Testing a Four-Hand Arrangement at the Piano
A four-hand arrangement has to work not only musically, but physically. This week, Scott printed his new 30-page Rachmaninoff Barcarolle arrangement and we tested how the parts actually feel at the piano.
Blog post:
This week I made more progress on my new four-hand arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s Barcarolle.
After several passes through both parts at the piano, reading from the score on a laptop, I printed the new 30-page arrangement on paper.
Printing a score is usually one of the final stages in finishing an arrangement, but it never means the arrangement is truly finished. There are almost always many edits to make after printing.
A four-hand arrangement has to work not only musically, but physically.
Clare and I sight-read through the arrangement together this week to see how the parts feel when we are actually sitting at the same piano.
That step is always important. Sometimes a note that looks simple on the page becomes a problem when one player needs to hold it while the other player also needs access to the same area of the keyboard. Sometimes a passage works beautifully in theory, but the arms do not quite fit comfortably at the piano. Sometimes the musical line is clear, but the distribution between primo and secondo needs to be adjusted so that it feels natural in performance.
The score may look convincing on the screen, but the piano tells the truth very quickly.
The good news is that we both think the arrangement is going to be beautiful. There are still practical edits to make, but the overall shape and sound are there.
I have also started Clare’s request to arrange Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition for four hands.
Rather than using only Mussorgsky’s original piano solo version as the basis, I am working from Ravel’s orchestration. That gives me more voices, colours, and textures to work with when translating the music into a four-hand arrangement.
It is a large piece and will take time, but it is an exciting project to begin.
More updates soon!
