I also love the Barcarolle. The first time I heard it, I thought it was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. (although I've said that a hundred times whenever I have listened to Chopin) The key gave me problems at first but the real tough spot for me is trilling on thirds toward the end. Can never make them even or clear.

Another composer I'm currently getting into is Granados. Great music with excitement and much beauty.

Thank you Gerg, Sotto Voce and Romantique: I'm so happy that you are bringing to this thread some interesting topics.

I am truly embarrassed to add my opinions because my exposure to and knowledge of other composers are so limited (due to being a product of a different age). Other than Chopin, I do listen to Liszt, Schumann, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Grieg, Debussy, Tschaivosky, and a little Bach.

To my knowledge, Sotto Voce, your question: "If you like _______________ then you must like ____________." has never been posed before. And it's a great one.

Now this is where I show my ignorance. If I like Chopin then I must like ?????. Sorry, but there is no one is his "category," so to speak. True, there are others who have written beautiful music (Liszt and Rachmaninoff come to mind), but I believe Chopin stands alone for consistency and quality of the sublime. No one really touches him for this, I believe.

Please, please feel free to "argue" with me on this point, for I am well aware that my opinion might be considered tenuous by many. That I am extremely discriminatory, of this there is no doubt.

Gerg: I do like some Debussy, but only a few compositions. Too nebulous for my taste.

Romantique: I am so envious that you can play the Barcarolle. If nothing else for its length!

Thank you all for your contributions. Please continue to comment.

Regards,
Kathleen

And I'm in complete agreement. I've often wondered if knowing Chopin first put me at a disadvantage later. Did starting with him ever make it seem like no other composer could measure up? Yes, but at least Chopin's singular magnificence hasn't deafened me to the greatness of others or kept me from appreciating them, too.

I think of it now as having discovered Mount Everest first. And after thoroughly exploring Everest, and knowing I'll always honor the loftiest peak over all others, I'm curious about the other mountains, too.

Kathleen, time to empty out your PM box. It won't hold anymore.

I was just about to say that.


Mel

Dear Sotto Voce:

Your message is all too true, for me, also.

I had to laugh though...many years ago, at the corner of the street where we lived in Chicago, was one of those old-fashioned newsstands. The older gentleman who ran it was quite a character.

Every time I came up to buy a newspaper, he would always say: "I've seen the rest, but you're the best." (When I was younger, I guess I could have been considered attractive). He always gave me a smile whether he meant it or not.

I love your analogy about Mount Everest. You always speak so eloquently. Are you are writer or perhaps a poet?

Kathleen

That is really sweet!
Thanks, but no. I take the occasional stab at extemporaneous writing, but never fiction, and in any event nothing I'd consider at all serious. I'm a lifelong language lover, though, and guess I do have a higher-than-typical appreciation for our own native tongue. (Yipes, should I let that alliteration stand? Yeah!)

I've been working on acquiring the compound trill skill lately. What helps - and is far superior to some arbitrary mindless excercise because it brings in musicality - is to invent a little "song" that has them. Start in C, play the thirds in the LH and the melody in the RH, repeat with thirds in RH, melody in LH, then shift up to Db repeat, D, repeat, etc. It seems to help!

The real test (for RH at least) of course, to get this back to Chopin, is to be able to play Etude 25/6. Then you've "graduated" from the thirds school

Perfect!

What about using a standard prefix for various Chopin related topics as a compromise to the separate forum plan. e.g. "Chopin: ABF Prelude Recital", "Chopin: His life", Chopin: Playing ornaments" etc etc. That way everything is busted up but also stays in ABF and they are relatively easy to find cos of the prefix. Empty threads can be created for future population. I'm particularly interested in following the Prelude recital posts but they can be hard to find in this mega-thread. Just a thought; apologies if it has already been mentioned somewhere above...

Thank you, LaValse: Your idea is almost like mine (if you go back to the very first page).

The problem, naturally, is that I stopped my project because I just couldn't keep up. However, I hope that perhaps starting with going backward 5 pages, it will help somewhat. And, there is always the chance that I can combine many of the pages, using 3/4/5 different links, once I get started. This will be not so much a job in gathering information, but in getting it in a convenient form. Afterall, everything is spread out over 1,600 comments. WOW!

I hope I can reflect your suggestion in what I am planning to do. It will start at the very top of page 65 and go back to perhaps page 60 and beyond, depending.

Thank you for your advice, and we are happy to learn that our Prelude Concert is of interest to you. It still is 7.5 months away, which seems like forever. But, before we are all aware of it, it will be like "next week."

Regards,
Kathleen

INDEX FOR PAGES 55-64

(You may have to scroll down on the page to find the specific topic....I promise to fix this.)


