Robert Schumann’s music provides us with a fine example of Romantic Period music. For Romantic Period composers, music had the power to lift its hearers’s hearts toward a near-spiritual experience, describe nature, and express the deepest longings of the human heart. For that reason, musicians who perform music from that period use quite a bit of liberty in interpreting pieces from this era. Fermatas and rubato to vary the tempo, together with changes in dynamics help heighten the emotional impact of the music.
Kinderszenen, Schumann’s reminiscences of his own childhood, gives us a glimpse into his early life. With the exception of one, these thirteen pieces describe an idyllic childhood, in stark contrast to his later years, in which he developed what might be diagnosed today as depression. Schumann’s brooding nature, however, gave the world so many masterpieces.
When a brooding nature turns into a situation that seems to difficult for one to handle, however, it is time to try to find that person some help. In the wake of the Amy Winehouse tragedy, we call on musicians everywhere, and especially our students, to look out for each other in such situations. The world needs music. Let us strive to keep each other healthy so we can help others through the healing power of music.
This particular piece pictures a child who has fallen asleep, and has entered a peaceful dream state. To master the fluidity in your technique that can capture that dreamy mood, master the scale of the underlying tonal key, F Major.
Spot Practice Clip:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/embed/JUFlZvazFUw[/youtube]The most efficient way to play the first 4-note chord and the following melodic note in this passage is to use a hinge bar, as you can see your instructor demonstrate on the video clip. Hinge bars come in different forms and lengths (for example, three-and four-string hinge bars). In this case, the hinge bar is placed across two frets, the fifth and the sixth.
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