Week 2: Sleeps a Song in all things! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the second week of "The Romantic Era" challenge!
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream! (<- click)
Who is your favorite romantic lyricist?
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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Coste – Les Soirées D’Auteuil (May 9)
I was feeling a little lack of motivation as I continued to work on Coste's Op 38 No 8, so I decided to begin working on this piece by Coste. I am only doing the first movement (Serenade). Here is a video of where it's at right now. It still needs lots of work.
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Eric Phillips Nice Eric, as it began it didn’t sound much like a Serenade at all, but after the intro, very Romantic and Serenade like. Quite lovely. This Coste character really deserves some further research by me. Thank you.
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Paul Kennedy Thanks, Paul. This piece is full of contrasts.
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Eric Phillips Cool piece! Looks like I'm already a week behind this challenge as I just logged in for first time in a while and ready to jump back in. I'll have to see what happened last week, but nice to see you're still active.
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Brett Gilbert Great to have you back, Brett! Are you working on anything in particular yet?
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Eric Phillips Having a break for a few months gives me the opportunity to start fresh and unlearn some bad habits so I'm going back to more basic pieces starting with the Ferrer I did way back in Sept. for a masterclass. Hope to post that soon and looking forward to seeing you in the upcoming tremolo class!
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Brett Gilbert Perfect choice! I would do well to revisit some pieces I've played before. Looking forward to hearing you play again.
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Eric Phillips Great job, Eric. For 1 day (I assume) your control and interpretation of this piece is amazing. (Even if you have been working on it for several days it's still really good.) This looks like a pretty challenging piece but you have it.
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Jack Stewart Thanks, Jack. I'd like to work on it for a while. Below I posted some sectional practice videos, but they are pending review. I knew I shouldn't have included all those swear words!
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Eric Phillips wow, you really just started practicing this piece? already sounded like a finished product to me.
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Eric Phillips Bravo! Like Wai, I guess this is a finely polished piece! As usual, just need more time and voilá! I'm late with this challenge... I'll see your next videos, but for me, is great!
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Coste - Serenade from Les Soirées D’Auteuil (May 9 some sectional practice)
I broke up the piece into some smaller sections, and in the videos below, I am working on the first three sections.
- Intro (mm 1-9): As Gabriel Bianco suggests in his TB lesson, I am trying to overphrase a bit here, reaching a strong climax at the beginning of measure 6, then backing off. For the measure of silence at the end of the intro, he suggests having no body movement so the audience is left hanging in suspence.
- Measures 10-27: This needs to be very cantabile. I experimented with mixing in some rest strokes, but this is not something in my technical toolbox yet, so I reverted back to all free strokes.
- Measures 28-47: The first phrase here is also cantabile, with some dramatic glissandi. Then the more chordal phrase has some big contrasts in dynamics to increase the drama.
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Eric Phillips great approach of the piece. Your tirando stroke has enough body, don’t worry about apoyando. Its the sound that counts…. I heard also your first take: and it’s a very good start, really. Such a lovely piece. Gabriel’s lesson is so good, a great help in learning the piece and understanding the musical language.
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Eric Phillips Very organized, and seems to work fine. In the measures 10-27 maybe if you try to displace your right hand near the arm scale, to play the melody in this less tense area. Maybe you can get a more sweet cantabile. Just a guess...
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J.K. Mertz - Minka & Romanze Adagio
Hi everyone, I was practicing these 2 little pieces last week (thank you, Eric, for your suggestions) and would like to share the result with you guys.
I didn't print the music out, so I have to keep looking at the monitor when recording. If my unblinking eyes and the "angry guitarist face" scared you, please forgive me and just focus on the pineapple behind me instead. I swear I was peaceful and happy inside when recording. (we need another Martin's home recording course to learn how to avoid "angry guitarist face")
1. Minka
This one is a Ukrainian folk song, so strictly speaking, this was not from the Romantic period. However, this version was arranged by Mertz, so it's still counted as romantic period music, I think? Please forgive my ignorance about classical music if I was wrong. (The music was busier than I think, that's why I could hardly blink when recording it)
2. Romanze - Adagio
I found this beautiful little piece in the Tonebase lessons archive. Simple but still beautiful.
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Wai Incredible, Wai! First of all, your playing was spectacular. It was not only clean and flawless, but expressive as well. Yes, you play simpler music, but you play it at such a high quality level. Sometimes I think that's what I need to be doing more.
Secondly, your write up above the videos made me laugh so hard!
I did not see any "angry guitarist" in your face, but I know exactly what you're talking about. I have done a few videos in which I was looking at music on the laptop screen, and it freaks me out to watch them. This post from you gave me a lot of joy this morning.
Thank you! -
Wai Great Wai.
I agree with Eric that your playing is wonderful. I also appreciate your inclusion of the Ukranian song. I don't know if you intended it as a tribute to Ukraine, but I heard it as a tribute.It took me a while to find the pineapple.
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Wai nice choice of pieces. So beautifully played. It was a real joy to listen. Thank you!
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Wai Wai Very nicely done. I really liked both pieces, and great pairing and contrasting the faster and slower pieces. I also thought your playing was very musical and expressive. I also agree with Jack, a nice tribute to Ukraine.
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Eric Phillips Thanks, Eric. It was terrible to see my own scary face (maybe there is a hidden demon inside me?
), I have thought of deleting both videos, but I didn't want to record them again, so sorry to anyone who was scared by these videos. Next time, I will remember to print the music out or remember the whole piece when recording another piece. 
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Jack Stewart Thank you, Jack, and I was glad to hear that you found Mr. Pineapple, he was sweet, trust me, I tried it last night.
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joosje Thank you, joosje. Listening to your playing was also a real joy too.
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Dale Needles Thank you, Dale. I didn't choose these 2 pieces together intentionally, but it turned out that the contrast between them made a great pairing.
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Wai What!!!! Not Mr Pineapple.
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Wai Bravo!! Great choice you did, and played very well! In Minka the melody was almost suffocated by the harmony but you detached and sang it so nice! Just a complaint: In Romance your arm hid the pineapple...
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
