Where Are The Markings? | Episode 02

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]I have this theory that if someone erased all the markings from a piece of music, the tempo, the dynamics, the expression, I'd be able to figure all of those things out just from the notes themselves. This is episode two of Where are the markings? Where I try to figure out as much as I can from a blank piece of music. There's a link in the description box below that has the score with the erase markings and also the answers. If you do play along, let me know how you did in the comments. Let's get going. Okay. Uh, we start with a five finger pattern.

[00:00:30]Oh, I'm playing with the wrong hand. He puts this in the left hand. Whoever this composer is.

[00:00:37]Okay, I know this piece.

[00:00:40]This is Debusy.

[00:00:42]Uh, this is one of his um etudes. He wrote a he wrote, I think, eight etudes uh for the piano. They're each super unique, have a ton of character. I haven't played this, but I recognize it.

[00:00:56]Goofy way to start a piece.

[00:00:59]I might be playing a little slow. So, he immediately has his hand crossing stuff, which is already a sign that he's being a little silly.

[00:01:13]Okay. Um, this dissonance here, this is already kind of implying a harmony that WC likes.

[00:01:24]It's not exactly a whole tone harmony, but WC does this all the time.

[00:01:32]You know, it's a way he captures a dreamy state or the sensation of water or something like that. Um, it's a beautiful way to challenge harmony. It's kind of like destabilizing the tonal center. So, it's kind of a funny way to start because it's the most obvious key, C major. I mean, we all start doing this when we're kids if we're learning the piano. But he throws in this A flat as a destabilizing force.

[00:02:08]And then, okay, we're just going to speed that figure up.

[00:02:13]Offbeats.

[00:02:15]All right. What happens next? I forgot.

[00:02:17]Uh, okay. We're just going to descend chromatically.

[00:02:24]All right, let me play through a little bit and then see if I can add some markings.

[00:02:35]Okay.

[00:02:39]So again, this is like a sign that it's from the early 20th century or very late 19th century is he's experimenting with by tonality which is two different harmonies that are clashing. In the left hand we have G major now in bar whatever it is 10 12 and in the right hand F sharp major. This sounds totally normal by itself and this sounds totally normal by itself but you put them together and it clashes in this really cool way that again destabilizes the harmony. Now let's see where it goes.

[00:03:32]Uh, it's just chromatically falling.

[00:03:40]Okay, this is kind of um it's kind of what Debutc does sometimes in his impressionistic style is like in a way it's all texture. Like there's no melody here. There's no melodic content. You don't know where it's going. You know what I mean? All this chromatic leading.

[00:04:02]It doesn't really in a way it doesn't really have a point. Let's see if I can figure out some markings. Um I keep instinctually playing with the wrong hand. He has you playing like this hand crossing. I'm going to go with just piano as in terms of a dynamic. I think it's a subtle way to open a piece.

[00:04:22]It's in four. So, 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4. I'm going to be a little slower than that to emphasize how ridiculous this is, how naive it is, how simple it sounds.

[00:04:42]I'm going to go with uh Andante for the tempo.

[00:04:47]Just kind of a walking easy tempo, unassuming.

[00:04:52]Then we get this little jab of a flat.

[00:04:56]And that makes sense as a tempo because then it'll speed up with 16th notes.

[00:05:05]Now, does it change tempo here? There's a little parenthesis. It says 616.

[00:05:11]So, it's kind of feeling it now. Dumb. de instead of uh the two four. So, one, two, three. This part could go faster because it's just a sequence of chromatic falling.

[00:05:32]Yeah, I'm going to write that it suddenly goes plu.

[00:05:36]Whoops.

[00:05:38]Come on, finger pl. I'm going to say that suddenly back to tempo one. Yeah.

[00:05:45]Hey, you left in tempo one. So, I know it at least goes back to tempo one there, which I think is on Dante.

[00:05:55]And how about we write in a crescendo during that ridiculous interlude. So, we start piano and we get to forte that way.

[00:06:13]And then we're back to piano suddenly.

[00:06:16]Maybe sub. Maybe I'll even write subto piano suddenly. Back to piano.

[00:06:27]And I think that weird by tonal interruption is probably louder. So I'll just write a little crescendo only for the right hand while the left hand stays down.

[00:06:42]And I might want to write piano here again just in case.

[00:06:48]You would probably make sure that we don't stay forte there.

[00:06:56]And what about this stuff?

[00:07:02]kind of like this being just a twinkly innocent incorrect five finger exercise, right?

[00:07:14]It's like dissonant. It doesn't line up in the correct way. It really should be kind of I don't know. It should be something that doesn't that doesn't end up with a major second.

