Quiz: Mystery scores

[Guido]

It doesn't look like piano writing to me - could it be a harp part? There seem to be 'o's above some of the notes - possibly harmonics - Also would Bax have written a gliss in a piano part? Seems unlikely. So my guess is that it is a harp quintet (?)

[lukeottevanger]

Oh, Guido, that's good! You've snuck it from under Johan's nose. I deliberately chose a page that looks a bit piano-ish, but which on closer inspection reveals itself to be a harp part. The clues to that are:

1) the harmonics, as Guido says
2) the gliss is un-Bax-like, as ditto
3) the gliss is also unplayable on the piano (it mixes white and black notes)
4) some of the chords are too wide-spread to lie easily on the piano, and just don't look like piano writing

[Guido]

Oh, Guido, that's good! You've snuck it from under Johan's nose. I deliberately chose a page that looks a bit piano-ish, but which on closer inspection reveals itself to be a harp part. The clues to that are:

1) the harmonics, as Guido says
2) the gliss is un-Bax-like, as ditto
3) the gliss is also unplayable on the piano (it mixes white and black notes)
4) some (well, one) of the chords are too wide-spread to lie easily on the piano

Cheers!

(Sorry Johan!)

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Cheers!

(Sorry Johan!)

You crafty Anglo-Dutch-Czech... composer!

I should have looked better. That glissando is a dead giveaway...   

[lukeottevanger]

Sorry. To make amends, here's another. This one really is a piano quintet! And easy too, I think - only one composer writes scores that look like this:

LO 319

[(poco) Sforzando]

Luke has gotten 5 out of 5 (it's actually 8 Dickinson Poems, but who's counting). The Rondine excerpt was a gift. At least one of mine is very hard. No clues just yet, it's too early.

Sfz49, btw, has a signature of three sharps. Part of the page got chewed up by the scanner.

I must look more closely at that Beethoven to isolate it.

[greg]

Oh yes, GGGGRRREEG, one of your Antheil guesses was right on my 309 - it's his second sonata, 'The Airplane'

doesn't hurt to make 4 guesses, does it? 

[lukeottevanger]

I must look more closely at that Beethoven to isolate it.

It's probably the sort of thing you'll think of as a pot-boiler, like the Stravinsky Tango!

And I'd advise you, again, to be careful of making assumptions about this piece, otherwise it will be very hard to get.

[Guido]

Luke - is the Beethoven one of those early (1795-1796) sonatas for mandolin and harpsichord? It's not the one that I have played but looks rather similar in style and layout. It could be the Andante con Variazione, or one of the (I think two) sonatas.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Luke - is the Beethoven one of those early (1795-1796) sonatas for mandolin and harpsichord? It's not the one that I have played but looks rather similar in style and layout. It could be the Andante con Variazione, or one of the (I think two) sonatas.

The last system of the excerpt looks very violinistic, but conceivably it's for the mandolin. I can't find any of the violin-keyboard music that matches, and I would guess it's an early WoO. If so, it looks more to me like the central section of a rondo finale, rather than a set of variations.

[lukeottevanger]

Once again, as with the Bax harp piece above, Guido is bang on the money at instrument-spotting. The mandolin is tuned exactly as the violin IIRC, which means that both performing and composing technique are in some respects easily transferable from one to the other. Therefore that 'violinistic figuration' is equally 'mandolinistic' - in either case, looked at another way, it's just a kind of 'Alberti' figuration. Again, that's why I chose this page - to send you down the wrong path of thinking it's a violin piece. 

[lukeottevanger]

It's none of the pieces Guido mentioned, but obviously he's not far off - within a WoO number or two! 

[lukeottevanger]

If so, it looks more to me like the central section of a rondo finale, rather than a set of variations.

I agree that it does look like that, but I think the answer might surprise you.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Beethoven, Sonatina for mandolin in c minor (1795)?

[lukeottevanger]

No.

Serves you right for trying to steal it!   

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Andante mit Variationen?

Still trying, pirate that I am. 

[lukeottevanger]

No.

Still trying to repel boarders at this end 

There's only a choice of about four pieces, so in the end you'll get it, I suppose.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Yes, two left...  0:)

<Pirate is sailing away, clasping a Bible in his shriveled hand>

[(poco) Sforzando]

WoO 43a: Sonatina for mandolin and harpsichord, c
WoO 43b: Adagio for mandolin and harpsichord, Eb
WoO 44a: Sonatina for mandolin and piano, C
WoO 44b: Andante and variations for mandolin and harpsichord, D

And how 'bout the rest of mine?

[lukeottevanger]

The Adagio is your guess?

Correct! - It doesn't look much like an Adagio, does it? Hence the previous guesses, I suppose.

The rest of yours? Well, I've done 5, so it's time somebody else had a crack at 'em!