I am not (yet) talking about double thirds/sixths scales. But simply depressing two notes together in Bach little preludes (BWV 941 at the moment) or Grieg (GJENDINES LULLABY, OP. 66, NO. 19). I simply cant get a clean sound. It's always not synchronous. THe sound i get is "dirty". Tricks? suggestions? exercises? how do you approach this problem?thanks in advance
I would also suggest deliberately playing the double notes at two different times, and slowly making them closer together. Do it both ways.
Guess what?: Bach did not play them that way......Please listen to my link on this subject, and for those trollers who choose to disagree, I have my academic sources at the ready.
Guess what?: Bach did not play them that way.What is it about the size, shape, and length of your fingers that makes you think that it is normal to play these two notes in synchronization.Please listen to my link on this subject, and for those trollers who choose to disagree, I have my academic sources at the ready.
Your "academic sources" relate to (late) 19th and early 20th century performance practice. Do you have anything to support your (well flogged) theory to extend it to Baroque practice?EDIT: I might also add that whatever the result desired as a matter of principle or taste, it should be a choice that one is able to exercise, not something one must do because one can do no other. If you can't play two notes simultaneously, how can you play them at a chosen interval apart? I endorse, FWIW, the suggested practice routines of timothy42b and quantum.
A few months ago, I wrote to Dr. Robert Levin of Harvard, who is widely considered to be one of the top applied musicologists in the world, especially when it relates to the performance of Mozart. My question related to the rolling of chords in the Mozart transcription of the slow movement of the A Major Piano Concerto K 488, by Carl Reinecke.Here, he arpeggiates extensively, and I wanted to know what Dr. Levin thought about it. His reply was: "Rolling chords for expression’s sake is a well-known device, advocated by Czerny for Beethoven and applicable to a large swath of styles from Baroque and before to post-Romantic."Good enough?
Good enough?
The Taubman/Golandsky folks, who are nowhere near as intelligent as you are, teach their students (my coach being one of them) not to worry about playing perfect double notes. And, they do so because it is, unless you study under your majesty, not a normal articulation of the hand and fingers.I assume that Bach, Scarlatti, and Handel, as well as those who came before and after them, had normal hands and fingers.
No. Dr Levin is indeed a renowned Mozart scholar, and a performer of note for a range of repertoire, including Bach. His views on performance practices of the Baroque should be accorded respect, but they are not ironclad laws, and don't necessarily establish what was the practice of the time. Czerny is, after all, somewhat removed in time.Also, what may be appropriate for a chord is not necessarily the same as what is appropriate for two notes in separate voices. Temporal displacement may still be appropriate, but it should be controlled, controllable and a matter of choice. I'm not arguing that rolling chords is out of place, but your "roll everything" approach is too simplistic.
I have never told, suggested or inferred, and I challenge anyone to quote a written post, on any website to the contrary, where I have said that a pianist should roll all of their chords. NEVER!!
Specific to the OP on this thread, I have failed to mention that I cannot play rapid tempo Bach on a modern Hammerklavier. And, my guess is neither would the composer have been able to. The resistance on the actions of the claviers, harpsichords, organs, and the other keyboard instruments that Bach played, aren't even remotely in the same universe as a modern piano.
apostatize
Additionally, this, as accurately described by Neal Peres Da Costa in his book "Off The Record," includes the breaking of the hands, altered rhythms, improvisation, and the modification of tempos. That is they way they played whether you like it or not!
Also, it surprised me to learn this, but acoustic organs can have a huge action weight- when they involve moving working parts. It's not all like your average Wurlitzer.
Trackers do, but other actions don't. The pipe organ at my church doesn't change when I add stops.
Thank you, but you do realize that what you just said is "pure speculation," " (jmenz says so, therefore it is true.)Many a pianist have wrecked their hands trying to re-create Baroque composers writings on a modern piano.