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Preface
"Almeria" as a work of passion and lyricism.
It not only combines the styles of the national music school from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, but also perfectly blends late Romanticism with Impressionism.
But how do you play it to get this piece in front of the audience?
Timbre treatment in the late Romanticism
It is reported that the work "Almeria" has bold and wild passion, as well as delicate and smooth lyricism.
Therefore, it can be boldly handled in the design of the performance.
The various dynamics changes from weak to strong, the chiaroscuro of harmonic colors, the change of timbre and touch keys, and especially the combination of "elastic rhythm" and sustain pedal also make the piano have rich acoustic effects, and even show the development characteristics of piano music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In addition, in the late period of Romanticism, where the harmonic colors and emotional expressions were richer, the ability to skillfully use the writing techniques of combining Romanticism and Impressionism with fiction and reality, as well as the ability to process and control different timbres, is also particularly important in the piece "Almeria".
Therefore, before playing this song, we must start with auditory ability, and then we should talk about two types of "musical ears".
One is the "subjective ear", which refers to the musician's ability to control the sound produced by the touch of his fingertips.
It can be seen that rich imagination is the key to the player's beautiful sound, and with the ear of attentive listening, the ear can control the movement of the fingers, and the musical image to be portrayed, the musical emotion expressed and the sound effect to be pursued.
In section A, the tranquil and surging sea scene of the harbour city of Almeria is depicted, so the quiet and bright outer melodic parts are something that the player needs to take into account.
In addition, the main melody and harmony in the music need to be played by the same hand everywhere, taking the first measure as an example, the little finger of the G note of the right hand is erected, the wrist should be relaxed and leaned slightly to the right, and the instantaneous explosive force is used to play the sound that penetrates to the bottom of the piano.
The method of training the little finger is to play the 1234 fingers at the same time and keep it, and then the little finger is played with the finger raised separately to train the function of the little finger.
The right hand is slightly tilted to the right to ensure that the fingers can be pressed down in a straight way to avoid collapse, and the left hand is tilted to the left side, so that both hands can do this exercise at the same time.
The four-note sequence that progresses and descends in the second voice should be played coherently, and the wrist relaxation is completed with a force transfer.
However, it is important to note that every note is important in the ascending direction of the main chord of the left hand, so a foundation is built on the D note of the second and second beats to connect the notes on both sides.
In addition to the high voices, there are actually two or three parallel voices in the whole piece.
Taking measures 8-12 as an example, the melody is concentrated on the little finger of the right hand, and for the outer part, the player should use the smallest joint (one joint) to be almost perpendicular to the key to find a clear melody line for the outer voice.
This requires one hand to master two completely different touch sensations.
And this kind of processing needs to be taken out and practiced repeatedly, humming the melody more, and reinforcing the concept of a good melodic part in the ear.
However, it should be noted that when dealing with the dynamics of different voices, each chord must have a dominant tone, otherwise it will be impossible to distinguish between several chord notes and the outer notes of the chords at the same time, and the color of the sound will be lacking.
This means that the player can work with both vertical and horizontal touches when working with this kind of multi-part music: the vertical touch is strong, direct and fast, and the horizontal touch is smooth and soft.
Among them, the vertical touch key requires the force to be tilted sideways to the fingers that need to highlight the sound, the metacarpal joint must have a support point, and the sound should be concentrated, imagining the sound penetrating the bottom of the piano, while the horizontal touch key force point takes a joint as the main body of action, and does horizontal movement back and forth, so that the hammer strikes the strings slowly, producing a soft and beautiful timbre that is soft but still has a cohesive penetrating power.
Similar to the relationship between "fork" and "spoon", it means that the touch at the tip of the fingertip of the outer voice should be full and concentrated, while the touch at the tip of the inner voice should be smooth and soft.
In the B section, dance-like rhythms with accents and jumps are used, but Albeniz often uses the improvisational development of folk music and reproduces the expressive characteristics and acoustics of folk instruments, especially the guitar, on the piano.
Measures 54-64, however, are written in a way that changes the rhythmic accent to show the Spanish people dancing and reveling, so the keys should be touched quickly, directly, and with a bouncy sound.
However, the chords in measure 65 are played in the form of arpeggios combined with ff dynamics, mimicking the strumming technique of the guitar.
That is to say, when playing, the player's fingertips should use the inward "hook" to grasp the key and touch the key, and at the same time use the strength of the whole body to make a bold and explosive touch method, so as to play the momentum of the guitar strumming.
And in measures 68-78, the left-handed musician gives the term marcato ma non f, which means to emphasize a clear but not strong sound, which takes into account the fluidity of the melody, and the level above the right hand is to highlight the melody.
In measures 88-98 of the C section, it can be seen that the player imagines a crystal clear sound, so it is important to pay attention to the uniformity of the touch and timbre, and not to be disrupted by careless pedals (see 3.5 for the use of pedals).
