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Topic: Grieg's "To Spring" - how to play three staffs in parallel?  (Read 3061 times)

Offline ubon2010

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I am enjoying learning to play Edvard Grieg's lyric piece "To Spring". 

Starting somewhere on P.2, each grand staff contains not two but three staffs.  In some places the top staff is marked with the treble clef while the bottom two with the bass clef; with chords on each staff.  In other places, the top two staffs are in treble clef, with chords on the top two staff and arpeggios on the bottom staff.

Question: How do you play three staffs in parallel with just two hands?   I looked at a YouTube video carefully and it seems that the performer uses the right hand to cover the notes in the top two staffs.  But that calls for a lot of jumps, and in some places it does not seem humanly possible to cover all the notes with just one hand.

Thank you in advance for your advice.

Offline j_menz

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Re: Grieg's "To Spring" - how to play three staffs in parallel?
Reply #1 on: November 25, 2013, 05:50:47 AM
First, there should be a few little hints in the score to help you. look for the letters "md" and "ms". "md" means right hand, "ms" means left. Brackets like [ across staves means the same hand should be used for all the bracketed notes.

So, from the start of the triple stave section, RH plays the top two staves, LH the bottom one. That is pretty much the way it goes all through until the poco rit in the A Tempo section, where the brackets show that the LH plays the two chords with Cx in them, then back to RH the top two  LH the bottom one until the 4th last bar where the RH takes over playing the staccato notes under the ottavo sign  (even though it's in the bottom staff), then the arp chord is LH bottom, RH middle and LH top, same again for the broken chord in the last bar.
"What the world needs is more geniuses with humility. There are so few of us left" -- Oscar Levant

Offline ubon2010

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Re: Grieg's "To Spring" - how to play three staffs in parallel?
Reply #2 on: November 26, 2013, 04:37:56 AM
First, there should be a few little hints in the score to help you. look for the letters "md" and "ms". "md" means right hand, "ms" means left. Brackets like [ across staves means the same hand should be used for all the bracketed notes.
Many thanks for the great answer!  That helps a lot.  But I have follow-up questions - inquiring minds want to know  :)
1. Why did the composer (Edvard Grieg, genius) write the notes out on three staves instead of just two?   
2.  In the case of two m.d. staves: How are you supposed to keep the notes on the top staff tied together while moving the right hand to play the notes on the 2nd staff? (I use the pedal!)

Offline j_menz

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Re: Grieg's "To Spring" - how to play three staffs in parallel?
Reply #3 on: November 26, 2013, 04:49:18 AM
1. Why did the composer (Edvard Grieg, genius) write the notes out on three staves instead of just two?   

He's by no means the only one to do it. Rachmaninoff uses four staves for the recap part of his C#m Prelude, and three is used extensively by Debussy, Scriabin and pretty much anyone and everyone after that.  I believe they think it makes it easier to follow. Some people agree, though I think otherwise.

2.  In the case of two m.d. staves: How are you supposed to keep the notes on the top staff tied together while moving the right hand to play the notes on the 2nd staff? (I use the pedal!)

Pedal is the right answer.
"What the world needs is more geniuses with humility. There are so few of us left" -- Oscar Levant

Offline faulty_damper

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Re: Grieg's "To Spring" - how to play three staffs in parallel?
Reply #4 on: November 26, 2013, 06:13:11 AM
I believe they think it makes it easier to follow. Some people agree, though I think otherwise.
I think Bach thinks otherwise as well and he died long before they were even born.

Offline timothy42b

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Re: Grieg's "To Spring" - how to play three staffs in parallel?
Reply #5 on: November 26, 2013, 04:20:55 PM
I think Bach thinks otherwise as well and he died long before they were even born.

Bach wrote a huge number of pieces on three staves. 

Of course, he had a pedalboard! 
Tim
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