Harmonic Analysis Of Compositions

In my opinion, it is a good method, but you need to have the time to do it: instead of going through 6 pages or more, I focus perhaps on about twenty measures, trying to create references for myself and writing down the chords that the piece is based on. It might seem like a contradiction, but this is how I do it: rather than learning the individual notes of the piece, you need to learn the phrases (which contain the individual notes) and then the single notes follow naturally.

Harmony, the kind we need to remember, analyze, etc., is a complex "little thing." At first, it is difficult to "internalize" this real-time analysis. One must begin making observations here and there. During solfège, when studying a vocal piece, perhaps very tonal, like those wonderful ones by Pozzoli, one begins to notice the modulations. This helps in entering into the notes "that change" the atmosphere of the piece. Almost always, a raised note is a VII or a II. A lowered one is a IV or a VI. From here, one begins to cultivate the "field" of modulations and harmony... even before studying it. Then, I believe, it must be taken in small doses, without attempting to make everything very theoretical and brainy. Gradually, as the years mature, the analysis—or part of the analysis that we need to have lifelines for our memory—occurs in real time, and everything we read and perform "touches" certain fundamental inner chords.

One must also try this procedure with a small eight-bar fragment, then another, and then another period. However, everything must be projected toward practice and must occur rapidly during reading. Be careful not to transform the reading of a piece into a treatise on harmony. The Author used Harmony, yes, but in most cases it is Harmony that "ran" to testify to that strong feeling generated by His creation. Sometimes not very reasoned. Schubert wrote a Symphony in three days. Beethoven polished a quartet for two years. Even Mozart wrote spontaneously. That which becomes a "second skin" makes us musicians.

We are always .....towards the poetic and the literary..towards sensations.......my more academic musician colleagues will end up reproaching me forever!!!!!

Hi Andrea! 🙂

Yes, in effect it is a very laborious and demanding method, but what you say about focusing only on a few measures is also interesting and quicker; it's a good idea, I must try it.

What do you mean by "creating references for yourself"? Could you explain it to me?

I wanted to clarify, because perhaps I explained myself poorly, that the goal is not to know all the notes of a score by memory, but to "help" hand memory with other types of memory, that is, to combine harmony with fingering in a certain sense, always with the awareness of what is being performed because I believe it is important and useful.

pianoexpert wrote:

Harmony, the kind we need to remember, analyze, etc., is a complex "little thing." At first, it is difficult to "internalize" this analysis in real time. One must begin making observations here and there. During solfège, when studying a vocal piece, perhaps very tonal, like those wonderful ones by Pozzoli, one begins to notice the modulations. This helps in entering into the notes "that change" the atmosphere of the piece. Almost always, a raised note is a VII or a II. A lowered one is a IV or a VI. From here, one begins to cultivate the "field" of modulations and harmony... even before studying it. Then, I believe, it must be taken in small doses, without attempting to make everything very theoretical and brainy. Gradually, as the years mature, the analysis—or part of the analysis that we need to have lifelines for our memory—occurs in real time, and everything we read and perform touches certain fundamental inner chords.

One must also try this procedure with a small eight-bar fragment, then another, and then another period. However, everything must be projected toward practice and must occur rapidly during reading. Be careful not to turn the reading of a piece into a treatise on harmony. The Author used Harmony, yes, but in most cases, it is Harmony that "ran" to testify to that strong feeling generated by His creation. Sometimes not very reasoned. Schubert wrote a Symphony in three days. Beethoven polished a quartet for two years. Even Mozart wrote spontaneously. What becomes a "second skin" makes us musicians.

We are always .....towards the poetic and the literary..towards sensations.......my more academic musician colleagues will end up reproaching me forever!!!!!

Hi Paolo! 🙂

Unfortunately, I have the philologist's syndrome... 🙂 ... jokes aside, what you say is very true; however, personally, I find that knowing why that note is written on the staff in that precise position—not by chance, but because it is part of the entire mechanism of the compositional clock along with all the other notes—makes you appreciate the work you play more and helps you with memory, as you also said.

The method is, first and foremost, to study solfeggio, especially if very inexperienced. Solfeggio has an unimaginable importance. Pianists do not play from memory by hand. The pianist studies the piece, reads it, analyzes it at a harmonic and narrative level. They choose technical solutions for the most difficult passages. But all of this is based on an excellent knowledge of solfeggio...

