Wedding season is over for me (so far…no new gigs on the horizon, at least for a while), so I’m going back to learning some heavier performance pieces.
Some of them are older pieces I’ve had for a while, that I’ve been meaning to re-learn/memorize, and others are pieces I’ve never played but wanted to learn.
A few days ago, I was practicing and had a revolutionary thought. It wasn’t revolutionary to anybody but me, and I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before (I’m completely daft?), but as I progressed from playing a French piece, to a Spanish piece, to a Russian piece, I thought, “These all sound different!”
What I mean by that is…
All of these pieces are classical; BUT they are from different countries, and different composers living in those different countries each had an idea of what a classical piece needed to have.
The French classical piece (arguably one of my favorite pieces to perform) is a light, deceivingly fluffy piece that sounds like an old clock.
The Spanish piece (which is a Pavane) is a stately, strict piece that requires much finger acrobatics.
The Russian piece is flamboyant, complicated, and very long. It is a collection of Variations on a Theme by Mozart, and although you can tell it’s based off of Mozart, at the same time, it’s very Russian, with its range on the harp, its broad sound, and blustery chords.
I can’t think why I haven’t made that discovery before, but it makes re-learning them very fun as I try to emulate the character of each piece. An old grandfather clock, a stately dance, and a snow storm.
I have a German piece I’d like to learn (Fantasy for Harp), as well as some Sonatas (I forget where they’re from). It will be interesting to discover their ‘personalities’!
