The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #168339 Message #4067144
Posted By: keberoxu
03-Aug-20 - 01:48 PM
Thread Name: my first performance in thirty years
Subject: my first performance in thirty years
Well, it isn't much. It isn't even public, speaking strictly.
Four of us are patients in a clinic and, each of us being classically trained, we have been reading through classical music together -- we never knew each other before being admitted here.
The youngest of the lot, the violinist, will soon be discharged, as it is time for school, to which this musician will return. We hope to see our fellow patient off, when the time comes, by performing at the clinic together, and our audience will be the staff and our fellow patients. (Due to the pandemic, we can't have visitors / guests here.)
In truth the other three musicians (including the violinist) are all a lot younger than I am, and their technique is reasonably up to speed, they play often enough, even if they are not music majors (they aren't) as I was at their age.
Me, I play the piano part, and for the last thirty years the only keyboards I have touched have been for computers (I did learn touch-typing in my youth as well).
So here we are, practicing the Theme and Variations from Franz Schubert's Trout Quintet -- just one movement. It doesn't take long, but it is a lot of work to prepare. My technique is SO bad.
I have an excuse for the dirty little tricks I am using, abbreviating the piano part to make it easier to play. This piece is a quintet -- we're a quartet. The fifth musical part, the missing part, is a double-bass viol -- we don't have that player. I'm using my left hand, at the piano keyboard, to hit the bass notes, filling in for the missing player, while my right hand fakes the piano part, and when the double-bass viol drops out, then my left hand can grab onto the rest of the piano part. So it isn't strictly what Schubert wrote, and the purists would throw a tantrum; but it makes it possible for the four of us to play this quintet and for it to sound good, if not magnificent.