The Seasons: July by Tchaikovsky

Opus 37b

July: Song of the Reapers

"Move the Shoulders, shake the arms! And the noon wind breathes in the face!"

This one has a difficult B section that took a lot of practice technically. As I've only worked on this a month, I'm not yet happy with the interprative part of this. This piece repeats itself a lot and I really found it a challenge to create a "sound story" with this one.

Nonetheless, Enoy!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Classical
• Piano
• Tchaikovsky
• Seasons
• Opus
• 37b

[Gumby1242]

This wasn't perfect at all, but pretty darn good for one month i would say. keep up the good work. :D

[MaryRuth72]

Indeed, you are correct, that wasn't perfect...although, nothing I play ever is....some are closer than others...

This needs more than a month...but the idea is there. That middle section needs more slow practice and a gradual increase in speed....

In a month I was JUST starting to get comfortable with it....plus, I have to admit a bit of laziness this month compared to other months.

Thanks for listening.

[MaryRuth72]

I think the other recording I made with the photos of my house is better (still not perfect, though).

[Gumby1242]

ok, i will check that. it's too much trouble to pollish a work until it is perfect anyway. i would much rather hear many different pieces of music not played perfectly, but well compared to one perfectly played piece of music.

[MaryRuth72]

I would rather PLAY many different pieces of music well compared to one played perfectly....HA!

[DonataII]

This was pretty good, for only a month! I played this piece last year for Guild and my teacher (who is Russian) told me that the story for this piece is 1) Happy farmers collecting their crop in the field when 2) a storm comes and threatens to ruin it 3) They manage to save it in time so the story ends with the wagons rolling off into the distance full of grain and happy, satisfied farmers. I don't know if this helps you or not, but it helped me a lot. :) I look forward to hearing you play more.

[MaryRuth72]

Hi. About your interpretation--that's pretty close to what I'd come to picture...well, except I hadn't thought of #2 as a storm...I just imagine that was when they set to work cutting the wheat. In the opening theme I imagined Russian peasants singing about cutting the fields--the woman sang part and then the men would sing. Then they'd set to work and like your teacher said, at the end they were rolling off into the sunset.

I like the storm idea...very clever.

[funnytodaBunny]

Why does this remind me so much of the Nutcracker?

Anyways, you did wonderfully.

[PianoKidElaine369]

Very nice!

[Gumby1242]

yeah, same here. i ussually stop after the music is somewhat acceptable and you can get through it or give off the general implication of what the musical piece is. Polishing can go on forever.

[suzyandmac]

Excellent performance :) and I love Donatalls interpretation - bravo to both of you! xx