Chopin's Dark Chorale

Daniel and Isabel analyze Chopin's short yet powerful Prelude in C Minor, and Isabel explains her unfortunate association with the piece. They also reference Chopin's 1st and 4th Ballades, Rachmaninoff's Prelude in c-sharp minor, and Francois Couperin's Le Tic Toc Choc. 

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, okay, let's do a little Chopin today. Usually with Chopin, we've already covered a couple nocturnes. You know, so we get this vocal kind of material inspired by opera. Or sometimes in Chopin we get more virtuosic piano writing. Like with some of his waltzes or I mean mazurkas and blods and all this kind of stuff. We might even cover that piece later, but today I want to play a piece that is a little bit of an unusual style of writing for Chopin. This is his 20th prelude in C minor. He wrote 24 preludes, one for every key, and this is what he chooses to do with the key of C minor. I mean in the style of a chorale, or like a like a hymn, but romanticized.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Like just very vertical. Um and I have such an association with this piece because when I was at Juilliard um in undergrad in the dorms, every floor had a couple practice rooms on them. And there was a pianist who on my floor would practice that prelude like all day every day. It's weird because it's not like a super technically challenging piece. No. But just I would be just trying to do my homework in my room and and I'd always I didn't know the piece before I heard this person. Was it you?

SPEAKER_00 3:08

No, it definitely wasn't me. I I had never performed this.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Before I heard this being practiced, I'd never heard it before, and I always got frustrated with the harmonic direction of it because it goes ba da da da. And then I just expected it to go like b which it does at the end, but in the beginning, it's like it feels like it moves too, it like progresses too quickly harmonically.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

It develops extremely quickly. And in fact, I mean this piece was originally just eight measures. So uh right and right now it's what 12, 13 measures, but so you're expecting this, right? And that being like, okay, that's the first phrase. Right, and then something else happens, yeah. But instead at five seven of uh six, is like oh now we're in the sixth chord, now we're in A flat. And he's because he's building really he's building a longer phrase and gets to the dominant, gets to five. But yeah, that is that is interesting how he needs maybe because the writing, because it's corral writing, it's so kind of stunted, like there's not much, there's no florid counterpoint or anything like that. We just need to develop the chords interestingly as quickly as possible. We need to get to some secondary dominance, we need to move away from the key, like let's get going here. Otherwise, it it'll get boring.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Yeah, I remember being so viscerally frustrated. I was like, is he just like jumping ahead? Like, what are they doing?

SPEAKER_00 5:01

I mean, I've also, you know, piano players are so interesting, like sometimes it just feels good to play something. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

I mean, same thing with other instruments, I think.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

There's there's a spot in Libestra on by Liszt, uh, like one of the climaxes. And it's just like just the visceral, the physical feeling of playing this is like so easy and nice. I think it's like your hands are wide apart, you feel com comfortable. It's not actually that hard to play, but you don't feel like being like, okay, well, let me pride this left hand alone with metronome. Yeah, yeah, I'm really feeling the counterpoint. No, you just want to Yeah, it's like that's what's music's music is supposed to be doing that to me. Like you can feel that. So you get lazy with your practicing and you just play the thing over and over and over again.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Practicing so hard, that's the real difficulty when you get to a certain level is not just play it. Because at a certain point it just yeah, it feels so good to just play. Yeah. But it it really serves very little purpose to just play through stuff. You really want to get in there and be like refining your technique, making things more efficient. You should almost never play up to tempo or practice.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Pretty much never. Like it w it's not actually that useful unless you want to quickly like oh, wait, what would this feel like fast? Oh, I have the wrong fingering or but for the most part. Playing slower gives you time to think and and and process what's happening.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Yeah, and there was always the person in the next practice room over where you're they were just playing and bulldozing through everything, and you kind of roll your eyes at them. Yeah. Someone who might not someone who's not a musician might be like, What's wrong with that? They're just they're practicing, they're playing, but it's like, nah, they're just like it's they're just uh making themselves feel good. It's almost like if you're reading a book. There's nothing wrong with making yourself feel good. But you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 7:14

