath.  

The second prelude went a bit better because the left hand had a similar chordal pattern throughout the piece  and I smartly took it a bit slower.  The right hand had a slow melody which contrasts the left hand accompaniment.  The melody is structure in a very lyrical, vocal, manner.

Not gonna lie, the third prelude kicked my butt.  I'm used to chording and arpeggiating in my left, so having to play a fast lyrical left hand accompaniment threw me off.  I found that I was constantly stumbling over the left hand fingering.  Something to work on: left hand scales.

The fourth prelude is one of my favorite.  Coincidentally, it's also fairly easy since the left hand forms chords moving one voice a half step at a time.  The piece is Largo, very slow, and expressive.  I sight read it fairly well until measure 16 and 17 when the melody became more involved and the left hand jumped up an octave. towards the end of the piece Chopin uses a term I had never seen before: Smorzando, which means growing slower and softer : dying away (merriam-webster).

I finally ended my period of sight reading by stumbling my way through the fifth prelude.

Total time spent sight reading: 40 minutes

Total time spent writing: 1 hour

Yeah, this will be good for me.