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.
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
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