[00:07:31]Can we get a crescendo in there so that we can do another subseo piano that builds again? So, I'm I'm kind of leaning into this idea that there are these shifts in direction that are kind of sudden and then it goes back to something calm and unassuming. And I think that's going to increase the unexpected nature of the music and the drama in this piece. Even if it's not a serious drama, it's kind of a goofy drama. So, let me try with that crescendo.

[00:08:01]Yes.

[00:08:05]I'm even going to do a poco aell to emphasize that it's kind of spinning out of control and then so maybe should I chill there? No. But I am going to go back to piano so that I can build once more.

[00:08:37]Ah, we finally get like a strong downbeat.

[00:08:45]That stuff's got to be forte.

[00:08:48]We're finally This is kind of like a p-ominant harmony that's leading somewhere. So, how about we do a crescendo from piano to forte?

[00:08:56]Okay. I think it's Debbie. I do recognize the piece. I think it's one of his etudes. I'm very curious to know what he wrote, especially in French. So, let's take a look.

[00:09:09]>> Okay.

[00:09:10]>> Oh, why did I think Why did I think there were eight etudes? I probably I probably played the eighth etude and I thought there were eight. Interesting.

[00:09:18]Sagely, like wisely. Is that a tempo marking? It's not a temple marking I've ever seen. Sajimal. Is that Is that what that means? wisely. Google that. Um, I think that is hilarious if that's true because that is a very ironic tempo marking. Just play it wisely.

[00:09:38]And then he says, "Ben legato." Okay, I was right about the piano, but Ben Legato. So, wow, that is like an overarching because he has a slur which already implies play this connected.

[00:09:49]Play this legato. Um, don't disconnect the notes, but play it slurred, but then also quite legato. Make sure it's very legato. It's almost like an instructor telling you to play this piece as if you're a kid. It's like, play it legato.

[00:10:09]And also, in addition to playing it slurred, play it quite legato. You're not playing it legato enough. Uh, and then of course we get these little jabs of staccato, little disconnected in the other voice. And then, okay, in a celloerondo there.

[00:10:28]Uh, yeah, of course. Of course, there's a crescendo. I had it too late, so I stayed quiet.

[00:10:38]He's much more dramatic. Okay. So he wrote a crescendo to mezoforte and then each of these d crescendoshuh like little little gasps little gestures and then a molto dim literally the opposite of what I wrote. Okay. So what I wrote was and then the surprises here.

[00:11:05]He wrote this.

[00:11:14]I kind of like mine better, but mine's mine's uh mine's too dramatic for what he wants. Now he writes Okay. Subse piano. Not subse piano, but just a piano as I kind of predicted.

[00:11:27]And I got this right. So this thing is um a crescendo. But not only that, he writes to play it briskly. So to to play it with kind of energy uh all the way to the end. I totally get that.

[00:11:43]Uh just didn't write it.

[00:11:46]And then piano again. Cool. Same deal.

[00:11:51]Now this.

[00:11:55]Okay. Meetforte and a crescendo to the center of it. Yeah. Again, I was anticipating that we would be crescendoing all the way down and then having like a sudden drop to piano there. He doesn't want that. He wants always to diminuendo into that next section and then have these little gasps in the left hand, small gestures.

[00:12:29]And then yeah, I was pretty close on the last line. He literally writes poco a poco crescendo. I I wrote a hair pin. I mean, what is the difference? Well, I feel like when composer writes it in words, poco, a poco crescendo, it's kind of leaves it up to the performer to do it at their own pace, you know? It's kind of like just at your own pace, at your own leisure, start to get louder, start to do a crescendo. When I see a hairpin, I kind of thinking of it I'm thinking of it linearly. Like it's building in a very gradual way no matter what. Like the next measure, no matter what, is louder than the previous measure. Um, etc. So, feel like the way he wrote it leaves it a little more up to the performer to do it at their own liberty. But I I have a more gradual thing going. And then he doesn't specify how loud we get. I guess we would find that on the next page, but I would I would give myself a decent grade for this. I did. Okay, moving on to the next piece. Uh, what do we have here? A major.

[00:13:36]Uh, yes, I know this.

[00:13:47]Who do you think this is?

[00:13:52]Just beautiful phrasing, flowing lines, singing right hand, simple accompaniment, not venturing far away from the key until he wants to, which is probably going to be later. This is Schubert.

[00:14:14]This is uh from one of his later sonatas, the A major piano sonata, one of his last works. And this is I think the last movement. So it starts beautifully. It starts like a leader like a German art song. I would start it I wouldn't start it too softly. I'm going to say I'm going to say mezo.

