eine kleine Nachtmusik

As I'm discovering that playing the violin is a lot easier than I thought (at least for cellists), I am now moving on from Suzuki to repertoire pieces that I have in my head because I studied them on the flute. First choice, obviously, is Mozart's famous serenade "eine kleine Nachtmusik," k525, which also was the first big thing I studied on the flute, seven years ago. Bits of it I even played on the guitar back in the 20th century!

Initially, I was a bit fearful as it requires higher positions. Then, having ventured up into third position for the first time (first finger playing A on the E string, easy to find as you can check against the A string next door), it hit me: I don't really have to come down - I could play anything across all four strings without open strings and without shifting positions.

This contrasts with the cello where all remote keys and higher positions are hard work because you have to shift all the time, which is due to the fact that the hand doesn't stretch far enough on each string to reach the note that's missing where the open string would be in first position. So, typically, in the scales without open strings, you have to go up to higher positions and drop down a position every time you cross from one string to the next. On the violin, I just realised, I can play two octaves across all four strings without moving my hand, in literally any key. I don't even have to know if I have seven flats or 13 sharps, I only have to find the base note. I'm not even sure if that is official technique, but it makes everything so much easier.

Bottom line: I guess cello is easier for the beginner in first position because every finger has a precise place where it lives, but once it comes to higher positions and remote keys the violin is miles easier. (Considering this, I find it surprising that folk fiddlers systematically refuse to use the higher positions.)

So, anyhow, I've reached the bottom of the first page of the ancient edition (below) I borrowed from the older brother of a school friend and never gave back, so I'm now fairly confident that this works. Watch out for other violin pieces in my flute repertoire, including Einstein's favourite Mozart sonata, k304, and Dvorak's sonatina, op 100.

Re. violin videos, I haven't recorded myself recently, but here is the young musician trying out the instrument with Handlarens Vals.

Christa the violin reunited with Frieda the piano. Both lived in the same flat (the violin residing on top of the piano) while Frieda the pianist was alive, as you can see on old photos eg here.

Meanwhile, on the cello, I've spotted a surprising synergy from violin-playing. I just realised that the thumb position (where the thumb rests on the middle of the string) is essentially a viola. The thumb is the open string, and you can use the first three fingers exactly like you would in first position on violin or viola. So if you add to that an E string by moving the thumb to the position at 2/3 of the string length (I use the harmonics in both thumb positions because I can't be bothered to press hard when I don't have to), you have a violin. Which means I can practice the thumb position(s) by playing all the folk tunes I've just learned on the fiddle. When the thumb is on 2/3 = E, the third finger reaches the 3/4 = A, so I can cover two octaves on one string, which is also fun and probably covers all the notes I'll ever need.

Also, playing both instruments every day now, I realise both activities scratch completely different itches. On a new instrument, with a steep learning curve, I am enjoying the rapid and often surprising progress, whereas the established instrument is more of a meditative habit, with only slow progress (although the thing with the thumb position feels like a new instrument).

PS - note that my musical education only really got going when I had children and learned with them. See my account of my musical miseducation. So I am a late beginner on all of the instruments that I play regularly today (with the exception of the soprano recorder which I don't play very often).

quartets for random instruments

In addition to duets and trios, we (a hardy subset of Cowley Orchestra and some newbies) have also played some quartets over this summer. These included baroque pieces set for three melody instruments plus basso continuo (Baroque composers didn't mind very much what melody instruments were used). On some meetings, when we had a strong ensemble, we also ventured into the string quartets of classic/romantic periods.

This Bank Holiday Monday we had a particularly strong ensemble (nothing to do with me, I am either the weakest link or hiding behind a stronger player) with an interesting variety of instruments and played Dvorak's American quartet among other things. It struck me that I actually prefer our version with five different instruments (violin, flute, oboe, clarinet on the viola part, cello) to the string quartet performance. Listening to string quartets, I don't really like the fact that the four string instruments have similar sound textures and all blend into one sauce - having a variety of different sounding instruments is actually an improvement to me. Also, with its richness of textures, the random instruments version is a lot closer to the New World symphony.

(UPDATE 11.9.2021: Just discovered it's been done before. Somebody called David Walter arranged it for wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, published by Billaudot - Paris 1986) and YouTube has live videos from the Amsterdam Wind Quintet (fourth and first movement) as well as sound-only recordings from the Royal Flemish Philharmonic (complete) and Meliora Winds.)

Anyhow, here's my nascent collection of quartets so far:

Bach: 14 fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier arranged for string quartet by R. Hofmann. Part 2 (No. 8-14)
Beethoven: quartet op.18, No. 1 in F (lovely performance by GoYa quartet here)
Beethoven: quartet op.18, No. 3 in D
Boccherini: 9 string quartets (various opus numbers).
Borodin: string quartet No. 2 in D
Dvorak: string quartet No. 12 in F major (American quartet)
Haydn: Quintenquartett Op 76, Nr. 2, in D minor
Haydn: Quartet in d minor Op 103, his last quartet, which remained unfinished, there are only two movements, of which the first is performed here.
Mozart: quartet in B flat, K485, played by Carmel Quartet here
Mozart: Adagio for cor anglais (oboe/viola), 2 violins and cello, K580a. Another unfinished work, a lovely performance is here;
Pachelbel: Canon in D, arranged for string quartet by Donald Fraser
F. X. Richter (1709-1789): String quartet in B flat Op 5 No. 2, audio here
Schubert: Excerpts from 5th symphony, strings pack
Schubert: Quartet for flute, guitar, viola and cello (YouTube). Found this in an edition published 1956 - it later turned out that Schubert had just arranged a trio by Czech guitarist Vaclav Matiegka (1773-1830) and added the cello to give it a bit more oomph. The original trio (Notturno op 21) is lovely, actually, but doesn't harm to have the cello part too.
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 1 Op 49.
Various composers: The String quartet: Original string quartet movements of simple character by old masters; Walter Höckner, ed.

