Hello and welcome to Suburban Takes #3! You know the drill. All music is constructed of archetypes. Sitting on a piano bench, fingers poised above the keys, my teacher talks me through the structure of Clementi’s Sonatina in C major (the famous one – Op. 36, No. 1 of course). Never one good at musical interpretation, I could never get my mind to move past, focusing on the technical aspect of rhythms and notes as I played. The result? My playing fell flat, void of any emotion, and I was subject to our long lectures about “letting myself feel the music”, whatever that meant. Later, I found that all my nine-year-old brain really needed was a story to tell. Everything clicked when my teacher explained the three movements as a king, queen, and princess, all characters in a story. Allegro, movement one, was the stately king. A lively tempo and royal rhythms, I was meant to play loud and freely with impact. Next came movement two, Andante, and this was the beautiful queen. The key ...
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