Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Slave to the tyranny of classical music

Nice!

Of course, every person should play scales until their fingers go numb. In fact why play music at all. I only play scales on my Bösendorfer. Since I have more keys than normal, my scales are that much better!

We never covered that in school, but I now feel ready to write a PhD on the subject! Thankyou

Agree with the OP. Yes, the composer wrote the music a specific way because he wanted it played a specific way. It bothers me as well when people deviate so far from from what the indicated marking is on any given piece.

Aha you are the triangle man TLT, I remember you!

My students play a lot of pieces by a certain regular poster on piano world. My students like the pieces very much and I am Not Prepared to make new repertoire choices (would require lateral thinking which I haven't had since I turned from gardening to classical piano). Should I do away with this composing Poster in order to benefit my students? If I play triangle for 12 hours in composer's vicinity would that be fatal?

I fear he might decompose.

Like this:
ting ting ting ting ting - - ting - - ting ting ting ting - ting - ing ting tigg tong ting ting ting bingbingfbinginb thing--

Well it's definitely dead music.
Ahem, the "he" composer is actually a "she" composer. But we won't say any more about that!

Jazzyprof, you will be fine as long as you play chopin because is very dead and thus appropriate for study (thank goodness for that) Now I really must get back to some dead person practice. What a blessing that Hanon is dead too as he is the perfect antidote to creativity on a dangerously inspired morning.

I wonder who really knows how the composer wants the music to sound if they are dead? I mean.. you can read the notes and play.. and listen to professional recordings of the piece from other bands etc but we don't have recordings from the composers themselves do we? And I'm talking about those really old classical composers. Like take bach for example. He died in 1750 or something like that. Did they even have ways to record back then? lol So how do we know how the music is suppose to come out if the original composer isn't around to show us and there are no recordings of it. Just a thought. We can take a pretty good guess of course but still maybe we are completely off from what the original composer wanted? I don't really know anything about classical music etc so I'm curious:) So.. I guess in the end.. I'm wondering if we interpret these wonderful classical pieces the way the composers wanted them interpreted or we maybe we dont?

Yeah I almost fell off my chair when I read his triangle post last time!

On the subject of dead composers, my young children and I had a strange conversation in the car the other day.

6-year-old son: I want to listen to Mozart
me: Play Mozart Piano Sonata in ....
car: Playing Mozart Piano Sonata ....
son: Is Mozart playing the piano?
8-year-old daughter: Mozart is dead.
son: He could be a zoombie.
me: Zoombies are slow; can't you hear those scales?
daughter: Yeah but Mozart was a prodigy!

We know how the composer wants the music by the markings, such as allegretto, presto, grazioso or rinforzando. The only marking I know of that allows the pianist some freedom is ad libitum.

You guys are being way too serious. The OP totally didn't mean anything he said. I think he meant for this thread to be fun. Let your best sarcasm flow.

Of course, you know nobody would want to read your dissertation until you are dead.

ooh guess I forgot about those lol and I still like music where people have improvised it like canon for example. There are some wonderful improvised versions of that song out there. Plus.. most of that music is way to hard for me to play from the original scores so I like it when people put it in easier forms but is that really improvising or just rewriting the score so it's easier for people like myself to play ?:)

lol it's fun to make threads serious... that's how discussions get going :P

WELL..............

I'll join in simply to narrate a tale from the early 80s when I was a high school student and being asked by my instrumentalist friends to accompany them for their instrumental examinations.

It was a Grade 5 flute exam, and we were to begin with a simple movement from a suite by some Baroque composer or other. My friend and I had rehearsed well, and I really knew what to do to make her sound fabulous and hopefully score brilliant marks thanks to our dynamic ensemble performance! Just before we were about to start this first piece the examiner came over to the piano, put his hands on my shoulders and said "Now we know this piece was written for a harpsichord, and since harpsichords didn't have sustain pedals we won't be needing to use the sustain pedal on the piano, will we?"

"No!!" I exclaimed enthusiastically, surreptitiously sliding my right foot back under the piano stool, cursing his commitment to the authenticity trend, and attempted to accompany well, despite the fact I had not rehearsed the music 'dry'.

At the point of the exam where my role had ended, the examiner returned to where I was seated, did the hands on my shoulders thing again, and said "You are a very gifted accompanist".

What a sadist.

I like your style.

You never covered Jefferson Davis and the great, heartwarming American Civil War during your education in Scotland? Hard to believe. I'm sure they did. You must have been absent that day. After all, we studied the Scottish Civil War(s) here in the States - all of them. Or at least we saw the movie version starring Mel Gibson.

JF

A little music to add to the discussion. Don't sing along though, Michael Palin is alive and well to the best of my knowlege.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkRXTT-15WM

First of all I would like to reassure everyone here that I am a triangle and piano player of the *female* variety. Probably everyone knows what that means, but anyone who is unsure may please speak up, and I'll let them know. My education in anatomy was far more detailed than that on history.

Blue Engine - I am a true Python, though I'd never heard that one. Thankyou for bringing it to my attention.

Elissa, that is a beautiful story.

JF - You talk of the American Civil War. This rings a triangle for me. Who did you fight it against? I'm glad at least you were civil to them, and hope they paid you the same courtesy. I don't recall Scotland having civil wars, although it is possible I was simply absent from school that day.

lol funny :P

BB player has closed the 'Free to be Creative' thread.

Halleluya!