Trouble playing Chopin\'s 17th prelude
What About An All-Prelude Chopin Recital?
Some Chopin Concerts to Download
Eleanor Bailie\'s Book - A graded guide
Tips for Playing Nocturne 55.1
Some wonderful Chopin music by Gerg
Serious discussion regarding the recital
Graded difficulty of Chopin Preludes
Question/Answer: How to Play Chopin\'s 4th prelude
Initial Thoughts on "Guidelines" for the Concert
Continued discussion regarding concert
Still more discussion and firming up of plans about the concert
Chopin\'s Actual Piano! Wow!!
John Bell\'s On You-Tube...Chopin\'s 4th Prelude
Another Chopin Piano
Discussion about Duplicate Performances of the Preludes
The First Prelude Assignment List
The order of difficulty of the preludes
The Date of the Concert
MaryRose\' review of concert by Bobby Chen
Agreed: No Duplications
Still more discussion on who\'s playing what??
Real or fake Chopin flute composition
Wow...Hershey Felder playing in our Concert!!
Names given to the preludes (NOT by Chopin)...Van Bulow, I think
Some other possible preludes??
The "Frozen" Final (ahem) List of who is playing what!
Kathleen\'s opinon of Agerich playing of Chopin
Rubinstein\'s opinion of Horowitz
Possibility of Comparing the 24 preludes to the etudes??
Some suggestions for possible Chopin music for a wedding MaryRose\'s Review of a Lecture...Chopin, Delacroix and Sand
Chopin\'s Method of Composing
Some comments about Sand..not too kind, but...if the shoe fits
More about Chopin and Sand
A super performance of three preludes on You-tube by a non-professional
Should We Know about Composer\'s Lives?
Still more interesting information about Sand, Chopin and Liszt
A Video Game about Chopin -
Chopin\'s Technique
Detailed Information about the Chopin Video Game
A Documentary Film about Chopin --Chopin\'s Afterlife
More on Chopin\'s Technique and Style
Perhaps a Chance for Us to View Documentary
Discussion For a Chopin Forum Expert Advice from Hersh Felder regarding No-Chopin Piano Teacher Sotto Voce Recommendation for All Orchestra/Piano Chopin Composition
Pogorelich on You-Tube
More About Seeing Chopin\'s Afterlife
Some thoughts against a Chopin Forum
Some Interesting Discussion Questions by Bassio Responses to Bassio\'s Questions
Status Quo for Devoted to Chopin for a while
Some Help from Hersh for Prelude #13
Chopin\'s Barcarolle
How to Handle Those Trills in the Barcarolle
More Discussion Questions
A Concern about Finding Info on the Thread


Index for Pages 1-54 Pages

Wow, Kathleen, that left me speechless—and it's just a small fraction of the thread!

Might the links be more useful if they were alphabetical rather than chronological? Could the links be alphabetized automatically? (I'm thinking along the lines of pasting the list into Word, sorting it, then pasting it back here.)

Also, I didn't weigh in again on the issue of a separate forum or not, but I am now in complete agreement with all the points made by everyone in favor of keeping things more or less as they are.

And even though UBB's search feature doesn't allow one to restrict a search to a specific thread, at least the search results do display the name of the thread for each successful hit. So, in a flawed and indirect way, it's not impossible to search for stuff inside the Chopin thread.

Hi Sotto Voce:

I did think of alphabetizing them about half-way through when it was too late to give each thread some kind of organized name. So I just named topics, off my head, as it appears, no doubt. Maybe some with "catchy" titles that could evoke some interest, who knows.

I don't think I can alphabetize them now via the way you suggested, as they are links and I don't have WORD on my computer. It just disappeared one day.

I do think that maybe having them in chronological order would be best for people who read a certain thread and are trying to go back and find it again. For new people, it's just sort of a hodge-podge, I know. But something is better than nothing, I guess.

Glad you think that we should stay status quo. Maybe at some point, we might have to reconsider. But right now, working on my prelude and other things, my little mind just can't absorb it all.

Thanks,
Kathleen

I'm putting the link to the Index on Page One of this Thread...for those who just happen to wander onto this monolith.

Kathleen

Thanks for the tip. I'll try your first idea. Most of the Etudes I can only play at a snail's pace.

Tried to alphabetize...didn't work. Next time, I promise.

Kathleen

Kathleen - you must have spent ages on that! Thank you so much. Have you actually had any time to practice lately?

Love to all Chopaholics on a lovely sunny spring day Somewhere Near London....

Hi MaryRose: Wonderful that you finally have a sunny spring day. The sun here has probably taken a vacation for a while. And while it is gone, the wind is taking its place. The whole house shakes under its wrath.

No, it didn't take me very long. I had some practice with this kind of thing before. I only wish I had thought it out better :rolleyes: ...perhaps specific categories, etc. Well, I'll do that the next time.

I am practicing, mostly my assigned prelude for the concert and another one I really love. Everything else has rather slipped by the wayside. I just don't know how people can keep up with all of it. Much of what I once knew fairly well, will now require several weeks of relearning.

Kathleen

What an incredible amount of work Kathleen, you're amazing.

I'll mention something about creating links just as a matter of information, I'm not in anyway suggesting more work for you or anyone else, or in any way suggesting anything different than what you've done already.

