Welcome to a new series! Centre Stage will introduce a new piano piece, with some background information and tips on how to manage the structure and technical demands of the piece. As you could write an entire postgraduate thesis on many of these topics I’ll keep the introductions brief and include links to sources where you can find out more about the composer and their works.
I intend to primarily cover public domain works so you can legally download them from IMSLP to try for yourself, as well as some more modern pieces and my own compositions. This week’s piece is taken from the current Trinity Grade 4 syllabus.
The piece
Title: Sicilianisch (Italian: Siciliano, English: Sicilian) Op. 68 no. 11
Composer: Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Date: 1848
Level: Intermediate (Grade 4 – Trinity College London 2021-23)
Composer
Robert Schumann (was a German composer in the Romantic era, who wrote the Album for the Young for his daughters. Numbers 1-18 are aimed at beginners and elementary students, numbers 19-43 are intended for more advanced students.
Title
The German title Sicilianisch (Sicilian in English) refers to Sicily, an island which is an autonomous region of Italy with a population of around 5 million people. It is a popular tourist destination both for its climate and beautiful scenery, including the Mount Etna volcano, and its many historic buildings, such as the Valley of the Temples which shows spectacular Greek art and architecture.
The piece is marked ‘Schalkhaft’ (Italian: Scherzando), which means ‘in a playful manner’. The piece should be light and springy, moving fairly quickly and not lingering too long on the chords. Most sections are marked piano, with a few moments of forte at the end of the phrases in the first section.
Structure
The key signature is A minor, so watch out for F# and G# in both hands. The right hand plays the melody and the left hand is mostly made up of two and three note chords, with a range in both hands of roughly 1 ½ octaves around the middle of the piano. There is an anacrusis (upbeat) at the beginning so the emphasis starts on the second note of the piece, and a Da Capo al Fine at the end of the last printed bar, at which point you go back to the beginning and play the first section again up to the bar marked Fine (the last bar before the key signature changes.
The time signature begins in 6/8 and changes to 2/4 in the second section – changing from compound to simple time is a matter of how you count. In the first section there are 3 quavers in each beat. Count 1-2-3 4-5-6, with an emphasis on 1 and 4. In the second section the time signature changes to 2/4 – the left hand pattern uses crotches and quavers so can be counted 1-&-2-&. As the right hand is almost entirely made up of semiquavers it may be easier to count in fours: 1-2-3-4 2-2-3-4.
The focus is on the semiquavers in the right hand so make sure you can do the left hand chords effortlessly before you try to put the hands together – write down the chord fingerings if they aren’t already in your copy and stick to them.
Technique
The last 3 quavers in the first bar and frequently in the first section have both a staccato and a slur – how do you play both legato and staccato at the same time? The answer is that this indicates portato. At the beginning of their learning journey most players have to work on the ‘see-saw’ movement between the keys to play legato, so their notes come out slightly detached – not fully staccato but with a small gap between them. When playing portato this is done deliberately to achieve this effect, keeping the melody line primarily smooth while still introducing a bit of contrast.
The ornaments (small notes) in bar 12 are meant to be played before the crotchet, so don’t bring down the left hand chord until those small notes have been played.
And there you have it! I hope this has given you some useful pointers and that you enjoy playing this piece. Check out the link below to grab a copy:
https://imslp.org/wiki/Album_f%C3%BCr_die_Jugend%2C_Op.68_(Schumann%2C_Robert)
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