LA ORIAN ACADEMY: School of the Prodigies SEASON 1 [PUBLISHED]

CHAPTER TWELVE

Fingers' rhythm on the Piano Keys

Patay.

Suzanne felt so doomed right now. Hindi lang dahil sa Piano recital nila ngayon kundi dahil sa hindi s'ya marunong magpatugtog ng Piano at doon palang ay mukhang tagilid na s'ya ang kanyang grado sa subject na iyon.

"You already memorized and familiarized Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Rondo alla Turca" that I gave you, right?" tanong ng kanilang Music Teacher.

"Yes, madame," sagot ng kanyang mga kaklase.

"Can someone tell me the history of this classical piano piece?" agad inimuwestra ng kanilang Music Teacher ang kanyang kamay sa isa sa mga kaklase ni Suzanne. "Yes, Yi Xing?"

"Rondo Alla Turca, popularly known as the "Turkish March", is the Movement Three of The Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K. 331 (300i) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

There are differing views as to exactly when the A major sonata (K331) was composed, with most scholars suggesting 1781 as the correct year—although whether or not it was written before or after his move to Vienna is also unclear. However, in the sleeve notes to Marta Deyanova's recording which is the Nimbus NI1775, David Threasher states that paper studies have challenged this view and that the correct date of composition is somewhere around the late summer months of 1783. K331 is the second in a set of three sonatas (K330-332) and has several interesting features that can be noted. First is his use of a theme and variation design for the first movement: Mozart typically used a sonata-form Allegro for the first movement in most of his piano sonatas and, while variations do occur in other sonatas such as K284, they are not used to open the work. He was admired widely for his sets of variations and further evidence of his aptitude for composing in this genre can be gathered from the widespread contemporary accounts of his improvisations during concerts. Second, the use of the title 'alla Turca' for the last movement is not quite the obscure exoticism it first appears; during the second half of the eighteenth century there was a vogue across Europe and especially in Vienna for the incorporation of things Turkish into art music. Ottoman Army was in front of Vienna at the time. They had a very big band, called "Mehter Takimi" to make their solders enthusiastic. It is likely that Mozart was influenced by this band. Primarily this involved the use of much percussion and cymbals, although the term 'alla Turca' usually refers more specifically to music for military band with Turkish percussion instruments or, more generally, music that copies the effect of Turkish band music, a feature of which many composers made use, including Haydn (in various operas and symphonies – e.g. symphony no.100), Gluck and Michael Haydn. Mozart's use of the style is not confined to this piano sonata alone, since it can be found in the violin concerto K219 and, most notably, in the singspiel Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Other than using percussion instruments, the style is typically very noisy, rhythmic and usually in duple time, features which are immediately recognisable in the finale of K431, where, for example, the use of loudly-spread left hand chords in the A major passages is clearly meant to produce a percussive effect. Incidentally, the popularity of the style was such that from the turn of the nineteenth century many fortepianos were built with percussion instruments attached which could be played by using an added 'Turkish music' stop or pedal."

"Very good. You really know the piece very well."

Napakagat-labi s'ya. Kahit naman marunong s'yang magbasa ng nota, useless parin iyon dahil hindi s'ya marunong tumugtog ng Piano. Pakantahin mo s'ya at patugtugin ng lyre (xylophone) at gitara, hindi n'ya uurungan iyon ngunit ang patugtugin s'ya ng Piano...