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Baroque music is formed in big share from contrapuntal textures (having two or more independent but harmonically related melodic parts sounding together). Written for the harpsichord, these textures aren’t as well suitable to the progressed piano’s thicker tone and rich, low harmonies. So, special care has to be taken when you interpret Baroque amount of time music on the piano. In contrapuntal music, the person constituents are of equivalent importance, even altho their inter-relationship is continually shifting. To reproduce this type of texture well, you need to train your mind, ears and fingers to follow the course of person contrapuntal lines, as well as their combined texture, so the pianist presents a picture of an ever-changing whole. Pianist H. Ferguson gives this analogy: You may think of the music as a kind of conversation, in which the voice shifts continually from person to person, as each person makes a contribution without unduly raising his tone. The dynamic range shouldn’t be too great (a true fortissimo is rare, since various persons shouting dissimilar things at the same time will never make themselves understood); and touch and tone must be lighter than in homophonic music typical of the later 19th century. A semi-legato is more ordinary than a legatissimo, specially if the notes are quick-moving, since it promotes clarity. It also allows freer play for the subtle kaleidoscopic changes of thought and mood specially characteristic of Bach. The preserving pedal must be used sparingly; it must never be permitted to obscure the line, or fabricate the kind of impressionistic haze that is only heard in modern music such as Debussy. So, when you interpret Baroque music for the duration of piano instruction, try to keep out of the way of the thickness of sound that is characteristic of the piano, yet was alien to the harpsichord. This is peculiarly necessary with close-position chords in the bass. These sound clear and transparent on the early instrument, but on the thicker-toned piano of today they ought to be played conservatively to refrain from a muddy sound. One solution is to lighten the middle notes of the chord, so they are less prominent than the octave played by the fifth finger and thumb. Sometimes it helps to break the chord somewhat and play it as a quick arpeggio. Occasionally in Baroque music there are passages that would have been comparatively easy with the light and shoal touch of earlier instruments, but now are exceedingly difficult, or impossible, with the deeper and heavier key-action of today. For instance, the repeated triplet octaves in the right hand part of Schubert’s song ‘Der Erlkonig’ were in the first place not terribly hard to play, but for the innovative pianist they have become a virtuoso athletic feat. In playing fugal music, then, you might find the following points helpful:
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