About "Ossia" and "Coda"

[allchopin]

1)  Who/what is Ossia, and why do we care about this?  Why are these small sidenotes always harder than the actual music?  Are these for study?

2)  Usually a Coda is for repeating (to coda, D.c. al coda, etc) but in some recordings this Coda does nothing. What is the purpose?

[davy10tunes]

"Ossia"  is just an option for the performer.It is not always more difficult, sometimes it is easier! Also sometimes an editor can offer his own "Ossia" if he thinks the composer has made a mistake.Personally I like to have a choice, it makes things more interesting.

A "Coda" does not have to do anything, it simply marks the end of a piece.In Italian the word coda means tail.
Having said that some composers codas do more than just finish a piece off.

Btw, about the Ossia question, are you refering to any particular piece?

David

[allchopin]

Oh I have seen Ossia's everywhere (is Ossia a past pianist or what?) in Chopin (fantasie-impromptu, nocturne #1 Op. 48 in c minor), Liszt (pag. etude #2), and other pieces.

[davy10tunes]

Ossia is just a (italian) term used like any other.For example:
"Allegro" - "quick, fast"etc.
"staccato" - "short, detatched"
"Ossia" or "O sia" as the Italians say, means " It may be "
What edition of the fantasie impromtu do you have because I don't recall ever seeing a "Ossia" in that piece.
I hope I have explained the meaning of "Ossia" clearly for you.

David

[allchopin]

Ok, I see.  I still dont understand the point of this, though.  Why would they think that the composer messed up?  They wrote it!

I have the Schirmer version (Fontana, not autograph)- the Ossia is in the slow section, on one of the right-hand falls with grace notes.

[Wired]

Just because they wrote it doesn't mean that they're markings on the paper weren't confusing for the people who edit them today. Most likely after writing so many songs on paper by hand, you'd end up with some errors.

[Wired]

I didn't necessarily mean that I meant that there would be some markings that might be misinterpreted by the people who were to reproduce the song in the first place.

[rachfan]

davy hit it right.  In Italian ossia means "or", "otherwise" , "or else", all meaning an alternative way of playing a passage.  I'm glad that composers include these options.  For example, what would we do without the ossia in Rachmaninoff's big cadenza in the first movement of the third concerto?  Most, but not all, artists opt for the ossia, not the more straightforward version there.  

Most codas consist of a few measures added to the end of a piece to create a more effective termination.  Without the coda, many a piece would end on a "weak note".  Some of the most lovely codas I've ever played appear in the Rachmaninoff Preludes, for example.

[eddie92099]

Oh I have seen Ossia's everywhere (is Ossia a past pianist or what?) in Chopin (fantasie-impromptu, nocturne #1 Op. 48 in c minor), Liszt (pag. etude #2), and other pieces.

In the Liszt, I learnt the ossia and the original. In performance I like to play the original version first and the ossia second since it occurs twice. Cherkassky did this with the Rach 3 ossia  - deciding which cadenza to do on the spur of the moment!
Ed