How to play this?

[nicco]

Next tuesday im playing this piece "Softly as i leave you" accompaning an euphonium, at a concert, but im not sure how to play these last notes. First i thought it looked like a tremolo of some kind, but im not sure. Does anyone know how these notes should be played?

[stevehopwood]

Looks like a tremolando to me, especially if the 'piano' part is actually an orchestral reduction.

Depending on what the soloist is doing at this point, I would either play tremolando with B E G as a chord alternating with the E, or I would simply play one chord and hold until the soloist finishes.

Steve 

[tyler_johnson]

Well, since there is a fermata between the 2 notes, perhaps the composer thought it necessary to display how long he wanted the notes held...in this case a half note's length.  What I would do is hold the first chord for a half note, fermata...then hold the chord again.  Somewhat like the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata.

[tyler_johnson]

I take that back.

I would roll the chord for a half note's length, fermata, then roll the chord again for another half note's length.

Or you can buy the CD? 

[nicco]

Dont think so

Im really unsure about these, i think maybe ill just go with the easy way and play the chord only once, but this really tricked my mind, isnt there any certain answer to this?

[franz_]

I think it must be played as a long tremolando. If you hit just once the chord it loses the effect, 'cause there is marked fff and the fermate sign.

[Bob]

Tremelo.  I don't know why the composer wrote it like that instead of a whole note with three lines.  It may have something to do with specifying exactly which notes to tremelo -- I think that's pretty clear.  Whole notes with three lines might be ambiguous.  It might be written that way to reflect something about a motive or the meter.

It's a euphonium solo.  The person who wrote/arranged it may not have known how to write for the piano. 

I don't think that composer/arranger knew how to write a tremelo the right way.  Or maybe it's a really old piece before official rules came out?  Or something peculiar about the composer.

[nicco]

Jack suggested to play the same chord, as it says, repeatedly over 4 bars. Maybe that is the solution. This is a fairly new piece, like a pop song, so the composer should know about the rules, everything else in the song is very clear.

[Bob]

Hmmm... I don't know.  If it's modern, it could mean a lot then.

Pop tells me the person might not know what they're doing.  One of them pop Euphonium solo you so often hear.

Yeah, it could mean repeat the chord -- either measured out or as fast as possible.  The composer/arranger doesn't seem to be very nice to the pianist if that's the case.  Ouch.  And that would sound pretty similar to a tremelo anyway. 

Of course, if it could be the arranger used a software program and this is the best they could do to show what they wanted.

[allchopin]

It's supposed to be played as quickly repeated chords, as in tremolo fashion - except that instead of trilling between different notes it is the same chord.  Technically since the barring is for 32nd notes, it should be repeated in that pacing, but it doesn't really matter... especially since there are fermatas, so you'll just end up holding out the tremolo longer than the measure anyway.

[quantum]

Another possibility is to do an alternating hand tremolo, so you get to play the entire chords as written and do the tremolo as well.

[Bob]

Since it's modern.  Look the composer/arranger up and see if you ask them. 

Unless this is something new and just got standardized I think the composer/arranger should have put an extra explanation in there to help out the performer since it's unusual.

[stevehopwood]

Since it's modern.  Look the composer/arranger up and see if you ask them. 

Unless this is something new and just got standardized I think the composer/arranger should have put an extra explanation in there to help out the performer since it's unusual.

On t'other hand, why bother? The composer\arranger\software couldn't be bothered to write something pianistic so why should we pianists be bothered to make any effort either.

Play whatever you want, nicco. That is what I do when presented by something this stupid.

Steve 

[nicco]

On t'other hand, why bother? The composer\arranger\software couldn't be bothered to write something pianistic so why should we pianists be bothered to make any effort either.

Play whatever you want, nicco. That is what I do when presented by something this stupid.

Steve 

Will do 

[rimv2]

Will do 

Ahd guess you must repeat the chord over and over until you feel it necessary to stop. None of the notes actually move.

[nicco]

Well the concert is over, we deicided to go with the single chord closure since the soloist had a long finishing note

[stevehopwood]

Well the concert is over, we deicided to go with the single chord closure since the soloist had a long finishing note

Glad you arrived at a solution you were comfortable with.

Steve 

[dulce_cantor]

     I'm sorry, but I don't agree with Tyler_Johnson....that's a tremolo, right. Play those chords as thirty-second notes, just like if you were playing a fermata at the end of a piece. keep playing until you think is enough!

     Actually it is easy because  you don't have to move your hands to change positions.  The fermata is confusing because is in the middle of the two half note chords; It is there
because that way it won't  interfere with the E note's fermata.

[invictious]

Tremolo the whole chord in 32th notes with a fermata,

use your wrist btw

[bella musica]

The three beams mean that you will be playing 32nd notes.  The half-note value means that you will be playing as many 32nds as equal a half note.

Usually when it's written like this you don't really have to count every single 32nd.

[timothy42b]

They want an orchestral tremolo effect. 

The fermata means something different and important.

It means watch the director and/or soloist.  Actually when accompanying that is what almost all markings, particularly tempo changes, mean.