Succes! An (almost) full week of teaching, band practise,finishing off on production our demo, and quite a few out-of-house activities with my lovely little family - and I did NOT have to throw in the towel, with regards to my goal of learning the next movement of the suite. Next week is dedicated to the Gavotta, and after that, I have learned the suite.
Elsewhere in cyberspace, i had a nice chat with Hans Ovesen about the suite, and its place in the oeuvre of Villa-Lobos. As mentioned in a previous post, Villa-Lobos wasn't thrilled with the title of the suite, and with the "choro"-suffix to all of the pieces. Furrthermore, the suite lacks a prelude, which is normally there in the suite format, as also with Bach, of whom Villa-Lobos was a great admirer, and who I would think he would want to send a tip-of-the-hat to, when making his own suite. All of this suggests to me, that the suite was collated by the publisher Max Eschig, and not by Villa-lobos himself. Before starting work on the suite, I knew the movements as stand-alone-pieces, rarely played together. I have a feeling, based solely on my own unscientific observations, that the majority of concert guitarists walk a discrete yet clear path around the waltz, so I didn't quite know what to expect from it...
in terms of form, we recognize what has gone before, in the movements treated here - rondo, A-B-A-C-A. Nothing fancy. Metrically it doesn't seem to flow as easily as the other movements - the lenght of the phrases seem more surprising to me, in places, than what is found in the other movements.
hat being said, i quite like the waltz; i find it pleasingly calm. A piece, that might not be the piece people talk about after the concert, but a pleasing piece, that might deserve to be played more (?)As part of the suite as a whole, I feel that the more stationary melodic lines will serve as a welcome break after the more lively melodies of the Mazurka and Scottisch, before diving into Gavotta, that also moves about quite a bit.
Furthermore, the waltz is one of the most obvious examples I have played, of the fact, that including the pinky of the right hand in your technique, is a VERY good ide, if you are to play more than a little Villa-Lobos. A finger which we are not accustumed to use in the traditional classical guitar technique. The first 7 bars of the movement can be played with the common four-finger technique, but by including the pinky, you avoid having to repeat fingers, and to me the music flows more organically, and the right hand in general feels wonderfullay balanced and relaxed.
I haven't yet come across my favourute Villa-Lobos anecdote, in the book material I am reading while I study the music, so this version is a genuine folk-tale. An improvised retelling, of a story I once was told...
Segovia had been dodging requests, that he played the pieces of Villa-Lobos for some time. He thought them unplayable. At an event, where both men, and their sizeable egos were present, Villa-Lobos grabbed Segovias beloved Hauser guitar that stood unattended, and started playing. Segovia, in a fury, asked the man playing, what he thought he was doing!!! I am playing my unplayable music, good sir... He then showed Segovia how to play some passages that were easily solved, by incorporating the right hand pinky. The two men later sound themselves on friendlier terms, and the the Villa_lobos guitar concerto is even dedicated to Segovia.
This turned out to be one of the lenghtier posts... Here is a video for those, that got all the through it!
Valsa (Choro) from Suite Populaire Bresilienne *Work in progress* from Thomas Lyng Poulsen on Vimeo.
Direct link to video
Ingen kommentarer:
Send en kommentar