WEBVTT
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Okay, let's start today with what I think is one of the most heartbreaking openings in all of piano.
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Um in all of piano.
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In all of the piano.
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Uh Johannes Brahms, very late in life, wrote these sets of pieces.
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We already played Opus One Eighteen, a little bit of that, but Opus One Nineteen opens like this.
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Was this dedicated to somebody?
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This piece?
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Do we have any kind of um I don't know if it was explicitly dedicated to anyone, but he he all of these pieces he you know he sent drafts to to Clara.
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Um Clara Schumann, Robert, who's now dead.
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I mean, while he's while Brahms is writing this.
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He's dead.
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He actually died, I didn't tell you.
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He died a few years ago.
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I'm sorry to tell you he's not gonna make it to her podcast as a guest.
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Um but uh Brahms would send, you know, Clara was like a mentor to him.
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So she was an amazing great pianist and championed Brahms's works, like played them, played through them, gave him feedback on them uh too, like pretty honest feedback.
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And this was one of these pieces that he, I think with pleasure wrote to her about because uh he wanted to I think he took some pride or pleasure in in ha in explaining how painful this music is um and how loving and painful at the same time.
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It's very r romantic era stuff.
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Because he had a lot of unrequited love for Clara Schumann.
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Yes.
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So when you love someone so much and you're you write something that has to do with maybe not that person, but just like the pain you feel from all the love, it's kind of also exhilarating to show that to a person that you really love and you know Yeah.
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I mean, whether or not that love at this point in his life was, you know, romantic or I think it supersedes all that.
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I mean, this is a lifelong sort of friendship that they have.
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But still, it's like it's a very intimate thing to discuss the very inner workings of how you process pain and and longing, right?
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That's a very you're inviting someone into like your most intimate space and the music itself does that.
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And I think I mean, I'll just read what he wrote to her.
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Um what Browns wrote to Clara about this piece that you just played a part of.
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Yes, thank you for setting that up very beautifully.
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Um he said to her this little piece is exceptionally melancholic and is to be played very slowly.
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Um and that's not an understatement.
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Every bar and every note must sound like a retardando, which means to be played slowly or slowing down, as if one wanted to suck melancholy out of each and every one lustily and with pleasure out of these very dissonances.
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So he really like almost took pleasure in his sadness and melancholy.
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Yeah, I mean in a sort of perverse way, which I I can understand that.
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I don't think I've indulged that deeply.
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Are you a child of the romantic era?
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Do you think?
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What do you mean?
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Like, I mean, I do there is this connection between deep sorrow and love.
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Yeah.
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That that they explore to the absolute fullest.
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Like the sorrows of young Werther, you know, that that Goethe text.
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Um where he ends up committing suicide or whatever.
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I haven't read it in so long, but what I find interesting about what he wrote to Clara though is he doesn't usually, isn't Roms known for less committal tempo markings, like Allegro Monontropo.
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Yeah.
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So the fact that this is just Adagio and he wrote, it should be played very slowly.
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That seems significant for him, if I'm remembering correctly, his tendency.
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So yeah, so in other words, instead of saying adagio, but not too slow.
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Right, adagio monontropo, or yeah, like hey, let's let's let's not overdo things, let's keep it in this kind of middle ground space.
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He is kind of always in a state of searching in so much of his music when he's not like bombastically like second piano concerto, just da da da.
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Here, here's the music.
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But he does like l living in that kind of more liminal space.
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But you're right, here he's just like, I know what I want.
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A dachio.
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I want it to be slow, um and I want it to hurt.
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And I want it to hurt.
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And the hurt, the part of the hurt is these hair pins.
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So he writes these little uh designations for decrescendoing every bar, except first of all, it's actually over the first three notes in the score.
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So that means like get less with each note.
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So instead of that would be like, okay, we're just um no phrasing, no hairpin, just uh let's just play the notes as they are.
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In fact, let me just play it once that way, where it's just I'm not overdoing the expression, the pain, the longing, but I'm just playing what's on the page, you know, with without doing much.
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Okay, the pianists out there are probably cringing, but that is that's literally what's written in terms of tempo change.
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He's not saying poco retardando, he's not saying slow down, he's not telling you to take time anywhere.
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But in this letter, he does.
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Right.
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In this letter, he's saying, you better milk this stuff, you know, because this is this is pain.
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And I think you're first of all, you're supposed to feel that just in the dissonances, just in the harmonies themselves.
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And it can be hard for us because we don't live in that time.
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Like, I I made a short little video.
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One of the first Instagram videos I made was on this opening, and one of the first things I say is like, well, it's kind of jazz chords in a way.
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That's the perspective that we could come from on the opposite end, which is like Alright, this is a minor ninth if you stack them all together in the first measure.
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And then this is another just chord with extension, nine, eleven, and then ah, it's into our ears that when you play it like that, oh, it's just beautiful.
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It's lush, it's like debusy.
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And then but he wasn't hearing it like that with these open extensions where there's not a kind of chromatic leading.
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Right.
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It's not, I mean, because it's similar to the Bach first prelude, right?
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That's the broken chords.
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But that the you mean in the sense that they're yeah, these are arpeggiated chords.
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Right.
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Sort of.
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But this piece, for some reason, it really feels like the melody does come first, or the the melody that these broken chords create is more significant, whereas with the Bach, you're almost wanting to show the chords through the brokenness.
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Yeah, right.
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Those are the chords.
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I think there's so many reasons for that.
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One is in the Brahms, there is so man, if you look at even just the way he stems the notes, in other words, he's implying like there's a melody here, there's a melody here, there's a melody here, there's one on top.
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So and the fact that this is suspended through those other notes feel like they just feel like almost like the ripples of that first note.
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They feel like you threw a big rock into the pond here, and then now those are the ripples that are the effect of that first note, and then we get to sing a little more.
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And and this, these notes that are adding the extension, those would have been more painful, more dissonant, more unusual during that time than for us.
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I mean, we're playing, we're playing all kinds of music now that has these open, extended harmonies.
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But back then, I almost this is why I think it's really helpful when you're learning this music to to exaggerate uh what's happening.
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So if I were teaching this piece, I would probably get the student to play more than what's written.
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So that it feels like it feels like like you're deeper down than he even writes, so that when you return to just what's written.
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Right, that's a great way to teach it because you're giving them a sense of what's not there, but what's kind of implied.
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What's important, what or what's what's essential is not oh, he and he and he ends on this E or something.
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I mean, what's essential is just this feeling of falling.
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So how do we Right?
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It almost could have ended on a different note.
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It could have.
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So it makes it makes the actual note it's ending on less important, and yeah.
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It makes what's what he's written less precious, too.
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Like, as in like, uh, it always had to be these precise notes.
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No, I mean, you know, a different composer having the same thought, especially a few years later, might write something like that.
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And it's it's that it's just that painful, depressed feeling of like uh reaching out and then being denied or being in a sort of state of pain and longing and reflection that um in the romantic period is a is a wonderful, beautiful, essential kind of rumination.
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Um, it's just how do we access that same expression now, not having the context of Brahms's chromaticism.
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What do you mean we mean because so much more has been done in more modern music that it's less like this this would have stood out as kind of more modern sounding in the time.
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Yeah.
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Obviously, because it was modern in the time.
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But you know what I mean?
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No, yeah, in the same way that Tristan and Isolda at the time like just absolutely made a huge splash, or or or Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, how that shocked audiences to to no end.
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This is an interesting thought of like what because we play all these pieces years, decades, centuries sometimes after their is that yeah, after their Yeah, Bach was a few centuries.
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Yeah, okay, cool, cool.
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Um after they're premiered.
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And yeah, Bach was born in Brooklyn in 1942.
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He made it all the way here from Germany.
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Anyway, go ahead.
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Okay.
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Um obviously we still get a lot from these pieces, but we'll never get the context that they were originally meant for.
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And so what we want do we take with us that's still so meaningful when we're missing so much of the context?
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Yeah.
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I think you can say that for any work of art, you can say that for an old movie that we still enjoy or a painting, you know, we still go to museums and we're we're absolutely, you know, it's such things are breathtaking, but we've seen we've all seen tons of paintings that are that style, or yeah, you know.
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And now obviously with our phones, we can see literally any image we want that's ever been created instantly.
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So make one out of our from our minds with AI.
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Right.
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So so right, even things that we uh just yeah, have uh all we need to do is imagine, right?
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Um and so what is happening to experience uh for us right now?
