{"id":75,"date":"2017-06-06T08:22:50","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T08:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seanchenpiano.com\/pianonotes\/?p=75"},"modified":"2017-06-12T05:43:02","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T05:43:02","slug":"quasi-una-fantasia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seanchenpiano.com\/pianonotes\/2017\/06\/06\/quasi-una-fantasia\/","title":{"rendered":"Beethoven Sonata Op. 27 No. 1, Quasi una Fantasia, Quasi Quit Piano"},"content":{"rendered":"

This sonata is affectionately known as \u201cthe other one,\u201d since Op. 27 No. 2 is the \u201cMoonlight.\u201d I really enjoy this piece and spent a lot of time working on it. Before I got very comfortable with it, however, I used it for my Juilliard Artist Diploma audition, and I think I played it pretty mediocrely, resulting in not getting accepted (I thought my other stuff went well, but who knows). I was going through a mini crisis at that point trying to decide if I should continue onward with my studies, but fortunately I persevered. I then went on to study with Hung-Kuan Chen at Yale, who really helped me out with getting this piece down and comfortable. Out of my audition repertoire, this was probably the \u201ceasiest\u201d on the surface, but I think it\u2019s a much harder piece to play well and convincingly than many other pieces (the other pieces on my list were Prokofiev 8, Schumann Kreisleriana, some etudes, and Bach Keyboard Sonata in A minor).<\/p>\n

We\u2019re going to just talk about the first movement of Op. 27 No. 1. I\u2019m really using this piece as an excuse to talk about certain pianistic concepts in context, so many of the ideas will be applicable to many if not all other pieces. I\u2019ll try to be as stylistically agnostic as possible and present the various considerations we have as pianists, though some interpretation is bound to creep in since I\u2019ve spent a lot of time on this piece. And, this list is not exhaustive; other pianists might focus on different things and reach different conclusions. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

Legato<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have to talk about legato<\/em>. I often ask students in masterclasses, \u201cHow do you create legato?<\/em>\u201d Invariably, the answers are always vague, with words like smooth, connected, and lyrical thrown around. Now, if you were playing a stringed instrument, the answer might be easier: as long as there aren\u2019t any string crossings, you keep the bow moving in the same speed, and play the next notes. We aren\u2019t considering phrasing or anything else here, just pure legato<\/em>. Now, if there is a string crossing, what string players might do is have a bit of overlap, so that at a small instant in time, both strings are being played.<\/p>\n

On the piano, we can\u2019t actually hold notes. The loudest part of our notes are the attacks; at any subsequent point in time, the volume will be less. We always have to deal with decay, and just playing the notes one after another doesn\u2019t result in a very convincing legato<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So for piano, an important key to legato<\/em> is overlap of notes. This is actually a trick used in MIDI (see Fig. 1 below) when you want to create a legato sound \u2013 you actually hold the previous note slightly into the next. This creates a blend of sound, sort of like a cross-fade in audio processing. Then, as a pianist, you can use the amount of overlap, from barely any to almost all of the next note, as a tool for color and expression. You can even go the other way, and not overlap at all, in which case you get non legato<\/em> or staccato<\/em> or any other gradation of it.<\/p>\n

The other component then, is the hierarchy of volumes of the notes in a legato<\/em>. When just thinking of the two-note slur, we know that the second note generally has to be softer, and by quite a bit; if you play it about the same velocity as the first note, it is liable to sound like an accent. Now, in a longer legato<\/em>, you can\u2019t keep playing the next note softer, because you\u2019ll end up at pppp<\/em><\/strong> after a few notes. Here\u2019s where shaping and phrasing come into play to make sure it notes aren\u2019t sticking out. If you are getting slightly louder throughout the legato, make sure there aren\u2019t any unplanned decreases in velocity. If it is a general tapering, you don\u2019t want any notes that are louder than the previous.<\/p>\n

Fig. 1. Demonstrating Legato with MIDI<\/p>\n

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A melody played without any dynamics or overlapping.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n