- rudyapffelmusic
Czerny Op 740 #14, Single Version
For a long time I found #14 more difficult than its big brother #50. That’s because I never buckled down to practicing broken triads (all that fingering), just arpeggios, and #50 is mostly arpeggios. When I first tackled #14 I worked out the ready-made one-pager: mm 1-16 with a final cadence in m 16. But it’s very short for ballet class and not interesting to keep repeating, so my arrangement was always just a practice piece for me. Later as I gradually acquired a bit more technique I was able to expand my one-pager to a piece very useful for ballet class, a two-pager that includes my favorite part, Czerny’s gloriously harmonized coda (mm 55-62).
Anything that works with #50 in class will work with #14 too, but over the years I’ve experimented with what I call the “Thundering Adagio.” You can’t spring this on a class; you have to check with the teacher first about the Adagio’s choreography and character, and propose playing big, sprawling arpeggiated Grands Battements music like #14 in the tempo of a 4/4 Adagio. The teacher may love the idea and choreograph something on the spot...or may not.
Op 740 #14 Single Version: “Thundering Adagio,” 4 sets of 8
Op 740 #14 Single Version Audio
This is my performance of a two-pager arrangement of #14 according to the following recipe:
1) mm 1-8
2) mm 17-24, reharmonizing m 24 on beats 2 and 3 in V7 to allow a turnaround to the tonic
3) mm 48-62 with a doubling of m 54. I double m 54 because Czerny’s long anacrusis into the coda starting at m 56, while musically and audibly straightforward, is potentially confusing in choreography structured in 8-count phrases.
4) a quick cadence-exit at m 62. This is pretty abrupt, and is the downside of not having started Czerny’s coda on a long anacrusis.