Bach Sinfonia 5 and Schumann Bunte Blätter 6 (as a pair)
As I went through some old recordings, I found that these two make a nice pair. Arranging nice little transitions like this is one of my favorite parts of doing a concert. It’s the same little pleasure as assembling a mix CD or playing DJ: even the simple act of ordering songs is a kind of composition, and carries the joy of being creative.
The keys of the two pieces (E flat and A flat) are related and make for a smooth transition, but beyond that, it’s hard to pin down what exactly connects them so well. The deliberate, thoughtful way both unfold? The way both of them seem to talk? Their sense of intimacy? Those are all getting warm, but none of them really pin it down. It doesn’t matter, though — it is fine to be musically confident on intuition alone, and I say they fit. Phooey to the 20th century and its obsession with having a conscious rationale for everything in music!
When something musical works well, it’s natural to wonder why, and we learn a great deal in the process of trying to come up with explanations. But our musical explanations (like all models of reality) are always incomplete; good music remains half-submerged in the unknown, and thus always carries the magic shared by all mysterious things. This is the dilemma of a performer and, even more, of a composer: constantly dissecting, looking for order, developing explanations and rationales — and at the same time never losing sight of the incompleteness of these explanations, but embracing the unknown and holding on to the magic. The skill of smoothly changing frame between reasoning and intuition, known and unknown, dissected part and organic whole, is a core part of both composition and computer programming. Those are two things I spent a lot of my time doing, and I claim they overlap a great deal in the brain, in large part because of this “frame shifting.”
Oh, right, I had a recording to share. Enough philosophizing. On with the music!
These both come from wonderful sets of pieces — Bach’s two- and three-part inventions, and Schumann’s Albumblätter (“Album Leaves,” which is a subset of Bunte Blätter, “Colored Leaves”). I’d like to learn more of both sets (and improve my Bach playing in general, because it’s very weak). Too much great music and not enough time! What’s a fellow to do?
Comments
Sinfonia No 5 is so beautifull.
thank you for having shared this rare moment.
Oh gosh Bunte Blätter No 6 was so enjoyable. I love the sound of your piano. Which brand is it?
It’s great to be hearing these again!
Zhi Bin: It is a Mason & Hamlin. More info here.
Oh thanks. Is it possible to voice a normal piano to sound like that?
Mostly, it’s the instrument, I’m afraid. But good voicing certainly can help make the sound mellower and richer the the harsher tinkly sound we always hear.
Oh that’s sad =(
Hi Paul,
I really liked your explanation of music having a mysterious, unknown and inexplicable quality to it, as I firmly believe that depths of language do not compare to the depths of music and art. It was even more interesting that you make this parallel to computer programming, as I am also a software developer by trade. I never thought of it in this way. I’ve always imagined that it was the flow of ideas being physically transferred into the computer keyboard as I type being similar to playing the piano, but now I can see that it goes beyond that. Sometimes when I program, I can feel the sublime in a beautiful design, and admire the simple elegant solutions. Thanks for sharing this idea!
And of course your recordings are wonderful as well. These pieces do make a nice pair.
Sinfonia No.5 is nice!I have your site linked!
I was looking for Chopin and somehow I got to listen to your podcasting. I’m really amazed that you are putting in your effort and time to share your passion. I’m sure all the listeners really REALLY preciate what you do.
Please keep doing what you love…
Gracias por compartir conmigo estas joyas musicales, que van mas alla de cualquier cultura.
I’m afraid I found the ornamented cadences in the Bach very unrhythmical … as if you were deliberately shifting the bass note *early*, in order to make a longer ornament over the remaining part of the bar. Which makes nonsense out of the totality: the rhythm becomes incoherent and incomprehensible. And the cadential ornaments sound like undifferentiated strings of notes with no direction to them.
Also it doesn’t seem like you have a clear idea of why, musically, the appoggiaturas are there. Is the first note accented, or the second? Is the figure going forward or back?
How about playing the whole piece without any ornaments, at a tempo where you feel 3 in a bar, make it work like that, THEN start adding ornaments. That’s the way round that Baroque compositions work: first the basic harmonic-rhythmic-melodic gestures, then the ornaments.
Some accidentals sound very strange to me … but perhaps that’s due to a different edition. I believe it’s perfectly OK in Baroque music, and probably necessary, to make your own judgement about accidentals in ornamentation, rather than try to conform to an illusory text which was anyway not notated exactly in this respect. (Really exact notation of tiny stuff like that only started about the time of CPE Bach…) Usually they sound best if they conform to the tonality of the moment, eg in an F minor passage, an E natural usually goes without saying.
De gustibus non disputandum est.
I very much enjoyed the Ballade No. 3 by Chopin from earlier, and am directing friends to that whenever possible. I use last.fm, and I wish the files were titled in the format where last.fm didn’t think you composed the Chopin piece :)
I think this Sinfonia is excellent. An old teacher of mine commented on the sense of loss and pathos that seems to fill this one, and how it is very distinct in all the Inventions and Sinfonias. I think some music historians think Bach lost a wife or child while this was being composed, not sure.
Excellent, excellent work and I so want my own piano blog: your example is stupendous to behold.
gracias , muchas gracias
This is enlightening, as always. Thanks for sharing your insights and the musical downloads.
I think it’s really inspiring to hear what is possible for novice pianists who are just starting out. Keep up the great work
You know, I’ve been listening to these recordings for quite some time, and I adore this recording of the Schumann piece. Every time.
Also, don’t take any smack from spammers. “Novice” indeed.