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Like what is what is valuable still about or what's is newness what's important or is it just I think the deeper the more we can find a personal connection with something, the richer the experience is.
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So for the music, I mean, I I'm all about trying to get at what is the underlying essential emotional spirit of the music that transcends time, basically.
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That is basically like this is so essential to the music that we are we could be absolutely moved by it today, and it's the same kind of thing that Brahms was going for.
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Even if it's not, it's not exactly, and there's gonna be a lot of inside stuff um from that time and whatever, but we can just uh do our best to try to get at that expression because it is really powerful.
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Yeah, but also the newness might actually have done it a disservice because I don't think humans generally want new.
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They they like familiar.
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Even when like Taylor Swift makes a new album, like I do think it's because she's still so familiar, so it's oh it's new, but it's no, it's there's a sound or her voice, and even if she reinvents herself, like like we say we want new and reinvented, but and I think in a way it's it's good for us and a part of us wants it, but but I think we can look at things that are familiar and warm and like an old movie and still get so much out of it because there's like a familiarity, like the baseline of you know, you know what I'm saying?
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I'm going all over the place.
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No, you're right.
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Um I think I mean Brahms is working with tradition.
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So I think the reason this is powerful then is because of the chromaticism, the way that composers had treated harmony up to that point.
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So you did have to have some kind of reference point, and maybe that's sort of our job as musicians today is to be like, hey, let's build back a little bit of that reference point so that you can be moved again by something like this.
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Instead of just thinking, okay, I mean, that's just yeah, I play that all the time.
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I practice my two, five, ones.
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Like, so what?
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That's just like a seventh chord.
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And it's like, well, yeah, okay, but within the context of Brahms and the way this is happening, um, what if it was just that's essentially what's going on in the music, and then these are just added.
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And then you start to feel like, whoa, that thread is getting pulled like a little bit more than I expected.
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Right.
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Um, that's why I would like to practice with a student, like okay.
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What would that feel like to you, someone who's okay, your harmony's expanded, you know?
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Are you accepting students?
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Not currently, just I I'm trying to do this kind of leave him alone then.
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He doesn't Yeah, please.
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I've had to block several people already who've reached out to me incessantly about lessons.
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Um no, what I what I want to experiment with actually is I don't know when, but soon, uh probably on my Patreon, like these little lightning lessons where someone can send me like a five or ten minute video they're playing, and I'll send a video back either from the piano or just just walking around, but give you my give you my feedback because I don't know if you experienced this, but for me, within the first five minutes of a lesson, frankly, in the first 30 seconds of a lesson, I have a whole lesson in my head.
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I'm like, okay, I know what this person needs to work on.
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I can, I can, here's here's my lesson plan I'm building up.
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And after that, especially the last half of the lesson, a lot of it's just practicing with the student.
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Right.
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You know, like, okay, let's sit down and do it.
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But like, if I don't have that luxury because it's remote anyway, I think people could get a lot out of a really quick, essential reaction to what's happening at the piano.
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Um, I I think I do want to bring back teaching into my life, private teaching.
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I got a little burnt out from that.
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That's why I stopped and started doing this.
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But um, I think that's a that's one way to do it is these these lightning lessons that'll give you direction and guidance.
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Can I help you?
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What's up?
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Lightning laughing.
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How long did it take you to come up with lightning lessons?
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Oh my god, yeah.
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I I got it.
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I just like I woke up one morning and I was like, that's it.
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Whatever.
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It could be something else.
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No, I like lightning lessons.
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No, no, it's not lame.
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Um, I also feel like you'd be back to teaching.
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I think this is why maybe I don't enjoy teaching so much, is that like you, I identify immediately what the problem I'm like, okay, I see what this person's problem is, or 10 problems.
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It's pretty obvious.
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It's really obvious.
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It's a little like having chemistry with a person in real life.
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Like if you're being honest with yourself, you know pretty quick whether this is someone you're gonna get along with or not.
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Right.
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Yes.
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If you trust your instincts.
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Yeah, so right away I'm just like, okay, well, they, you know, they don't their bows go in all sorts of different directions.
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Their their left hand is way too tight.
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But then what I find frustrating is I hate like breaking it to like I I I don't like sugarcoating, but I also don't like being mean.
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So I'd rather just take myself out of the situation.
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Whoa.
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So you don't want to help them.
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That's another way to like you're more scared of hurting them than you are of than you are willing to help them.
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Okay, sure.
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But I guess I just know that there are like so many teachers out there that they don't need my help.
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Oh, wait, in this context, there's also a little bit of self-deprecation going on.
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Because look, if I'm in the world and someone's like needs help on the street and I'm like I'm the first person there, I'm gonna help them because they need my help in that moment.
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But with teaching, I'm kind of like, you don't need my help.
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There's someone who's gonna be better at conveying what these problems are and helping you through it than me.
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So yeah, a little self-deprecation.
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I think there's like a diehard four quote or something where it's like, you think anybody's gonna fix it, we're the ones who gotta fix it.
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Like, you do have to kind of have that mentality, especially at some point where it's like, okay, there's a kid in front of you, they need your help.
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This is it.
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Like, there is no next step.
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Like, you're the person who's going to save the world for this person.
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So you do need to at some point that classical music mindset of like, oh, who am I?
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Oh, I'm nobody, and my opinions are not as valid as this person teaching at a conservatory.
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That has to go.
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That has to go.
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And it has to go in teaching, it has to go in entrepreneurship, it has to go in career stuff.
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It has to like, we need to work on breaking that mentality down as soon as you get out of school.
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When you're in school, you should be self deprecating.
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You're learning and you're critiquing yourself, and you're like, I'm not as good as my teacher.
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I need to put my whole heart and soul into the teacher's guidance in order to like get the most.
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out of that if you trust them.
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Yeah.
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But then dude, you gotta you gotta um well I mean Well there's just some people who have a knack for it.
00:22:10.079 --> 00:22:14.880
And also Maybe there's some of that there's there's just having a lot of experience in the situations.
00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:31.359
I'm sure if I taught you know a hundred lessons in a row, all this I would figure out like, okay, these are like the the social rules of how to like navigate telling someone they have an issue and how to fix it and these are the things that work and these are the things that don't work.
00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:37.920
But I think I in my head because I so much of what I do socially is like mimicking.
00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:44.000
I don't feel like I have enough information to like properly mimic like a teacher.
00:22:44.799 --> 00:22:45.359
I don't know.
00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:49.839
That's definitely like a not everybody thing but that's how it feels for me.
00:22:50.240 --> 00:23:07.599
You're also just not that passionate about I I think you're so disillusioned with the field, as I I mean as I kind of am too that like it doesn't jazz you up this idea of okay go get 'em tiger.
00:23:07.759 --> 00:23:10.240
Now I'm sending you out into the world into the world of what?
00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:11.119
Of classical music.
00:23:13.119 --> 00:23:20.240
Your time could be unless I get a really, really driven disciplined student, then I'm like yes, like go for this.
00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:21.839
But otherwise I'm like, yeah.
00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:27.519
You have too realistic a view and not an optimistic enough view of the field right now.
00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:35.119
Yeah and with it's different with like my other stuff like comedy advice or writing advice I'm a lot better at giving that.
00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:37.440
But maybe it's because I find more joy in it.
00:23:37.599 --> 00:23:40.640
So I'm like yes like I want you to have the joy here.
00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:46.720
What about like adult amateurs or something where it's like they are they're not going into the field.
00:23:47.119 --> 00:23:49.839
They're just doing it for the pure enjoyment of the music.
00:23:50.319 --> 00:24:01.200
I think it's a little better because I'm also not as afraid of like somehow saying something that traumatizes them like you know I don't I don't want to say something too harsh and where a kid then like carries it for the rest of their life.
00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:02.400
I'm so scared.
00:24:02.720 --> 00:24:02.960
Okay.
00:24:03.119 --> 00:24:07.279
But it yeah if it's a fully formed adult who you know I'm not gonna Yeah.
00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:12.720
Oh motherhood's gonna be awesome for you to um do you want to play more with the piece?
00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:13.519
Okay, okay.
00:24:13.759 --> 00:24:16.000
And speaking of that, I want to make this richer.
00:24:16.160 --> 00:24:27.359
So I oh my god this is a million years ago but I played the boring version right so um because you were young and didn't know what you were doing no no no I just for you earlier.