[00:14:42]What's a comfortable What's a comfortable singing dynamic that is also sensitive? I'm gonna say mezzo piano dolce.

[00:14:52]Would he even write dolce? He's fairly minimal, which I like. I like Schubert gives you a lot of leeway in how you sing at the instrument. He's not going to overmark stuff like someone like Brahms.

[00:15:09]No offense, Brahms.

[00:15:14]It's like, does that even need a hair pin, you know? I mean, it so naturally decays that you wouldn't write it, but I I'll write it just in case.

[00:15:24]I'm going to write, let me move this off to the side. Mezo Piano dolce.

[00:15:30]And I'm playing it at the tempo that I think it is, which is like Andante Konoto. It's It's a walking tempo. Whoopsie. Andante Konoto. It's a walking tempo that isn't too slow. An andante is usually just, you know, usually a a kind of second movement or a slow movement of a sonata or something like that. Sometimes a theme in variations or sometimes something in in turnary form ABA. But on Dante Konoto, I might be more inclined to see in a last movement that's in rondo form.

[00:16:08]It has such flow to this.

[00:16:14]It's such a beautiful little duet here that it's not Schubert's accompaniments are never just accompanimental and you find this in his art song where the piano part that's accompanying the voice is just as important or more important sometimes than the melody itself. So we have this beautiful bass and then the an accompaniment just above this. And that accompaniment joins in the voice at the end of the first part of the phrase pass.

[00:16:52]So maybe just not to give up to go all the way there. How about we write a little hair pin toward that down beat? Otherwise, we give up too soon and we lose this beautiful suspension also in the top voice.

[00:17:15]So, I want to move all the way to there in the phrase getting Sorry, I'm going off. I'm going off. It's like I'm teaching a little Schubert right now to somebody. But it's so hard to get that whole eight bar phrase when you're playing Schubert. It's so delicate. It's so delicate because things are so beautiful that you want to stop and enjoy and smell the roses. But we got to get all the way. That's I almost want to avoid that hair pin down there because we got to get here there. And now it opens up to octaves.

[00:17:49]Probably a mezoforte.

[00:17:53]I'll write mefort here. I've saved a little dynamic in the beginning so that it can open up There feels like something a little bittersweet about that moment. Like it wants to open up all the way and that's what that accent is. So an accent in Schubert isn't a forceful thing, but sometimes it's literally just timing, but it's some kind of uh spiritual emphasis, some kind of feeling, some kind of reflection. So I'm going to might even be be a little bit less there. Maybe it's a little romantic.

[00:18:39]How about nothing subito, nothing sudden in this music yet, but maybe a little hair pin down so we have a little sense of bittersweetness.

[00:18:49]And then what if we just stay piano?

[00:18:57]I'm going to just go with a piano here because it's what I want to do in the phrase. So start big.

[00:19:04]then echo or respond in a kind of consequential way in the second part of the phrase.

[00:19:13]Now what about this is a slow build.

[00:19:25]How about just a crescendo in this bar so that we build to this and then a D crescendo there. In Schubert, I'm really hesitant to give definitive dynamic markings like piano or forte or mezo piano even or mezoforte because he lives in this world of subtlety that is constantly able to change and float and it's a very in between expression kind of world. We open up for a second, but then there's something reflective there.

[00:20:11]And this is changing all the time in Schubert.

[00:20:15]So, you have to be really careful in how you mark it, I think, because anything can happen in any moment depending on where the harmony is going.

[00:20:24]And now there's a little kind of theme and variations effect here where the the melody is passed on to the left hand that definitely grows toward that suspension toward that downbeat and then decays. So the right hand is this crystalline accompaniment. Okay. Okay.

[00:20:50]So, how would I mark this?

[00:20:54]He already marks it as a melody by stemming upward that uh kind of tenor line in the left hand.

[00:21:02]I already put a crescendo, but it I think it keeps building all the way to there.

[00:21:12]The crescendo's there. I don't think I need a dynamic. Do I need a dynamic? Do I really need a dynamic? I don't want to put a dynamic.

[00:21:21]Fine. Mental forte.

[00:21:25]I hate it. I hate writing definitive dynamics in Schubert. It's not how I feel it. So, but if he writes them, it's okay.

[00:21:36]So, how about we just keep it keep it crescendoing here. I'm going to overmark and just write a crescendo there.

[00:21:46]Um maybe sportsando here just to be like this is the peak of the phrase and then just keep it this mezoforte-ish land.

