- rudyapffelmusic
Czerny op 335 #50, 3 Versions
Updated: Aug 25
This is a wonderful piece to have in your repertory for private practice; the 1st 8 measures of the B section as written make a short, useful warm-up exercise. But if you want it for ballet class you’ll do well to introduce some sharp, simple LH 8th note accompaniment to make the harmony and rhythm clear. Indeed, I think that with the introduction of a more filled out LH harmony and rhythm this study gains as a piece of music: it has a charming character of sneakiness (mm 1-8) seguing into jolliness (mm 9-16), and a LH accompaniment can promote that character. As written, #50 is square (just don’t repeat the B section).
Op335 #50, 1st Version: quick 4/4 featuring chromatic scales, 32 sets of 8-count phrases.
This is my performance of #50 as written (without repeating the B section).
Czerny’s structure and phrase lengths allow #50 to be readily organized into shorter pieces of various lengths:
I: mm 1-16 (with a final cadence on Eb) = 8 quick 8’s
II: mm 1-16 (with Czerny’s cadence on V7) + repeat (with a final cadence on Eb) = 16 quick 8’s
III: mm 1-16 + repeat followed by the first 16 measures of B the section repeated with two endings: 1st ending, the 15th and 16th measures re-written for a cadence on V and turnaround; 2nd ending, the 15th and 16th measures rewritten for a cadence on the tonic = 32 quick 8’s
Op 335 #50, 2nd Version: quick 4/4 featuring chromatic scales, 32 sets of 8-count phrases.
This is my performance of III with Czerny’s LH replaced with a stride accompaniment. I provide a score. I propose a more relaxed tempo, the quarter @155. To compensate for the sacrifice of the LH scales I take mm 2 and 6 down an octave to create a dialog effect. There isn’t any way to compensate for the loss of the parallel tenths in the B section, but in the 1st and 5th measures I give Czerny’s LH to the RH.
Op 335 #50, 3rd Version: “The Bee in Czerny’s Bonnet,” 64 sets of 8-count phrases
This is an idealization of #50 that tries to realize some of the romping fun inherent in so much of Czerny’s pedogogical writing, and Op 335 in particular. When I was first working on this study I suddenly heard a segue into Rimsky-Korsakov, and have never been able to un-hear it.