❤️ The piece you keep coming back to
Most of us have one piece that never really leaves us, the one we return to when we sit down with no plan, the old friend that is always somehow under the fingers. Some have played theirs for decades and still find new things in it, some keep one simple piece as a comfort while they wrestle harder repertoire, some return to the first piece that ever made them want to play. It is rarely the hardest thing we know, and that is part of the point.
💬 What is the piece you always come back to?
- What is yours, and what keeps pulling you back to it after everything else gets shelved?
- Has what the piece means to you changed over the years, even as the notes stayed the same?
- Do you still work at it, or is it the one piece you let yourself simply enjoy?
The pieces we return to say a lot about why we play at all. Let's share the ones that have stayed with us.
6 replies
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Yes, the piece that’s always there! The piece that I’ve learned so much from and never fails to please my hands or the listener, is Tarrega’s Etude en forma de Minueto. The scale passages, slurs, cadences and repeats give the player lots of opportunities to explore dynamic expression while comfortably nestled in a dance-styled rhythm. I use it as a warm up, or as prelude to something else.
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Western Vista by Olga Amelkina Vera, and the Takemitsu Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and also Scott Tennant's Wild Mountain Time.
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I always have a copy of Bach Partita 1 for solo violin on my stand. It’s a great set of pieces to play fast or slow and with an almost infinite number of ways of interpreting each movement. Nothing too difficult to get from beginning to end but a lifetimes work (and probably impossible) to play through all the possibilities.
All the Bach suites for solo violin, cello or lute are equally engaging, enough there to last for a number of lifetimes. All wonderful for both technical and musical exploration and great for the soul.
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La Catira by Antonio Lauro.
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It's Cordoba by Albeniz. Never gets old, a masterpiece in composition and transcription.
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I think that throughout my whole 'guitar life', Fernando Sor's studies have always been on my music stand. Of course, they are excellent for technical development, but I also keep coming back to them because they are beautiful pieces and not too long. I'd also mention the Preludes and the Suite Populaire Brésilienne by Villa-Lobos. I understand these pieces better with each passing year, and I’m still working on them.