Debussy: Des pas sur la neige

[furtwaengler]

Prelude VI. Book 1 Des pas sur la neige

File this under "just for fun." I recorded these today, December 13, 2010. I have not been, and am not working on this prelude. I was inspired by the quick change of the weather, the first snow of the season with all the scene evokes, and I told some friends I'd record this Debussy prelude if I could get to a piano. Of course I cannot settle anything in my mind and recorded 7 separate takes (that's one way to get to know a piece.). And I still cannot decide, so I got it down to three differing takes I'm sharing here, and I'll narrow it down to one later. The first is my favorite, but it's very soft. It and the bottom most recording were played with the Tascam recorder out at the end of the hall, and that bottom most recording was done sans una corda as an experiment (the recordings themselves are very quiet). The other one in the middle is closely mic-ed with the recorder placed under the Yamaha grand. I have some other ideas I'd like try with the piece...it was to late for the deadline I set.

As an interesting coupling, and not to take away from either...I find myself in the weather also thinking about Robert Frost's poem, Desert Places:

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it--it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less--
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars--on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.

Enjoy!

[alessandro]

Only listened to the first one - It is WON-DER-FUL !

[furtwaengler]

Thanks for listening, alessandro.

There is something tormenting about choosing a take. I am convinced I chose to put up the wrong one earlier, so I've now replaced it. The download numbers had been 10, 5, and 3...I replaced the first and re-uploaded the same other two to preserve the "order." It may not be practical to upload multiple takes of the same piece to the Pianostreet community. The issue is in sharing them with other friends of mine, people were having trouble hearing my favorite take, which is the first, and it was suggested I include the more closely mic-ed recording so the hard of hearing could catch more details. The last is only because of the difference in voicing. I sometimes use Pianostreet links to share with other non pianist friends.

Ah well, I'm flattered that you listen to this haunting prelude!

Dave

[pianowolfi]

Certainly one of the most genius pieces ever written.
Close to my soul. That is why I didn't listen often to it. I remember a performance by Zimerman somewhen in the nineties, which got stuck in my head.

I like very much, I actually admire how you treat these "holy grails" of music with a certain nonchalance, just right away from your heart, spontaneously

[furtwaengler]

Thanks for listening Wolfi. I keep editing this response because I don't know what to say. I wonder if either the very fact I play these "holy grails" of music, or the fact that I share them on a forum makes for the certain nonchalance you admire. Certainly I love the music I play, and I want to play music I love, and I want to share it because I love it, and yes I see that there are plenty of others who love the same music, and are unwilling to play it, though they can play it, and are unwilling to share it, even though it's good. It's easy to treat things as sacred when in reality, this is not their role in the scheme of eternity. Well, getting past that fear of handling things which are ultimately passing, and just going out there and enjoying them for their part in our lives will better enrich us and our listeners. 

[rachfan]

Hi Dave,

This is a wonderful performance of Des Pas sur la neige".  I loved listening to it.  It's a very difficult piece to play because, like some of the Mendelssohn Songs without Words, its very simplicity of notation leaves the pianist no place to hide.  You manage very well through your interpretation and artistry to produce a continuous sense of phrasing to maintain the melodic flow, which in turn puts it across to the listener very well.  There are some fine nuances there too.  You certainly recreated the frozen, icy landscape.  Excellent!

On the recordings, I listened to the first two.  There seems to be quite a bit of noise in the first recording.  I don't know if its high noise-to-signal ratio in the Tascam recorder mics, or if it was ambient sound in the hall from forced air heat defusers in the ceiling or walls.  Plus the low input volume makes the sound especially soft which increases the opportunity for the noise factor to be even more pronounced.  The other factor I think was having the recorder in the last row of the hall.  It gives the sound a very distant quality such that it lacks a closer sense of presence.

Several people here have have experimented with the recorder under the piano, as is the case with your second recording.  To me, the sound there is more percussive and not as finished, or on some pianos (but not this Yamaha), more muffled.  It's absolutely true that some of the sound does radiate downward from the soundboard toward the floor.  But a couple of points: First, that "batch" of sound does not have the advantages of having been reflected by the piano rim around the topside of the soundboard and then again off the lid of the piano.  It mostly just drops down as is.

For a piano on a stage, to attain a refined and blended sound, the optimal set-up would likely be a matched pair of stereo mics in A-B configuration on stands about 10' out in front of the grand, a foot apart in parallel and pointed toward the top edge of the open lid--which avoids the wash of sound directly off the lid.  (Some sound engineers go beyond that by further mounting booms on the stands with the higher mics then pointing down at the strings.  But I depart from the feasible here.)  You probably used the "on-board" mics in the Tascam.  In that situation an alternative to avoid the long distance effect or the unfinished sound effect from underneath the piano, would be perhaps to put a small table 10' out in front on the piano as the perch for the Tascam. It's worth a try.

