Jack's Personal Practice Dairy - and cow farm (opps)
I am reviving Weiss's Fantasia which feel into disrepair because of Mircea's planting preparations virtuoso challenge, then Ashley'Etude Composition challenge, then Koshkin's etude Challenge, then Martin's VL Etude #1 .......... Curse You Tonebase!!!!
OK - sorry, I'm better now.
I have been concentrating on getting it re-memorized (don't get me started!) and re-fingered (what did I tell you!). I will try to post a video today or tomorrow.
After all the milking is done. (Just noticed I misspelled Diary.)
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Jack Stewart great to see you taking part of the diaries! I'm waiting for your post, are you working on the Fantasia in E minor?
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Should be good Jack - looking forward to hearing more from you
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Jack Stewart Fantastic, it was one of the first pieces that I started to practice like crazy!
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OK only a day late, well maybe 2 uh, ok, weeks. This is more or less under my fingers though lots of work left to do. I will begin to refine the playing, work on interpretation and , hopefully, add a flourish at the end.
The hardest thing for me right now is trying to record myself. This was about the 51st time - about 10 actually.
Musically the prelude section will need to be more clearly defined. There is a very good tutorial on Tonebase by Daniel Cerovic, though his is in Drop D tuning.
The Fugal section also needs more control and definition.But other than that.....
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Jack Stewart That was wonderful, Jack! I don’t think I have ever heard that piece, so thanks for sharing it. It looks very challenging to play, but you did a great job. I loved seeing your dog come in too!
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Eric Phillips Thanks Eric. It is. certainly challenging for me, but I really like the piece. Not quite Bach but a close second.
Milo always likes to make an appearance. At least he wasn't insisting to play ball.
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Jack Stewart well played Jack! I hope you'll make it for the concert... but in rthe second chord I think it should be a D# instead of a D, on the second string.
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks Blaise.
I checked my score and it is a D natural however, both the score on Delcamp and the Tonebase score on Cerovic's tutorial show that note to be raised (C# in Tonebase/Cerovic since his version is in d min.) Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I'm afraid I didn't do my homework. This was from an old collection and I should not have trusted it.
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Jack Stewart no worries, I was not aware there was a version with natural D, anyhow you already play it well!
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Jack Stewart That's really beautiful music and some wonderful playing!
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don Thanks Don. I think this probably my favorite Weiss piece.
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Jack Stewart it is beautiful to hear you, I was touched by your music....I thought it was Bach.... I now have read in Wikipedia something about him (Silvius)....contemporary of Bach....it seems they met a couple of times...you should played in the concert Jack....
You have a farm! are you in MInessotta? I met there my husband and I had some freinds with farms there....a loooong time ago
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Nora Torres-Nagel Thank you Nora. Weiss has many works which are very nice but rarely reaches the level of Bach (but then who does?!) This fantasia is one that does, I believe.
I'm afraid I don't have a farm. Just before I published this I noticed I misspelled Diary (Dairy). So rather than just correct it I thought I would have some fun with the mistake.
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Jack Stewart that's great Jack. This is one on my bucket list - don't know if I'll ever manage it. Well done
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Jack Stewart wow, that was breath-taking, Jack! You have everything in control. Not only your right thumb is great, which creates round and thick bass, but also all aspects of your left and right hand techniques are great. The overall legato, cleanliness, the warm sound, the different voice separation, etc. It is inspiring to watch and hear you play and learn from you. Thank you for sharing, Jack!
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Khiem Nguyen Thanks Khiem. I feel there are still refinements to be made but I am making progress.
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Jack Stewart I'll take (friendly) issue with your here, Jack. Agreed, Weiss' overall achievement does not stand up to Bach's. But if we restrict the conversation to the lute music I would argue that Weiss compares well. His style is of course is very different - more 'Italianate' I would say, and rather more lyrical than Bach's. I'll offer a couple of video examples in his 'defence':
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David Krupka Those pieces are really wonderful. I have never heard them before. Thanks for sharing. I am mostly familiar with the passacaille, and 2-3 suites. I noticed that the London manuscript has over 20 sonatas/suites as well as many individual pieces. He really does have an impressive output.
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Jack Stewart Weiss was quite prolific. I have read that something like 600 individual pieces have survived, making his output similar to that of his famous contemporary, Domenico Scarlatti. A good online source of his music can be found here (follow the 'Weiss' link): https://luthbaroque.fr/Navigation/Les_compositeurs/Compositeurs.htm
Unfortunately, many of the modern tablature files were removed from the site a few years ago, after the editor arranged to have them published by 'Leluthdore'. But the facsimiles remain for everything, although some are scarcely legible. Still, it's a great resource!
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That was great Jack! I really enjoyed it. Makes me want to play it too!
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Palmer Thanks Palmer. It is fun to play though it has its thorny sections -at least for me..
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Bravo Jack Stewart !!! Great articulation. This was a piece I started a long time ago and recently picked up again. Once I finished learning the E minor arrangement, I want to start working on the D minor version. My goal is to perform both versions someday.
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Bill Young Thanks Bill. Likewise, I will probably learn this in d min to see how they compare. Blaise pointed out I was playing a wrong note which was due to a faulty transcription I was using. I have since found several other errors which I am in the process of correcting.
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I used Deric Kennard’s transcription published in 1958 by Scott & Co, London. It had a D natural. I changed it to D sharp after listening to recordings and looking at many other arrangements in D minor. D-sharp sounds more fitting as the harmony is going from E minor to B7. The D is B7 is a D-sharp.
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Bill Young In the original tablature, it's a diminished triad (D-D-F-D-B-F-D-B-F-D) rising to a 'G', giving the impression of a second inversion dominant seventh, as Bill points out. Here's an image of the first page of the Fantasia, taken from the so-called 'London Manuscript' - one of the main sources of Weiss' music:
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