TheSimon wrote:

The method is, first and foremost, studying solfeggio, especially if very inexperienced. Solfeggio has an unimaginable importance. Pianists do not play by hand memory alone. The pianist studies the piece, reads it, analyzes it at a harmonic and structural level. They choose technical solutions for the most difficult passages. But all of this is based on an excellent knowledge of solfeggio...

So Simone, do you believe that solfeggio is more important regardless of the harmonic and theoretical knowledge of a piece? That is to say, is the essential enough without going too deep into the structure of a piece?

However, I read in Giorgy Sandor's book that inevitably all pianists, to a certain extent, depend on hand memory (I believe he meant when playing without sheet music in front of them), but the important thing is not to depend exclusively on it because it is very dangerous and that one must combine it with other types of memory such as visual or auditory, and that, according to him, the most effective is musical memory, which, combined with hand memory, becomes much more secure, ... but perhaps here we are straying from the topic of the discussion I opened.

No no, don't make me say things I didn't write... Everything has its importance, including solfeggio! To paraphrase, it's like saying, I am a mathematician, I know how to solve cyclic integrals but I get stuck on derivatives... If you are a mathematician and you know integrals well, as a mathematician it is assumed that you also know everything that comes before them well. In short, everything is important but you must always start from the basics; you don't buy the whip first and then the horse!

TheSimon wrote:

No no, don't make me say things I didn't write... Everything has its importance, including sight-singing! To paraphrase, it's like saying, I am a mathematician, I know how to solve cyclic integrals but I get stuck on derivatives... If you are a mathematician and you know integrals well, as a mathematician it is assumed that you also know everything that comes before. In short, everything is important but one must always start from the basics; you don't buy the whip first and then the horse!

Oops... excuse me Simone, I misinterpreted your comment. 🙂

So, I would like to know, based on the "method" that I put at the beginning which then well.... I only used a few times also because it takes a month to do an analysis like that, provided it is correct as a method, I was saying, to combine utility with pleasure—I mean, playing yes OK, but not pressing keys as if they were keyboard keys with letters printed on them and goodnight, whoever saw what they saw, so to speak: this is an F# so I press it and that's it, but studying with a theoretical or harmonic awareness, or whatever it might be called, I don't know, what method do you think could be used? But sight-singing aside, even if that is very important, I agree with you that it should be put in first place. Always in Sandor's book (forgive me if I insist on this Sandor but the book is very beautiful), he writes that knowledge of harmony, modulations, dynamics, embellishments, etc... also greatly helps execution, but it is a job for a Benedictine scribe; in short, I want to have my cake and eat it too, there must be a middle ground, ... or not? 🙂

I believe that things should be done gradually as one progresses with study. Richter responded to the question about his study method by saying that when a page was mastered, he moved on to the next. The first thing is to know the piece, listening to it played by various performers; this is necessary so as not to get used to simulating a pianist's execution. We must have our own vision of the piece. Then one begins to reason about the harmony of the piece and the modulations. Analyzing the harmonic profile of a composition does not necessarily mean seeing how a bass is figured and thus memorizing chords and inversions. It means knowing what environment we are in... Where we are. Dissonances are often synonymous with tension, so these considerations could affect dynamics and interpretation as well as being an aid for memorization. One then moves on to studying the piece phrase by phrase, trying to memorize what we are playing while taking into account the study we discussed above. This is the method I am adopting for memorization and which is bearing fruit... Each of us then finds themselves more comfortable with their own method; there is also those who, as Paolo taught me, have a photographic memory and manage to mentally photograph the score and read it from memory. These techniques therefore depend on how your mind is better facilitated for memorization.

TheSimon wrote:

I believe that things should be done gradually as one progresses with study. Richter responded to the question about his study method by saying that when a page was mastered, he moved on to the next. The first thing is to know the piece, listening to it played by various performers; this is necessary so as not to get used to simulating a pianist's execution. We must have our own vision of the piece. Then one begins to reason about the harmony of the piece and the modulations. Analyzing the harmonic profile of a composition does not necessarily mean seeing how a bass is figured and thus memorizing chords and inversions. It means knowing what environment we are in... Where we are. Dissonances are often synonymous with tension, so these considerations could affect dynamics and interpretation as well as being an aid for memorization. One then moves on to studying the piece phrase by phrase, trying to memorize what we are playing while taking into account the study we discussed above. This is the method I am adopting for memorization and which is bearing fruit... Each of us then finds themselves more comfortable with their own method; there is also those who, as Paolo taught me, have a photographic memory and can mentally photograph the score and read it from memory. These techniques therefore depend on how your mind is better facilitated for memorization.