[00:22:05]Um what about this?

[00:22:10]Yeah, I mean there's nothing to mark there. I'll just say a little d crescendo at the very end to indicate that it's the end of the phrase. I think I probably overmarked this. I love this piece by Schubert. This comes back so many times. Uh this beautiful melody. So when you're listening to this whole piece in the fourth movement, just enjoy every time it repeats. It's like this rondo form um is so wonderful because in between the return it travels to all these far away places. And when you finally get it back and get it back and get it back, this melody, it feels like home. And at the end of the movement, he does something really wacky. He has like a weird modulation. He he goes to a really uncertain far away place and then hits you with the melody one more time.

[00:23:01]So let's see how I did. Okay. So first thing I notice here is that I was really I had totally wrong idea about the objective markings in Schubert. I I I thought there were all these kind of like in between dynamics. I I don't know. I play so much Schubert. It's funny how it's funny what gets stuck in your brain and what flies away from it or what you interpret when you're playing. So he just writes a straight up piano here at the beginning. just piano, nothing in between, nothing vague. It's just I think I've learned to feel Schubert in such an in between world um constantly traveling through these different realms um that I'm so shy to put objective markings on his music, but he just writes, "Hey, play piano. This is the world of piano."

[00:23:52]So, not messo, just a beautiful piano.

[00:23:55]And now, okay. Okay. All right. So, he has hair pins up and down here in this measure, which is that's a beautiful sighing gesture, reaching to the top of the phrase and then relaxing.

[00:24:15]So, my instincts were a little wrong. I wanted to go all the way to the suspension, you know, to the or to the uh Yeah, I mean, it's a suspension. It's a credential 64 tech, which is where the tension kind of is. Now, does it warm up?

[00:24:39]Uh, technically no. He doesn't write any dynamic change there. I wrote a metoforte.

[00:24:44]I was wrong. But he does write a crescendo at last till when?

[00:24:55]Okay, I overexaggerated that. But that crescendo lasts three bars. So, what did I write?

[00:25:05]Oh, so sentimental. Shubbert doesn't want that. He wants a longer line.

[00:25:15]Uh sorry all the way to there so that he can respond with piano only here.

[00:25:29]Ah beautiful forte piano there. So not just an accent and by the way accents uh in Schubert I think especially in late Schubert but maybe Schubert in general it is a little vague what their meaning is. See here, I don't think he wants a forte piano plus accent. Oh my god, we want an extra emphasis on that note, you know. Um, I think instead, if you look at the manuscripts, sometimes these accents are actually longer hair pins.

[00:25:57]So, they feel more like the beginning of a diminuendo. So he's kind of maybe implying and we just we just reach a peak here in the phrase and then we decay instead of something sudden and then suddenly piano that doesn't really make much sense. That's a little more Beethovenian. You know Beethoven would do that on a specific chord that has some kind of meaning that is uh shocking you know but in this case for Schubert it's still beautiful.

[00:26:32]I like to think that some of that is just a way to show expression for him to say, "Please do something here. Give a little emphasis. Do it in your own way."

[00:26:43]And then decay.

[00:26:47]Now for the next section, he doesn't write anything. Yeah, I should have trusted him or trusted my instincts about it, but no need to write big mezzofores here.

[00:27:00]In fact, for Schubert, it doesn't even open up. It just Now, we're going to skate on this beautiful texture above the melody that's now in a different voice. So, he's already changing the texture by putting the melody in the left hand, and there's no need to mark anything.

[00:27:27]Beautiful.

[00:27:30]I love it. I love um overestimating Schubert. I love underestimating Schubert. I love getting Schubert wrong because it just brings me back to the idea that this stuff is so humbling. And um also how we interpret and how we've learned to interpret this music is just as important as what's actually written.

[00:27:51]Right? A piano or a forte in Schubert means something. And I got I got to remember that like how would Schubert write it? Not just how do I feel it or how do I interpret it. Okay, let's give me something I don't know or I don't recognize. Let's try the next one. Okay.

[00:28:09]Uh next up we have some chamber music. I see a violin, a viola, a cello, and piano. That's cool. Play a ton of chamber music. Let's see if I recognize this.

[00:28:43]Okay. So already it's very clear to me that this is in the uh classical period maybe late 18 late 18th century maybe early 19th century. It's very simple.

[00:28:59]What do the strings have little a little corral here?

[00:29:06]Oops.

[00:29:08]Okay. So actually as they would write you know someone like Mozart or Hayen or early Beethoven the piano has the main material and I think a lot of the time that's the case because these composers were pianists so they said hey I want to write something for me plus some string players and the string players you know what you're going to do you're going to double me most of the time.

