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Czerny Op 335 #7, 2 Versions

A certain amount of Baroque-sounding music and Baroque-sounding counterpoint, if not too dense or complicated, has always been welcome in the classes I’ve played for. The 2-part pattern of the A section of #7 (very familiar in Bach) has immediate appeal. The technical challenge Czerny sets is to combine legato long notes with staccato 16ths in the same hand, but in my arrangement I took a simplifying shortcut. I recast #7 as a 2-part invention in binary form.

The first thing I discovered in working out an arrangement strictly limited to two voices was how lovely the A section can sound in strict 2-part, how Bach-like, when played both at Czerny’s tempo and at tempos considerably slower with the half-notes filled in with decoration, in the manner of French Baroque. The second thing I discovered was how much work it was going to be to resolve the B section into strict 2-part writing and relate it to the A section to create a strong binary architecture.

By “architecture” I mean the strategies of repetition, imitation and variation that relate one section of a piece of music to another section. Czerny is often not much interested in architecture. In my arrangement of #7 I wanted to strengthen the relationship between Czerny’s A and B sections, so I worked into the B section the opening material of the A section. There are of course many other possible ways to strengthen the architecture of #7’s binary form.


Op 335 #7, 1st Version: Quick 4/4 2-Part invention, 16 sets of 8-count phrases

Op 335 #7 1st Version Audio

This is a performance of my 2-part arrangement of Czerny’s material at Czerny’s tempo and without embellishment. I provide a score.

Op 335 #7 1st Version Score


Op 335 #7, 2nd Version: Slow 4/4 2-Part invention, 16 sets of 8-count phrases

Op 335 #7 2nd Version Audio

This is a performance of the score of my 2-part invention with embellishments ad libitum. I’ve slowed the tempo to a typical 4/4 adagio, but by adjusting the tempo and ornamentation you can make it useful for a range of combinations.

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It’s well to go into some detail analyzing my approach to this first study of Op 335; the analysis can serve as illustration of my approach to the rest of the studies in this and the other collections

This is certainly very modest music, and at Czerny’s deliberate tempo you have to work to keep it from sounding banal. But the clear 2-part counterpoint and the character of calm simplicity make it we

This is great frappe music. The energetic staccato and the 8th note anacruses in the A Section powerfully energize the downbeats--the “strike” of a frappe--and in my arrangement I’ve dotted the chords

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