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This thread is perfectly timed for me...

 

I think I'm going to start the Back two part inventions to help build up my hand independence.

 

Todd

Sundown

 

Working on: The Jupiter Bluff; Driven Away

Main axes: Kawai MP11 and Kurz PC361

DAW Platform: Cubase

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My mistake! I thought 99 cents was too cheap.

 

The Complete Album

 

A regular on my iPod rotation

With a title like "Bach to the Future: Piano and Synthesizer" I was expecting to hear piano and synthesizer _together_. From what I can tell by listening to the preview snippets some tracks are piano and some tracks are synthesizer; never both together on the same track. A pity - that could have been interesting.

Well, the album is roughly half piano and half synthesizers, so I don't think that the title is too misleading... :D

 

Btw, that was exactly the spirit of the project: To put the piano and the synths in direct comparison, in a classical music context. Both instruments were unknown to Bach (the piano in its modern form and the synthesizer), so in both cases, you could think of all these pieces as "transcriptions" - of which Bach was a master himself.

 

I never thought to use the two instruments together; in my humble opinion, that would have suggested too much of a "piano concerto" sound, and I wanted to avoid that.

The whole thing has a rather "chamber music" feel, which I personally like for that kind of music.

Love the Carlos realizations as well, of course. :)

 

Side note: I'm not really satisfied with the piano sound on that album. It was so bright and metallic that I ended up playing most of the piano pieces with the left pedal down. Not ideal for your dynamics... :freak:

 

 

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This thread is perfectly timed for me...

 

I think I'm going to start the Back two part inventions to help build up my hand independence.

 

Todd

 

I helped me out tremendously to revisit the inventions. I hadn't played them since I was a kid. I'm kind of go nuts on stuff. I will get on a kick and do it. I was on the Bach kick for about a year. It started on Liszt's 200th birthday. I started lamenting the death of my technique..... Wishing I was 22 again, all that middle aged self pity crap.

 

My new kick is now Chopin. That is really funny because as a kid I friggin HATED Chopin. I love short pieces. I just don't have the time, discipline and memory to tackle Sonatas and other long pieces. I like Preludes, Etudes, and specially find of Grieg's lyric pieces.

 

I still suck at Bach. I'm just a Romantic player at heart. My favorites will probably always be Beethoven, Rachmaninoff and Grieg. I suck at those too.

 

Here is a warped piece of doo-doo. Invention 13 backwards. :D

 

Bach does some interesting things when backwards.

 

[video:youtube]

 

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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  • 2 years later...
Great playing indeed.

 

I like the tempo's a bit lower though. Maybe thats also because I'm used to my own tempo's.

 

It's not you... they are a bit fast in general I think. I play them slower myself...for various reasons :rolleyes: !

 

I agree, she really is great but I prefer slower tempos myself! Otherwise you get the things Glen Gould was slightly put down for (if that's possible) the 'Music as a Museum Piece' vibe...she is wonderful though... I've played many of them myself! Richter was who I was steered to, so I put some of his WTC up...

 

Richter was explained to me as very close to a Jazz musician in his feel for classical...living in the moment more not in the Museum....I was guided away from Howowitz for similar reasons ...Always with the statement and understanding of how great Horowitz was though...it's a matter of taste.

 CP-50, YC 73,  FP-80, PX5-S, NE-5d61, Kurzweil SP6, XK-3, CX-3, Hammond XK-3, Yamaha YUX Upright, '66 B3/Leslie 145/122

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Her philosophy is the same as Glenn Gould.

 

"Bach wrote 2- and 3- part Inventions as a exercises for aspiring keyboard players to perfect one's technique and touch. Since any exercise is supposed to be difficult and push you to the limit, I did just that."

 

Glenn was emphatic that he remained absolutely true in performance of major works such as Concertos, Partitas, and Suites etc ..... But inventions, sinfonias, dance pieces, WTC ...etc... were open game for personal interpretation baby.

 

Hell I have no room to throw stones. I recorded Inventions backwards just for the hell of it. :laugh:

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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Lyrical and relaxed is difficult. Chopin kicked my rear because of this. Subtlety is hard.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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  • 2 years later...

When too little to reach the pedals play Bach.

 

The D minor Prelude from WTC II. She is cute.

