Sunday, July 20, 2014

A Reading Lesson

Back to Clementi C major Sonatina, third movement: Vivace in 3/8:
I asked the young woman to pick the easiest measure in the movement.

She chose a perfectly plausible easiest bar; in fact, the one I would have chosen.

Then we both began to notice how difficult it is to articulate the note values and articulations according to the rules about vivace rhythms - mostly that you don't run one note value into another.

It turned out to be an extremely difficult business to coordinate the two hands properly.  We had a good laugh over it.

This is a most amusing reading exercise:  Find what you think is the easiest bar; take a good strong look at it and see if you can plumb its depths with a straight face.  Go from there to the bars adjacent to it and then you are off and running.

Starting always at the beginning is for sissies.