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 Most, if not all, historical references to Chopin in this blog will be from this book.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
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