Catching up on my Ludwig

This is a notoriously slow time for musicians in my area (the dead zone of the Midwest). But, I usually use it to fix gear and write music(or rewrite bad charts, which takes me awhile). This time I've been using it to get inspired to play piano and write music again. I'm study(note: I did not say "playing") the Beethoven piano sonatas. The reason I write "studying" and not "playing" is because there is no way I could conceivably learn to play these, for the most part, virtuosic piano sonatas. I don't have the technique. I certainly don't have the time. I AM trying to learn a couple of them. An easy one(op. 49 No. 2 – a sonatina really) and a huge mace-like blow to my ego(op. 2, no. 2-Not even one of the most difficult). The cool part is all the composing devices and effects Beethoven uses on one single instrument.

SOLO.

For 15-40 minutes at a time.

I can't write a decent 3 minute song.

So, I'm really using them to study composition and what is possible on the simple piano. I finally bought the two volumes of the 32 sonatas late last year and have been using books by Rosen, Taub(see sidebar) and most importantly a video lecture series from Great Courses(Teaching Company) taught by Robert Greenburg. Greenburg covers all the sonatas in 24 45-minute lectures. They are designed for non-musicians, but they are a great introduction from a composition stand point. From a slightly more technical standpoint, I've been listening to pianist Andras Schiff give lectures on how he interprets the sonatas (he recently recorded all 32). He gave these interviews at a few British concerts of the sonatas that he performed. They can be found(and downloaded) here:

http://music.guardian.co.uk/classical/page/0,,1943867,00.html.

It's really easy to hear how amazing all the sonatas are 200 years after the fact, especially if you actually play piano. But, the mileage Ludwig gets out of a single instrument with compositional techniques is beyond amazing. I expect my kids will either absolutely love or hate them by the year's end. I play them on my IPod way, way too much.

Also, I get the feeling they are beginning to realize what hack Dear-Old-Dad is……

Comments

[Darrin]

Honest truth here, Salieri ... and what I find most amusing about you "professional musicians" is that you're so hard on yourselves, I don't see how you take any joy from music, much less your own abilities, at all.

Case in point: Friday night, I was listening (jaw around my knees) to Lisa roll through Grieg's Piano Concerto in A-Minor before we went out to see you at the Chatterbox. Pounding minor chords and endless arpeggios are "stress relief" for her.

After hearing you play for about ten minutes, she turned to me and said, "I would give anything if I could write songs and play improvisation like that. I just never learned those kinds of chops." I think she referred to herself as an "organ grinder's monkey" rather than "hack" ... but her self-deprecating sentiment was the same as yours.

Personally, I can't even play her warm-up exercises (believe me, I tried), but at least I can still take joy out of faking my way through a Steve Winwood or Billy Joel song. I have a lot of fun playing within my limited abilities (just as long as nobody hears me doing it).

Big cliched observation: If we were all Beethoven or Chick Corea, how could we appreciate their achievements? So, it's all a matter of perspective, I suppose.