At a certain point, yeah, you just got you you have to learn how to be efficient in when you're practicing because you don't realize that every single I think we talked about this in another episode where we're slamming the slamming the piano. But basically everything you do when you're practicing is information that you're telling your body. So if you're playing through, okay, that's great. Um but uh what are you teaching yourself while you play through? So if you do it 20 times, chances are you're gonna make a mistake also within those 20 times. You're just playing through, playing through, playing through. Now you're starting to ingrain mistakes. Now you're starting to ingrain, you're starting to get lazy maybe with your interpretation too. Uh-huh. Where you're not learning the inner workings of it. Uh-huh. You're just watching the movie of this piece over and over and over again. It'd be like studying a movie by just watching it over and over and over again, where it's like Okay, you you want to pause it at this point. Maybe I mean I think if you're studying film, tell me because you're not a problem.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

I've never studied film. I think well, we're talking about two different things though, because we're talking about studying a piece, like where you're studying the score or listening to it, versus like learning how to play it, or studying a film. So I think if you're studying something as a consumer, I think re repetition in just watching it over again could could help. No, I mean as a creator, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Yeah, I don't know. I just don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

But point is Well, no, it would be like just watching the film over and over again, but not like making any notes about it or not like thinking of, you know, just just being like, ha ha, like you know or going to yeah, going to the batting cages and just like I'm gonna hit a thousand balls today, but like not think about how you're swinging. Yeah. Um Yeah, like just doing something over and over again does not mean you're gonna get better at it.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

You have to We got a little trick sorry, finish your thought. With intention. Thank you. I'm such a good listener. Never interrupt anyone. I'm amazing. Um that whole ten thousand hours thing maybe got us a little on the wrong track. Uh who's that dude? Malcolm Gladwell. Uh oh, and is he the one who said that? Yeah. Okay. And and it was kind of like it made us think it's a generalization. And I don't even remember what exactly he said in the book. It's probably like I'm generalizing, but there was this idea that you gotta throw more time than you think at something in order to get uh people tend to underestimate just how much time you need to get or absolutely like to to become a master at a thing. Or even to become very, very good at a thing. But what is the quality of those hours?

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Right. You can't just be crunching the numbers and it's not just you know, or will X equal plus Y equals Z, and then I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

That was good. I like that equation. Got me. I suck at math. X plus Y equals Z. That sounds right.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

That actually sounds right. Like you can't just um quantify everything and you know look at data and then try to replicate the, you know, well, uh Glenn Gould did this exact thing.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

I would never recommend playing like this. I mean, you know, I would never tell a student, okay, and also oh sorry. And also you have to sing, you know, while you're part of it. I mean, there's there's there are idiosyncrasies, obviously there those are outliers where it's like certain people just make it work for them. And actually they probably probably just through sheer hours made those things work for them. Yeah. Um anyway, but but but back to this, so the show that this drove you crazy. So you have a negative association with this prelude. Yeah, except I really Oh, that sucks because it it already it's already monotonous, like kind of by nature, just because of the writing, it's so stuck, but it's intentionally so.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

But if you heard that over and over and on repeat, oh it was so like and they would play it so like but drudgingly, is that a word?

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

But um, but what I do love in that piece Bedrudgingly. No, but drudgingly.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Um, I might have made that word up. It's okay. I love the repetition of the last phrase, the bum bum bum bum.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

That's so eerie at the end when it repeats. Because it doesn't need to. So that and that's exactly right. All of this was added. So first we have I'm gonna blaze through it at 10x speed for a second. So we have these eight measures, measure two, measure three, four. Now that's kind of the first half of the phrase, and then we get a response that's uh quieter. That first section is supposed to be played really loud, fortissimo, then this beautiful, and I love this little inner voice that has that does imply a kind of corral, like there's an there's an inner voice there, and then okay, next measure, and now we're supposed to end the piece, and the rest is added by Chopin later. It's just a repeat, but played softer, and then suddenly he swells up at the end with a crescendo, and then he adds this chord.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