Again, a wonderful performance.  Thanks for posting it!

David  

[furtwaengler]

Thanks for listening, David. There are several issues here concerning recording. The noise you hear is the noise of the room's heating system, which is noisy, and I was using the Tascam's built in mics, for I have nothing else and this was the reason I got it. But the room and the instrument make a difficult situation for an novice in recording with no equipment. And the people there with the equipment and expertise are novices in classical music. I'm mostly happy just to get some representation of what I did on the piano (I wish I did not even have to think of these things!).

Here is a picture of the stage showing how small the place is and how little room there is to set anything up...and the awful drop between the stage and the floor...its a TERRIBLE space!



I've tried different things with this recorder in this room, and have had some frustration, but here in this specific recording it was my lack of skill that got the best of me. All seven takes were done in one recorded entry (or one file about 33 minutes long), first turning the recorder down a bit in anticipation of it being to loud, I placed it under the piano and played the piece three times, and then lifted the recorder while it was recording and moved it to the back of the hall, forgetting I needed to turn the input level up (didn't even occur to me), and went back on stage playing it 4 more times. This was not a situation where I could listen to the result while I was there...the Tascam has no speakers. I had to drive 50 miles to home to open the file on the computer to see how it'd turned out. Another thing...the Tascam is capable of a higher quality recording. I had very little space free so I was recording direct to mp3, 192 kbps. Another close mic option I recorded is on the improv board here: https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=39134.0

On that I had simple placed the recorder on the piano beside the stand. I think it's still harsher than I'd want for the Debussy, but better then placing it under the keyboard. I listened to one of my first attempts at recording with the Tascam in this room, where I'd placed the recorder on a chair on the floor near the stage...AWFUL!

One more thing I'd have done had I been thinking (I was playing juries all day, lol), I'd have opened the lid! It was on short stick, bah. Ah well, lots to learn. Thanks for your help.  

Dave  

[rachfan]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for that more extended account of your trials in that hall.  My second guess was right, the ambient noise being the heating system.  That happened to me once right in my own living room, but during warm weather.  The A/C came on, I didn't pay it any heed and proceeded to record a Bortkiewicz piece.  Well... my sensitive Earthworks mics captured all of it more than I would have ever believed!  The recorded sound was very good, but not excellent.  So thereafter in summertime, no matter how hot outside, I always shut off the A/C before recording.

Unfortunately, you can't control the heating plant in the hall, so that will be a given during winter.  I can see from the picture too how confining the stage area is, which is very limiting in regards to placement of the Tascam.  The reason the chair in the first row didn't work well was because of the piano's elevation, the music overshot the height of the chair.    

Putting the recorder on the piano desk stand will render a harsh sound because not only is it close-in recording, but that position is way too close to the line of hammers--meaning the recorder will pick up the percussiveness of hammers on strings, which translates to sound in the making, not finished sound.  OK for jazz, but not classical.

Here's something, Dave, you could try next time: Close the lid (but not the front flap of it) and put the Tascam on top of the center of the lid just behind the open flap, such that it rests on only one layer of wood (not two).  The ambient heating noise will find it harder to compete with the recorder in this placement because the piano holds the advantage.  And the problem of differing elevations of piano and recorder becomes moot--they're one and the same.  I've never done this myself, but some pianists have  produced some really good recordings this way.   You'll want to perhaps test with three increasing recording input levels to hear which works best (once you're home to listen to the outtakes). I'd give it a shot--nothing to lose.  

David

[emill]

Hi Dave !

This piece by Debussy seems to fit a lot of moods.... as you said a sudden change in the weather ... a sad or gloomy mood ... a loss .... a mystery... a vague vision, apparition ... really a lot more depending on one's emotional state. I am not surprised that the artist in you was swept to this piece spontaneously at the 1st snow of the season ... I can imagine how this piece would fit if the 1st snow happened at dawn or dusk.  I seem to like the 2nd version better for its clarity, perhaps my traumatized ears (from loud rock music) seems to have much difficulty discerning the subdued tones of the 1st version.

Most of all, for my education I like the I.D. profile you put in your pieces and the exchanges you have especially with David. Thanks.

[birba]

I don't know how I missed this.  I think I was still in the hospitol when it came out.
I, too, don't care to listen to this prelude since I heard Michelangeli in a live performance many years ago.  It's one of those moments printed on my mind for the rest of my life.
But I really enjoyed listening to you.  Those last bars were pure magic.  I prefer the second recording.  At first it sounded too loud - too much in the face, as it were - but once you get used to the sound, your artistry really comes through.  And that Frost poem couldn't have been more on the mark regarding this prelude.  Uncanny, isn't it?