00:24:27.680 --> 00:24:40.720
Oh oh I thought you were like so this one time I played it really boring and I kinda was like I didn't I've never actually oh no I have performed this or I've recorded this um but I haven't played it a lot.
00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:46.960
Um I haven't really performed a lot of these late son late Roms pieces.
00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:51.200
I think partly because when you're learning them you're a little intimidated.
00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:57.279
It's like the last things he wrote besides the clarinet uh sonatas or whatever.
00:24:57.839 --> 00:25:02.400
And this is Roms returning to piano music later in life.
00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:05.759
He started Opus one with with with his uh sonata.
00:25:05.839 --> 00:25:17.839
He started at the piano he l he's a pianist but now when he's returning to the to the instrument for these intimate pieces it's like his whole style is all assimilated.
00:25:17.920 --> 00:25:24.880
He has the counterpoint that he's always been so fascinated with with Baroque composers and Renaissance composers.
00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:33.119
Um he also has he's not young anymore so he's not just being recklessly emotional.
00:25:33.440 --> 00:25:39.519
Um these things are distilled in a way that he's not wasting any space or time.
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:49.039
He's just getting right to the interesting deep emotional stuff and delivering it in this short form way that's just very potent.
00:25:49.599 --> 00:25:50.960
This piece is so efficient.
00:25:51.599 --> 00:26:04.720
Very efficient for how expressive and like evocative of pain and and and he wants everything everything to be milked it is also incredibly like almost m like minimal in a way.
00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:17.039
Yeah let's let's let's let's get into it a little bit so once I add these little hair pins uh which indicate decrescendo uh I'm also gonna use those to do what he says in the letter retardando.
00:26:17.599 --> 00:26:23.440
So slow down not just get softer to evoke a little more of that pain in each measure.
00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:35.279
The very end of that first phrase now I might be overdoing it a little bit um and I but I love when this return instead of this he writes it's just extra painful there.
00:27:35.519 --> 00:27:40.240
But also again so efficient it's just one one note making it different.
00:27:40.480 --> 00:28:03.839
Yeah just raising that half step wild I mean he and he does indicate which notes are supposed to be held over so he's thinking harmonically of so it's not all these notes actually no I it is all those notes oh no there's no B.
00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:04.880
There's supposed to be no B.
00:28:05.039 --> 00:28:11.680
So it's not technically this is not supposed to be held.
00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:23.119
So each measure he's indicating what's held and what's not um which is also interesting to kind of explore I mean the details his intentions are pretty clear with that.
00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:45.440
Yeah they are so it's like don't just hold the pedal down right like WC right right because that just slightly genericizes the voice leading which is really where he's coming from he's not coming from a place of vertical chords and harmony he's coming from a place of each individual voice is leading somewhere beautiful to create harmony.
00:28:47.039 --> 00:28:56.400
And then oh I was thinking like because I've I've I've heard certain performances and recordings where it's much faster and I like that too.
00:28:57.359 --> 00:28:58.079
Play a little faster.
00:28:58.559 --> 00:30:05.920
Sure like to me at this tempo that I'm about to play at helps you feel the phrase more easily helps you get through the vocal line in a way that's realistically sung and not just like oh my God hurry up like we're just really ruminating on every single measure the way you feel the music when I play it that way well that still felt pretty slow and expressive.
00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:11.119
It would be funny if the way you played it before if Brahms could hear it and was like whoa I didn't mean that.
00:30:11.599 --> 00:30:15.200
Bro I didn't write lento I wrote a dogio again.
00:30:15.440 --> 00:30:21.920
Yeah that just felt like it all flowed but it was still you were still really holding back in the tempo.
00:30:22.880 --> 00:30:26.480
I feel like it was just moments that I really held.
00:30:26.640 --> 00:30:27.119
Yeah.
00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:31.200
I kind of like that faster tempo to be a little bit I liked that a lot better.
00:30:31.440 --> 00:30:33.200
Um well not a lot better.
00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:34.480
Well it was more natural.
00:30:34.720 --> 00:30:50.559
It was less like stunted it was less like I was just for you want to play no matter what happens you want to try to play in a way that feels and sounds natural that feels like it's coming from an organic place and not from a stifled or forced place.
00:30:51.039 --> 00:30:58.079
So sometimes you gotta you gotta exaggerate that too you gotta be like well let me play it super fast.
00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:10.000
Just to just to be like oh yeah that's the essential line now let me go back and add my own emotions to it.
00:31:10.960 --> 00:31:14.240
Students can be scared to do that sometimes because they feel like they're messing with the music.
00:31:14.480 --> 00:31:18.960
Like no do whatever you got to do in the practice room to feel looser.
00:31:21.119 --> 00:31:31.279
Yeah it's all subjective I mean I I and I and one night I might play it that way and another night I might feel like no I'm I'm I want to linger on every single note.
00:31:31.440 --> 00:31:35.599
Can you taste this chromaticism, this dissonance is like oh my God.
00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:53.519
Just like in life I mean we sometimes we want to enjoy things a little bit extra and sometimes we don't but it don't replicate it the same way every single time feel what you're feeling in the moment and and have a lot of different ways of performing it so you have options.
00:31:53.920 --> 00:31:54.400
Right.
00:31:54.640 --> 00:31:57.440
I want to hear the neck the B section it's pretty different.
00:31:57.759 --> 00:32:51.680
Let's keep going so after it's by the way oh my god I mean there's so much to talk about this beautiful counterpoint in the left hand oh there's a lot of like counter melodies going on in his music and then Pickardy third so instead of instead of adding instead of going to the dominant of the Q B minor which by the way we don't really get a solid B minor it this is B minor chord but it's really like an E minor nine so this is kind of one of the first times in this opening where it's like ah we get five of B minor.
00:32:51.839 --> 00:34:13.039
And now we might expect this to be in the dominant the next music in the dominant key of F sharp we might you know you know we might expect that but instead we get this key to build so really quick there's something very beautiful that happens in this inner voice we have so after this eruption this is the first time it feels like you're releasing something right right I mean it feels like almost the fantasy of what the first part is kind of grieving or dealing with.
00:34:13.199 --> 00:34:13.519
Yeah.
00:34:13.760 --> 00:34:18.000
Then the fantasy is like what it could be and like what you hope it would be.
00:34:18.239 --> 00:34:23.519
Yeah this is way out there or it's way in there.
00:34:24.000 --> 00:35:42.320
Well this feels like dealing with the present pain to me and then okay this is almost like this is like your your fantasy being over the realized in your mind being imagined nice and then listen to the inner voice here this cremat okay now that is held and it's even kept here so then that I think one of the genius things about Brahms is how he uses the same motives the same material across different sections like Beethoven did and Bach did and that makes the music feel more organic this word that you know we kind of roll our eyes at if we study classical music long enough because everyone's you know oh you can't be gonna play it more play it more organic this music is so organic and then you know it's like okay I don't know how the grocery one person used that word once and everyone was like that is a stick word used.
00:35:42.719 --> 00:36:18.079
Nailed it used in organic for the rest of my life that I but it's uh I don't know integral or something where when the materials are have a synergy uh that are working together to unfold something that feels like it's just at the right place at just the right time with just the right materials like whatever that means where form and structure and motive and harmony all meet to create something that makes you forget about the analysis and makes you feel like ah that feels right.
00:36:18.800 --> 00:36:33.280
Beethoven was a master at that you don't want to it's hard to even analyze this stuff because it's just like oh yeah I mean I could I mean the materials sometimes are that simple where it's like nothing that special is going on here but I'm utterly moved.
00:36:33.440 --> 00:36:34.239
What is happening?
00:36:34.960 --> 00:36:39.920
It just every note is at just the right time and just the right place.
00:36:40.239 --> 00:36:41.840
You know, that's organic writing.
00:36:42.159 --> 00:36:49.199
It feels like you're discovering a melody that like the composer must have just discovered this melody that already existed in the universe.
00:36:49.599 --> 00:36:50.000
Yeah.
00:36:50.239 --> 00:36:53.440
And then ironically they've been working their ass off to get there.
00:36:53.599 --> 00:37:06.960
I mean Brahms burned so many drafts and Beethoven was constantly scratching out his writing you know not Mozart apparently not Mozart sometimes it comes naturally let me keep playing so we can get to the end of this piece really quick.
00:37:07.039 --> 00:38:03.360
So we have this beautiful inner voices and back to D major this is a big sigh you know ah it feels so good to be in D major but it's gonna start building again okay that chord that is I mean you recognize that chord it's that chord the Tristan chord it's I mean it's technically it's a half diminished so the Tristan chord is really the Brahms opus 119.