What's interesting about this, and I don't know if this is that significant, but in music, typically, if there's a section that just compl exactly repeats, there's a thing called the repeat sign so that they don't have to use more ink to like write it out again, right? So you just say like this section, repeat it. Yeah. But in the score that I'm looking at, it's written out and there are distinct different markings in it, which means it was really intentional the way he wanted this to be repeated. Because if you write a repeat sign, you you give a lot of leeway to the performer to sort of repeat it however they want. Yeah. But this, like, there's a pianissimo, there's a I can't say.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

So if he does go out of the way to write out those measures and give you specific instructions on how to end it, he's like, No, this is actually an essential part of the piece. Um don't just end it how you don't replay these measures how you want. Play them softer. Definitely play them softer. And then get louder at the end. And then get louder at the end. Um it changes the story of the piece a lot. Um I this it might be interesting for people to hear what like a bac chorale might kind of sound like. I mean, this is a simplified, this is just literally the the most raw and authentic version of a bac chorale, four voices. Just picked a random one. So that kind of style of writing where there are multiple voices, but they create chords together. You have bass, tenor, alto, and soprano voices in a choir all working together to create harmony. And that is the it's not literally what Chopin is doing. I mean, he's got more like five or six or seven or eight voices going on at any given time here, but it's that same style of writing, what we call homo rhythmic writing. No is that right? Is that the right word? I've never heard that word before. I think that's right, where it's like uh man. It's been a while since I've taught like music appreciation, you know. So these terms are like but um where all voices are moving together at the same time. Right, okay. Uh it's just it's just chords.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Essentially what a chral does. What a chorale does. So we have it's the opposite of a piece we did in a different episode, Brahms Opus 119. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

That is what we did last week. Where instead of you know, we're actually breaking the chord up in order to um in order it's it man, if this were so I want like Jacob Collier to sing this or something in like a TikTok video. Jacob Collier, if you're out there and you find this. I could do it. Like hearing okay, we'll we'll do it. Sorry, I offended you. Um kind of his expertise, but I know I think you would do a great job doing this as well. Well, now I don't want to do it. No, I need you to do it for next episode, please. Um You're taking apart the chord in a kind of almost like uh not not hocketing, but you're you're like layering the different voices.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

And different voices linger for different things, so the the harmony is always like being recontextualized. Yeah, it's more fluid. So it's like the opposite in every way. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. From this.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Which could you do a broken version of this? Uh it would probably sound lame. Sounds awful. But it'd be like, yeah, cool, man. Yeah, I think because well, that's interesting how texture influences writing. So if he knows he's gonna write block chords, this is the voicing that he's gonna use. Right. If he if he's gonna um if he's gonna arpeggiate it, maybe he would do something like Yeah, I mean, he would he would expand it more, he would change because now if you're if you're not just block cording it, you can use more of your hand. Uh you can do our you can go up and down the keyboard. You're not restricted to one area of the keyboard, but this dark area, this is the dark area of the piano. But you know, he would even maybe like maybe do it up there. I like that. Maybe it's more lyrical, right? If it's arpeggiated, and then it becomes a totally different piece, right? So it is a chicken or egg thing where it's like, did he want to write a piece that's kind of like a chorale? Or did he want to write something in C. Meyer and then it's really dark?

SPEAKER_01 18:56

And he was like, This will work best as a chorale.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

This will work best as a chorale.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Are any of the other preludes of these 24 preludes chorale-like?

