How to Play 2

Anyone fancy a workout for the left hand, asks Nils Franke? This transcription of a much-loved melody makes for a great entrance into the world of repertoire for the left hand only

Try practising this left hand-only arrangement of On Wings of Song with both hands at first, suggests Nils Franke

Key G major Tempo Andante tranquillo Style Romantic

Will improve your ✓LH voicing ✓Pedalling ✓Awareness of the LH’s capabilities On Wings of Song is the second of Mendelssohn’s Six Songs Op 34.

Published in 1836 and using words by Heinrich Heine, it quickly established itself as one of Mendelssohn’s most popular songs. That meant that a number of virtuoso pianists of the time lined up almost immediately to transcribe the piece for two hands: Franz Liszt, Sigismund Thalberg and Stephen Heller amongst them.

This transcription is by Arnoldo Sartorio (1853-1936).

A German composer of Italian descent, he was a prolific composer: In September 1912, the influential American piano-teaching magazine The Etude marked the publication of Sartorio’s Op 1000 (!) with a feature article about his work. There is no denying, Sartorio really knew how to write for students and piano enthusiasts at different stages of their development. His music, nowadays usually classed as salon music, sounds good and lies even better under the fingers.

In the present context of a piece for the left hand alone, that’s quite important.

Especially so, if this is your first venture into left hand repertoire. Sartorio knew this was a growing market – there are at least four sets, all worth exploring, for the left hand alone: Melodic Studies for the Special Development of the Left Hand, Ten Melodic Study Pieces for the Left Hand Alone and a set of Studies for the Left Hand Alone.

On Wings of Song is taken from a collection of Twenty Original Study Pieces and Transcriptions.

The challenges are plentiful.

One of the main aims of left hand piano music of the period was to create the illusion of two hands playing. You can see this in bars 9 and 10 which, visually, look like an excerpt from a piece for two hands. So it’s all about scoring melody and accompaniment in such a way that the brain processes the musical texture as a two hand piano piece. But at intermediate level, there is a limit to how many technical tricks (leaps, very fast notes in an accompaniment etc) a composer can employ, so the melody and its accompaniment are in closer proximity. That means making the difference between both through clearly contrasted dynamics, but within closely scored textures.

Follow the notation carefully.

To get a good feel for the beauty and clarity of the melody line, take bars 1-4 and only play the notes whose stems are pointing upwards. Next, do the same thing, but only with the notes whose stems are pointing downwards. Separating the two in your practice means you are building up an aural image of melody and accompaniment lines as separate elements of the piece. Now put both together and work out the fingering you want to use. Then go back to separate melody and accompaniment practice, but only using the fingering you will employ when you play both lines together. The same approach can be applied to the rest of the piece.

Now for dynamics.

When melody and accompaniment are positioned as closely together as they are here, I tend to imagine a sharp contrast in dynamics between both. For practice purposes I’d play the melody forte and the

LEARNING TIP

If balancing a melody and accompaniment in the same hand is difficult, practise the section in question with both hands and then copy the sound.

accompanying notes piano. Once the notion of dynamic contrast is embedded in your playing, the overall dynamic level of the piece can be lowered to a more lyrical touch, but on both dynamic levels.

Your new best friend is the pedal.

A frequent (and deliberate) use of the right pedal is a key ingredient of piano music for the left hand alone. After all, the raising of the dampers sets free a degree of sonority in the piano’s sound, which, if used effectively, creates the illusion of thicker textures. In a piece such as this, it really does become a vital tool that makes everything sound fuller and busier.