Saturday, March 03, 2007

A Little Anguish

Been working on the first movement of the Arpeggione Sonata these few days. I managed to get the entire first movement out under my fingertips, and I'm currently shaping it up and getting myself ready for playing together with the accompaniment.

While running through the piece a few times, I always felt a little strange playing the first climax in the exposition section after the 2nd theme has been introduced. I kept running through that portion over and over again. At snail speeds, at leisurely speeds, at breakneck speeds, syncopatedly, with some rhythmic alteration, softly, loudly. Fought with my new guitar and tried so hard to wrench an anguished cry for the climax but the guitar just refused to co-operate. She was unbelievably nonchalant. Finally, I gave up and decided to give us a little more time to try and get along before working at it again. (Ivan, it might be the machinehead...)

In the meantime, I went back to the original urtext edition published by G. Henle Verlag for Violoncello and Piano and got a little surprise.



It's pretty unfortunate that the upper range of the arpeggione is a little too high for the guitar. Guess how did John Williams transcibe it. He actually changed that high C to a G (to suit the style of the running scalic passage before that) and the high Eb to a F# an octave lower (to prepare for the scalic passage the bar after). As such, the climatic point was prematured - 1 crochet and 1 semiquaver beat earlier. How frustrating... I guess it can't be helped, with the tonal range I am given on my instrument. But I can't get over the fact that it's the climax that has been tempered with. There're still other sections whereby the arpeggione part and the piano part has been switched due to the limitations of my instrument.

Can't help feeling a little indignant... Just hope that my new guitar can mature to be a little more co-operative soon...

Sorry, Schubert, for desecrating such a masterpiece of yours...

7 comments:

IVAN LIM said...

The new guitar of yours requires little effort to bring out the best in it. But you cannot be tensed when you play her, you have to be relaxed, even as tackle the severest of passages. She'll respond beautifully when you do. Work it out to such a point where you have the passage well within your technical grasp, then relax and let fly. You'll be amazed at the result.

solitudex said...

Don't worry about it, I'm not criticising that lovely baby. She's a little too pure and refined to bring out the Schubertian angst, but she sings his poetic parts with such tenderness makes my heart weep...

Thanks a million for those insightful tips. They are helpful. =)

Hucbald said...

Have you ever considered using harmonics for the high C and E-flat? I'm not happy with William's solution at all because it basically ruins Schubert's climax there.

solitudex said...

Thanks George! I've thought of it but the thing about harmonics on guitar is that their character is an ethereal, harp-like one. But that's a Schubertian cry of anguish, and it is required to be played forte.

But anyway, thanks again for your input.

IVAN LIM said...

Yeah playing harmonics would turn it into an anti-climax!

Hucbald said...

I disagree. It is a pitch climax that is obviously going to go "off the end of the fingerboard." The climax does not HAVE to be loud to be effective, it just has to be DRAMATIC. Personally, I would much rather use harmonics there to get the correct pitch than transpose down an octave just to get the volume, but suit yourself.

Harmonics can be loud, BTW... if you know how to do it.

solitudex said...

George, would you kindly enlighten me on how do I push the dynamical limits of the harmonics for our instrument?

You might have misunderstood me. I don't mean that climaxes have to be loud in general. I was referring to the textual overlay for this piece of music, whereby Schubert had marked it to be forte, as such, in order to be faithful to his intentions (a similar motive which has driven me to search for alternatives to play the authentic notes on this instrument), it has to be played forte.

And of course, I do agree about it being dramatic. In fact, I believe the very core reason Schubert had marked it forte was in fact to make the climax dramatic.

Thank you so much for your clarifications as it would greatly allow the music to be performed in a more authentic and sincere manner.