What Do You Think About When Playing Chopin Ballade #1?

[pianoperfmajor]

What do you think about as in any particular adjectives for each section?  I ask because I think about words or moods while I play, but my teacher really doesn't teach in this way...he just tells me like "more melody" or something really generic like that.  My last teacher did teach in the 'mood/word association with the music' way, and my playing was generally better.  So for the different sections, for example the first slow Eb major passage...what comes to mind?

[quantum]

for example the first slow Eb major passage...what comes to mind?

You are by a pond surrounded by sweet flowers, green grass, singing this melody to your lover, and describing your love to her. 

[pianoperfmajor]

Yeah I can definitely picture that..  what about the coda, or any other passages?

[dinosaurtales]

Woa!  That sounds like happy stuff!  Only in the middle!  I see this piece describing an unrequieted love - opens in the cold of winter - on a small bridge over the snow and ice covered creek.  Then it warms up to spring, then summer - but the girl gets dumped by the guy SHE loves, not knowing another man loves her, so she jumps off the bridge into the icy water and kills herself.  I think you can guess exactly where that happens!

The coda is the man who is in love with her frantically dealing with the fact his love just jumped off the bridge!

My piano teacher thinks I have an active imagination.

[jre58591]

i would think about nothing, except about the occasional problem passage. this works best.

[invictious]

War

And the upcoming passage that I should have practiced more.

[anschlag]

Haha! Lucky you!

I can't play it and what I think is that I would like to be able to!

[maxy]

Will I survive the coda?   

[steveie986]

I imagine myself taking a nice lovely dump by the pond with birds chirping around me as the lovely fragrance overcomes them. Showpan is just so beautiful and romantic like that!!!!!111ONE

[Waldszenen]

Last time I played it, I was semi-consciously watching TV in the reflection of the piano. Does that help?

[pianoperfmajor]

Last time I played it, I was semi-consciously watching TV in the reflection of the piano. Does that help?

no, not really

[kghayesh]

I don't know whether this is crazy or not, but i feel as if this Ballade is a long story with merryful as well as grief moments. Which i think, corresponds to the story of a lifetime, from birth to death. 

At the Largo at the begining i feel like i am preparing for the birth scene in a smooth singing way. Next, the main theme starts indicating the moment of birth and the begining of a passionate story. Moments of childhood, exploration and discovery of the new world are shown in this part.

Then, come the days of puberty which include many developments in the character of the child. The Agitato perfectly describes this, especially in the octave part that is repeated. But, finally, The child turns into a teenager and matures and all this fiery development calms down into a beautiful calando that gradually fades away into the nice teenage years.

Teenage years are full of friends, hangouts, relationships and it is an enjoyable period in life. The beautiful melodies in this part depicts so. But yet, time goes on and the teen find himself/herself driven into being a grown up responsible who has to work much to secure career and similar stuff. The gradual development of the main theme into the fortissimo chords part draws this transformation brillilantly.

This part leads us into the merriful waltz-like scherzando where the person enjoys some stability in life after working hard in the early 20s.  But again this joyful theme takes us back to a more serious one (the part with the LH is in octaves). meaning that life is not that easy, dude, u should work more harder. (Stop here if you think i am so out of bounds !)

Then theme 2 (the teenage years theme) comes back but in a more disturbed and mature way than before. Here it is in the early 40s and the guy feels he is going older, so he tries to enjoy life as much as he can until the last moment, this is so obvious in the final ritenuto before the Meno Mosso.

Finally, the coda represents the final years of struggle between illness and survival in the last decade in life. I feel this so much in the chromatic descending between Ab, G, F# in the second section of the coda which gives u a feeling of unrestlessness. The two final ascending scales represent two final attempts to recover and get back to life but are replied with the powerful octaves descending chromatically leading to the final accented G, indicating the arrival of death...

Yes i know it is impressive 

[pianoperfmajor]

I don't know whether this is crazy or not, but i feel as if this Ballade is a long story with merryful as well as grief moments. Which i think, corresponds to the story of a lifetime, from birth to death. 

At the Largo at the begining i feel like i am preparing for the birth scene in a smooth singing way. Next, the main theme starts indicating the moment of birth and the begining of a passionate story. Moments of childhood, exploration and discovery of the new world are shown in this part.

Then, come the days of puberty which include many developments in the character of the child. The Agitato perfectly describes this, especially in the octave part that is repeated. But, finally, The child turns into a teenager and matures and all this fiery development calms down into a beautiful calando that gradually fades away into the nice teenage years.

Teenage years are full of friends, hangouts, relationships and it is an enjoyable period in life. The beautiful melodies in this part depicts so. But yet, time goes on and the teen find himself/herself driven into being a grown up responsible who has to work much to secure career and similar stuff. The gradual development of the main theme into the fortissimo chords part draws this transformation brillilantly.

This part leads us into the merriful waltz-like scherzando where the person enjoys some stability in life after working hard in the early 20s.  But again this joyful theme takes us back to a more serious one (the part with the LH is in octaves). meaning that life is not that easy, dude, u should work more harder. (Stop here if you think i am so out of bounds !)

Then theme 2 (the teenage years theme) comes back but in a more disturbed and mature way than before. Here it is in the early 40s and the guy feels he is going older, so he tries to enjoy life as much as he can until the last moment, this is so obvious in the final ritenuto before the Meno Mosso.

Finally, the coda represents the final years of struggle between illness and survival in the last decade in life. I feel this so much in the chromatic descending between Ab, G, F# in the second section of the coda which gives u a feeling of unrestlessness. The two final ascending scales represent two final attempts to recover and get back to life but are replied with the powerful octaves descending chromatically leading to the final accented G, indicating the arrival of death...

Yes i know it is impressive 

Wow, quite detailed.  (right down to specific dates: "This part leads us into the merriful waltz-like scherzando where the person enjoys some stability in life after working hard in the early 20s.") ha.  but yeah, very imaginitive.