00:38:03.760 --> 00:38:42.559
Well this came 30 years later but yeah that after Bogner what yeah this is this is like 1890 or something oh and Tristan was like maybe the 60s 1860s yeah damn it why did I see that's one of those things like um well Brom's just lived a really long time I think that can be disorienting like I don't know why that's funny for me lived to 172 so he actually lived through the 92 not a happy person right and so just for him to live a while it just seems like this like almost God played a joke on him.
00:38:42.719 --> 00:38:53.280
Yeah to live in the I didn't I feel really stupid now I didn't know that Tristan okay so it is the Tristan chord do you think there was any direct influence?
00:38:53.599 --> 00:39:04.639
Well I just think this half diminished quality of his chord is very it I mean he could have certainly been influenced by that but it was a chord that he used.
00:39:04.719 --> 00:39:09.280
Yeah the Tristan chord is special because of how it doesn't resolve to the right place.
00:39:09.840 --> 00:39:15.119
So that that's part of what it's not like a half diminished chord being a half diminished chord was always kind of there.
00:39:15.519 --> 00:42:28.480
Context is everything context is everything but this sounds like you know that's a modern chord too um but then from that intense suspension we get this return and now we're kind of in the beginning except with more chromaticism and changing the changing the rhythm but this is like a it's a stretto I mean like Bach did that you know in his fugues and stuff it it's like remember all these voices they're starting to pile on top of each other with more drama and then instead of a satisfying return which he could have written he goes it ends up being the same chord but this remember remember that A sharp from earlier where he went that note it's that same note version that's really wonky wow his famous sequences in his codas he does this in the viola sonata too the end of the E flat first movement so beautiful these suspensions full expression of that chord and then resolving to B minor finally yeah this it's a it's a fully diminished chord in the right hand and then over a B minor so it's like you get the self the B minor and then all of the pain that inhabits it until finally resolving and then he wrote to Claire and said this is a good one.
00:42:28.719 --> 00:42:30.480
Yeah you're gonna like this one.
00:42:30.559 --> 00:42:40.239
Well a lot of pain in this one the third version of the like when it gets really wonky at the end there before the sequence of the coda.
00:42:40.400 --> 00:42:56.079
Yeah it makes that yeah it makes when it returns to that coda like so like warm and sad and you know it it just makes you appreciate it so much more because you've been in such a weird place.
00:42:56.320 --> 00:42:56.480
Yeah.
00:42:56.719 --> 00:42:57.599
Totally before that.
00:42:58.079 --> 00:42:58.239
Yeah.
00:42:59.840 --> 00:43:08.000
Yeah and and you can see looking in reverse from the end you learn so much about the beginning from from approaching the end.
00:43:08.639 --> 00:43:16.559
And that's kind of another just to wrap up one of the genius things about someone like Brahms is this feels same with Bach to me.
00:43:17.119 --> 00:43:19.519
This feels improvised.
00:43:19.840 --> 00:43:28.239
It feels like he just came to the piano and was like what happens if I go down a third and another third and another third and another third let me just keep going.
00:43:28.559 --> 00:43:31.280
What what is this sound so beautiful?
00:43:31.599 --> 00:43:32.079
You know?
00:43:32.239 --> 00:43:56.239
Almost like the Beatles probably like composed some of their songs which is like okay let's just mess around how about I do it a step higher oh that's beautiful too there is an improvisatory nature to this opening it feels like someone just by themselves coming at the piano in a state of incredible sadness and just wanting this falling sound.
00:43:59.280 --> 00:44:11.119
And yet especially if you observe how the piece ends you're like it had to be those notes it had to be that many notes it like that is what organic structure really does to a piece.
00:44:11.199 --> 00:44:17.199
It makes it feel both spontaneous and meant to be that way.
00:44:17.599 --> 00:44:19.280
And there's no way you can improvise this piece.
00:44:19.920 --> 00:44:29.679
It's too it's too rich and it's counterpoint and complicated um and the way it unfolds and just the just that many bars and all that um helps with this feeling.
00:44:30.480 --> 00:44:58.880
So yeah I mean it's just thank God Brahms came back to composing because he retired, you know, uh I think an opus like 113 or something before he met that clarinetist Ricard Mufeld he heard him play and was like blown away and then he wrote the clarinet trio and then he wrote these two clarinet sonatas but in the middle of that we got these I mean some of his absolute best writing, especially for the piano.
00:44:59.360 --> 00:45:02.960
Well it's because it kind of comes after you have n he has nothing more to prove.
00:45:03.199 --> 00:45:04.000
He had retired.
00:45:04.239 --> 00:45:04.480
Right.
00:45:04.880 --> 00:45:09.760
So if you're writing again it's purely because you were so inspired.
00:45:10.079 --> 00:45:21.760
Yeah and for someone who had the weight of composing on his shoulders from someone like Robert Schumann and he was supposed to be the next heir of Beethoven it's finally like I'm done.
00:45:21.920 --> 00:45:27.679
I think I achieved everything I wanted to achieve now these are just dessert.
00:45:28.239 --> 00:45:35.920
Like what if we had just Brahms only composing dessert kind of different anyway.
00:45:36.159 --> 00:45:43.280
That was Brahms Opus one nineteen yeah oh man I'm in such a state of I'm like softened.
00:45:43.360 --> 00:45:47.039
I feel like I just got a massage from from that piece.
00:45:47.760 --> 00:45:50.320
I feel very like reflective right now.
00:45:50.960 --> 00:45:53.119
Anyway let's go reflect over some lunch.
00:45:53.440 --> 00:45:53.599
Okay.
00:45:53.840 --> 00:45:54.880
Bye bye everyone
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:05.519
Okay, let's start today with what I think is one of the most heartbreaking openings in all of piano.
00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:07.519
Um in all of piano.
00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:09.519
In all of the piano.
00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:14.880
Uh Johannes Brahms, very late in life, wrote these sets of pieces.
00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:20.559
We already played Opus One Eighteen, a little bit of that, but Opus One Nineteen opens like this.
00:01:21.040 --> 00:01:23.040
Was this dedicated to somebody?
00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:23.760
This piece?
00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:33.120
Do we have any kind of um I don't know if it was explicitly dedicated to anyone, but he he all of these pieces he you know he sent drafts to to Clara.
00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:37.120
Um Clara Schumann, Robert, who's now dead.
00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:39.120
I mean, while he's while Brahms is writing this.
00:01:40.079 --> 00:01:40.640
He's dead.
00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:42.319
He actually died, I didn't tell you.
00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:44.719
He died a few years ago.
00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:48.640
I'm sorry to tell you he's not gonna make it to her podcast as a guest.
00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:54.640
Um but uh Brahms would send, you know, Clara was like a mentor to him.
00:01:55.280 --> 00:02:06.400
So she was an amazing great pianist and championed Brahms's works, like played them, played through them, gave him feedback on them uh too, like pretty honest feedback.
00:02:06.959 --> 00:02:25.120
And this was one of these pieces that he, I think with pleasure wrote to her about because uh he wanted to I think he took some pride or pleasure in in ha in explaining how painful this music is um and how loving and painful at the same time.
00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:27.759
It's very r romantic era stuff.
00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:31.280
Because he had a lot of unrequited love for Clara Schumann.
00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:33.039
Yes.
00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:52.000
So when you love someone so much and you're you write something that has to do with maybe not that person, but just like the pain you feel from all the love, it's kind of also exhilarating to show that to a person that you really love and you know Yeah.
00:02:52.159 --> 00:02:58.159
I mean, whether or not that love at this point in his life was, you know, romantic or I think it supersedes all that.
00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:01.120
I mean, this is a lifelong sort of friendship that they have.
00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:11.439
But still, it's like it's a very intimate thing to discuss the very inner workings of how you process pain and and longing, right?
00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:19.039
That's a very you're inviting someone into like your most intimate space and the music itself does that.
00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:23.520
And I think I mean, I'll just read what he wrote to her.
00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:28.319
Um what Browns wrote to Clara about this piece that you just played a part of.
00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:30.960
Yes, thank you for setting that up very beautifully.
00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:40.400
Um he said to her this little piece is exceptionally melancholic and is to be played very slowly.
00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:43.120
Um and that's not an understatement.