SPEAKER_00 19:03

No. No. I mean, uh offhand I don't exactly remember, but a lot of them are some of them were virtuosic, some of them are remember the one we played for.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

I was gonna say that's in this collection.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Yeah. Um, some of them are lyrical songs. I mean, it it's a it's an incredible compendium of 24 very distinct pieces, all in different keys. This is just when composers write these kinds of things, I like to think, oh, this is how he felt about C minor in that moment. Because the key matters a lot to the composer who's writing just one piece per key. Right. Um Yeah, I mean, and actually you know, when I think of C minor chords and uh starting in this way, I think about Pathetique, right? Of Beethoven. Where is it? Let me grab it really quick. Which starts down there in that register that you know has a kind of seriousness to it, obviously, and this is more like an overture style, but chords, same kind of writing. And then eventually, this brings us out of it into a kind of beautiful like kind of aria and e flat. Right. Uh so it's not it's not like some unprecedented move that Chopin is writing chords in C minor here.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Wait, how does the um next section of Patati go? It's just gonna drive me crazy. Oh, the slow intro, right? Oh yes, okay. Yeah. I knew there was like a thing it revs up to.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Yeah, I would have to practice that for sure if I was gonna play that. Um anyway, back to this. Uh what do you make of this added ending? So it should end there and then one more time getting this melody.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Is that like a you don't mean the repeated part, but just that added section that then gets repeated.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

No, I mean the actual repeated part because here. Sorry. I know, but uh this next part makes sense to me. Right. Because it's like a response to what happened. But then this. So I guess the repeated part, softer. What does that mean? Like it's it adds so much depth. You know, it it it's because it turns it from something that's maybe maybe ceremonial, like something that's like almost a funeral march, to a state of reflection that is um more personal, more private, you know? It's like, no, no, no, let's pull you into what it really means and what it really feels like.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Not just the ceremony of it, not just um not just honoring the feeling, but I don't know, there's something hearing anything repeated just changes how you heard the first part, right? Because it kind of makes you go, oh.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Right? Because like you said, if it was just that one iteration of it, it's more ceremonial, we're it's like a funeral march, it's okay. Here we go. It's it's it's sad, but okay. And then this, it's like wait.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

That's really that that idea of repeating something is very interesting. I I was listening to this uh um uh poet David White reading reading his poetry, and he he'll repeat uh lines uh uh of the poem. I mean, I guess this is a common thing to do in poetry. I don't know, I don't know how usual that is, but it was extremely effective. Um he was just repeating certain lines at certain moments and it gave you a chance not only to understand uh what he's saying, because lines in poetry just fly by when they're being recited. I mean, when you're reading a poem, you have the luxury of sitting there looking at it, but it also gave you a chance to reconsider the line and see it in a new light and an added light that added more depth. And uh the intonation with which he repeated it changed also his own interpretation of his own line, which changes the meaning of it for you. So it can be really impactful in certain moments to repeat things that are extra uh that require an extra tasting. And I think uh uh maybe uh Chopin is commenting on these these four bars by saying you know that response that you just heard? What if you heard it with even more intention and pain and sorrow and reflection? And it's rewarding to do that.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Right. Well it's kind of saying, like, no, I mean it.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

Because that's why you repeat something in life in language, right? Like, hey, like that that really hurt my feelings. That really hurt my feelings. Like you you we repeat ourselves all the time for things or like Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

And usually when you repeat it, it's with added emphasis.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Like how you just said it. Yeah. Yeah. More expression.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Yeah. Very interesting. The repeats in classical music are not just practical, which they are too.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

Right. We didn't have recordings back then and be like, let's hear it again.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

Let's just hear it again. Yeah. Or like, okay, this is gonna be the theme for the whole piece. Let's hear it twice so that you can have it in your mind for the rest of the the next 30 minutes is gonna be a long one. And I'm gonna do a lot of stuff with that theme. Right, right. So let's just hear it one more time.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Right. And sometimes it is that, especially in the classical era.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

Well, we don't always have to separate practicality from meaning and expressiveness. They, you know, they they can enhance one another. Uh just some just because something is efficient or minimal or practical doesn't mean it's any less expressive.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

