Fur Elise

I recently taught a lesson on that great warhouse of the intermediate literature, "Fur Elise." All of you who play or teach the piece are aware of several trouble spots, and the one I am thinking about is the bit where the hands trade back and forth in the A section when the opening theme is about to turn. More often than not, that spot serves as an invitation for students to apply their ingenuity to not dividing the hands as Beethoven indicated as well as playing music that isn't in the score!

In many instances, I am willing to rearrange hands and other things to get what I think is the best effect. But I feel like there are compelling reasons to play this passage as Beethoven arranged it:

1. It's Beethoven and his scores are as close to sacrosanct as we get in the classical realm.

2. Switching hands as Beethoven wrote provides a visual impression of brilliance even though the actual execution is not hard. In fact, it might just be easier to play with the hand switching than without it!

3. Switching hands nearly guarantees that the pianist will play the articulation that Beethoven indicated.

4. Beethoven's piano music was some of the first to so convincingly suggest orchestral music. Switching the hands provides for a variety of finger strengths and orientations for the same pair of notes. That's reminiscent of the changing of resources as Beethoven passes a motive around the orchestra from one instrument to the next.

5. On a structural and physical level, at least the A section of piece is a set of variations on the alternation of the hands. The very opening theme is permeated by one hand following the other. The passage in question is a more compressed manifestation of that idea.

A silly thought following up on #5 above - I'm surprised that I've never come across a Romantic-era transcription of the piece with alternating "Liszt Octaves" replacing the single-lined chromatic scale that occurs near the end!

A Great Story

Tonight I heard this inspiring true story that's well worth the time it takes to read it.