00:03:44.560 --> 00:04:01.520
Every bar and every note must sound like a retardando, which means to be played slowly or slowing down, as if one wanted to suck melancholy out of each and every one lustily and with pleasure out of these very dissonances.
00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:07.280
So he really like almost took pleasure in his sadness and melancholy.
00:04:07.520 --> 00:04:11.360
Yeah, I mean in a sort of perverse way, which I I can understand that.
00:04:11.599 --> 00:04:13.520
I don't think I've indulged that deeply.
00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:15.360
Are you a child of the romantic era?
00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:16.160
Do you think?
00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:17.199
What do you mean?
00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:25.199
Like, I mean, I do there is this connection between deep sorrow and love.
00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:26.480
Yeah.
00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:30.079
That that they explore to the absolute fullest.
00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:35.120
Like the sorrows of young Werther, you know, that that Goethe text.
00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:38.240
Um where he ends up committing suicide or whatever.
00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:51.120
I haven't read it in so long, but what I find interesting about what he wrote to Clara though is he doesn't usually, isn't Roms known for less committal tempo markings, like Allegro Monontropo.
00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:51.839
Yeah.
00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:58.319
So the fact that this is just Adagio and he wrote, it should be played very slowly.
00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:02.879
That seems significant for him, if I'm remembering correctly, his tendency.
00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:06.959
So yeah, so in other words, instead of saying adagio, but not too slow.
00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:17.519
Right, adagio monontropo, or yeah, like hey, let's let's let's not overdo things, let's keep it in this kind of middle ground space.
00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:26.160
He is kind of always in a state of searching in so much of his music when he's not like bombastically like second piano concerto, just da da da.
00:05:26.560 --> 00:05:27.680
Here, here's the music.
00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:31.839
But he does like l living in that kind of more liminal space.
00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:34.639
But you're right, here he's just like, I know what I want.
00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:35.920
A dachio.
00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:40.720
I want it to be slow, um and I want it to hurt.
00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:42.000
And I want it to hurt.
00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:46.959
And the hurt, the part of the hurt is these hair pins.
00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:58.959
So he writes these little uh designations for decrescendoing every bar, except first of all, it's actually over the first three notes in the score.
00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:03.839
So that means like get less with each note.
00:06:03.920 --> 00:06:13.839
So instead of that would be like, okay, we're just um no phrasing, no hairpin, just uh let's just play the notes as they are.
00:06:13.920 --> 00:06:24.639
In fact, let me just play it once that way, where it's just I'm not overdoing the expression, the pain, the longing, but I'm just playing what's on the page, you know, with without doing much.
00:06:51.519 --> 00:06:59.439
Okay, the pianists out there are probably cringing, but that is that's literally what's written in terms of tempo change.
00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:05.519
He's not saying poco retardando, he's not saying slow down, he's not telling you to take time anywhere.
00:07:05.680 --> 00:07:07.199
But in this letter, he does.
00:07:07.360 --> 00:07:07.600
Right.
00:07:07.839 --> 00:07:13.920
In this letter, he's saying, you better milk this stuff, you know, because this is this is pain.
00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:21.279
And I think you're first of all, you're supposed to feel that just in the dissonances, just in the harmonies themselves.
00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:24.879
And it can be hard for us because we don't live in that time.
00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:27.519
Like, I I made a short little video.
00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:34.160
One of the first Instagram videos I made was on this opening, and one of the first things I say is like, well, it's kind of jazz chords in a way.
00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:44.240
That's the perspective that we could come from on the opposite end, which is like Alright, this is a minor ninth if you stack them all together in the first measure.
00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:55.279
And then this is another just chord with extension, nine, eleven, and then ah, it's into our ears that when you play it like that, oh, it's just beautiful.
00:07:55.519 --> 00:07:58.480
It's lush, it's like debusy.
00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:18.160
And then but he wasn't hearing it like that with these open extensions where there's not a kind of chromatic leading.
00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:18.800
Right.
00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:23.519
It's not, I mean, because it's similar to the Bach first prelude, right?
00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:24.800
That's the broken chords.
00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:31.600
But that the you mean in the sense that they're yeah, these are arpeggiated chords.
00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:32.240
Right.
00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:33.039
Sort of.
00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:49.279
But this piece, for some reason, it really feels like the melody does come first, or the the melody that these broken chords create is more significant, whereas with the Bach, you're almost wanting to show the chords through the brokenness.
00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:50.720
Yeah, right.
00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:55.279
Those are the chords.
00:08:57.200 --> 00:08:59.120
I think there's so many reasons for that.
00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:12.879
One is in the Brahms, there is so man, if you look at even just the way he stems the notes, in other words, he's implying like there's a melody here, there's a melody here, there's a melody here, there's one on top.
00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:37.440
So and the fact that this is suspended through those other notes feel like they just feel like almost like the ripples of that first note.
00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:50.399
They feel like you threw a big rock into the pond here, and then now those are the ripples that are the effect of that first note, and then we get to sing a little more.
00:09:56.399 --> 00:10:06.159
And and this, these notes that are adding the extension, those would have been more painful, more dissonant, more unusual during that time than for us.
00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:11.120
I mean, we're playing, we're playing all kinds of music now that has these open, extended harmonies.
00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:22.240
But back then, I almost this is why I think it's really helpful when you're learning this music to to exaggerate uh what's happening.
00:10:22.559 --> 00:10:28.960
So if I were teaching this piece, I would probably get the student to play more than what's written.
00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:57.679
So that it feels like it feels like like you're deeper down than he even writes, so that when you return to just what's written.
00:11:02.879 --> 00:11:11.840
Right, that's a great way to teach it because you're giving them a sense of what's not there, but what's kind of implied.
00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:19.840
What's important, what or what's what's essential is not oh, he and he and he ends on this E or something.
00:11:19.919 --> 00:11:22.320
I mean, what's essential is just this feeling of falling.
00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:23.519
So how do we Right?
00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:25.360
It almost could have ended on a different note.
00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:26.080
It could have.
00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:30.879
So it makes it makes the actual note it's ending on less important, and yeah.
00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:34.159
It makes what's what he's written less precious, too.
00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:39.360
Like, as in like, uh, it always had to be these precise notes.
00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:51.039
No, I mean, you know, a different composer having the same thought, especially a few years later, might write something like that.
00:11:51.120 --> 00:12:14.159
And it's it's that it's just that painful, depressed feeling of like uh reaching out and then being denied or being in a sort of state of pain and longing and reflection that um in the romantic period is a is a wonderful, beautiful, essential kind of rumination.
00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:24.000
Um, it's just how do we access that same expression now, not having the context of Brahms's chromaticism.
00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:35.919
What do you mean we mean because so much more has been done in more modern music that it's less like this this would have stood out as kind of more modern sounding in the time.
00:12:36.080 --> 00:12:36.240
Yeah.
00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:38.399
Obviously, because it was modern in the time.
00:12:38.559 --> 00:12:39.360
But you know what I mean?
00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:52.720
No, yeah, in the same way that Tristan and Isolda at the time like just absolutely made a huge splash, or or or Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, how that shocked audiences to to no end.
00:12:53.360 --> 00:13:07.840
This is an interesting thought of like what because we play all these pieces years, decades, centuries sometimes after their is that yeah, after their Yeah, Bach was a few centuries.
00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:09.360
Yeah, okay, cool, cool.
00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:11.120
Um after they're premiered.
00:13:11.200 --> 00:13:14.240
And yeah, Bach was born in Brooklyn in 1942.
00:13:14.799 --> 00:13:16.720
He made it all the way here from Germany.
00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:17.679
Anyway, go ahead.
00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:18.240
Okay.
00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:29.600
Um obviously we still get a lot from these pieces, but we'll never get the context that they were originally meant for.
00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:37.679
And so what we want do we take with us that's still so meaningful when we're missing so much of the context?
00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:38.639
Yeah.
00:13:38.879 --> 00:13:57.200
I think you can say that for any work of art, you can say that for an old movie that we still enjoy or a painting, you know, we still go to museums and we're we're absolutely, you know, it's such things are breathtaking, but we've seen we've all seen tons of paintings that are that style, or yeah, you know.
00:13:57.919 --> 00:14:03.840
And now obviously with our phones, we can see literally any image we want that's ever been created instantly.
00:14:04.080 --> 00:14:07.759
So make one out of our from our minds with AI.
00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:08.399
Right.
00:14:08.559 --> 00:14:15.360
So so right, even things that we uh just yeah, have uh all we need to do is imagine, right?