[00:29:39]Just support me.

[00:29:45]And not only that, immediately we get this little piano cadenza.

[00:29:53]Whoops.

[00:29:55]Yeah, I I don't recognize this actually.

[00:30:19]It's really beautiful. Very oporadic, you know. I would guess I don't think this is Mozart because I've played both the piano quartets. This is a piano quartet. So, violin, viola, cello, piano. There are two piano quartets of Mozart, the E flat and the G minor. It's not either of those. Um, and also this feels like the beginning of the piece.

[00:30:40]So, it's not a slow movement, but could it be like a slow introduction maybe in a first movement that'll lead to an allegro later on? That's a lot of the time what early classical composers would do. It's kind of slow introduction. You hear this in symphonies, too. A slow introduction followed by a fast algro. So obviously it's slow. I mean this isn't two one. I mean if I played this fast I'd have to blast through all these beautiful harmonic changes. This deceptive cadence that happens super early in the phrase.

[00:31:22]Really beautiful. And then this might even be rolled.

[00:31:29]very oporadic to have like a reaching toward the high note on an offbeat.

[00:31:40]That's why it's it it's it's Mozartesque.

[00:31:43]It's Mozart like, but something about it something about it does not say Mozart to me. Let me jump ahead for a second.

[00:31:57]Okay.

[00:32:00]See this this range it's a little more Beethoven or something. But obviously Beethoven doesn't usually write like this.

[00:32:20]This too.

[00:32:22]Okay. I'm leaning a little more Beethoven right now because even though I'm I'm not really I know he wrote maybe he wrote a piano quartet and I kind of I can't remember to be honest if if he did write it I didn't I'm not aware of it.

[00:32:37]So but these kinds of textures that are in this rich part of the instrument has a depth to it that no offense to Mozart but he just doesn't do that very often.

[00:32:50]His accompiments are a little more, you know, I can imagine him.

[00:32:58]This is Moza. Somehow if you just change the register sometimes or the range of where the notes are, you suddenly get a different composer. If I play this up here, that sounds like Mozart to me. This sounds like Beethoven. It's just the sounds and the tambers and the range that the composer wants to hear um and how that's tied to their expression.

[00:33:30]Okay, so I got a big overview right now.

[00:33:34]Let me go back and figure out a couple dynamics.

[00:33:46]I'm going to I'm going to do a crescendo there. a long crescendo there. There's the tension is building slowly in this opening and I want to descend into that deceptive cadence. That's beautiful.

[00:34:01]So that that is a little more sensitive that we feel something there. We really feel something. First dynamic I'm going to write is piano. I think this is just piano contab. In other words, it's soft but it's singing. Um, and that is what I think. I think it's it's uh oporadic.

[00:34:26]Do I even need do I need a little crescendo there or is it just so obvious? You're going up. You're going to crescendo anyway. But me, I'll do it.

[00:34:33]I'll put it earlier. So now I've learned my lesson with Schubert. I'm not going to overmark.

[00:34:46]But that that needs something.

[00:34:50]That needs a crescendo. That needs a little crescendo because this motion.

[00:34:56]What if? Okay. What if?

[00:35:00]What if? What if? What if I just write a piano here and then a crescendo there?

[00:35:08]So that it's just it whatever you do B piano there and then crescendo and then more full because look at the look at the texture five note chord now instead we started with three notes now we're five it's thicker stay big and then D crescendo only at the end of that phrase. So the second half of this phrase is longer. So I'm going to write mezoforte for this big chord and it just stays up.

[00:36:00]Piano. Back to piano. Got a nice beautiful eight bar phrase.

[00:36:12]We don't need markings here.

[00:36:14]It'd be redundant.

[00:36:22]I mean, I guess you could write a diminuendo here. It's it's it's so obvious. You would never go, you know, if the if it's ending that part of the phrase and it's decreas, it's decaying, you know, down the register, then you would naturally diminuendo, but I'll write it anyway.

[00:36:43]Uh, whatever it is, that's a surprise harmony. It's secondary dominant. Uh we're starting to leave the key for a second. This it's a five seven of four we call it. So it's going to a flat major. It's traveling a little bit. So how about we crescendo into that harmonic change because it wants to lead somewhere.

[00:37:19]What do you think? There's a little shadow there. A little shading. It's a little bit of a deception in the harmony. So, how about we h Sometimes I'm stuck between wanting to diminuendo or make it subto or make it sudden. So, do we want this change to be sudden or do we want it to be gradual?