Wow, how beautiful Simone, what you are writing, ... so summarizing "your" method:

1) Listen to different pianists

2) Reason about the harmony and modulations

3) Study phrase by phrase while memorizing

But now I want to know how Paolo manages to photograph the score note by note from memory. Is it his natural talent or is there a technique, or is it a combination of both? 🙂

No, Paolo doesn't use this method, he only told me that there are people who memorize this way too... 😆

Let's say that each of us relies on one memory process or another. Surely, if I follow you and teach you how to memorize a piece, I learn it well and perhaps even before you. In fact, I talk about it, make observations, have you repeat while correcting you, I listen to you, I see you.... but all from the outside. Even in the Theater, one ends up learning others' lines before their own. We have much more of a critical attitude toward others than toward ourselves. We must try to be, especially in memory, the observers and teachers of ourselves. To observe and understand, almost with wonder, which solution the Author chooses in that passage and why. When this happens, here and there and gradually throughout almost the entire composition, we enter into it and every time we play, we quickly and internally retrace those observations. We relive and revive our knowledge of the piece. We simply know it. It must become "ours." However, one should not hesitate, from time to time, to "review" these findings—that is, to "review the piece"—calmly, marveling once again at the Author's choices.

Memories, however, we know are different in their process. Visual memory, auditory memory, kinetic memory. The combination of the three is optimal. Only one of the three can be insufficient, misleading, or even dangerous.

When one is too oriented toward the auditory, try to turn off the digital piano and play the piece. When kinetic memory is too present, play the piece from memory with hands separate. When visual memory is too present, close your eyes and avoid looking at the keyboard.

Complete visual photographic memory is a privilege of a few. At the beginning of memorization study, many passages appear in our brain as if written on a screen, but later, hand-visual and kinetic memory prevail. Pay attention especially to kinetic memory, which has the merit of allowing us to overcome very rapid passages that we don't have time to think about. However, it is not very reliable because it lives through an emotional condition. I insist on advising studying in phrases and with hands separate. Naturally from memory!!!!! 🙂 .

Happy studying

pianoexpert wrote:

Let's say that each of us relies on one memory process or another. Surely, if I follow you and teach you how to memorize a piece, I learn it well and perhaps even before you. In fact, I talk about it, make observations, have you repeat while correcting you, I listen to you, I see you.... but all from the outside. Even in the Theater, one ends up learning others' lines before their own. We have much more of a critical attitude toward others than toward ourselves. We must try to be, especially regarding memory, the observers and teachers of ourselves. To observe and understand, almost with wonder, which solution the Author chooses in that passage and why. When this happens, here and there and gradually throughout almost the entire composition, we enter into it and every time we play, we quickly and internally retrace those observations. We relive and revive our knowledge of the piece. We simply know it. It must become "ours". However, one should not hesitate, from time to time, to "review" these findings, that is, to "review the piece", calmly, marveling once again at the Author's choices.

Memories, however, we know are different in their process. Visual memory, Auditory memory, kinetic memory. The combination of the three is optimal. Only one of the three can be insufficient, misleading, or even dangerous.

When one is too oriented toward auditory memory, try to turn off the digital piano and play the piece. When kinetic memory is too present, play the piece from memory with hands separate. When visual memory is too present, close your eyes and avoid looking at the keyboard.

Complete visual photographic memory is a privilege of a few. At the beginning of studying from memory, many passages appear in our brain as if written on a screen, but later hand-visual and kinetic memory prevail. Pay attention especially to kinetic memory, which has the advantage of allowing us to overcome very rapid passages that we don't have time to think about. However, it is not very reliable because it lives through an emotional condition. I insist on advising studying in phrases and with hands separate. Naturally from memory!!!!! 🙂 .

Happy studying

Thank you Paolo, you are very kind! I didn't know this thing about kinetic memory; in fact, it has happened to me many times that while studying a piece, initially with hands separate and then later with hands together, I could no longer separate them—strange but true—as if one hand depended on the other, I needed the reference of the right or left to continue.

Indeed. This is why one must be careful of automaticity. One hand drags the other and everything moves away from awareness.