When you create a link you can link to the exact post as opposed to just the page the post is on. If you go to any post and put your mouse cursor over (don't click) the reply with quote (the double quotes) you will see at the bottom of your browser a url and at the end of the url is something like "replyto=001608". If you note that number, the 001608 in this example, you can put a '#' and then that number at the end of the url for the page and you will go directly to that post.

For example, the link above to the date of the concert is

http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/32/2901/56.html

a link directly to Frycek's post listig the date of the concert would be:

http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/32/2901/56.html#001395

Sorry for the geek interruption, back to Chopin !!!

Thank you so much for the great hint, DeepElm: I will try to enter the number in...in the current index (when I'm taking a break from the piano). I really appreciate the advice.

Regards,
Kathleen

Thank you very much Kathleen for the huge effort.

Kathleen: dearest!IOU a BIG THANK YOU...or...how do you say that in Polish: Dziekuje.

Last evening, I attended the most beautiful vocal concert in my life!! It was like Heaven,
which reminded me to ask you: have you ever listened to Chopin's songs?

BTW, if you have gone through this topic before, my dear friends, so pardon me! I have not read the whole 65 pages yet

Dear Bassio: An effort it was...huge?? maybe, just a little. Of course, at my age, almost everything is a huge effort!

Sarah: How wonderful! You attended a concert of Chopin'songs?? Aren't they beautiful?

Frycek..under a different topic called: My Little Treasure" did post something about Chopin's songs...way back. And she even posted a beautiful rendition of "Spring." I even learned to play it, not too very difficult. We also discussed some of the songs on these pages.

Chopin\'s Songs Discussed

There is also a link to a copy of the sheet music here.

Other songs were also mentioned. They are really something and so glad you had the opporunity to hear them sung.


And here's Peyton's rendition: I hope it's still up and working.

Petyon\'s Rendition of Chopin\'s "Spring"

I have quite a bit of information about them if you would like to know more about them.

And...I am so ashamed to say what kind of Polish person I am that I don't know how to spell "You're Welcome" in Polish??. I need to look it up. Thank you for going through the trouble of writing "Thank you" in Polish; that is very thoughtful of you.

And we'll forgive you for not reading through all 65 pages.

Regards to all,
Kathleen

You Tube is our friend...

I am pretending at the moment, that it's all legal, right???

Okay - check ut Glenn Gould playing anything by Bach. It is so clear wy Bach affected Chopin so deeply - and why he thought it was perfection in art. All of it is simply staggering, and talk about a way to play a line!!! It was often said about Chopin's own playing that he approached his compositions as if they were Bach, and he himself said that before his own concerts he would not play his own works, but those of Bach. Through Gould, I can absolutely imagine how Chopin would have approached his Bach with musical perfection.

Hersh

Hi Hersh:

I'll need to check it out. But...oh boy, Glenn Gould? I know, I know...he was a genius when it came to Bach (that's what they tell me anyhow).

But did you ever see that movie he made? Something called "68 movies of Glenn Gould" or something like that. I actually sat all the way through it. I just kept saying to myself: "He's pulling our leg, right?" But then I read he was perfectly serious.

Yes, I did read that Chopin never played his own music before a concert. Obviously everything he needed to "rehease" was in Bach's music.

So, tell me. I know it doesn't make any difference, really. But he worshipped Mozart and adored Bach? Or was it the other way around? Or does it really matter?

What did he particularly admire in each? Probably the melody in Mozart. And the voices in Bach???

Thanks and I hope Paris is having a wonderful spring because we're not!!

Kathleen

Thank you so much for your indexing work Kathleen

Hi All:

This is a post I made on the ABF forum. I thought you would all be interested in it.

A Celebration of the Piano

I have to admit I got a little choked up at the Dave Brubeck tribute. Who would ever think of Brubeck and Chopin??? Just goes to show, I guess.

Block Buster probably won't have it. If you are a Netflix member, you can get it from them.

Please do, you won't be sorry.

Kathleen

Me again: My darn dog woke me at 4:30. She's afraid of lightning and thunder.

Hersh: I watched Glenn Gould play Bach on You-Tube. Perhaps he was a little strange, but he COULD play Bach. It certainly makes a huge difference listening to music and then watching it actually performed. And what a performance it was! Yes, I can see why Chopin loved Bach. Such control and exquisite combination of notes and voices (sorry I'm not a sophisticated reviewer). At any rate, Gould was definitely "one of a kind," as Bach was. Thank you for the heads-up. I also add my recommendation for others to watch.

Gerg: No need for thanks. I feel a little guilty letting this thread get so big and not thinking about organizing it a little.

Happy Easter to All,
Kathleen

Gould was very strange, his sitting position at the piano was very strange. But his ability to play Bach is unmatchable by anyone else. His even-ness is humanly impossible. I am not so much into Bach, but every time I watch Gould, it is like watching Artur Rubinstein played Chopin plus a little more.

This Liszt addict has a few Glen Gould videos.