This piece is a transcription for piano of a movement originally for violin, accompanied by harpsichord and cello. A sarabanda is the Italian equivalent of the French sarabande, which is a slowish piece in triple time originating in the Baroque period. Much 18^th Century music is based on dance forms, and as in this case, was not intended for dancing. Consequently, this sarabanda would have been played somewhat faster, as was the practice.

When you are deciding how fast to play a piece, the most important consideration is to preserve the character of it. Largo means slow, but that begs the question “How slow is slow?!” The editor’s suggestion of 88 crotchet beats per minute seems a little too fast. The piece will, I think, sound better in character at a somewhat slower tempo.

In Baroque times, players were used to adding trills and other ornaments to the music they played, and this is what composers intended. The two trills in the ABRSM edition are sensible pointers to the kind of thing players might have done. Originally, of course, players would have added more of these in different places.

All the articulation in this piece should be small-scale: there are no long, flowing legato lines. All too often, players crab their way through pieces like this, not daring to let go! A good clue to to the way to articulate the piece can be seen in bars 9 and 10. The repeated C in the right hand makes you let go to play it again, so do the same with the notes at the end of bar 1 and the beginning of bar 2 (i.e. detach the D from the B flat). Do the same in the other corresponding places e.g. end of bar 2 and beginning of bar 3.

The phrases seem to be four bars long, dividing into two sub-phrases. This makes the music appear to be moving forward. The hemiola rhythm in bars 14 and 15 (see the note at the bottom of the score) has the effect of drawing out the music towards the end, so don’t start slowing the tempo before the trill in in bar 15. While a slight slowing down is good at the end, don’t overdo it!

Playing Bartók’s music is a challenge at every level, whether you’re studying one of his easier pieces or one of the harder ones. He was a concert pianist and teacher, as well as being one of the 20^th Century’s most significant composers.

We know that he was meticulous about editing his music, so we have to be careful to do exactly what the score says if we are to make the most of his masterful understanding of the piano.

Mikrokosmos is a series of graded piano pieces progressing from easy to beyond Grade 8 standard.

The first thing to look out for is the metronome mark – and to get used to the tempo that Bartók has set. What we learn from the metronome mark, 46 dotted minim beats to the minute, is that we have to think of the tempo as a slow one-in-the-bar. We have to feel the beat as a dotted minim, so we are not counting three crotchet beats. We do have to make sure, though, that the crotchets are not rushed, and have a leisurely feel to them.

We can always be sure that Bartók means exactly what he says in the dynamics, and the challenge in bar 4 is to achieve a beautiful, rounded tone for the forte. There should never be anything harsh about the sound we produce in this piece. The full, rounded forte sound is produced by sinking into the keys, and making use of the full depth of travel in a firm, controlled way. A useful way of doing this is to put your body weight through your fingertips by leaning slightly forwards.

The pedalling and the articulation work very closely together in this piece. Only pedal where Bartók marks it, and observe the slurs exactly. At the beginning, the print is a bit squashed up, so the pedalling isn’t immediately obvious in the ABRSM exam book. The cluster in bar 3 is marked with ties which don’t appear to go anywhere. This is a way of showing that the sound should continue into the next bar, held with the pedal. Let go of the D in the left hand before you play the C, so that the pedalling joins it to the C in bar 5. This is a completely different effect to joining the D to with C with legato fingering, and Bartók is very particular in the way he has marked it. The gap between the minim G in bar 6 and the dotted minim G in bar 7 should be subtle. This G in bar 7 has to be caught with the pedal so that it sounds into the next bar. The articulation and pedalling work together in the same way in bars 12 to 15.

At bar 28, the melody is more emphatic, but don’t overdo it! Think of it as being more deliberate, and you should get it about right.

The tone-clusters (chords) should always be played legato with the hands, joining left to right without a gap.

The ending is interesting – you will have to let go of the bass G to play the clusters in the left hand. You may have to let go of the G in the right hand to play the clusters there too. Just before you let the pedal up for the last bar, press the G’s silently. Once the pedal is up, you will hear the G’s continuing.

This piece of music was originally written for the harpsichord, as you might expect. It dates from the first half of the Eighteenth Century. The mechanism of the harpsichord is different to that of the piano – it plucks the strings, so the attack is always the same, and the sounds sustain for a lot less time than a modern piano. To give some interest to the music, the harpsichord player could thicken the tone by coupling up the strings an octave higher or lower. On a larger instrument with two keyboards (known as manuals), the player could play quietly on the upper manual, and loudly on the lower one. Contrasts of piano and forte would be possible, but not crescendo or diminuendo.

Apart from that, the harpsichordist could vary the articulation, though a perfectly joined-up legato is not possible because the attack produced by plucking each string stops that from happening.

On the piano, it is natural to play crescendo and diminuendo, and it makes some musical sense to do that. If you want to keep as close as possible to the way it might have been played on the harpsichord, then you will stick to the contrasts between piano and forte. Even so, it was generally left to the player to make decisions about that, as well as about much of the articulation.

In the ABRSM edition for the Grade 4 exam, some sensible decisions have been made by the editor about these things, though we might add some more articulation. More of that later.

Some Decisions …

The first thing to decide is how fast it should go. The minuet is not a fast dance, but this one was never meant to be danced to. It is simply for players to use for their own pleasure, and the way it is written seems to suggest a quite fast pace for the quavers.

It seems to make sense to feel the quaver beats rather than the dotted crotchet beat. If you set a speed at which you can count the three beats, but almost feel like counting one-in-a-bar, you probably have the speed about right, although I think it will stand being played a bit slower than that. I would suggest 120 quaver beats per minute.

The second thing is to decide how much more articulation might be needed above what is already provided by the editor. The main thing to notice is that the articulation is all small-scale, bar for bar. We’ll discuss this as we go through the piece.

Playing the Piece

Getting the articulation right helps you to get your fingers in the right places. If you were to try to play this all legato, you’d soon be in trouble with it!

The articulation in bars 1 and 2 , slurring the first note to the second, propels the music forward. Lean on the first of the slurred notes, and lighten the second, and you will hear that effect. The A and the E on the second and third beats need to be nicely detached – you could well write staccato dots on them, but they shouldn’t be played too short. Single quavers in the left hand should also be nicely detached. The semiquavers in the right hand in bar 3 could be played non legato, but it is musical to slur them in pairs. This puts a little emphasis on the main beats which makes for a good effect. Don’t overdo the forte at the beginning, or the tone will become harsh. It does need to be loud enough, though, to make a good contrast with the piano from the end of bar 4.

There is nothing new now until bar 12. It’s a good idea to slur the two semiquavers in bar 12, coming lightly off the B and landing neatly on the G, which is slurred to the F#. That F# should be lightly detached from what comes next.

The semiquaver run in bar 16 should be slurred to the F# at the end of the bar, which detaches lightly from the G at the beginning of bar 17. Bar 17 should have the same articulation as bar 7.

The articulation in the second part repeats what we have already done in the first part.

General

Don’t be afraid to lift your hands somewhat to move from one place to another, though it’s a good idea only to move as far as is absolutely necessary and no further.

I once had a student who would only move to a new place on the keyboard if he could feel where it was. He ended up trying to play everything legato, crabbing around with his fingers. Needless to say, it didn’t work! Even though I gave him exercises to do to correct this, he wouldn’t get out of the habit, and there came a time when he gave up.

This is a very enjoyable piece to play, and it is made easier to manange by observing the small-scale articulation.