Week 2: Vienna in 19th !
Welcome to the Main Thread for the second week of the "Around the 19th Century Guitar World" challenge!
Vienna was a hub for all classical music in the 19th century. Home to Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, among others, the classical guitar was alive and well in the 19th century. In Vienna in the 19th century classical guitar composers were heavily influenced by orchestral composers and had relationships with them; Giuliani played cello in the premiere of Beethoven’s 7th symphony and Mertz arranged Schubert’s Songs for Piano and Voice on guitar.
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Giuliani Grand Overure Op. 61
After serious consideration, I have decided to accept Eric's challenge to play Giuliani's Grand Overture in 1 day. Enjoy
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Blaise Laflamme I don't know, Blaise. Things pick up quite a bit later in the piece.
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Jack Stewart I think the class should include a live performance of you playing an arrangement of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg at 1 bpm.
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Jack Stewart hahah thank you for rising to the challenge Jack! This definitely counts, and we never decided on a definite tempo during the stream
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Jack Stewart I just realized this - you must still be playing this piece! Are you sending these posts during the rests? Maybe cooking dinner, or mowing the lawn as well?
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Jack Stewart NASA Just released a new JWST photo, showing someone started playing a Giuliani's piece a few billion light years ago (and is still playing), was that you, Jack?
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Wai I'm old but not that old.
Besides that would be at a tempo of a quarter note = 600,000,000,000 years. -
Jack Stewart Whoever that was out there in the cosmos, he/she/it just heard Jack play it and thought, “Man, this guy is a speed demon! How does he play so FAST?!”
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Jack Stewart Hahaha, I love that so much! Imagine the piece would start with a pause!
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Eric Phillips
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Jack Stewart modern art
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Stefanie Mosburger-Dalz Perhaps a joint performance of Giuliani's op. 61 and an extended transcription of John Cage's 4'33".
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Jack Stewart I’m still working on my transcription of 4’33”. There are so many fingering possibilities!
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martin well just counting a mesure in your head to get the right tempo would make a great 4 minutes pause before starting the piece!
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Wai I just noticed that my calculations were off. His tempo would be a rather jaunty quarter note = 60,000,000,,000 yrs. It was ridiculous to think someone would try to play this piece as slow as my first calculations.
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Giuliani - Allegro Minuetto Op 73 No 9
Just yesterday, I had said that Giuliani's music is not my usual cup of tea. Then I go and find a piece like this. No flash, nothing cliché, just really well-written music for the guitar. Actually, I could hear this being played by a string quartet, so it's just well-written music, period. Opus 73 is a set of ten bagatelles. I have attached a score if you are interested.
The biggest technical challenge for me comes close to the beginning, in the second phrase (measures 5-8). In order to prepare for the chord voicing in measure 7, some rather challenging fingerings need to be used in measures 5 and 6. Just look at my left hand and you'll see.
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Eric Phillips Nicely played, Eric. I am continually amazed at how quickly you learn these pieces. Another piece I am not familiar with. You must have a lot of rocks in your backyard.
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Eric Phillips what a beautiful piece this is. Not so typical Giuliani imo. As, Jack Stewart mentions , impressive how you find and learn all these pieces in such short time. And you play it so musically, there’s this quiet dramatic feeling that fits perfect with the b minor mode.
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Eric Phillips Hi Eric! Great playing, and thanks for introducing this nice piece to us. There is so much great underperformed music by Giuliani. You're doing a great job with this piece! I think something that would take this piece to the next level would be more of a dynamic plan. There is such a profound simplicity to this piece, and a clear set of dynamic levels would really allow the harmonic tensions to shine through to the audience!
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Hannah Murphy Thanks, Hannah. With dynamic plans, I always feel a bit like I'm stabbing in the dark, unsure of how to make it more effective. Maybe I'll look at the score a bit more, come up with some ideas, and try resubmitting this. I really appreciate the feedback!
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Eric Phillips Nicely played Eric
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Jack Stewart Jack - I have artificial grass in my back yard and I still can't learn a piece in about 3 times the time that Eric seems to do :-)
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Derek Jack Stewart Aha! Now I understand Jack's comment about rocks in my backyard! I'm a little slow sometimes.
I would do well to spend a little more time on the music I choose. My attention span is just too short.
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Eric Phillips Perhaps if you stopped turning over all those rocks -
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Jack Stewart But I can't leave any of them behind unturned! They're all so pretty!
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Eric Phillips I like your comment about imagining it being played by a string quartet. It brings it to life in an interesting way. I notice the score has no dynamic markings, leaving you with complete artistic interpretation...yet with a lot of decisions to be made!
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
