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Dear fellow learners,

I'm reading through Mozarts Romance from Eine kleine Nachtmusik arranged for two pianos (by John Wilson) and I came across these octaves of which the lower note's head is small. Does anyone know how they should be played? I'd be so greatful for an explanation!

Lissa

Optional octave doubling of the base.

Considerations to use in deciding to play them or not would include but not limited to: how historically accurate you want to be (since this is already an arrangement this gets a bit complicated) Mozart most certainly used open octaves like this in his music, however the range of his instrument was less than ours; density of the sound, a modern instrument can make a lot of noise down there and easily drown out the higher notes, so if you use them be gentle; technical abilities, are you up to playing all of those octaves?

Just a few thoughts. Good luck.

Thank you very much for your quick and illuminating answer! I'll try to get those octaves to sound as good as possible before I play them for my teacher and hopefully she won't have me leave them out

-Lissa