That's true. Well, I I think uh Chopin definitely packs a lot into this really short piece, and it's interesting that he chooses with only 12 or 13 measures to repeat measures. It's like he doesn't have a lot of space and time to do this, and it's fascinating that he's like, well, and even within those small amount of measures, I'm gonna repeat stuff.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

I'm imagining Chopin hearing this and being like, look, guys, my publisher just wanted it to be a little longer.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

I literally, I I wasn't eight bars, I was out of ideas, I'm not inspired by C minor at all. That's why it's so short. Um oh crap, I forgot C minor. Yeah. It's like I have 23 preludes. It's like, hey, Chopin.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

He plays the C minor chord and just goes from there. He's like, okay, uh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

Yeah, it's uh um he was just playing Pathatiques again. Um, okay. What did I learn in music theory? Okay, can I just do that? No, it's like no no no, we're gonna need a little more. Uh okay. And we're just like how he goes, how does he travel from one key to the next? He's like, can we just like modulate to a higher who's practicing block corrals that morning? I do like the idea of he submitted like 23 preludes, and the publisher's like, Joe Beth. Jobet? Like, are you Freedrick? Fred? Freddie. Uh I hate to break it to you, but do we miss C minor? I I'm I'm not gonna I'm not pointing the finger here. I could be I could have missed it. Yeah. No, no, no, no. I'm sure I put C minor in there. I'm treated too. C minor is a really important key, Beethoven, Beethoven 5. Like, there's no way you would have missed that.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Oh, it's not in here. Well, no, I'll just play it for me.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

Uh okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

Yeah, right. Or they're like, okay, we we have enough space. We have like two lines in the music left. Like, can you just whip something up really quick? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

That's a fun, that was a fun bit.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Um, but some of them are really that short. It's like shockingly short. Like this piece just flies by and it's done. And the whole thing is worth repeating. Like that kid in the practice room. I can imagine feeling like, oh, it's over. Right. I want to do it again. And it's one of the most famous preludes in this whole set that people are kind of waiting for it. When you when people play the whole people are playing 24 preludes and they're like, okay, I don't know that one. I don't really know that one. Ooh, the C minor. And it's done. And then you're going to be a good one. C minor, the C minor. Yeah, there are a few really famous preludes, um, but they're really short.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Like I love his expression, dude. I love I love that he packs a punch in a really short amount of time.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

It's another chicken egg thing, though, with the popular ones, because part of it is they're played the most. So we like those, the E minor and the C minor. But are they played the most because they're like the best ones or easier? So it's kind of like that's why I said chicken egg. Like, why are they are they repeated because they're good, or are they good to us because they're repeated? And familiar.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

I think they're accessible.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Yeah, they're also just so everyone learns them because like I could probably learn it, even though I don't play piano.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

Yeah, it and then all the Chopin Ballad, you know, the first Ballad is um is very famous even though it's hard. But I think one of the reasons it's famous is because it's has a really beautiful accessible melody. That repeats a lot. And then the fourth ballade, too. It kind of just it's a beautiful song that has trouble finding its way for a long time, but because it's so beautiful, we listen.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Um, that was Chopin's, I mean, one of his many gifts was he was utter melodicists, where he could hold your attention with a melody very beautifully. Where we lose him sometimes as listeners of the 21st century is when it gets more complicated. When the can he's a brilliant counterpoint writer, and so when when things develop, when things change and it gets more intense, the music gets thicker, pianists appreciate those moments, and they're like, Oh my god, this is complex, this isn't just melody. This is now we get to appreciate Chopin on a whole nother level, but we gotta suck people in with those gorgeous melodies.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Yeah, I mean, it's it's like a lot of artists or even comedians, where you know the joke everyone remembers is maybe their hackiest joke, but everyone likes it.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