00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:21.759
Um and so what is happening to experience uh for us right now?
00:14:21.919 --> 00:14:40.639
Like what is what is valuable still about or what's is newness what's important or is it just I think the deeper the more we can find a personal connection with something, the richer the experience is.
00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:56.000
So for the music, I mean, I I'm all about trying to get at what is the underlying essential emotional spirit of the music that transcends time, basically.
00:14:56.320 --> 00:15:07.200
That is basically like this is so essential to the music that we are we could be absolutely moved by it today, and it's the same kind of thing that Brahms was going for.
00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:22.399
Even if it's not, it's not exactly, and there's gonna be a lot of inside stuff um from that time and whatever, but we can just uh do our best to try to get at that expression because it is really powerful.
00:15:23.279 --> 00:15:33.279
Yeah, but also the newness might actually have done it a disservice because I don't think humans generally want new.
00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:34.960
They they like familiar.
00:15:35.120 --> 00:16:10.720
Even when like Taylor Swift makes a new album, like I do think it's because she's still so familiar, so it's oh it's new, but it's no, it's there's a sound or her voice, and even if she reinvents herself, like like we say we want new and reinvented, but and I think in a way it's it's good for us and a part of us wants it, but but I think we can look at things that are familiar and warm and like an old movie and still get so much out of it because there's like a familiarity, like the baseline of you know, you know what I'm saying?
00:16:10.799 --> 00:16:11.759
I'm going all over the place.
00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:12.799
No, you're right.
00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:18.159
Um I think I mean Brahms is working with tradition.
00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:29.279
So I think the reason this is powerful then is because of the chromaticism, the way that composers had treated harmony up to that point.
00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:44.320
So you did have to have some kind of reference point, and maybe that's sort of our job as musicians today is to be like, hey, let's build back a little bit of that reference point so that you can be moved again by something like this.
00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:50.240
Instead of just thinking, okay, I mean, that's just yeah, I play that all the time.
00:16:50.320 --> 00:16:51.759
I practice my two, five, ones.
00:16:52.879 --> 00:16:54.559
Like, so what?
00:16:54.720 --> 00:16:56.399
That's just like a seventh chord.
00:16:56.559 --> 00:17:12.799
And it's like, well, yeah, okay, but within the context of Brahms and the way this is happening, um, what if it was just that's essentially what's going on in the music, and then these are just added.
00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:28.160
And then you start to feel like, whoa, that thread is getting pulled like a little bit more than I expected.
00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:28.720
Right.
00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:34.640
Um, that's why I would like to practice with a student, like okay.
00:17:34.799 --> 00:17:39.599
What would that feel like to you, someone who's okay, your harmony's expanded, you know?
00:17:39.920 --> 00:17:41.599
Are you accepting students?
00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:46.640
Not currently, just I I'm trying to do this kind of leave him alone then.
00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:48.559
He doesn't Yeah, please.
00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:53.839
I've had to block several people already who've reached out to me incessantly about lessons.
00:17:54.400 --> 00:18:25.279
Um no, what I what I want to experiment with actually is I don't know when, but soon, uh probably on my Patreon, like these little lightning lessons where someone can send me like a five or ten minute video they're playing, and I'll send a video back either from the piano or just just walking around, but give you my give you my feedback because I don't know if you experienced this, but for me, within the first five minutes of a lesson, frankly, in the first 30 seconds of a lesson, I have a whole lesson in my head.
00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:28.400
I'm like, okay, I know what this person needs to work on.
00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:32.240
I can, I can, here's here's my lesson plan I'm building up.
00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:36.559
And after that, especially the last half of the lesson, a lot of it's just practicing with the student.
00:18:36.720 --> 00:18:36.880
Right.
00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:39.039
You know, like, okay, let's sit down and do it.
00:18:39.279 --> 00:18:49.039
But like, if I don't have that luxury because it's remote anyway, I think people could get a lot out of a really quick, essential reaction to what's happening at the piano.
00:18:49.279 --> 00:18:54.000
Um, I I think I do want to bring back teaching into my life, private teaching.
00:18:54.079 --> 00:18:55.200
I got a little burnt out from that.
00:18:55.279 --> 00:18:57.279
That's why I stopped and started doing this.
00:18:57.599 --> 00:19:04.480
But um, I think that's a that's one way to do it is these these lightning lessons that'll give you direction and guidance.
00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:05.440
Can I help you?
00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:06.000
What's up?
00:19:06.240 --> 00:19:07.279
Lightning laughing.
00:19:07.519 --> 00:19:09.519
How long did it take you to come up with lightning lessons?
00:19:09.759 --> 00:19:10.720
Oh my god, yeah.
00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:13.119
I I got it.
00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:16.079
I just like I woke up one morning and I was like, that's it.
00:19:16.319 --> 00:19:16.799
Whatever.
00:19:16.880 --> 00:19:17.519
It could be something else.
00:19:18.079 --> 00:19:19.519
No, I like lightning lessons.
00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:22.079
No, no, it's not lame.
00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:28.319
Um, I also feel like you'd be back to teaching.
00:19:28.559 --> 00:19:41.200
I think this is why maybe I don't enjoy teaching so much, is that like you, I identify immediately what the problem I'm like, okay, I see what this person's problem is, or 10 problems.
00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:42.000
It's pretty obvious.
00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:42.720
It's really obvious.
00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:45.680
It's a little like having chemistry with a person in real life.
00:19:45.839 --> 00:19:51.839
Like if you're being honest with yourself, you know pretty quick whether this is someone you're gonna get along with or not.
00:19:52.079 --> 00:19:52.319
Right.
00:19:52.480 --> 00:19:52.799
Yes.
00:19:53.039 --> 00:19:54.160
If you trust your instincts.
00:19:54.400 --> 00:20:02.319
Yeah, so right away I'm just like, okay, well, they, you know, they don't their bows go in all sorts of different directions.
00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:04.480
Their their left hand is way too tight.
00:20:04.960 --> 00:20:13.839
But then what I find frustrating is I hate like breaking it to like I I I don't like sugarcoating, but I also don't like being mean.
00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:17.279
So I'd rather just take myself out of the situation.
00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:18.480
Whoa.
00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:20.079
So you don't want to help them.
00:20:20.319 --> 00:20:26.640
That's another way to like you're more scared of hurting them than you are of than you are willing to help them.
00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:28.240
Okay, sure.
00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:34.000
But I guess I just know that there are like so many teachers out there that they don't need my help.
00:20:34.720 --> 00:20:39.039
Oh, wait, in this context, there's also a little bit of self-deprecation going on.
00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:47.279
Because look, if I'm in the world and someone's like needs help on the street and I'm like I'm the first person there, I'm gonna help them because they need my help in that moment.
00:20:47.759 --> 00:20:50.640
But with teaching, I'm kind of like, you don't need my help.
00:20:50.720 --> 00:20:56.000
There's someone who's gonna be better at conveying what these problems are and helping you through it than me.
00:20:56.240 --> 00:20:57.680
So yeah, a little self-deprecation.
00:20:58.240 --> 00:21:05.759
I think there's like a diehard four quote or something where it's like, you think anybody's gonna fix it, we're the ones who gotta fix it.
00:21:05.920 --> 00:21:13.279
Like, you do have to kind of have that mentality, especially at some point where it's like, okay, there's a kid in front of you, they need your help.
00:21:13.599 --> 00:21:14.400
This is it.
00:21:14.559 --> 00:21:16.240
Like, there is no next step.
00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:20.799
Like, you're the person who's going to save the world for this person.
00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:27.359
So you do need to at some point that classical music mindset of like, oh, who am I?
00:21:27.440 --> 00:21:32.319
Oh, I'm nobody, and my opinions are not as valid as this person teaching at a conservatory.
00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:33.519
That has to go.
00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:34.720
That has to go.
00:21:34.960 --> 00:21:39.920
And it has to go in teaching, it has to go in entrepreneurship, it has to go in career stuff.
00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:46.480
It has to like, we need to work on breaking that mentality down as soon as you get out of school.
00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:48.880
When you're in school, you should be self deprecating.
00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:53.200
You're learning and you're critiquing yourself, and you're like, I'm not as good as my teacher.
00:21:53.279 --> 00:21:59.680
I need to put my whole heart and soul into the teacher's guidance in order to like get the most.
00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:01.519
out of that if you trust them.
00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:02.480
Yeah.
