HT's RE: Les Smith's post

[Gregory Torres]

Thank you Les. Once again, a GREAT post!

Sincerely,
Greg Torres

Les Smith wrote:

> On Fri, 13 Mar 1998, Michael Jorgensen wrote:
>
> > Hi John,
> >      This logic of yours makes perfect sense.  Even most music played by
> > advanced pianists was written during the common practice period prior to
> > 1900 which suggests a form of well temperament.  Virtually all classical
> > period works were written in keys of four sharps or four flats or less.
> > (I'm sure someone will probably find an exception, please let me know
> > what work it is).
>
> Hi, Mike.
>
> I guess a lot depends on how you define the "Classical Period". If that
> includes Beethoven, then his 24th sonata--the one which followed Opus
> 57--is written in the key of F# major--6 sharps. Similarly, part of the
> Adagio movement of Opus 106, is also written using the same key signature.
> Db--five flats--was not an uncommon key for Beethoven. You also find part
> of the 31st Sonata written in the key of Ab minor. Although, for reasons
> known only to Beethoven, he chooses to use only 6 flats in the key sig-
> nature, itself, and chooses to write in all the F flats as they occur in
> the course of the piece. Also, one in general finds a much richer harmon-
> ic texture in all of Beethoven's later works, especially in the fugue
> movements in the later sonatas. I won't belabor the point, the music is
> there for those with an interest in such things to analyze for themselves.
>
> However, since no one seems to have brought up this point regarding the
> Beethoven sonatas and the subject of key specificity, I would draw you
> attention to the edition of the sonatas edited by Hans Von Bulow, Liszt's
> son-in-law. If you check out his notes to the last movement of Opus, 57,
> you'll find a curious comment regarding the at-first-strange-looking
> fingering given, which differs markedly from what you will find in any
> other edition. Hans explains that the fingering is given specifically
> because it will facilitate the transposition of the movement into other
> keys! Gasp! Could it possibly mean that pianists used to play Beethoven
> Sonatas in keys other than that in which they were originally written.
> YOU BET IT DOES! Of course, that dreaded international terrorist organi-
> zation know as the CMP--that's the Classical Music Police--want to sur-
> press such radical ideas, because they won't rest until every pianist in
> the world plays every single piece of music ever written in exactly the
> same way--the same notes, fingers, rhythms, tempos, dynamics, expression
> and pedal marks, etc. It wasn't always that way, as Hans's comment sug-
> gests. While we're on the subject, allow me to toss in a couple of
> comments on Bach, too.
>
> As a youngster, I started out with the two and three part inventions.
> All of them. From the beginninng, I was taught that Bach was the origin-
> al "swinger" and that the inventions were to be regarded as interesting,
> fun-to-play, technical and rhythmic exercises written in a contrapuntal
> style. I was also taught that they were NOT to be regarded a key-spe-
> cific and that their true value lay in transposing them into other keys.
> That is to say that the major key inventions were to be transposed to
> all the other major keys and all the minor keys inventions into the other
> minor keys. Not transposing them was regarded as the equivalent of a
> student playing the exercises of "The Virtuoso Pianist" only as written,
> and not transposing them through all the keys in order to to reap the
> maximum benefit from them.
>
> Later, when I progressed to the 48 preludes and fugues of the WTC, they,
> too, were presented to me as NON-KEY-SPECIFIC! That is to say that they,
> too, were meant to be transposed into other keys. Although Bach wasn't
> my primary are of interest, I played many of the 48 in keys other that
> just that in which they were originally written. In this respect, I was
> by no means unique. First, the teachers who taught me to do this, had
> been taught that way by THEIR teachers. Secondly, over the years, I have
> both known and done pianowork for both pianists and teachers far more
> adept at transposing Bach (and others!) than I, who both played and
> taught him (and others!) this way.
>
> This idea is hardly new. When Liszt fell under the spell of Paganini,
> and set out to do technically for the piano what Paganini had done for
> the violin, part of his standard practice routine consisted of everyday
> selecting a different prelude and fugue from the WTC and then playing
> them through all twelve keys. Thus, more than 150 years ago, Liszt was
> already playing all 48 preludes and fugues from the WTC through ALL the
> keys. Impressive? You bet! Impossible? Hardly. Worthwhile? Absolutely.
> Dangerous? Definitely--if the enforcement division of the Classical
> Music Police ever get wind of what you're up to, you could be in BIG
> trouble.
>
> The CMP have been around a LONG time. They were there to complain when
> Brahms played  Chopin's "Minute Waltz" in double notes; when Carl
> Tausig played the LH of the "Revolutionary" etude in octaves; when
> Godowsky started combining the Chopin etudes and playing two of them
> at the same time (!) (no longer in print, those interested should be able
> to find copies of his transcritions in a really large library); and even
> when Horowitz dared to make changes in something like the ending of
> Liszt's 6th rhapsody. And the list goes on and on.
>
> Somewhere along the way, people seem to have forgotten that many of the
> great pianist/composers of the past were absolute masters of improvisa-
> tional, extemporaneous playing, some rarely playing even their own works
> exactly the same way twice in a row! What you see written down on a page
> of music a century or two later is ONE way of playing it. The Classical
> Music Police would have you believe that it is the ONLY way of playing it.
>
> Stagnant, petrified, ossified, god-awful boring and predictible as it
> has become, Classical music really isn't dead. It's just that through the
> never-ending efforts of the CMP in ensure that the same tired old pieces
> will always be played in the same old, tired, mind-numbing ways, that
> those forced to listen to the same things over and over and over again
> eventually get to a point where they  wish that THEY WERE DEAD, and
> then just stop listening altogether. One can hardly blame them.
>
> Les Smith
> lessmith@buffnet.net