Expertise • Enthusiasm • Excellence
Monday, June 15 2020 00:00
Day 51 - The Happy Farmer
Violinist age 8 plays "The Happy Farmer"
German composer and pianist Robert Schumann lived from 1810 to 1856. He was a brilliant pianist and intended to make a career as a perfomer. Unfortunately a hand injury put an end to that idea, so thereafter he focused on composing.
Meanwhile, he had fallen in love with his piano teacher's daughter, Clara Wieck - herself a wonderful pianist - but her father was very opposed to their marriage. Robert eventually won out, though, and married her in 1840 after a court battle.
By 1848 he and Clara had three young daughters (they eventually had eight children, seven of whom survived). He composed a collection of 43 easy piano pieces for them, "Album for the Young", and The Happy Farmer is one of these pieces. As with our other singalong songs, the words reflect the musical structure, which is little unusual here: A1 - A1 - B - A2 - B - A2, with the A section having two different endings. The B section is very short: the farmer (A) barely lets his wife (B) get a word in edgewise before interrupting her again!
(A 1) The happy farmer loves to plow his fields;
He rides his great big tractor with its big green wheels.
(A 1) The happy farmer loves to plow his fields;
He rides his great big tractor with its big green wheels.
(B ) His wife is quiet, and very small and neat -
(A 2) The happy farmer loves to plow his fields;
He rides his great big tractor with its round, red seat.
(B ) His wife is quiet, and very small and neat -
(A 2) The happy farmer loves to plow his fields;
He rides his great big tractor with its round, red seat.
If you listen carefully to the piano part, you'll also hear the farmyard chickens going "cheep-cheep" in the background!
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Friday, June 12 2020 00:00
Day 50 - Czardas
Violinist age 12 plays "Czardas" by Monti
We’re back to Hungarian music today, to finish the week with Vittorio Monti’s sizzling “Czardas” - a tribute to the wonderful violin tradition of eastern Europe. A Czardas (pronounced Shar-dus) is a Hungarian music folk music form, which starts out with a slow, soulful section called "lassu" and ends with a very fast "friss" (literally "fresh").
This is the music of coffee houses and campfires - and there is an ongoing argument in Hungary about whether it’s actually Hungarian folk music, or really belongs to the traveling Romani people. Either way, Hungarian violin music is known the world over for its passion, romance and virtuosity.
This piece is no exception. It's full of variety in speed and mood, with plenty of fiery technical tricks thrown in, and an ending to bring the house down. In fact, it's so catchy that it's been has featured multiple times in movies and TV, from “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” to an episode of “Peaky Blinders” – and Lady Gaga used part it as an introduction for her song "Alejandro".
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Thursday, June 11 2020 00:00
Day 49 - Bach Prelude from Suite in G
Violist age 14 and Cellist age 16 play Bach Prelude in G major
Today, an opportunity to make a direct comparison between the sound of viola and cello playing the same piece. The two instruments have the same string set-up but the cello is an octave lower, meaning the strings (which are much longer) vibrate exactly twice as slowly. The bigger air cavity inside also deepens the sound.
Because of their musical and technical difficulty, the Suites were not much performed until the great 20th century cellist Pablo Casals took them up, after discovering them in a thrift shop in Barcelona, Spain at the age of 13. His famous recordings of them were selected in 2019 for preservation in the Library of Congress.
They have been adapted for many instruments, including viola – and in fact it’s been recently suggested that they were not necessarily written for the familiar cello balanced between the knees (da gamba), but possibly for a cello-like instrument played rather like a large violin, on the shoulder (da spalla)!
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Wednesday, June 10 2020 00:00
Day 48 - Chopin Waltz in A Minor
Pianist age 11 plays Chopin Waltz in A minor
Polish composer Frederic Chopin (1810 – 1849) was in fragile health for most of his life. His father was French and immigrated to Poland at 16, becoming a French teacher at the Warsaw Lyceum (high school). The father also played flute and violin, while Frederic’s mother played piano and gave lessons to the high school students. By the time Chopin was 7, it was obvious that he was exceptionally gifted musically, and he was already giving public concerts and composing small pieces.
In 1830, while he was traveling in Europe, there was a popular uprising in Poland which was crushed by authorities. Devastated, Chopin never returned to Poland and ended up settling in France. All of his 230 surviving pieces feature the piano, and almost all are short solo pieces - waltzes, etudes, and Polish dances such as Polonaises and Mazurkas that express his longing for his native land.
Although a brilliant pianist, Chopin did not perform in public much - he preferred to play for small groups of friends, as he felt that his intimate music was more suited for that kind of setting. This waltz was written some time between 1843 and 1848, and probably performed at one of those small gatherings of friends.
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Tuesday, June 09 2020 00:00
Day 47 - Lightly Row
Pianists age 6 and 8 play Lightly Row
This is a favorite of beginners everywhere, and we show it here with right hand only, then with hands together, so you can hear how the left hand adds lower, deeper tones (see also here). Like most of these singalong songs it has a simple construction with a lot of similar material, making it easy to learn.