00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:09.759
But then dude, you gotta you gotta um well I mean Well there's just some people who have a knack for it.
00:22:10.079 --> 00:22:14.880
And also Maybe there's some of that there's there's just having a lot of experience in the situations.
00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:31.359
I'm sure if I taught you know a hundred lessons in a row, all this I would figure out like, okay, these are like the the social rules of how to like navigate telling someone they have an issue and how to fix it and these are the things that work and these are the things that don't work.
00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:37.920
But I think I in my head because I so much of what I do socially is like mimicking.
00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:44.000
I don't feel like I have enough information to like properly mimic like a teacher.
00:22:44.799 --> 00:22:45.359
I don't know.
00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:49.839
That's definitely like a not everybody thing but that's how it feels for me.
00:22:50.240 --> 00:23:07.599
You're also just not that passionate about I I think you're so disillusioned with the field, as I I mean as I kind of am too that like it doesn't jazz you up this idea of okay go get 'em tiger.
00:23:07.759 --> 00:23:10.240
Now I'm sending you out into the world into the world of what?
00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:11.119
Of classical music.
00:23:13.119 --> 00:23:20.240
Your time could be unless I get a really, really driven disciplined student, then I'm like yes, like go for this.
00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:21.839
But otherwise I'm like, yeah.
00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:27.519
You have too realistic a view and not an optimistic enough view of the field right now.
00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:35.119
Yeah and with it's different with like my other stuff like comedy advice or writing advice I'm a lot better at giving that.
00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:37.440
But maybe it's because I find more joy in it.
00:23:37.599 --> 00:23:40.640
So I'm like yes like I want you to have the joy here.
00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:46.720
What about like adult amateurs or something where it's like they are they're not going into the field.
00:23:47.119 --> 00:23:49.839
They're just doing it for the pure enjoyment of the music.
00:23:50.319 --> 00:24:01.200
I think it's a little better because I'm also not as afraid of like somehow saying something that traumatizes them like you know I don't I don't want to say something too harsh and where a kid then like carries it for the rest of their life.
00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:02.400
I'm so scared.
00:24:02.720 --> 00:24:02.960
Okay.
00:24:03.119 --> 00:24:07.279
But it yeah if it's a fully formed adult who you know I'm not gonna Yeah.
00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:12.720
Oh motherhood's gonna be awesome for you to um do you want to play more with the piece?
00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:13.519
Okay, okay.
00:24:13.759 --> 00:24:16.000
And speaking of that, I want to make this richer.
00:24:16.160 --> 00:24:27.359
So I oh my god this is a million years ago but I played the boring version right so um because you were young and didn't know what you were doing no no no I just for you earlier.
00:24:27.680 --> 00:24:40.720
Oh oh I thought you were like so this one time I played it really boring and I kinda was like I didn't I've never actually oh no I have performed this or I've recorded this um but I haven't played it a lot.
00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:46.960
Um I haven't really performed a lot of these late son late Roms pieces.
00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:51.200
I think partly because when you're learning them you're a little intimidated.
00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:57.279
It's like the last things he wrote besides the clarinet uh sonatas or whatever.
00:24:57.839 --> 00:25:02.400
And this is Roms returning to piano music later in life.
00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:05.759
He started Opus one with with with his uh sonata.
00:25:05.839 --> 00:25:17.839
He started at the piano he l he's a pianist but now when he's returning to the to the instrument for these intimate pieces it's like his whole style is all assimilated.
00:25:17.920 --> 00:25:24.880
He has the counterpoint that he's always been so fascinated with with Baroque composers and Renaissance composers.
00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:33.119
Um he also has he's not young anymore so he's not just being recklessly emotional.
00:25:33.440 --> 00:25:39.519
Um these things are distilled in a way that he's not wasting any space or time.
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:49.039
He's just getting right to the interesting deep emotional stuff and delivering it in this short form way that's just very potent.
00:25:49.599 --> 00:25:50.960
This piece is so efficient.
00:25:51.599 --> 00:26:04.720
Very efficient for how expressive and like evocative of pain and and and he wants everything everything to be milked it is also incredibly like almost m like minimal in a way.
00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:17.039
Yeah let's let's let's let's get into it a little bit so once I add these little hair pins uh which indicate decrescendo uh I'm also gonna use those to do what he says in the letter retardando.
00:26:17.599 --> 00:26:23.440
So slow down not just get softer to evoke a little more of that pain in each measure.
00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:35.279
The very end of that first phrase now I might be overdoing it a little bit um and I but I love when this return instead of this he writes it's just extra painful there.
00:27:35.519 --> 00:27:40.240
But also again so efficient it's just one one note making it different.
00:27:40.480 --> 00:28:03.839
Yeah just raising that half step wild I mean he and he does indicate which notes are supposed to be held over so he's thinking harmonically of so it's not all these notes actually no I it is all those notes oh no there's no B.
00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:04.880
There's supposed to be no B.
00:28:05.039 --> 00:28:11.680
So it's not technically this is not supposed to be held.
00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:23.119
So each measure he's indicating what's held and what's not um which is also interesting to kind of explore I mean the details his intentions are pretty clear with that.
00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:45.440
Yeah they are so it's like don't just hold the pedal down right like WC right right because that just slightly genericizes the voice leading which is really where he's coming from he's not coming from a place of vertical chords and harmony he's coming from a place of each individual voice is leading somewhere beautiful to create harmony.
00:28:47.039 --> 00:28:56.400
And then oh I was thinking like because I've I've I've heard certain performances and recordings where it's much faster and I like that too.
00:28:57.359 --> 00:28:58.079
Play a little faster.
00:28:58.559 --> 00:30:05.920
Sure like to me at this tempo that I'm about to play at helps you feel the phrase more easily helps you get through the vocal line in a way that's realistically sung and not just like oh my God hurry up like we're just really ruminating on every single measure the way you feel the music when I play it that way well that still felt pretty slow and expressive.
00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:11.119
It would be funny if the way you played it before if Brahms could hear it and was like whoa I didn't mean that.
00:30:11.599 --> 00:30:15.200
Bro I didn't write lento I wrote a dogio again.
00:30:15.440 --> 00:30:21.920
Yeah that just felt like it all flowed but it was still you were still really holding back in the tempo.
00:30:22.880 --> 00:30:26.480
I feel like it was just moments that I really held.
00:30:26.640 --> 00:30:27.119
Yeah.
00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:31.200
I kind of like that faster tempo to be a little bit I liked that a lot better.
00:30:31.440 --> 00:30:33.200
Um well not a lot better.
00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:34.480
Well it was more natural.
00:30:34.720 --> 00:30:50.559
It was less like stunted it was less like I was just for you want to play no matter what happens you want to try to play in a way that feels and sounds natural that feels like it's coming from an organic place and not from a stifled or forced place.
00:30:51.039 --> 00:30:58.079
So sometimes you gotta you gotta exaggerate that too you gotta be like well let me play it super fast.
00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:10.000
Just to just to be like oh yeah that's the essential line now let me go back and add my own emotions to it.
00:31:10.960 --> 00:31:14.240
Students can be scared to do that sometimes because they feel like they're messing with the music.
00:31:14.480 --> 00:31:18.960
Like no do whatever you got to do in the practice room to feel looser.
00:31:21.119 --> 00:31:31.279
Yeah it's all subjective I mean I I and I and one night I might play it that way and another night I might feel like no I'm I'm I want to linger on every single note.
00:31:31.440 --> 00:31:35.599
Can you taste this chromaticism, this dissonance is like oh my God.
00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:53.519
Just like in life I mean we sometimes we want to enjoy things a little bit extra and sometimes we don't but it don't replicate it the same way every single time feel what you're feeling in the moment and and have a lot of different ways of performing it so you have options.
00:31:53.920 --> 00:31:54.400
Right.
00:31:54.640 --> 00:31:57.440
I want to hear the neck the B section it's pretty different.
00:31:57.759 --> 00:32:51.680
Let's keep going so after it's by the way oh my god I mean there's so much to talk about this beautiful counterpoint in the left hand oh there's a lot of like counter melodies going on in his music and then Pickardy third so instead of instead of adding instead of going to the dominant of the Q B minor which by the way we don't really get a solid B minor it this is B minor chord but it's really like an E minor nine so this is kind of one of the first times in this opening where it's like ah we get five of B minor.