[00:37:49]Let's make it sudden. And I'll be corrected later.

[00:37:57]There might even be awaro here.

[00:38:02]Nah. This is such a beautiful long phrase that I don't want to interrupt it with something like awarzando or an accent.

[00:38:14]Suddenly soft.

[00:38:17]Uh, sorry. Use my pedal.

[00:38:23]Little de decay there and a crescendo into that beautiful suspension. So, this ornamentation will lead into the next downbe.

[00:38:44]Okay. Something happens there. I'm going to go with this forzando dissonant harmony all of a sudden. Uh the question is again does it happen suddenly or does it happen gradually?

[00:38:57]I'm just going to take a stab at gradually.

[00:39:02]Oh, I wrote in red for a second. So it's all beautiful until I think this leads to a sportsando and it kind of stays up especially in this intense uh harmony.

[00:39:27]Um, so I'm going to just say that it keeps crescendoing maybe, especially there.

[00:39:45]And it probably doesn't even come down very much there. Maybe a sudden piano when the texture thins out and we get a single voice. though.

[00:40:00]Still piano.

[00:40:03]All right, let's just do up to there.

[00:40:05]Let's see how I did. I I I think it's Beethoven. It's a Beethoven that I don't know, apparently, but I that's would be my guess. What is it?

[00:40:13]>> You're right. It is Beethoven.

[00:40:14]>> Yes.

[00:40:15]>> It's a 14-year-old Beethoven.

[00:40:17]>> Whoa. Okay.

[00:40:18]>> Part of three piano quartets.

[00:40:20]>> Why? How is it that he wrote three piano quartets and they're not played?

[00:40:25]>> It's published posthumously.

[00:40:27]>> Okay. Yeah, it's published after his death. Um, wild. He was 14, huh? That makes sense then. So, early classical, early Beethoven before he, you know, changes up the form. Adagio. I totally forgot to write a tempo marking. Sorry about that, guys. Um, adagio adagio asai which means slow a slow tempo. Adagio is is a slow tempo and then asai means like a little heavier especially adagio. Uh, so not quite lento which would be even slower than that or gra but adagio asai kind of implies a lot of expression, a lot of reflection, a lot of sentimentality.

[00:41:16]In a way, my writing of canab like a little bit covers that. I got the dynamic right. Piano.

[00:41:24]Yeah. So, this is very Beethoven. He writes a forte there in the second bar.

[00:41:28]No crescendo. So, he's being very minimal about I mean, I would crescendo anyway probably, right?

[00:41:40]I wouldn't suddenly have a forte on that. Um, beautiful reaching up to C. So maybe I'm being a literal, a little too literal therefore piano really.

[00:41:56]So that then you can release.

[00:42:03]No crescendo there. It's almost like he knew I wanted to do a crescendo, so he writes, "No, no, no, no. Stay piano.

[00:42:13]and stay piano. Okay.

[00:42:17]But now forte suddenly then piano.

[00:42:23]So you know he's got his extreme dynamics even as a kid and now we get to be free.

[00:42:36]That's his way of providing emphasis writing a forzando. Uh, he's learning early how to be Beethoven. He's gonna love those forzandos later on. He's gonna throw them at every single beat.

[00:42:46]But for now, just a little expressive emphasis. Okay.

[00:42:52]Uhhuh. Uhhuh. So, in his trill, he does want a forte. I was thinking maybe a fortando there, but I chose I I backed off. I wasn't quite convinced yet that this was Beethoven.

[00:43:12]and then a piano.

[00:43:14]And again, it's like there's no need for him to write a decrescendo here. Um, you you would just do it. Okay, second page.

[00:43:24]How did I do here? Pretty good. I a little bit overmarked. I wrote that there should be a crescendo, which I think you would just naturally do. So, some of this stuff is like you can't guess, you know. Um, he might as well have written a crescendo.

[00:43:44]But anyway, forte and he stays forte.

[00:43:52]Okay. I had the opposite dynamic here. I thought he chose to be a little more sentimental.

[00:44:02]Ah.

[00:44:05]Where are we? And then even pianisimo.

[00:44:10]He is exploring dynamics.

[00:44:13]It's rare for Mozart or Heiden to write pianisimo. Uh very rare. I can't even think of an example to be totally honest. I'm sure they do it, but it's rare.

[00:44:24]Beautiful. Okay. Well, I'm definitely going to check out this work by Beethoven. Did not really know this existed. And I wonder what it would sound like with strings. Actually, I'm just playing it from the piano, which is definitely how he would have composed it. He would have composed it from the instrument that he played, which was the piano. Um, however, the adding of violin and viola and cello, it creates a warmth of texture and a flexibility in the sound that would probably have affected my dynamic choices. So, I'm looking forward to reading through this with some friends.