But there's like all these other bits that are like as a comedian, I've like listened so much, so I'm like, oh, but this bit, like, oh, you like that joke? That niche. Yeah, or even happens to me where people see me and be like, Oh, I you're so funny. Like, I love this one joke you do, and it's like, let me guess. Like, and I know which one it's gonna be one. It'll be like one of the simple one-liners I do, and I'm I'm like, What but what about like you know, this one or the like these ones that I worked so long on? There's like more like layers to it, yeah. It's like people like the simple stuff.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

Yeah, this piece by Rachmanonov, this prelude. Apparently, he got so sick of this piece. You can imagine. But it's like it was so famous, everybody loved it. I don't play it, so I'm just gonna have to F it up soon. It's a little bit of crowd like uh anyway. That's the texture. You can already tell like people are like, oh yeah, let me give it to me. Give it to me, Rachmanonov. It's got something captivating about it. Um it's deep, it's rich, it's a it's a beautiful line, even though it's not complicated, it's very accessible, and it builds to this beautiful climax. Um, and it has this cool section. You know, it starts building in this really captivating way. But he hated that piece by the end of it. Um, didn't want to play it anymore. And you know, it got it things get when something works, inevitably, when when people find success in something, people are gonna ask you to do it again.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

Right. Well, we criticize, you know, today's algorithm, but in a way we've always been doing that shit. We've been doing that. It's human nature, like it's just kind of it's what we do, it's kind of and now it's being reflected back at us in an even more extreme way with technology, but you know, things are popular and they're not, and they're usually the more accessible things. Yeah. Uh and yeah, what can you do?

SPEAKER_00 33:55

I've I have found that a little with like, for example, my videos. I mean, you were talking about your jokes. Um Right.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

You put I'm sure there are certain videos that have a lot of views, and you're like, really that one? Of course.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Yay, yeah. I can kind of predict like what things will be popular now just because of the nature of the tune or something. But you know, I can't tell you how much time I spent on this piece. I I don't even know if I can play it anymore. No, I can't play anymore. I practiced it, you know, for a while. But this it's really, really hard because you're it's this piece by Francois Couperin, and it's supposed to be played on two different manuals of a harpsichord. So you have like one hand up here, one hand down here, but when you play it on the modern piano, you're you're playing like the same notes in both hands. So you have to make decisions about which notes are being hit by which fingers. So it takes it takes so much energy um just to figure that out. And then to talk over that is wild. I mean, it's a fast piece, uh little TikTok shock, and it's supposed to mimic like a clock. And I was thinking, oh, this would be a great uh excuse for me to just practice this real quick and learn it because I love this piece. I love Sokolov has an amazing recording online of it playing live that's just like mind-blowing. But I was kind of part of why I do these videos too. It's nice for me to get exposed to new rep that I that I maybe have heard of or like, and then oh, let me like put that in my hands real quick. And yeah, like it's it's not a popular video at all, but it's for me as a pianist point of view, I'm like, okay, that is one of the by far probably the most impressive video that I've done in terms of technical playing. It's it's like okay, it's clean, it's pretty clean. Um, it's a really hard piece to play, and I'm talking over it.

SPEAKER_01 35:59

It's like and you're talking over it, which like a lot of pianists can't do like a lot of really good pianists I know are like, how does he do that? How does he talk?

SPEAKER_00 36:07

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 36:07

But yeah, and you're like, man, people don't realize what I just did.

SPEAKER_00 36:11

Yeah, no, no, and that's fine. And what yeah, what can you I have no I have zero like negative feelings about that? It's just it was more like information, like, oh yeah, okay. People don't care so much about virtuosity at the piano. They um they care uh with it with regard to these videos or social media anyway. They care about is this relating to me? Right.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

I mean, that's partly- Am I moved emotionally?

