SPOILER: It has nothing to do with muscle strength. In fact, the fingers do not have muscles. In this video I discuss the importance of mindful practice as I navigate Philipp’s “Exercises for the Independence of the Fingers”. Often, students of the piano ask how they can develop stronger fingers. Finger strength is not really […]
Category Archives: Performance and Analysis
Innovative notation to develop complexity in rhythm, meter, form and repetition
Within a barren soundscape of quietude, the beauty of its stillness is what captivated me the most. This stillness was compounded by the unpredictable unfolding of its rhythm. Upon first hearing, Beat Furrer’s exquisite Voicelessness, The Snow Has No Voice for solo piano seemed somewhat improvisatory, at least rhythmically. As I explored the limited recordings of […]
A Performer’s Guide to the Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
Did you know that John Cage made kits of preparations for the Sonatas and Interludes and sold them through a new music journal published by Henry Cowell? These kits contained 45 envelopes, one for each note of the preparations, that held the hardware he used for his preparations. Did you know that Cage created a document […]
Performance and Analysis: Cage and Scarlatti, form and micro-macrocosmic structure
image: Flickr/tin.G Part of the lecture for my upcoming lecture-recital of John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes will discuss the path Cage took from his beginnings in percussion to explorations into Eastern aesthetics. Cage’s early period is bookended by these two important influences and nestled right in the middle of this period is one of the […]
Performance and Analysis: Rachmaninoff Etude-Tableau in g minor
Rachmaninoff’s Etude-Tableaux are meant to create a picturesque scene in the minds of the listener. If you recall my earlier blog post about the e-flat minor Etude-Tableau, I discussed my scenario of a man at the mercy of nature at its fiercest. In his g minor etude Op. 33 No. 5, I’ve become so entrenched […]
Performance and Analysis: Beethoven’s Tempest Op. 31 No.2 first movement
The focus of this article is to show the relationship and development of the motifs used in the first movement of Beethoven’s Tempest sonata. At this point in his composing, Beethoven began to distill his motifs to very short phrases, often just a few notes. The Tempest sonata is a great example of how Beethoven […]
A Wistful Farewell to Youth – Beethoven’s Tempest, Sonata Op. 31 No.2 III.
Pianist Louis Kentner referred to the final movement of Beethoven’s Tempest sonata as “A wistful farewell to youth”. This is an appropriate observation, especially considering the ending, which vaporizes and slips away without warning. The feeling of youth in this work is expressed through a perpetuum mobile, a driving and persistent grouping of 16th-notes that barely ceases for […]
Brahms Rhapsody Op. 79, No. 1 in b minor
Did you know that Brahms was such a perfectionist that he destroyed many of his early works because he later found them inferior? He was also a proponent of absolute music, that is, music that doesn’t have any extramusical associations– music for the sake of music. This is my favorite Brahms piece for solo piano. […]