(Update: more added) - chopin op. 10, no.3

[lagin]

https://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p298/laginn/?action=view&current=MVI_0251-1.flv

Okay, here are the "notes" meaning, that's about all it is.  I don't care that I have mistakes and hesitations in it.  I can fix that.  What I do need are some ideas of what to do with this passage dynamically.  There's the forte and piano echo bars (29 and 30; 34 and 35).  But other than that the dynamic markings are somewhat limited and I am feeling uncreative, and my lesson got canceled today.  Ideas people!  All sorts of them is what I need to make this passage really "pop." 

[counterpoint]

one word: rubato!

[lagin]

Okay, good point.  Where do you think it would be the most effectively used?  I don't want to over do it because this piece will be used for an exam eventually. 

[pianowolfi]

Okay, good point.  Where do you think it would be the most effectively used?  I don't want to over do it because this piece will be used for an exam eventually. 

I would like to listen to the whole thing first, just this tiny part of it is simply not enough. But so far I would second what counterpoint says: it's rubato and rubato feeling in general you could develop more, in all parts. It is not so much about a specific place in the piece but about the whole feeling and mood and romantic expression.

[teresa_b]

Good for you for getting the notes so far!  It seems to me you need to focus on phrasing, really look at where the music is going. Follow the phrasing marks over the passages, so the listener hears whole phrases.

Make those staccato things in the LH "dancing" and not so beat-like.  This is in 2/4 time, so let us hear 2 beats to a measure, not 8, as I am hearing now.  

I dont' think it matters too much which way you go f or p on the parallel phrases--just play one differently than the identical one.

The last 4 bars (difficult!) are clearly marked crescendo on each series of chords--it's one big passage, but you could do a little hesitation, or go a bit softer, maybe, each time you begin a measure--but every time get to a higher dynamic level--obviously you end the phrase at ff--so this can be very dramatic.  

Good start--Good Luck--and Have fun!
Teresa

[lagin]

Thanks so much guys, especially Teresa!  That's exactly the type of instruction I was looking for.  Pianowolfi, the reason I didn't record before and after that section is that, that section starts quite abruptly and isn't really connected to the passage before it at all except that provides dramatic contrast in the mood of the piece, and I'm not so good at the part after it yet and it would have been a gong show to play any further

I'll work on having only 1 beat per bar, lightening up on the left hand staccatos and giving them some direction, cresc. higher and higher each time in the last 4 bars, and trying to feel more romantic, lol! 

I have a question about the phrasing, though Teresa.  My edition is full of tiny little short phrases everywhere.  For example, the second half of bar 21, bar 22, and the first half of bar 23 is one phrase.  Each time that motif returns it is marked as one phrase, so I end up with 4 small phrases there.  I feel like it should be one long 8 bar phrase, but I'm not sure what Chopin is after with those little ones?  There's also a cresc. right at the end of the third one which makes me think that the fourth should be even more, but if I viewed it as an 8 bar phrase, I'd want to come down on the fourth motif.  Any thoughts about that?  Also, since you seem to know the score well, in bar 32 and the similar place in bar 36, the first chord is marked staccato and forte.  Would you play it like that and then immediately back off on the next 16th note chord and crescendo up from there, or do you think that would be too abrupt?   Annnnnddddd those two bar phrases I mentioned where it goes forte then piano (that's how it's marked on this score, though I agree with you in principle that it probably wouldn't matter either way), which "set" would be louder.  Would 30/31 or 34/35 be more?  I analyzed them, and they have the same harmonies, but are just in different keys so there were no clues there as to which would be more effective as the loudest of the two. 

Thanks so much again everyone!

[teresa_b]

Hmm, I don't know if I've thought out the execution of these passages as much as you ask--but here's my 2-cents (thanks for asking  ).  Don't take them in any way except my opinion.

I have the same small phrases in my edition in bars 21 forward.  I would go with that phrasing, but also think of the entire 8-bars as an overarching phrase.  The crescendo on the last notes of the 3rd one is odd, but maybe Chopin intends you to make more out of the longer 4-bar phrase there, to lead to the f-p measures.  (Don't forget those little accents on the inner notes of those bars, either.  Interesting.)

In bars 32 and 36, I have a staccato mark but no f mark in my score.  So...perhaps you don't need to worry about making those chords forte--just staccato.  Then the abruptness problem goes away.

Re: those f-p bars, I didn't mean those should be done opposite--I meant the phrases before that where no loudness markings are present.  Anyway, I don't know which "should" be louder either!  Try it both ways, or do them equally (they are not identical, so you can get away with a similar dynamic level, I think.), and see  what feels right to you.

Hope I've been helpful.  Have fun!
Teresa

[lagin]

Yes, you certainly have been helpful!  Thank you! 

(You don't teach piano by chance, do you?)

[teresa_b]

Hi lagin,

You are welcome!  I don't teach piano now (thus my qualifying comment that you take anything I offer as an opinion, certainly not authoritative), but I did years ago. 

All the best,
Teresa

[lagin]

https://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p298/laginn/?action=view&current=MVI_0251_2.flv

Here's a bit more that you guys can comment on if you like.  Yes, there are wrong notes, notes in the wrong octave in the l.h. near the end, and some moments that I didn't remember where I was going, haha.  But I mean if you have any interpretive comments

[lagin]

And that killer part right before the bridge that leads back to the main theme, how on earth do I stay relaxed in that!?  As opposed to being wound up so tightly that I'm liable to snap a tendon!   

[lagin]

Hey, somehow someone tacked the opening bars of the etude onto the bottom of my first post.  That's really cool!  Is this a new pf function or something?

[lagin]

I thought I'd bump this up to the top cause I don't think anyone has seen my other questions, yet.