Writing multi-hand piano duet questions: 6 hands one piano

While the CALL FOR SCORES piano duet submission deadline of 5th April 2011 has passed, the project continues in the lead up to the 15th May 2011 piano soiree in San Francisco.

I will be blogging about writing music for piano duets, getting performers to play new works, audience experience, and topics related to contemporary music (i.e. works of living composers), accessibility, multi-hand duets, sightreading, etc.

One composer from Albany, NY asked the following questions in bold. I shall reply to each.

For three hands, three players:

1) Do I notate three staves, (one per person), on a single system that runs through a single score? Or would each individual get their own part (on one or two staves?), and do their own page turning…they each have a free hand, after all!

I have seen both versions. If it’s a short piece, then one page for each player is good.

If it’s a longer piece that requires page turning, the parallel staves is more suitable.

If the parts depend on each other, that is, the players need to be well-synchronised, the parallel staves may be more conducive.

2) Where do pedal marks go? To the relevant phrase? or to the bass player?

In the parallel staves, the pedal marks go in the bottom staff. In the one page per pianist layout, I would put pedal marks for all as it is not clear who will be doing the pedaling.

3) Should I provide fingering suggestions?

This is fine.

4) At what point do two players on a single key constitute a problem? For example: imagine a sequence of thirds: C E, D F, E G, F A, etc. I would think this can be handled just fine at almost any speed. (Player Rightmost: E, F, G, A; Player Center: C, D, E, F.) But what there is a note being released by one that the other wants to play. For example, if we wanted to play C E, then E G? At what speed, if any, does the E key become a problem? (I can play two-handed arpeggios with one hand one key behind the other at slower speeds, but it gets harder at faster tempos, that’s for sure.)

This is the fun of playing duets that you sometimes have to touch each other, dance around each other, or run into each other.

5) Are reach-overs sometimes okay? I have a spot where I want the Rightmost player to reach over the Center player and play a couple notes between the Center and the Leftmost players.

All varieties are possible. Reachovers are fun.

When piano practice becomes performance

There are two places I practise on Maui: the classroom with electric pianos and the community centre with an upright piano. I cannot reserve these rooms. Over time, I have come to learn when the rooms are available.

On Tuesday and Friday afternoons, I use the classroom. On other days, I try my luck at the community centre nearby.

Yesterday (Wednesday), I found three music books in the local library. I could not wait to sightread “Opera’s Greatest Melodies” at the community centre. But an activity was taking place, as evident from the lack of parking space. Today, however, the centre was dark and unoccupied.

I switched on the light, opened the piano lid, sat down, and started to practise. A gardener stopped and listened. After “Miss Celie’s Blues” I heard an eruption of applause behind me.

My practice turned into a performance.

Audience experience of live performance

Live performance is real-time. A video recording of a live performance is not the same as the event itself.

Similarly, your experience of being present in a live performance depends largely on where the event takes place and factors such as other members of the audience, their behavior, lighting, and acoustics of the room, besides the performers themselves of course.

I write this because I noticed a clear difference in the way I experienced Kealoha’s delivery of his poetry in two locations at Maui College on Monday 18th April 2011.

In the classroom in a standalone building (a bungalow), with the air conditioning switched off, all eyes and ears on the young Hawaii poet from Honolulu, I experienced Kealoha’s performance in its rawest, purest form. I felt the impact. I was also aware of his effect on others. Everyone sat immobile, staring at the young poet until the performance was over.

In contrast, the large multi-purpose room with loud air conditioning noise and people walking around, getting their lunches, finding their seats, talking, movement, was not optimal for receiving Kealoha’s final performance. I sat in the back row and witnessed the chaos of people trying to get settled. Even with a microphone, standing on stage, Kealoha’s delivery did not reach those audiences in the back because of the movement and noise.

These two experiences show how important it is to set the right environment for a performance to take place.

I am sure it was harder to perform in the big room than in the smaller classroom. Getting everyone’s attention requires getting rid of all ambient noise and movement.