Feux Follets fingering

[ravelfan07]

What is the optimal fingering for the right hand section of Feux Follets?

[jamienc]

I played this back in grad school, and believe me, I have tried every kind of fingering possible to try and facilitate the “opposing” fingering technique that would often work with other pieces that have double-note passages. What I mean by opposing is that you cross fingers under and over one another to utilize the physiology of the hand mechanism that would make this easier. For example, in the Chopin thirds etude or the trills you find in the Barcarolle, it is pleasantly written in a way that allows one to use 4/2-5/1 for the opening of Op. 25 No. 6 or those double-note trills in Op. 60. However, in this piece the span of the intervals does not allow for a comfortable application of this trick.

Liszt knew this and forces the performer to use a symmetric fingering with a normal hand position. There really is no other way than to use 4/1-5/2 for most of the initial passages that require this with the occasional use of 3 to accommodate the key. The thing to recognize is that going up in the passage is much more difficult than coming down. Here is how I found success:

- pay close attention to the direction in which your fingers are pointing on the way up. I have found that directing my fingers toward the upper register by about 30-45 degrees makes access to the notes easier.
- on the way down, you can reposition your fingers to be relatively straight aligned with the keys.
- a trick I learned when learning Chopin thirds is to SLOWLY differentiate the articulation of the top and bottom notes within the individual intervals. Top notes for each two note group should be relatively connected and the focus of the line while the notes on the bottom are played as detached and light as possible. The notes on top and bottom should NOT be equal in touch and feel. Top = connected, and bottom = detached.
- I know it’s annoying and tedious, but technical work on the 3-5 and 4-5 trills in the RH results in a considerable amount of assistance to help identify what it should “feel” like to play faster notes in succession before adding the lower notes in those intervals.
- when your top notes are comfortable, add the lower notes that appear at the sixteenth-note level of the texture so you can get the feel of where the notes begin to come together. For example, the top will be 32nd notes, and the bottom will be the 16ths that occur in their metrical places. Leave out the other 32nd notes in the bottom line, so that you are gradually adding the notes without overwhelming your hand. Remember to keep the bottom light and detached.
- when this is comfortable, slowly add the other 32nd note in the bottom line and get the feel for the different articulations between the layers.

Once you have this first 40 measures or so figured out, the piece is really not as challenging. Hope this helps!