[00:45:00]Okay, next is Yeah. Um, okay. This is a handwritten score by It's got to be George Crumb.

[00:45:09]I've played some some of George Crumb's music. He's a great American composer.

[00:45:14]I've played a handful of his pieces, but I have not looked at this. Um, and as you can see, his writing style is very unique. Um, first of all, it's just hard to read because it's so tiny. Um, putting it in a PDF form like this can be problematic. His scores are handwritten and they're on larger pieces of paper. So, if you're going to play a score by George Crom, get it hard copy because it's a little bit bigger and his uh yeah, his writing is just beautiful and he's very descriptive about what he wants. I love that from a composer. I don't know what you did erase because, you know, he he has a lot of stuff already. Hold down the third pedal and the first pedal throughout.

[00:46:00]>> Okay. So, the left pedal is the leftmost pedal is uh what's it called? Una corda pedal. That means the note is only hitting one string. It's going to be a softer sound. I mean, the hammer is only hitting one string. And the right pedal, the first pedal, I I believe, is the sustain pedal. So, those two pedals are going to be held down the entire piece, I guess. Um, we've got grace notes at the beginning. We have a B minor chord way down here. Way way way down here.

[00:46:28]And then am I in the right register?

[00:46:30]It's down here.

[00:46:36]Okay.

[00:46:39]And by the way, is there meter? Is there rhythm in this piece? Um, probably playing the wrong notes.

[00:46:51]And then gliss over the strings with the fingertip. So descriptive. Not the finger nail, the finger tip.

[00:47:02]Okay. Then back to the keys. He specifies on keys. See, he babies you a little bit, which I like.

[00:47:11]Oh, I guess we don't have a dynamic.

[00:47:13]That's what you erase.

[00:47:17]We needed to keep the instructions on how to actually play this thing. Uh, gliss over strings with See, now he has thumbnail.

[00:47:26]Totally different sound. And I already missed something. Drop a very light metal chain onto the bass strings. The chain should strike the strings precisely with the gissando. All right, let me go find that. Okay, I got my trusty dog collar, uh, which will serve as my very light metal chain. Well, okay. Okay. It's a little bit heavy, but drop it on the bass strings. Do I do that while I'm glisting the strings?

[00:47:52]Okay, I'm going to try that.

[00:47:55]Here we go. This is measure. There are no measures. This is the end of the first line.

[00:48:08]Moving on.

[00:48:14]Finger tip.

[00:48:17]Oh, I like that.

[00:48:25]Right hand on keys.

[00:48:30]So, this uh I could be totally wrong.

[00:48:33]Oh, yeah. Okay. So, whenever you have this plus sign above the notes, that means you're going to mute the string while you play it. So, one hand, this case the left hand is going to be holding uh pressing down on the string inside the piano.

[00:48:49]And it says molto rhriymico. Very rhythmic.

[00:48:55]Something like that. I might have missed one. And I'm going to guess, by the way, dynamic time. I'm going to say that that's forte. I know I'm skipping ahead.

[00:49:03]I'm going to go back to do the other dynamics, but that seems like it should be loud. very rhythmic, sudden after all this kind of like creepiness underneath his subterranean sound. I'm gonna followed by Oh, you left a piano in there. That's a good clue.

[00:49:29]All right.

[00:49:31]Okay. Uh, let me start just filling some stuff in. So, I I think the beginning is quiet. I'm going to go with Pianisimo.

[00:49:40]And by the way, with crumb, it's like this could be four P's. It might not be Posimo. It might be, let me go with three. I'll hedge my bets. I'm going to say this is Pisimo.

[00:49:51]Um, the very opening. Let me take the dog collar out of the piano since I'm playing the opening. Uh, yeah. Nice and quiet. Something really subterranean and dark.

[00:50:09]And then a gly with the fingertips mezzoforte.

[00:50:16]Oh, it says slowly.

[00:50:20]Yeah, if I'm going to be doing it slowly, it needs to be with enough sound because if I'm if I'm quiet, it doesn't even have the right effect.

[00:50:28]So, I'm going to say mezoforte for that gliss. Back to pianisimo.

[00:50:35]Oh my god, this is so fun. I love figuring this stuff out cuz I rarely get the You rarely give me uh modern works, but I play so much contemporary music.

[00:50:48]All right. And this is where I drop the dog collar. Got to be loud.

[00:50:55]I'm going to say Forte.