SPEAKER_00 36:35

Yeah, and I'm down for that. Like, to me, it just so happens that probably my favorite type of music to play at the piano myself is not virtuosic music, it's poetic, sensitive, often slow, private music that invites us to be curious about these deeper parts of ourselves and give us space and time and to be patient with ourselves. So yeah, I I tend to pick those pieces. I'm sure there are some pianists who are out there thinking, like, oh, you're just picking the easy stuff. And it's like, well, this happens to be the stuff that really moves me, actually. You know, I I'm not dying to play like a really, really hard Prokofi of piano sonata right now. Um, and if you are, that's I'm totally down for that. I mean, I do have to push myself to keep playing things that are virtuosic and challenging so that I keep my chops up.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

I know I have the same thing with because I play Bach in my act sometimes, and it's like usually the easier stuff because I need to be able to like whip it out on a dime. Yeah, you know, but I'm also like, ooh, I don't want to lose. Like I could I should practice some like gnarly hindemyth or something. Yeah, I mean, how's that gonna happen? Unless unless I don't know, you and I well I just practice sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

Oh, you would you practice without without there being a performance?

SPEAKER_01 37:56

You're just like I'll just yeah, I'll take a half hour and just practice because I'm out of panic.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

Not like, you know, every now and then. I find it just to be like, I still got it.

SPEAKER_00 38:07

As much as I love music, it is hard for me nowadays, anyway, to practice without having a goal. So like I for me, I think the videos help because it's like, okay, I'm practicing for something. Right. Or um, and also, of course, I'm performing a lot still. So I still have performances that I practice for, but if I didn't have that, I don't know how much I would just sit at the piano and I would play, but there's a difference between playing like your friend who drove you crazy playing the C minor. I don't know who this person was. Okay, I'm gonna call him your good friend.

SPEAKER_01 38:49

Uh he literally was a stranger to this pianist existed through the walls. I don't know. I mean, I probably knew them, they lived on my floor, but I didn't know which one it was. Alright, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

But whoever that person was, yeah. Um, I would play, but to get better, like better for what? Or like who you you have to have someone for whom you would be nervous for or a public that you would want to share your music with. Otherwise, it's very hard to get it to that highest level for you.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

Right. I'm I'm at the point where I'm and it's not like that for me. Sure, it's it's fun to practice with like someone in mind that I'm gonna impress sometimes, but I also just know how good it makes me feel, like for my brain and like my body, my nervous system to work on something and make it a little better and just purely for that experience. Like because I think I'm just so afraid of losing it. Like it kind of comes out of fear, but the opposite of that fear is when I'm combating it, it's like relief from the fear, and also it's just it's something I used to do so much that I'm missing now that I think was a big part of my like anxiety management, actually. Even though playing also ironically gave me so much anxiety, a lot of times the practicing helped my nervous system, I think. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:08

Anyway, no, that's I I really quick to tag along that if I don't do this thing of sharing through a combination of playing and talking now, what it feels like is I start getting more and more wound up, more and more wound up. And this is actually it's a release. So it's not like I guess that just means I'm meant to be doing it. Like I feel like I I feel most aligned with whatever my purpose is when I'm doing this kind of thing. And so if I let it go, I just get irritable. Or I get I get a little anxious and I get a little like confused and a little directionless. Um so maybe it's a similar idea where you you kind of need music in your life in order to feel uh fulfill it fulfills some part of you.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

Yeah, and I think anyone who's lucky enough to find that thing that fulfills them knows how important it is and and how obvious it is when you find it, it's kind of a physical thing. Yeah. Because it was it's also now stand-up where like I find my body like wants to be there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:21

It's like finding the right person or something. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 41:24

Yeah. But yeah.

unknown 41:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

Chopin corral.

SPEAKER_00 41:29

Yeah, that was an unusual one, but just wanted to share that. Um I don't know what we'll talk about next. Maybe something modern. Anyway, okay, guys. Have a beautiful day. Have a wonderful rest of your two.

SPEAKER_01 41:43

You don't plug anything?

SPEAKER_00 41:45

Uh we don't plug. Oh no, we're not, we're not, we're not pluggers. We just care about the art. Website, Daniel and Sci2.com. So I don't remember a newsletter. Isabel's got shows. Whatever.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

Okay, bye.