Penderecki Viola Cadenza: Week 7

Hi everyone! I’ve had a busy week of classes, performances, and practicing the Penderecki! Here are my updates for the week-

Playing in Studio Class

I played in Studio on Monday, and it went pretty well! It was my first time performing the entire piece, and found it was much harder to get into the mood and sound of the Cadenza in front of others. This is definitely something I need to practice. Playing the piece in front of others more often will help–when having trouble performing, the easiest way to get better is to perform even more. It’s hard to start, but it helps so much.

I also realized that I can be a lot more dramatic with the piece. Again, I felt like this was harder to do in front of others. I’m sure playing in front of people more often will help, but in the meantime, I can practice with a wider range of dynamics, bow strokes, and overdo everything, so my ideas will come across more when I do play in front of an audience.

Challenges

The Beginning

Again, I’m working on the dynamic pacing and overall mood of the beginning of the Cadenza. I’ve found the dynamic I want at the beginning, but I’m still having trouble keeping it small until the mezzo forte in the third line. I want it to get more excited and intense starting at the crescendo in the second line, and I’ve found the trick to doing that is to make the rests more exciting. I’m sure that sounds weird–how can rests be exciting?! It’s all in how I portray them by moving my body and vibrating through them that makes them exciting.

After I discovered this key of adding excitement without dynamics, I went a little overboard when performing in Studio and used too much movement too soon during the rests. It detracted from the cool, still feeling of the beginning, and made it sound a little overcomplicated. To counteract all the movement, I’m now playing the first two sets of eighth notes down bow without a retake. Previously, I had been doing both sets down bow with a retake, but that was causing too much of a disruption in the phrase. Doing both down bow without a retake gives me the same effect of a natural decay through the bow, but without that added disruption. I just need to find the perfect place to start in the bow where I can play both sets without running out of bow.

The Top of the Fourth Page

I’ve finally tackled the top of the fourth page! As a reminder, this is what it looks like…

Here’s how I went about learning it:

• First, I played the octaves alone. I played them as octaves, as artificial harmonics (it’s the same handshape, at least on my viola,) separately using either my 1st or 4th finger (I play all the lower notes of the octaves with my 1st and the higher notes with my 4th,) separately while holding my fingers down on both notes, and as detached octaves.
• I then played the top line of the octaves while sustaining the A string as a drone, and then played the bottom line while holding the C string as a drone.
• Then I played the octaves and added in the A string, all on down bows, because that’s how I’ll play each chord (all the Cs are up bows)
• Finally, I put everything together, and repeated different steps as needed.

I still can’t play it correctly up to tempo, but I have the feeling of the gesture down, so I’m getting there! It gets a little better each day!

Artificial Harmonics

Also on the last page is this extremely difficult phrase of artificial harmonics with an occasional open G string drone…

The artificial harmonics require flat bow hair, close to the bridge, to speak, but the G string should be played further from the bridge and potentially with less bow hair to sound piano. I also need to play the artificial harmonics with a slow bow speed, to get more of a creepy, intense (yet quiet) sound, which, if played on the open G string, will only make it louder. I’m still working on finding the perfect combination, so hopefully next week I’ll be able to move this challenge to the “Breakthrough” section!

Breakthroughs

Playing Multiple Voices

I’m getting better at distinguishing the different voices in the piece! There’s a phrase at the bottom of the third page (pictured below) that switches back and forth between two voices. I play them as interruptions to each other, and I think it sounds really cool, and it’s a lot of fun to play!

Playing the Cadenza as a Whole

I played through the entire Cadenza for the first time the day before I performed it in Studio Class. It was physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting. I’m starting to actually understand it, now that I’m playing the entire piece, and everything is making more sense now that it’s in context. After playing it through quite a few more times, it feels less exhausting. I think continuing to do a complete run a day will make it easier for me to get through it.

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It’s been a productive week working on the Penderecki, and I’m excited to see what kind of progress I’ll make next week!