Piano Forum

Piano Street Magazine:
Watch the Chopin Competition 2025 with us!
Great news for anyone who loves Chopin’s music! Piano Street’s Chopin Competition tool now includes all 1,848 recorded performances from the Preliminary Round to Stage 3. Dive in and listen now! Read more
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Topic: How is this note meant to be played?  (Read 2515 times)

Offline pcaraganis

  • PS Silver Member
  • Jr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 33
How is this note meant to be played?
on: July 01, 2021, 08:50:28 PM
Can someone please help me understand the purpose of the circled B half-note in the first measure of this piece (Schumann's Waldszenen, no. 1)?

Is this meant to be played on the [edit: third] beat of the first measure (i.e., at the same time as the two quarter notes immediately to its right)? And if so, is the purpose of that just to indicate that the B should be sustained through the end of the measure? If so, why is it necessary to also have the quarter note B? Is this something to do with indicating the different voices?

Thanks!

Logged

Offline brogers70

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 1793
Re: How is this note meant to be played?
Reply #1 on: July 01, 2021, 09:19:13 PM
In short: Yes, play it at the same time as the dotted quarters it's next to. Yes, it's just to show that the B should be sustained to the end of the measure. Yes, it's written that way to make the different voices clear to the eye.
Logged

Offline pcaraganis

  • PS Silver Member
  • Jr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 33
Re: How is this note meant to be played?
Reply #2 on: July 01, 2021, 09:31:26 PM
Perfect, thank you!
Logged

Offline lettersquash

  • PS Silver Member
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 190
Re: How is this note meant to be played?
Reply #3 on: July 19, 2021, 06:44:40 PM
Quote from: brogers70 on July 01, 2021, 09:19:13 PM
In short: Yes, play it at the same time as the dotted quarters it's next to. Yes, it's just to show that the B should be sustained to the end of the measure. Yes, it's written that way to make the different voices clear to the eye.
Could you elaborate on these different voices, please? I've not come across this kind of score before. I thought I'd figured out that where there are different voices, their notes (i.e. in each voice) have to obey the 'tyranny of the bar', so their time values add up to the time signature, including rests specific to each voice. Am I wrong? Because this minim seems to just pop up out of nowhere - which other notes belong to the same voice, and which don't?
Logged
Sorry if I don't reply for a while - I'm not getting notifications from this site.
Pages: [1]   Go Up
For more information about this topic, click search below!

Piano Street Magazine:
A Sudden Chat with Paul Lewis about Beethoven & Schubert
Substituting for the suddenly indisposed Janine Jensen, pianist Paul Lewis shares his ideas on his global Schubert project, classical repertoire focus and views on titans Beethoven vs. Schubert. Read more
 

Logo light pianostreet.com - the website for classical pianists, piano teachers, students and piano music enthusiasts.

Subscribe for unlimited access

Sign up

Follow us

Piano Street Digicert