[00:51:02]Why not forimo? Uh, it's still like, you know, it's still in this realm of like the opening. This stuff has got to be piano because later I cheated and saw a piano there. So, I'm going to say all this material is piano. Whenever you have this these triads really in the depths here, it's just going to stay piano. These glistes metoforte.

[00:51:28]The glitzes represent something that is uh visceral and dark and kind of evil.

[00:51:35]This stuff is like the cave out of which we're coming.

[00:51:45]And I think that's forte. All right, let's give it a look. Let's just see where we're at. I give I I don't give up, but you know, as the material repeats and stuff. Let's just see where we're at with these dynamics. All right.

[00:51:59]I hedged my bets and I shouldn't have.

[00:52:01]Ah, yeah. Okay. Starts with four Ps and se.

[00:52:08]So here he writes four psre and then a few chords later he writes the exact same thing because he's like I know you probably forgot about this because you're weirded out by my by by all these instructions. So I'm going to tell you again four psre I mean sere already it means always always be four ps when you have this material and to say it twice is like super duper redundant and means he doesn't trust us which he shouldn't.

[00:52:36]So, um, he writes as the tempo marking, darkly mysterious. Again, totally forgot about the tempo. Sorry, guys. But there's no way I would have guessed darkly mysterious.

[00:52:48]I would have felt that, but as a tempo marking, that is beautiful. I'm going to write that in. Darkly mysterious. Not dark and mysterious.

[00:52:58]Not dark, not mysterious, but darkly mysterious.

[00:53:04]And he specifies that those notes that kind of look like half notes are to be held for about 3 seconds each. I love it. He's changing the way notation works typically so that it works for him and his sound world and what is in his head sonically. He's trying to create a very specific world with his tambers and sounds and he knows exactly what he wants. So he's instructing you as specifically as he can. And I think that's a great thing for a composer to do. I was wrong about those glyces. He wants to keep that pianisimo, which is a huge step up from four ps, but it's not meforte. So, man, was I wrong about that metoforte.

[00:53:49]And I was also wrong about at the end of the bar, he actually goes to forisimo with a z for what do you call that? For a fortisando or something. Um, you don't see that too often, but it's like a shocking dog collar is what his intention was. Um, and and a crescendo through it. Wow. Okay. So it's it was really like widen effect for about 7 seconds and then uh to pianisimo dog is very upset that I took his comment. Sorry Jack, I promise you I'm not putting it in the piano. I'm doing something very nice.

[00:54:39]Um, so we got Pianisimo here at the beginning of the the beginning of the line.

[00:54:44]Oh my god. And all this subtlety with this muting stuff.

[00:54:56]Bark. There we go. That's it. That's what I want. Schwartzando bark. Okay.

[00:55:00]So, I thought that those muted figures were just like a wall of sound.

[00:55:07]And the reason was I thought that extreme rhythmic quality was his kind of leaning into this block of big sound and just wrong. So there's subtlety in it followed by that piano and now this changes color a piano crescendo. Love all the subtleties in crumb uh you know from pianisimo uh to quadruple p a a piano that's crescendoing a pianisimo that's crescendoing to fortisimo very very specific and that's just what I really appreciate about a lot of contemporary and modern composers when they know what they want and they notate it in a way that I can understand very clearly I'm super down for all of your music and that's definitely the case in prom. So from this whole set of pieces um we got kind of the extremes. We got composers like George Crumb who write very intentionally at least from my perception just what they want when they want it. Um and if you kind of go with their instructions as carefully as possible you'll probably end up with the strongest interpretation. And then there's people like Schubert or that early Beethoven work where it's a little more flexible um where you insert your expression and how and to what degree where for Schubert a simple piano could mean a whole range of things. For me it's like anywhere between pianisimo and mezoforte depending on the context and how I'm feeling it in the moment. You know it's this delicate dance between what do I feel? What is the music making me feel instinctually in this moment?

[00:56:53]How can I relate my soul to the composer's soul? It's like there's so many layers and this notation is not perfect. The composers are just doing what they can to try to give the most amount of freedom with the most intentional expression from their end.

[00:57:12]And I think one of the only ways to really get better about reading scores and how to interpret them is to read a lot of different ones. That's that.

[00:57:20]Thanks for joining me on this little journey. Let me know how you did in the comments. I'll be very curious. I did okay. But um my buddy Kevin is really good at finding these incredible examples. Some of which I know I happen to know and some of which are brand new to me. And I'm looking forward to just continuing this journey. Thanks. Thanks for watching. Thanks for joining me.

[00:57:40]Catch you at the next one.