Help with Schumann kinderszenen op. 15

[sharps]

Could you please tell me if the right or left hand plays the down stem in the treble clef?  If it is the left hand, why does the finger indicate 2/3 for the first notes in the left hand?...play the g with 2?  thank you.

[jlh]

I'm assuming you're speaking of No. 1 "About Strange Lands and People".  If this is the case, then here's my advice:

I would play the stem down 8th note with the RH.  There's no reason to play it with the LH.

I don't know what edition you're using and know even less about the fingering choices in said edition.  If it says 2/3 for the fingering of the G-B interval, then the LH would be playing 3 on the G and 2 on the B.  They probably did this so you don't play the 5 on the G and then have an awkward hand repositioning problem for reaching the C# in the next figure.

Does this answer your question?

[sharps]

yes, thank you, i guess it just seemed weird to me to be playing the g with the right hand, but I think you are right.

[jlh]

yes, thank you, i guess it just seemed weird to me to be playing the g with the right hand, but I think you are right.

Just be careful when you play that note with the RH thumb that you don't give into the natural physiological inclination to play it louder than the rest.  Play it softer if anything.

[supernanny]

You can prevent playing the RH thumb too hard by focusing on playing the melody with emphasis and the other notes softer, since this is the accompinament. Yes, that is hard to do in the beginning, I am wrking hard on it 

Angie

[gerry]

Are you sure you're not confusing the 3 with the triplet indication which is over the D in the left hand My old Kalmus edition indicates right hand 2 on B, 5 on G then 4 switching to 5 on the F# which clearly indicates Schuman's intention that upper notes in the left-hand triplets should be played with the thumb of the right hand. There are no fingering indications for the left-hand at all in the first 8 measures in my edition.

[sharps]

thanks for checking but yes, I am sure it is not indicating triplets.  I think this is the Henle edition.

[jlh]

thanks for checking but yes, I am sure it is not indicating triplets.  I think this is the Henle edition.

I just checked my Henle, and yes there is a triplet mark as well as a separate fingering of 2/3 for the interval.

[damien]

Since there was no fingering in the edition i had i just played the triplets with the left hand.Playing the triplets with the down stems with the right hand  felt weird and it confused me alot.At first i played wrong notes when when playing the downstem notes with the left hand because of the leap/stretch but now i am accustomed and the triplets are easy at any speed.

[slobone]

I think it's easier to play the accompaniment smoothly if you play all the notes with the left hand.  You're not going to hold them down all at once,  so you don't have to worry about stretching. Just roll the left hand over to reach the top note.

Otherwise you have to worry about making that one top note sound like it belongs with the left hand instead of the right hand.

[gerry]

I believe that playing the upper bass with the right-hand thumb is correct and necessary. Note measures 5-6 - how are you going to sustain the G? Measure 9+ the bass note becomes a quarter note to be sustained and treated as a legato line (especially measure 10) how are you going to do that unless you use the right thumb (without blurring it all with the pedal) especially since there is no pedal marking!! Schumann was very precise about details like this. Please reconsider and learn this piece properly.

[slobone]

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! I should have tried it out on the keyboard before posting; obviously those notes must be played by the right hand.

I haven't played the piece in a long time, but it all comes back to me now. What used to drive me crazy especially are the a's at the end of measures 2 and 4. No matter what I did, I couldn't make them sound like part of the accompaniment instead of part of the melody.

As my teacher said at the time, Schumann's Scenes from Childhood are not for children. (Even though Schirmer packaged them with the Album for the Young.)