In Tempo reading:
Slow practice build-up approach:
This Romantic era Impromptu will always benefit from the type of slow practicing that permits careful shaping of phrases, attention to dynamics and other nuances. In the video, I magnify the contours of the work through a deliberately behind tempo approach.
Many students will say, that they can only play a piece like this one very quickly, or it will fall apart. To the contrary, if the pupil cannot play this composition in slow motion, it’s unlikely that he can meet its technical and artistic demands up to speed.
WARM UP with SCALES
As a start, practice the scale of the composition which is Eb Major. In this case, I would also play through the PARALLEL Eb MINOR, which has a particularly important presence in the first, triplet laden opening section and at the very end of the piece. In fact, the very moment Eb minor appears in the first part, it comes with a striking tonal change at a double soft, wistfully beautiful pianissimo level. During the concluding phrases of this section, there is a bigger, more powerful declamation of Eb minor supported by the harmonic progression TONIC, (i) SUBDOMINANT (iv) TONIC (i) leading to an Eb Minor Scale in the MELODIC FORM that lands on the THIRD DEGREE, Gb and is supported by a Gb MAJOR CHORD that becomes a DOMINANT of B minor (an ENHARMONIC KEY) Technically, we would expect to stay in FLATS and resolve to Cb MINOR, but Cb minor is a complex tonal universe to navigate. B minor in part TWO is easier to assimilate with a key signature of two sharps. Both Cb minor and B minor sound the same, (“enharmonically” related) though they are spelled differently.
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STRUCTURE
The first section is permeated by a stream of rolling triplets that should be limpid and smooth. Playing these figures, “legato,” is a challenge because it’s easy to render sharp angles and edges by using too much finger generated pokes or articulations. This is why wrist flexibility/suppleness are required. The wrist is the great shock absorber and its ability to help sculpt phrases should not be underestimated.
The middle section in B minor, with its rhythmic definitions and shifts is in stark contrast to the floating, flowing character of the opener, but it has a compelling duality. Measures with an underlying triplet, alternate with the division of the beat into quarters.
The composer returns to the Eb Major tonality with limpid triplets, before he transitions to a CODA (or ending) that is a compression of the theme presented in the B minor section. This final part of the Impromptu moves very quickly, accelerating to the final cadence chords in Eb but in the very poignant PARALLEL KEY of Eb MINOR. (REMINDER that the Impromptu is in the KEY of Eb MAJOR, though ending in the TONIC minor)
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CONCLUSION
Time spent practicing slowly and attentively is the worth the effort. It’s the best way to nurse a composition along to tempo with the nuances, dynamics and phrasing required, and it’s a step that should not be skipped in the learning process.
