Longgggg time no post!! Long story short, Q1 is where I crashed and burned hard lol and it took me MOST of Q2 to get back on my feet- but at least we’re here now. I took about two months off from piano due to various reasons and then have started playing from April on and off, but I haven’t really committed to anything solidly. A friend asked me about the chromatic gliss in this piece so I figured I’d try my hand at the whole thing to try and get out of this slump! And I wanted to post before month-end since it’s been… a long time.

First Impressions

So this has never struck me as a “hard” arrangement compared to the other ones in this book (and the other KH book); I’ve always mentally marked this piece as something that I could manage if I found the wherewithal to learn it properly. BUT, that being said, of course there are some challenges that await me. The biggest are probably:

• The intervals... there are so many. So many.

• Voicing! There are a few spots especially that are pretty complex with interplay between both hands, similar to what I had a taste of from “1000 Words”.

• ARPEGGIOS dear LORD……..

• That One Phrase (RH especially) at 5:26

Detailed Analysis

The opening phrase is easy enough to sightplay, though it’s going to take practice to make it as delicate as I’d like it to sound. The phrase at 0:26 is going to be tricky with the melody vs. constant eighth notes, similar to that one twinkling section in “1000 Words” (off topic, but can you believe it’s been a year since I learned that piece? Wild). Definitely missed the lower A in this chord at 1:12 LOL straight up did NOT read that note, whoops.

1:19 is where we finally start the piece after the delicate opening, and honestly this first half of the piece is grim as heck- the LH stays pretty low on the keyboard and the melody just is not very uplifting??? But I think that adds to the charm of the second half… we’ll get to that. Generally, there are more than a few LH crossovers that I’m not super looking forward to, but the tempo is so slow that I think it’ll be plenty manageable. There’re also some consecutive RH octaves that would have me worried at anything faster, but it’ll probably be fine at this tempo. Hopefully. Another phrase to look out for is at 2:52 with the RH interval-ish sequence (similar to another arrangement from FFXV, I think- probably same arranger). And the RH sequence at 3:29…

Things go delicate again at 5:52, which will be a good break for the ears after how hard the first half of the piece goes. And then we slowly transition into the new key (6 FLATS!!!!!) for the second half that starts at 6:52. This is what I meant by the contrast between the first and second halves of the piece; first half is pretty somber, while second half is a little lighter and tinged more with bittersweet energy. Not anticipating too many issues for this first part once I learn the notes since there’s a pretty predictable pattern, though there are a few huge arpeggios I’ll need to swing through.

The arpeggios start at 8:16; they’re reachable, but there are some awkward crossovers where I land on my thumb, especially for RH, so will need to be careful not to slam any of the notes. The melody starts at 9:11 and transfers between both hands, though it’s very hard to tell in this take because I’m going so slowly and because I obviously do not bring out the voicing properly lol. 10:23 has the “chromatic” gliss which I ended up just playing the black keys for- I studied the recording for a bit, but concluded it’s just black keys? Close enough. And then the rest of the piece is pretty easygoing afterwards.

Current Thoughts

There is no single phrase that really Pulls me in yet, and that single phrase is usually what I rely on to keep me interested in learning something, so I won’t be surprised if I end up dropping this piece. But I’ll do my best to properly learn it- I would like to also revisit other pieces from this book sometime, maybe…