Allemande Take Two

http://melisma.tripod.com/mp3/allemande_part2.mp3

Follow the link above to hear the second section of the Allemande.

Two Voices

I want to write about the wonderful contrapuntal lines in the second section of the Allemande. I’m playing the left hand alone a lot to hear that marvelous voice --- with the octave leaps and then the beautiful falling sequence. I’m struggling technically to keep my left hand in tempo, another reason to practice hands alone. I need to hear that line so clearly when I combine the two voices --- to create a dialog between the hands, rather than the right hand line dominating the conversation. The harmony is a little darker in the second section, moving to a minor key. I like that darkness – c sharp minor… “the key of laments, sighs of unsatisfied friendship and love”…providing a contrast to the “happy” key of E Major. This theme of being unsatisfied in relationship to the moods created by the tonality of the key signatures keeps returning. As I mentioned in the post about the joyful nature of the key of E Major --- there is some scholarship documenting that composers found these two related keys (E Major and c sharp minor) to suggest ultimately unfullfillment. It’s funny, because I never feel unsatisfied when I play either section of the Allemande. Well…I’m not happy with my technique --- especially when playing the trills, but that is another story.

Interpreting Bach at the Keyboard

Today I was reading about the Allemande in the Badur-Skoda book – “Interpreting Bach at the Keyboard” and he was talking about the structure in the dance movements of Bach's Suites. Evidently the eight bar sections common for the Baroque period are present in the allemandes and the sarabandes of the French Suites. In many cases --- Badur-Skoda goes on to say --- the whole first sections are in an eight bar structure, and that the performer needs to show this structure by making long phrases. I found this quite interesting. In the E major Allemande, there are three, four bar phrases in the first section. I played all twelve measures in “one breath”. I couldn’t really make it work as I naturally want to "take a breath"* after each four bar section. Also, it increases my tempo, which may not be for the best, as the Courante (the next dance in the Suite) needs to be faster than the Allemande.

*As I'm a pianist I don't really need to take a breath to make a sound, like so many other musicians, but I try to show where I would take a breath as if I were singing the line. It helps a great deal to sing Bach while practicing --- even if it does make me a little self-conscious - what if somewhere hears me!

Tempo

Tempo. I have a theory about tempo. It is, that a piece can only be played easily when it is played at the tempo that the composer truly conceived for the piece. I’m putting that to the test.

I often tell my students that Bach is a composer that you can play slowly and still feel satisfied ---as the harmonies and the contrapuntal nature of the lines are so interesting. I’m having a hard time playing the Allemande at a slow enough tempo. I’m impatient and want to be able to dance on the keys today. I have practiced many of the passages carefully and repeatedly and hope that my hard work will be rewarded. I still feel like I’m all thumbs in places.

Recently I heard an NPR (Radio Lab) program about sleep. The program attempted to answer the questions: why do we sleep and what does it do for us. It turns out that all creatures sleep – some do so with one eye open. Part of the program mentioned that a musician was having difficulty with some passage work and had struggled while practicing. Unable to master the passage, the musician gave up and went to bed. The next morning the musician tried the problematic passage and amazingly the passage had been mastered while sleeping. Got me to thinking…time for sleep to help me conquer the Allemande and I’m going to put the score under my pillow for good measure!

Note Mistakes

I’ve been listening to Andras Schiff play the Allemande. He is so fast and fleet of fingers. Really lovely. My fingers feel sluggish…back to Czerny for me. Today as I was practicing I kept running into trouble with some passages (actually the whole piece seemed hard). I thought I was going too fast. I slowed down the tempo, but was continuing to make the same mistakes. I felt pretty frustrated…then I took a breath and asked myself why these passages, slow or fast would not work for me. I flashed to a conversation I had with a teacher who told me to put a work slowly into my hands by really listening to the sounds that each finger is making on every note. So I listened very carefully and took note as to which fingers were playing when, and then noted the intervals my fingers were creating. As I did that I noticed that one of the spots that I was having difficulty with was because I was anticipating an accidental that happens in the next bar. I was worried about it, so I was playing it early – ½ beat early! I then played the passage slowly analyzing which fingers were playing and the intervals they were creating and viola – the next time I ran the passage no mistakes! This minor eureka moment reminded me of something that Charles Rosen wrote in Piano Notes roughly paraphrased as follows: “pianists are the only musicians who don’t have to listen to the sounds they make to play their instrument”. I find that many of the my students are guilty of this – as I am sometimes. I try to not play that way ever, because if I listen as I practice I fix mistakes quickly and then I spend less time practicing. Hurray! Practicing the piano is a discipline where it really pays to be in the moment playing with conscious intent.

My Heart Sings

JS Bach, French Suite, No. 6
The Allemande

What is it about the key of E Major that makes my heart sing? I always feel happy when playing in this key. I think a big reason I was attracted to this piece is because it is in E Major. One of favorite preludes is the E Major one from WTC Book II. Several years ago in Harper’s Magazine (January 2005), they published a sidebar about what the musical keys represented. It was fascinating. According to Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart (1739-1791) the Key E Major represents: “…loud shouts for joy, laughing pleasure, and still not altogether full gratification.” Perhaps this image was planted in my brain, so from now on, I feel joyful about E Major…the power of suggestion?

Anyway, back to the work at hand (no pun intended!) I have the notes of the Allemande in my fingers. I’m working on tempo and checking my fingering and ornaments. I find Alfred’s Ornamentation Book helpful as it gives me a point of reference to begin with. I’m also exploring added trills on the repeats. It’s fun to try mordents and appoggiatura at full and half cadence points. I also find the sequences in this work fun. I know that Bach’s work is full of sequences, but the syncopation with the leap of the 6th is extra rewarding…but, is it fulfilling?

Allemande

About the Allemande…it is a dance in moderate duple meter first appearing in the Sixteen Century.

As one of the enduringly popular dances of the Baroque genre, an allemande is often offered as a standard portion of a musical suite. While early on an allemande served as a prelude to the suite, the dance is usually included in the first movement today. Here is some information on the history of the allemande, as well as some of the features that make the allemande unique in the world of Baroque dance. The origins of the allemande can be traced back to the Renaissance of the 16th century. The name of the allemande is actually based on the French word for "German," and points to the fact that the dance is based partly on elements of popular Germany dances. Featuring a moderated tempo along with a double meter, the allemande was a lively representation and quickly caught the attention of dancers as well as composers. During the 17th century, there was some experimentation with the allemande that changed the basic structure of the dance. Instead of a double meter, a quadruple meter was employed. In addition, the overall tempo of the movement was increased. Most of the refinements came about in order to accommodate similar changes in the musical compositions.
It is worth noting that no less than Bach and Froberger in Germany composed allemandes that were geared for use with keyboard instruments, while Italian and English composers focused on musical compositions for string instruments. English composers also experimented with a tripe meter to the allemande, as well as working with the quadruple meter concept.

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