Learning the Chopin Piano Trio -- Part II

It feels kind of weird that this since I started this blog I've probably spent more than half of it detailing my injuries, as opposed to musical growth.  It's more unfortunate, I suppose, but apparently many pianists suffer pain in their hands and arms.  Just today one of the students in my class complained of pain.  It's probably more or less inevitable, since as long as you're moving any part of your body you're putting stress on it.  But the point is to minimize the amount of necessary effort.

Last week I purchased an ergonomic keyboard, an ergonomic mouse, and a book about the human body and how it relates to pianists, What Every Pianist Needs to Know About the Body, by Thomas Mark.  The 3M ergonomic mouse didn't work so well for me, so I've returned it.  The Miscosoft keyboard I've used it in the past, and I love it.  And from a rudimentary perusal of Thomas Mark's book it contains a wealth of useful information.  I'll have more on it in further posts, I'm sure.  But there's a lot to learn.

I skipped last week's class because of pain.  The pain is kind of still there--it just moves around.  I think by now it's pretty much visited every conceivable muscle and tendon... The good thing is that pretty much all of them just last a couple days before going away.  The bad thing is that it seems like new ones just keep coming out of nowhere, like my latest one located somewhere on the inside of my elbow.  Either way, it's saying that I need to be a lot more careful.

On to the comments from Julie Jordan.  


1) Melody lines need to sing.  Nothing new here--I guess I need to do more.


2) Passages where both hands play scales/arpeggios need to sound less busy.  Careful with phrasing.  Example:

Chopin Piano Trio, 1st Movement, Bar 219-221

Bar 219-220: More phrasing in both hands.
Bar 221: Sounds too busy.  Emphasis on the right hand.  Left hand need to be very light.


3) Musical ideas need to "go somewhere".  I suppose falls under the giant umbrella of phrasing.  Anyhow, example:

Chopin Piano Trio, 1st Movement, Bar 243-246 (the ending)

The 16th notes need to be "going" to 8th notes.  A word on editions: the above is the Kistner edition circa 1840.  But the Chopin National Edition, which I trust, has different markings for the notes I highlighted.  There, the orange ones have no staccato markings, and the yellow ones actually have staccatissimo markings.

Well, that's why having an thoroughly researched urtext edition is important.  Now you can decide exactly how you want to phrase them.  Julie Jordan recommends thinking about this whole section as though played by a cello, so the 8th notes, without the staccato, has a little more oomph than mere staccatos.  I think that makes sense.  Staccatos may make sense yet, but I suspect it might not be compatible with the character of the piece.