And a bunch of baroque quartets I borrowed for the summer:

MA Charpentier, Noels (9 short pieces, some christmassy)
Naudot, concerto in C major
A. Scarlatti, Sonata in F major
GP Telemann, concerto in G major
JB Fasch, quartet in Bb major
JC Schickhardt, sonata in D major

The last page of the autograph score of Dvořák's American quartet with his inscription: "Finished on 10 June 1893 in Spillville. Thanks God. I'm satisfied. It went quickly."

Source

Updated 6.9.2021 to add the Schubert quartet based on the Matiegka trio.
Updated 21.4.2022 to add Haydn op 103, Mozart, Richter, and Various.
added Beethoven and Mozart K485.
Updated 23.2.23 to add Bach and Borodin

alla turca

After the festival, I've had a quick and dirty go at Mozart's famous Turkish March, which is the third movement of the piano sonata number 11, in A (K331). I was inspired to try this by the Ayoub sisters who arranged it as a lovely string duo (see their video here - watch out for the Scottish reel they threw in just for the heck of it). As luck would have it, flutetunes.com has a score for solo flute ready and waiting for me. I also nicked some ideas from this performance by Ion Bogdan Stefanescu, flute with piano accompaniment.

As it's a piano piece originally, it's only fair to include our old piano in the picture, which has now been in the family for more than a century:



I might also try and learn the right hand of the original piece, although coordinating that with the left hand would probably be beyond my non-existing skills.

After this little divertimento, I am now ready to tackle another serious baroque suite from that grey book ...

k304

I discovered this sonata via a long rambling path. If I remember correctly, I saw a mention somewhere that Einstein had named his violin "Line" - which resonated as the young musician in the family also assigns names to the ever growing family of string instruments (but not to wind instruments). I asked Paul Halpern, who has written a book about Einstein's friendship with Schroedinger, if he knew what happened to Line, and he referred me to this website about celebrations of Einstein's 125th birthday, where I read:

This lecture was followed by a surprise: a musical event featuring Paul Einstein on violin and Siegfried Räbblen on Piano. Paul, a great grandson of Einstein's is a musician living in the south of France and played on Einstein's violin. The piece was a Mozart Sonata, K304, written in 1778. It is the only instrumental work Mozart wrote in E-minor and its poignancy reflects Mozart's reaction to the news of his mother's death. It was Einstein's favorite.

So I looked it up and found this flute performance of k304 by Ginevra Petrucci and really liked it, and bought the score complete with accompaniment CD. Which turned out to be unnecessary, because as it happened, my flute teacher had just completed her own flute adaptation of the piece. So I worked my way through both movements of her version and am now reasonably happy with my playing, although there are always lots of things left to improve at a later point.

By the way, I don't think it required much virtuosity from Einstein or other amateur violinists to play it - I noticed one could readily play it unchanged on viola i.e. even without the violin's E string, and thus also on cello an octave below. So, if you have a string instrument sitting around, give it a try and release your inner Einstein.

Oh, and for flautists it is of course interesting because it is quite close in time (as well as in the Koechel Verzeichnis) to the two flute concertos.

Next up: a Telemann fantasia ...

k315

this term's addition to my nascent flute repertoire is Mozart's stray Andante, K315. The modest speed means that I can actually play along with the CD I have, drown out Aurèle Nicolet and pretend I'm performing with an orchestra, which is great fun.

Next up, some "American" period Dvořák ...

PS (2017): When I wrote this entry, I wasn't aware that Aurèle Nicolet had died earlier that year (30.1.2016) - his passing seems to have been ignored by the UK media. See this appreciation from the Berlin Philharmonic.

k525

As the young cellist has moved out now, I am left to focus on my solo flute work (although there’s never a shortage of jolly company for playing a few folk tunes around here, so I’m keeping up some of those sessions as well). I’ve decided to post a musical still life for every work I’ve learned to play, starting with my very first Köchel number, K525, which is, of course, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, all four movements of it. I might play the third movement at the Festival next year, be afraid …

Next up is a work that Mozart actually wrote for flute, the Andante K315.

Why Bad Romance is like Mozart

Leafing through this week’s Radio Times, I spotted a piece by James Lowe, who apparently wants to get teenagers to listen to classical music. I went through it distractedly, while eating, reading the subheadings only:

If you like U2 … you’ll love Wagner
(maybe, but I’ll have neither, thanks)
Vampire Weekend – Bach
(yawn)
Dizzee Rascal – John Adams
(John who?)
Metallica – Stravinsky
(again, neither rocks my world much)
Mumford & Sons – Aaron Copland
(WTF ???)

Then, looking at the middle panel (which is set against a dark background, so I hadn’t perceived it as part of the story when I first went through the piece) I found:

If you like Lady Gaga … you’ll love Mozart
Now we’re talking. As example pieces, the author discusses Bad Romance vs. Der Hölle Rache from the Magic Flute, which I think is an inspired combination. And he’s right, of course. If Mozart were alive today (and 20-something, not 200-something), he would be producing something like Bad Romance, not “Smooth Classics at Bedtime”.

So, Lowe’s musical horoscope works for me, after all. Check yours here.


Come to think of it, she does look a lot like Lady Gaga, doesn't she?

Now if Lowe could tell me whether there is a link between my affinities for Dvorak and Shakira ... I think I have a nascent idea, but I'll keep that for another blog entry.