My Progress
I picked up “Tempest” sonata by Beethoven last fall in hopes that I would have learned it within a reasonable amount of time. Yet, bogged down by other activities, I wasn’t really able to get a good practice schedule. I’ve made some progress here and there, but nothing really substantial. Recently, I’ve made a push to finish up the first movement, and I did. I only have some minor tweaks and improvements. In the meantime, I began on the second movement, which I can play it through right now. I do need to memorize it. The third movement might take me a while. It does help to have listened to the music many times… I can hear it when I tried to play the notes. I project that it will take me until the middle of summer before I complete this piece.
This sonata does resemble that of a tempest. The first movement is the coming of the storm. Thunder and lightning. Heavy rain fall. But there is also a moment of tranquility, as if we have entered the eye of the storm and only to exit from it momentarily after. The movement ends in the bass, where it sounds like rolling thunder fading away, yielding to the peace that is in the second movement. Second movement sounds like drizzles, the ones that comes after a heavy rain fall. But you know the storm isn’t over yet. The third movement is not as thunderous as the first. Rather, it’s a fast paced mixture of the first and the second. It represents rain, and a lot of it. No thunder, no stop, just a pour of water.
The question I have right now is: how can one introduce the element of wind into the playing of the piece? One can imagine the forces of nature at work during a tempest. And in the interpretation of the music, I have to give justice to the intent of the composer as well as reveal how I think the piece should be played.
I picked up “Tempest” sonata by Beethoven last fall in hopes that I would have learned it within a reasonable amount of time. Yet, bogged down by other activities, I wasn’t really able to get a good practice schedule. I’ve made some progress here and there, but nothing really substantial. Recently, I’ve made a push to finish up the first movement, and I did. I only have some minor tweaks and improvements. In the meantime, I began on the second movement, which I can play it through right now. I do need to memorize it. The third movement might take me a while. It does help to have listened to the music many times… I can hear it when I tried to play the notes. I project that it will take me until the middle of summer before I complete this piece.
This sonata does resemble that of a tempest. The first movement is the coming of the storm. Thunder and lightning. Heavy rain fall. But there is also a moment of tranquility, as if we have entered the eye of the storm and only to exit from it momentarily after. The movement ends in the bass, where it sounds like rolling thunder fading away, yielding to the peace that is in the second movement. Second movement sounds like drizzles, the ones that comes after a heavy rain fall. But you know the storm isn’t over yet. The third movement is not as thunderous as the first. Rather, it’s a fast paced mixture of the first and the second. It represents rain, and a lot of it. No thunder, no stop, just a pour of water.
The question I have right now is: how can one introduce the element of wind into the playing of the piece? One can imagine the forces of nature at work during a tempest. And in the interpretation of the music, I have to give justice to the intent of the composer as well as reveal how I think the piece should be played.