There are many singalong possibilities for Lightly Row! Here are a couple of more traditional ones:
(A1) Lightly row, lightly row, up the river we will go;
(A2) Mississippi, Mississippi, in our boat we go, go, go!
(B1) One, two, three four, five, let’s go,
(B2)One, two, three, four, five, lets row,
(A2) Mississippi, Mississippi, in our boat we go, go, go!
(A1) Lightly row, lightly row, gently down the stream we go,
(A2) Birds are singing while they’re winging, on their way and to and fro.
(B1) See the fluffy clouds up there,
(B2) Building castles in the air.
(A1) Birds are singing while they’re winging, on their way and to and fro!
Or - some students love this one!
(A1) Hey there mouse, in your house, better stay there in your house!
(A2) Hey there mousie, in your housie, someone’s waiting there for you!
(B1) Pretty kitty loves you so,
(B2) Thinks you’re just so tasty - oh!
(A2) Hey there mousie, in your housie, someone’s waiting there for you!
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Monday, June 08 2020 00:00
Day 46 - Hongroise (Hungarian Dance)
Violinist age 9 plays "Hongroise" by Robert Pracht.
Robert Pracht (1878 -1961) was a German composer and music educator who composed many piano and string works for both professionals and students. He was also well-known in Germany as a choral conductor, and composed over 200 works for male voice choirs.
This short dance is in the fiery Hungarian style - and we'll have more of this later in the week. For now, if you’ve been following our posts on musical construction, you'll probably be able to hear the overall "A-B-"A form.
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Monday, June 01 2020 00:00
Week of June 1st: Lament
IMPORTANT NOTICE, JUNE 1st
To quote Martin Luther King Jr., "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." As members of communities both smaller and larger, what affects some of us affects all of us, and if we stay silent in the face of egregious injustice, we risk becoming become complicit in it.
To quote Martin Luther King Jr., "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." As members of communities both smaller and larger, what affects some of us affects all of us, and if we stay silent in the face of egregious injustice, we risk becoming become complicit in it.
In light of the multiple blatant incidents over the past few weeks (which of course are just the visible tip of the iceberg) involving the targeting and victimization of Americans of color, culminating in the horrific murder of George Floyd on May 25th, we therefore offer a musical commentary that surely speaks for itself: Lament.
"Lament", performed by the composer
We would like to thank the artist for allowing us to offer their powerful composition as commentary. This is our only "Music for the Community" for this week.
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Friday, May 29 2020 00:00
Day 40: The Boy Paganini
Born in Prussia (now part of Germany), Edward Mollenhauer (1827–1914) achieved success in America as a violin soloist and teacher. His best-known pieces for young violinists are “The Infant Paganini” and “The Boy Paganini”, written in homage to the legendary Paganini himself - see below - and including some of Paganini’s own special violin techniques. Of these, listen out for:
harmonics (1:40 - 1:50)
left hand pizzicato (plucking) mixed with bowed notes (2:54 - 3:11)
chords on all four strings (3:27, 3:49)
simple octaves (4:49)
Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840) himself was a household name in his time, touring Europe to rave reviews and swooning audiences. He was a great showman as well as artist, and would wow his audiences by playing so furiously that he would break all his strings except one, then finishing the piece with flair on the one remaining string (of course, he had perpared this on purpose!).
Paganini composed all the music that he played at his own concerts. In the process he wrote some of the most fiendishly difficult technical works for violin, including his famous set of 24 Caprices - which still offer the highest of technical challenges for 21st century violinists.
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Thursday, May 28 2020 00:00
Day 39: Not Jingle Bells; Row, Row, Row your Boat; and......?
Pianist age 6 plays "This is not Jingle Bells" and "Row, Row, Row your Boat"
Well, it does sound at first like it’s going to be Jingle Bells - but then it changes its mind! Can you identify the other tune? And does it come in the right order, or….?
That first one could be confusing to try and sing along with, but Row, Row, Row Your Boat is pretty straightforward, and you can feel the lilting triple time in “Mer-ri-ly, mer-ri-ly…”, as if you’re on the water.
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream;
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily –
Life is but a dream!
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Wednesday, May 27 2020 00:00
Day 38: Bourrée 1 & 2 by Bach
Cellist age 16 plays Bourrées I & II from Bach Solo Suite #3 in C
More old-fashioned dance music today, but unlike a Minuet, a Bourrée (pronounced "boo-ray") is in duple time (ONE two, ONE two) – similar to a Gavotte. Still, like our Minuet and Trio on Day 36, this set of two Bourrées is again made on an overall A B A pattern.
Why is this such a common musical form? It's because it's satisfying: after you hear the A, then the B in contrast, returning to the A gives a feeling of “coming home”, and also provides a simple sense of symmetry. That’s true in very small pieces like Twinkle, in dance sets like this one – and even often in big symphonies by composers such as Beethoven. Teaching students to hear and understand this in the music they're playing helps them to appreciate all music more deeply.
The music of Bach’s six unaccompanied cello/viola suites is some of the most beautiful there is to play, and gives musicians both a musical and technical workout. It’s always exciting for us as teachers when student reach the milestone of being ready to discover them!
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