Composing/improvisation and the limits of physical capability

[jesc]

Ok this will probably be the most stupid/ironic thing you will read but to hell with it, it happened to me.

I’m composing a piano piece, I haven’t named it yet. I’m polishing some passages and from time to time I improvise and come up with variations to add to it. What happens is that I hear the melody in my head and my fingers just move to play it (or something similar to it).

I'm playing fast repeated octaves (c sharp as fast as possible). The repeating octaves are played by my right hand and the left hand is playing another voice. Now for some reason, a melody popped in my head to go with the repeating octaves. The melody required my right hand to reach out to E flat on top of the c sharp octave (repeating c sharp octaves still being played), ok fine, not bad, that’s nothing.  Now with the repeating c sharp octaves still being played, another melody that popped in my head required to reach E natural (the one on top of the octave). My first instinct is to play it of course.

Ouch. Recalling, the chord I was playing was (c# c# e) repeated as fast as possible and my hand wasn’t large enough.  

Now for the passage in retrospect, I turned the chord into an arpeggio but it doesn’t sound as nice as when I came up with it in my head.

I wonder if anyone had similar experiences, you’re in the mood, improvising, going with the flow then suddenly the music inside your head might injure your hand if you actually play it. I just feel a bit stupid, just imagine, my hands injured by the music I came up with in the first place…

[j_menz]

I believe you've just answered the question asked in this thread:

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=45224.0

[richard_strauss]

I strongly believe that technique and physical capability should be at service of the music and not the other way around. Ravel couldn't play most of his pieces: when he was composing his concerto he wanted to have a piece he could play for his New York debut but the piece soon got out of his hands (even without the health issues he wouldn't have been able to play that concerto), but still he was true to his music. Also, I think it was Von Bülow who reported that Liszt couldn't actually play some of the chords he wrote in his music, yet his secret was on HOW he broke the chord.

[jesc]

I believe you've just answered the question asked in this thread:

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=45224.0

Cool! I mean, it's cool that you managed to link two relevant threads together    I rarely, visit the repertoire board.

@richard_strauss: Very useful advice, actually that's what I just tried to do recently, break it down into being manageable. The thought of deciding that technique and physical capability be at the service of music made me feel a lot more comfortable. Especially when I read the other thread where they were talking about c and e reach. Whoever could pull that off will be able to play the chord I described above easily. Thus giving me more incentive to write it as is.