To hear the music in your mind without being able to successfully create it yourself--what a miserable existence he was leading. He tried to hide his growing deafness for many years, but by the turn of the century it was unavoidable, making his already abrasive personality more and more unlikable. Beethoven was 40 years old in and well known for his compositions and piano playing in Vienna, the city of music and musicians in the early 19th century.
Despite creating a successful career for himself, Beethoven had not been able to find a wife. He had been connected with several young women of the upper class, but none of them were able to look beyond his middle-class beginnings.
Of course, his lack of decent hygiene was also a part of his failure to wed. He had paid little attention to his appearance through most of his life, ignoring personal grooming and the condition of his clothes.
He often just poured water over his head instead of washing, and his friends often took his clothes and had them cleaned while he slept, as he would go days and days in the same garments. And then there was his personality. He would tell a person exactly what he felt, often to the point of rudeness. He seemed incapable of understanding the feelings of others, male or female. This led to many one-sided relationships, with Beethoven always seeing himself as the one who had been wronged.
Watch out for tricky fingering. In this piece, precise finger position is key to the flow of the right-hand melody and the support of the left-hand arpeggios.
Legato, legato, legato. You should play them as smoothly as possible, gliding each note into the next. Imagine playing the piece as if you're trying to demonstrate perpetual motion. Your gently flowing tempo and legato should unite to let the melody shine. Imagine a conversation between right and left. Start by practicing hands separately. Then, when you're combining them, listen to the way the left and right hands reply to each other - it's almost a series of call-and-response questions, or a plaintive conversation.
To articulate this, carry your legato over from the right hand to the left and vice versa, and do not privilege one hand over the other in volume or tempo. Don't rush. Even after you've learned the melody, you have to keep your tempo slow to convey the wistful and sad mood.
Beethoven marked the tempo as "molto grazioso," meaning a deeply graceful and even speed. Learn the sections in order of difficulty.
As we've already seen, theme A is the least technically challenging. The most technically difficult section is the B theme, so you may want to save that one for last. Learn each section on its own, phrase by phrase. Rely on repetition for easier memorizing. The rondo form makes learning the piece by heart much easier, since 3 out of 5 sections are the same. Focus on the transitions between the sections to confidently go in and out of each. Stress the contrast.
Maintain the contrast demanded by the different sections, and connect your playing with the mood you want to convey.
At this point in your musical career, you're no longer as worried about physically being able to carry the piece from sheet music to keyboard. Instead, here are some thoughts about your main challenges:. Proper wrist placement. For an even smoother performance, you may want to rethink the way you hold your wrists and how to relieve tension in them while playing.
This blog post has some very helpful pointers. Make your mark, find your voice. How do you bring your own quality to such a widely known work? You may want to simply avoid other interpretations while working on a piece, so that someone else's vision doesn't influence your version.
Think deeply about what you want to convey, and which aspects of Beethoven's music you want to illuminate. Let these ideas be the guiding principles of your interpretation. For beginners. She was also the owner of the manuscript. Certain women are mentioned, and one of them was Elisabeth Roeckel. There is also a third candidate: another German soprano and friend of Beethoven called Elise Barensfeld.
Beethoven composed the piece on 27 April So if Beethoven was completely deaf, how did he compose? Premium Members can access it right away. Happy practicing! Method Lessons Games Premium More. Lessons for everyone! Support Center.
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