Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Help with dynamics

Okay, so I just got really confused while listening to a few recordings while reading the sheet music, and I want to clarify.

Lets say a pieces starts off on "p", and then has a crescendo at one point. So now, after the crescendo, do I continue playing loud or go back to the initial indication of soft?

As far as I know you keep playing loud till you hit the decrescendo Do you have an example of music that confuses you? (Most music I have has markings for each change in volume).

Came across this thread which asks basically the same:
http://www.talkclassical.com/28277-crescendo-diminuendo.html

There it says to always go back to mf which I find rather odd.

I'd agree with wimpiano, keep playing at the new volume until you come to another dynamic marking - a decrescendo, a p, etc

But then, the crescendo doesn't exactly specify how loud I should play because there is no dynamic marking after that. It's just a hairpin

I'm referring to Chopin's mazurka Op 67. No 4. I'll post a picture of the passage in question later, I don't have the sheet with me. I listened to a large number of recordings, and everyone seems to play it differently o_O
Maybe it's also an issue of different editions having different markings?

Okay, now I'm confused again.

Aaaahhh interpretation :)) So nothing is wrong..
There is so much not on the sheets.. like ritenutos before repeating sections and so on..

It's definitely not a matter of different editions.

I would follow wimpiano. If you're in doubt, do what feels/sounds "right". That's the beautiful thing with playing music: you're allowed to do whatever you want to.

But there is only so much freedom with interpretation right? Not doing what is mentioned in the sheet... Is that okay?

Yeah I do that quite often, but it doesn't always work out for those listening

Why wouldn't it be? you can't expect every person to ever play a piece to play it exactly the same way every time... nothing new would ever be arranged.

The sheet is there as a guide more than an absolute "you must play like this!" ruling, sure use the sheets as much as you feel necessary they are after all there to help, but peoples interpretation will be different even with identical scores.



Hehehe, I know that feeling as long as it's not terrible does it really matter?

Hmmm... I have this notion that when I'm playing something off a sheet music, there is a specific way in which the composer intended it to be played. I have not decided if I want to (try to) play it exactly the way the composer intended or if I should interpret it the way I feel the music. Maybe a bit of both.

I suppose by the way that these kind of questions where it comes to interpretation and the boundaries of it would be good to post as a question in the Pianist Corner (did I really say that? yes I did )

Of course, that is why the sheets are there... but it's still down to you at the end of the day as to how you interpret them or how you decide to play the piece and bring it out

The great piano composers often did, and advised others to do, things quite differently than what is notated in the published scores. Receptivity to this seems to have begun its decline in the early 20th century, and the new idea is that there is an unchanging ideal in classical music corresponding to the published versions. Maybe this went on to peak in the 1950s - 1970s, and recently things have begun to slowly head back the other way.

There aren't as many persons nowadays as when I was growing up who would say everything must be exactly as printed, nothing more and nothing less, at least not with the vehemence I remember, but the notion persists and is dominant in the universities and the music schools.

A thread enquiring about general principles for what constitutes acceptable interpretation of music probably would incite some lively exchanges at the Pianist Corner forum.

Louder usually becomes slower. And softer usually becomes faster. Doing the opposite usually doesn't work very well.

And sometimes the compromise of maintaining an even tempo doesn't work either.



Enjoy

Perhaps when I understand what exactly it is that I want to ask, then I'll post the question

My exposure to classical music is quite limited, so I'm unaware of the norms and conventions. I'll probably end up doing what I want to do , but then again, it's good to know what other people consider to be appropriate and what is too far out of the way.

If Chopin says make a crescendo, then make a crescendo. That part is his job to tell you. Your job is deciding HOW to crescendo, including how far to crescendo, and then what to do after that. That's what makes the two of you a composer and a performer, not a midi programmer and a computer

You can listen to recordings to get ideas, but as you've already noticed, there will be huge differences among pianists. Also with Chopin there are huge differences between editions, so it's good to look at other editions to be aware of the variations.

Thank you for that. I think that was exactly what I was asking.