 

[video:youtube]

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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I remember back in the 1970's, my piano teacher telling me that Bach would make me appreciate black keys. Then the first Bach piece I had to learn was in C. It did have a few accidentals.

 

Huh...

 

I have accidents every time I sit down at a keyboard...

 

Grey

I'm not interested in someone's ability to program. I'm interested in their ability to compose and play.

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She's the pianist whose Fazioli 278 was accidentally dropped and damaged beyond repair.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/feb/11/virtuoso-mourns-beloved-150000-piano-smashed-by-movers

 

 

That was PAINFUL to read. I hope after insurance fights, she recovers her investment.

 

 

"In a Facebook post Hewitt said her F278 Fazioli, the only one in the world fitted with four pedals, and worth at least £150,000, was 'kaputt'. She said: 'I hope my piano will be happy in piano heaven.'

 

I wonder what was the 4th pedal for?

www.youtube.com/c/InTheMixReviews
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I wonder what was the 4th pedal for?
If I remember right, it's the grand equivalent of an upright's soft pedal.

 

On a grand, the left pedal -- Una Corda -- moves the action sideways so that only one string out of each treble triplet is struck, and bass strings are hit by the softer corner of the hammer. In addition to softening the sound somewhat, it more importantly changes the timbre, since now you're striking one treble string while the other two become resonators.

 

On an upright (usually) the soft pedal simply shifts the hammers a little farther from the rest of the action -- closer to the strings -- so that you can't deliver as much energy to the hammer's hit. It still makes full centered contact with strings / triplets, but lower velocity makes it softer.

 

I'm pretty sure that the 4th Fazioli pedal is the same idea -- the hammer strikes full on center, but with less energy, giving a different timbre from the traditional Una Corda pedal.

-Tom Williams

{First Name} {at} AirNetworking {dot} com

PC4-7, PX-5S, AX-Edge, PC361

 

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Kind of. As I mentioned in the Hewitt/Fazioli thread: on a modern grand, the una corda pedal shifts the action so that two of three strings are struck - so one less. This results in a change in volume and timbre, since the softer part of the hammer is striking two strings.

 

The Fazioli fourth pedal moves the hammers closer to the strings (like an upright) which results in a reduction in volume, but not a dramatic change in timbre. :thu:

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I gave up trying to play Bach long ago when taking lessons as I found it frustrating and easy to hit wrong notes. My teacher had me working on 2 part inventions right off.

I think that was a mistake. I found the book First lessons in Bach by Walter Carroll a few years ago and started working on them. I found those a much better intro to Bach to build confidence.

Also, I found fingering really helps me learn Bach. I started the Inventions and put fingering on every note even if obvious. That really helped me. Takes patience to get them up to speed.

They really help finger independence and make you concentrate. Working on no.13 now. Whenever I get to the end I'll do the 3 part. WTC book1 I've been working on also.

The fugue in C# major is a bitch but beautiful. Double sharps take getting used to. Having hands centered a lot over black keys in C# tests the weak fingers on whites.

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Also, I found fingering really helps me learn Bach. I started the Inventions and put fingering on every note even if obvious. That really helped me.

 

This. Every note, every heel and toe.

9 Moog things, 3 Roland things, 2 Hammond things and a computer with stuff on it

 

 

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Thanks for all the comments in regards to the 4th pedal. I didn't think it was just a soft pedal. I was thinking it was a custom something that probably comes handy for period music of some sort. I may have misunderstood the article. I thought this particular piano was the only Fazioli piano with this custom but official 'upgrade'.
www.youtube.com/c/InTheMixReviews
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In addition to reducing the volume, rapid passages are easier to play as the hammers have less distance to travel.

 

What the article doesn"t mention is that the fourth pedal is standard on Fazioli"s flagship model, so it"s an easy misunderstanding to make. It was unique only to Hewitt"s model, which has three pedals as standard - in other words, it was the only model 278 in the world to have a fourth pedal.

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Bach is such an amazing composer. I appreciate him more and more every year I play. My teacher handed me the WTC told me to pick a Prelude and Fugue, so without listening to any, I picked C minor (BWV 847) because it kinda looked like a Hanon exercise at first glance. I will NEVER make that mistake again. ð Took me 5 months to get it down at a passable allegro speed, but boy, it will do amazing things for your technique!!

 

For 2-part inventions, I suggest #4.

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