00:32:51.839 --> 00:34:13.039
And now we might expect this to be in the dominant the next music in the dominant key of F sharp we might you know you know we might expect that but instead we get this key to build so really quick there's something very beautiful that happens in this inner voice we have so after this eruption this is the first time it feels like you're releasing something right right I mean it feels like almost the fantasy of what the first part is kind of grieving or dealing with.
00:34:13.199 --> 00:34:13.519
Yeah.
00:34:13.760 --> 00:34:18.000
Then the fantasy is like what it could be and like what you hope it would be.
00:34:18.239 --> 00:34:23.519
Yeah this is way out there or it's way in there.
00:34:24.000 --> 00:35:42.320
Well this feels like dealing with the present pain to me and then okay this is almost like this is like your your fantasy being over the realized in your mind being imagined nice and then listen to the inner voice here this cremat okay now that is held and it's even kept here so then that I think one of the genius things about Brahms is how he uses the same motives the same material across different sections like Beethoven did and Bach did and that makes the music feel more organic this word that you know we kind of roll our eyes at if we study classical music long enough because everyone's you know oh you can't be gonna play it more play it more organic this music is so organic and then you know it's like okay I don't know how the grocery one person used that word once and everyone was like that is a stick word used.
00:35:42.719 --> 00:36:18.079
Nailed it used in organic for the rest of my life that I but it's uh I don't know integral or something where when the materials are have a synergy uh that are working together to unfold something that feels like it's just at the right place at just the right time with just the right materials like whatever that means where form and structure and motive and harmony all meet to create something that makes you forget about the analysis and makes you feel like ah that feels right.
00:36:18.800 --> 00:36:33.280
Beethoven was a master at that you don't want to it's hard to even analyze this stuff because it's just like oh yeah I mean I could I mean the materials sometimes are that simple where it's like nothing that special is going on here but I'm utterly moved.
00:36:33.440 --> 00:36:34.239
What is happening?
00:36:34.960 --> 00:36:39.920
It just every note is at just the right time and just the right place.
00:36:40.239 --> 00:36:41.840
You know, that's organic writing.
00:36:42.159 --> 00:36:49.199
It feels like you're discovering a melody that like the composer must have just discovered this melody that already existed in the universe.
00:36:49.599 --> 00:36:50.000
Yeah.
00:36:50.239 --> 00:36:53.440
And then ironically they've been working their ass off to get there.
00:36:53.599 --> 00:37:06.960
I mean Brahms burned so many drafts and Beethoven was constantly scratching out his writing you know not Mozart apparently not Mozart sometimes it comes naturally let me keep playing so we can get to the end of this piece really quick.
00:37:07.039 --> 00:38:03.360
So we have this beautiful inner voices and back to D major this is a big sigh you know ah it feels so good to be in D major but it's gonna start building again okay that chord that is I mean you recognize that chord it's that chord the Tristan chord it's I mean it's technically it's a half diminished so the Tristan chord is really the Brahms opus 119.
00:38:03.760 --> 00:38:42.559
Well this came 30 years later but yeah that after Bogner what yeah this is this is like 1890 or something oh and Tristan was like maybe the 60s 1860s yeah damn it why did I see that's one of those things like um well Brom's just lived a really long time I think that can be disorienting like I don't know why that's funny for me lived to 172 so he actually lived through the 92 not a happy person right and so just for him to live a while it just seems like this like almost God played a joke on him.
00:38:42.719 --> 00:38:53.280
Yeah to live in the I didn't I feel really stupid now I didn't know that Tristan okay so it is the Tristan chord do you think there was any direct influence?
00:38:53.599 --> 00:39:04.639
Well I just think this half diminished quality of his chord is very it I mean he could have certainly been influenced by that but it was a chord that he used.
00:39:04.719 --> 00:39:09.280
Yeah the Tristan chord is special because of how it doesn't resolve to the right place.
00:39:09.840 --> 00:39:15.119
So that that's part of what it's not like a half diminished chord being a half diminished chord was always kind of there.
00:39:15.519 --> 00:42:28.480
Context is everything context is everything but this sounds like you know that's a modern chord too um but then from that intense suspension we get this return and now we're kind of in the beginning except with more chromaticism and changing the changing the rhythm but this is like a it's a stretto I mean like Bach did that you know in his fugues and stuff it it's like remember all these voices they're starting to pile on top of each other with more drama and then instead of a satisfying return which he could have written he goes it ends up being the same chord but this remember remember that A sharp from earlier where he went that note it's that same note version that's really wonky wow his famous sequences in his codas he does this in the viola sonata too the end of the E flat first movement so beautiful these suspensions full expression of that chord and then resolving to B minor finally yeah this it's a it's a fully diminished chord in the right hand and then over a B minor so it's like you get the self the B minor and then all of the pain that inhabits it until finally resolving and then he wrote to Claire and said this is a good one.
00:42:28.719 --> 00:42:30.480
Yeah you're gonna like this one.
00:42:30.559 --> 00:42:40.239
Well a lot of pain in this one the third version of the like when it gets really wonky at the end there before the sequence of the coda.
00:42:40.400 --> 00:42:56.079
Yeah it makes that yeah it makes when it returns to that coda like so like warm and sad and you know it it just makes you appreciate it so much more because you've been in such a weird place.
00:42:56.320 --> 00:42:56.480
Yeah.
00:42:56.719 --> 00:42:57.599
Totally before that.
00:42:58.079 --> 00:42:58.239
Yeah.
00:42:59.840 --> 00:43:08.000
Yeah and and you can see looking in reverse from the end you learn so much about the beginning from from approaching the end.
00:43:08.639 --> 00:43:16.559
And that's kind of another just to wrap up one of the genius things about someone like Brahms is this feels same with Bach to me.
00:43:17.119 --> 00:43:19.519
This feels improvised.
00:43:19.840 --> 00:43:28.239
It feels like he just came to the piano and was like what happens if I go down a third and another third and another third and another third let me just keep going.
00:43:28.559 --> 00:43:31.280
What what is this sound so beautiful?
00:43:31.599 --> 00:43:32.079
You know?
00:43:32.239 --> 00:43:56.239
Almost like the Beatles probably like composed some of their songs which is like okay let's just mess around how about I do it a step higher oh that's beautiful too there is an improvisatory nature to this opening it feels like someone just by themselves coming at the piano in a state of incredible sadness and just wanting this falling sound.
00:43:59.280 --> 00:44:11.119
And yet especially if you observe how the piece ends you're like it had to be those notes it had to be that many notes it like that is what organic structure really does to a piece.
00:44:11.199 --> 00:44:17.199
It makes it feel both spontaneous and meant to be that way.
00:44:17.599 --> 00:44:19.280
And there's no way you can improvise this piece.
00:44:19.920 --> 00:44:29.679
It's too it's too rich and it's counterpoint and complicated um and the way it unfolds and just the just that many bars and all that um helps with this feeling.
00:44:30.480 --> 00:44:58.880
So yeah I mean it's just thank God Brahms came back to composing because he retired, you know, uh I think an opus like 113 or something before he met that clarinetist Ricard Mufeld he heard him play and was like blown away and then he wrote the clarinet trio and then he wrote these two clarinet sonatas but in the middle of that we got these I mean some of his absolute best writing, especially for the piano.
00:44:59.360 --> 00:45:02.960
Well it's because it kind of comes after you have n he has nothing more to prove.
00:45:03.199 --> 00:45:04.000
He had retired.
00:45:04.239 --> 00:45:04.480
Right.
00:45:04.880 --> 00:45:09.760
So if you're writing again it's purely because you were so inspired.
00:45:10.079 --> 00:45:21.760
Yeah and for someone who had the weight of composing on his shoulders from someone like Robert Schumann and he was supposed to be the next heir of Beethoven it's finally like I'm done.
00:45:21.920 --> 00:45:27.679
I think I achieved everything I wanted to achieve now these are just dessert.
00:45:28.239 --> 00:45:35.920
Like what if we had just Brahms only composing dessert kind of different anyway.
00:45:36.159 --> 00:45:43.280
That was Brahms Opus one nineteen yeah oh man I'm in such a state of I'm like softened.
00:45:43.360 --> 00:45:47.039
I feel like I just got a massage from from that piece.
00:45:47.760 --> 00:45:50.320
I feel very like reflective right now.
00:45:50.960 --> 00:45:53.119
Anyway let's go reflect over some lunch.
00:45:53.440 --> 00:45:53.599
Okay.
00:45:53.840 --> 00:45:54.880
Bye bye everyone