The left hand should try to keep the most legato as much as possible, and the wrist should be relaxed, so that the smooth touch of the keys can be played close to the keys, and the fingers should not be taken off the keys, so as to obtain an ethereal, soft timbre effect.
The right hand should pay attention to the harmonic layer, and distinguish the high voice from the other two voices in terms of strength and timbre, so that the outer voice can travel farther.
And set the chord position, just put it down by natural weight.
The velocity should be maintained after 8 bars of SF, which is 1/2 or 2/3 of the depth of the key.
However, the strong chords in measures 99-100 need to be played deep and calm, both as a constriction of the previous stanza, but then as a weakening treatment, so that the anticipation of the next stanza can be well developed, creating a hollow mood.
It is reported that sections D and D' are measures 101-130 and 210-245, which are full of distant and peculiar mysteries.
Therefore, in order to create a scene on the coast of Almería, where the sun and the sea are reflected and the ships disappear from time to time, the melody line must have the character of singing.
In measures 101-104, for example, we should control the parts that need to be clear to be played deeper, play the keys to the bottom of the piano, and imagine that the sound can penetrate the piano.
The slow touch of the finger is suitable for the expression of continuous, long, deep, and singing key touches.
Therefore, it remains in this state until different expressiveness is required.
Since the other three voices are the accompaniment parts, it is necessary to consider the control of the fingers on the PP dynamics, but the control here should not be confused with "pressure" and "tension", only because the relaxed state of musical performance is the performance that should be performed here.
In measure 121, you need to use a decisive and direct quick touch, and use the quick touch of the wrist to get a crisp and clear spirit, and the same sound pattern can be done in the same way.
Rhythm handling skills
As we all know, rhythm is the skeleton of a musical work, and the German conductor Hans von Bowau once said that the "bible" of musicians should start with this sentence, "rhythm is the beginning of all things".
Although the performer should practice strictly according to the rhythm of the score when he or she first gets a piece of music, after integrating all the musical elements and performance techniques, he should consider the control of the overall emotional rhythm.
Rhythm is the soul of Spanish music, which means that it is more important to be flexible in dealing with the rhythm of the large phrases.
Some of the composer's markers are not entirely applicable to today's performances, and it is well known that a player's perception of the correct tempo of a piece of music can change over time, even in a single day.
The technical superiority of the Iberian Suite is that even the performers can choose the right speed for their own performance.
In fact, usually, if you change the rhythm of "one quarter note for one beat" to "one beat for half notes", it will make the music sound smoother.
But in the Almeria piece, the tone is indeed in 6/8 time, a ballad-style dance rhythm.
Therefore, when counting the beats, please do not count in the rhythm of 3 beats, but in the rhythm of 6/8 time, because such a combination will not only bring coherence to the narrative.
It is also very much in line with the speed given by the composer of 72 with quarter dotted notes.
However, the question of rubato's elastic velocity in the music is to get it right, because too much freedom will destroy the large frame and make the whole line fall apart, but the strict norms will sound too rigid, so that the late Romantic works can be played with personal feelings.
This means that at measure 61, the rhythm can be appropriately contracted according to the rhythmic mood of the dance music, until the G note of measure 67 is rested and widened.
However, in measures 101-122, with the simple and soft accompaniment of the low voice, the high voice plays a mysterious theme full of impressionist fantasy plots, and the performer can also play freely, so that it shows the characteristics of abstract thinking in modern music.
It can be seen that although the composer marked that it could be played at elastic tempo, he actually gave the sovereignty of elastic rhythm to the performer, and the elasticity of the melody at elastic tempo showed a sense of anticipation by appropriately processing the repeated G and E with rubato.
However, it should be noted that only the appropriate rubato should be made in the melodic voice, and the accompaniment part must not be arbitrarily made into an elastic speed, otherwise it will cause the context of the music to disperse.
For example, in measures 235-246, the first note of the sentence can be a little longer, and the melody can be loose and tight, but the filling part should maintain the original speed.
Of course, we can't treat these phrases uniformly, and it will still depend on the situation when they are officially played.
While the elastic tempo has a major effect on the main theme, the accompaniment needs to maintain its original tempo.
In a letter to his father, Mozart said: "What [makes these people] inaccurate is the use of elastic velocity in the adagio, when in fact the left hand should move steadily according to the time." As soon as they appear, the left hand does the same. ”
The same applies to the treatment in subsections 212-227. However, in the over-linking phrase of measures 149-152, the tempo should not be loose due to the gradual emotional processing, in which the 6/8 beat rhythm of the left hand should be calm and steady, and the right hand should point out the rhythm of 3/4 beat according to the change of harmony, so that the music progression is more rhythmic.
However, in measure 201, the composer gives instructions for playing a Tempo meno mosso (return to the original tempo, not so fast, slightly slower).
epilogue
"Almeria" is a work with high technical requirements and rich emotional expression.
While it shows the musical characteristics of the late Romantic period, it also reflects the composer's delicate mastery of timbre, rhythm and dynamics.
Therefore, for the performer, this piece is not only a technical challenge, but also a platform for emotional expression.