Sharps and Flats; Holistique Pianism（16）

Interpretation and expression in music are often debated, yet sometimes the difference is no larger than the distance between sharp and flat.

Sharps and Flats

A sharp makes the sound sharp.

A flat makes the sound flat.

I don’t remember when it was,but when I first heard that,

I was surprised.

“Oh, really? Is that so?”

If anything,

that idea never quite clicked for me,

so somehow I just left it as it was.

But recently someone explained it to me again,

and I thought,

“Ah.”

But still,I couldn’t quite understand it.

So once againit disappeared from my memory.

But the problem is,

Scriabin

writes exactly the same phrase

with sharps and flats.

And when someone explained that to me again,

I went,

“Ahhhhhhh!”

The sonata I’m working on now

I’ve listened to many people play it.

And everyone does interesting things,

and they are excellent performances.

But for some reason

the one that always feels the most striking

was

Horowitz.

Not because I favor him.

Something is different.

He was an extraordinary person,

but there was something there

that felt too important to dismiss simply as genius.

It had been on my mind for a long time,

but I think

this is it.

He distinguishes

sharps and flats.

I’m sure

that subtle difference comes from this.

So while looking at the score I thought,

“Wait… can I actually do this?”

I suppose I have to change it a little,

otherwise the listener will get bored,

because the same thingis repeated three or four times.

I held my head in my hands,

decided to forget about it for the moment,

and chose to work on Granados first.

But this gentleman too

launches a barrage

of sharps and flats.

In other words,

a parade of enharmonic spellings.

Tears…

Now that I’ve finally entered the stage

of refining the Granados’ piece I’ve been working on,

I thoughtI really need to get back to Scriabin soon,

so I started slowly returning to it,

and then I remembered

the whole # and ♭ issue.

And suddenly it struck me.

Granados must be doing this too… right?

So for the moment

I tried addinga bit of sparkle to the sharps

and a bit of gentleness to the flats.

And then

!!!!!!

Et tu, Brute!

So that’s what it was.

I was amazed.

At last the mystery was solved.

Composers are thinking about things like thi

swhile they create.

Double flats and double sharpsI can barely read them,

so I used to just respell the notes myself.

But now,

I’m sorry.

I repent.

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These reflections grow out of ongoing work at the piano, in teaching, and in performance.