Impressionistic Art

So, I have been given a new piece from 20th Century. One of the stream of 20th century piece is impressionissm.

Music in older era (barouqe and classical) have no title to the song. They simply use Sonata, Rondo, Fugue, or Prelude and give numbers to it. They don't really name the song. It's practically similar to the painting from those age. Usually they have strong line and bold object. Just like in classical music we have bold melody line - mostly are pretty singable.

However impressionist painter will give you an impression of things or the atmosphere that they try to capture in their art work. They don't simply paint a flower. They want everything in the canvas communicate a certain feeling, or to give impression to the onlookers.

Based on that we can say the same with impressionist composer. The piece normally won't have bold melody line. The bass and the treble will work together to give you an impression of what the composer is trying to communicate. Claude Debussy is one of the most famous impressionist composer. He purposely put no title in some of his impressionist piece so we can play it according to our imagination. (Well he did put titles at the end of those piece just to help out of we ran out of imaginative impression :p )

The piece that I am going to learn called "By the meadow Brook". I can almost smell meadow and a sound of a running water in the little creek. And that's exactly what the impressionist composer wants to communicate. They are not after the water, or the bird, or the meadow, or the lilies, they want to capture the feeling of those things altogether. Beautiful!

Try to search in the google of impressionist art and you'll see what I mean.

Happy practicing!!

Sonata form

Sonata has a form.
1. EXPOSITION, including first theme, transition, second theme, and coda.
2. DEVELOPMENT. This part is like a solo part in modern music. This is where the composer show off his composing ability. That's why this part is normally complicated, jumping from one chord to another.
3. RECAPITULATION. Here is the summary of the song. We will go back to the first theme, transition, second theme, and coda.

Attitude

When you read music even if its just a sight reading make sure you play it with the right attitude. Most of the time I find myself just reading the music without paying attention to the dynamics or the little details like slure or rest sign.

Even when you just read music casually you must play it with the attitude to present the music nicely as if you are on stage.

Everything starts from a simple habit. Make it a habit to read and play music with an attitude, do it properly :)