Learn Biber Passacaglia with Me!

Hi everyone! I’m back with a new Learn with Me series! As I’m preparing for my final masters recital in the spring, I wanted to share my journey learning Biber’s Passacaglia, originally for violin as part of the Rosary Sonatas.

I’m vlogging the process, so if you’d like to watch exactly how I practice, head over to Youtube to see the video!

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE!

First Things First: Score Study

I always like to do a bit of score study before I start any piece. Since this piece was written for violin, I decided to listen to a violinist’s recording first. I found Rachel Podger’s 2015 recording on Spotify, and studied it with my score.

Next, I listened to Nicholas Chords’ viola recording from 2013. I found that while the timbre was darker, he still played the chords lightly, and nothing sounded too overbearing in his recording. I found that he changed up the dynamics so they were different from what’s in my score and from what I heard in Podger’s recording. His interpretation seemed more inward and reflective, whereas the former was a bit more extroverted.

One thing I really enjoyed about both recordings was that they both introduced the bassline in a similar way–they put a little space in between each note rather than sustaining each into the next one. This helps the continuity of the bassline remain consistent through the piece, even when there are notes and double stops on top and it’s not possible to sustain the bassline.

Sightreading the Passacaglia

The next step was actually playing through the piece! Since I began recording practice vlogs, I’ve discovered that I tend to sightread music really fast, like, performance tempo fast. That’s what I did when I sightread the Passacaglia, and it made it very, very difficult playing all the double stops. Playing fast also made it really difficult to sightread the rhythms in this piece, especially because that’s my weak spot!

Before sightreading, I made a list of techniques I thought I’d need to work on to be able to really master this piece. They were:

• Double stops
• Style
• Trills
• Bow distribution
• Quiet shifts
• Clear tone

After sightreading, I found that all of these guesses were absolutely true!

How I Practiced

My first step was playing the first few phrases without any double stops to get a clear sense of what exactly the melody is. I did this a few times, then played just the double stops to feel how they move and to get the feeling in my hand. Finally, I put everything back together and played the beginning as written. I practiced a lot of the first page this way!

Focusing on Phrasing over Technique

Just like I did with the final movement of the Reger Suite, I’m trying to express my music ideas first and let the technique follow accordingly. This has been working really well so far! I’m letting my musical ideas dictate my bowings and fingerings, rather than working out “easy” bowings and fingerings and working my phrasing around them.

Double Stop Stamina

I began working on this piece right after I took a break for the holidays, so my body wasn’t quite ready for all the double stops in this piece. I built my practice up slowly so I wouldn’t injury myself. The morning after my first practice session I woke up with a sore left hand, particularly between my third and fourth finger (a typical sore spot for me). After a few days of practice, I felt fine, and I haven’t experienced any more pain practicing this piece since my first few sessions!

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If you’ve played this piece (no matter what instrument), please let me know down in the comments, especially if you have any practice tips! Be sure to watch the vlog to see exactly how I practiced, and then head over to part 2!