Tchaikovsky’s “Old French Song,” Op 39, No 17
Background: Tchaikovsky and his Children’s Album, Op 39
Tchaikovsky composed during the late Romantic period, and was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting international impression. His Op 39 set is entitled Children’s Album. This is a familiar title to pianists and teachers who have experience with the set of Robert Schumann under the same title. As a matter of fact, many aspects of this 30-minute set of short works are inspired by Schumann’s Children’s Album. In a letter to Nadezhda von Meck, a patroness and close friend of Tchaikovsky’s, he wrote, “I want to create a series of little individual pieces just for children, and with an attractive title, like Schumann’s.” These attractive titles include those such as “Winter Morning,” “Sweet Dreams,” “Nanny’s Story,” and of course, “Old French Song,” the work that we will be discussing today. The set even includes the following subtitle: “24 pieces à la Schumann.” I stumbled upon this set as I was searching for music for an adult student, who loves the works of Schumann, and had played many short pieces from Schumann’s Children’s Album set. For those students who have studied Schumann’s set, Tchaikovsky’s Children’s Album is a great way to branch off into other composers’ works. In particular, “Old French Song” has quite a variety of pedagogical concepts to explore. Depending on your student’s needs and experience with these concepts, you would ideally end up only discussing a few of these concepts in depth, as the others will have already been covered in repertoire prior to the introduction of this work.
Light Staccato Arpeggios & Arpeggio Patterns
Light staccato arpeggio patterns are found in mm17–20. This aspect of the piece actually has two parts: light staccato touch, and arpeggio patterns. First, I will be discussing the light staccato touch.
In lessons prior to introducing this work, and in the student’s warm-up, the teacher should introduce and continue a study of light staccato and heavy staccato touches. This is actually a concept I introduce very early in piano study. Once a student is able to consistently play staccato notes, I teach them how to recognize and play heavy staccato and light staccato notes to expand their palette of touches. Many students default to a heavy staccato touch. This is achieved by striking the key from above. See images 1a-c. In image 1a, the hand is lifted above the keys. In image 1b, the finger is playing the key. In image 1c, the hand bounces back up. The hand position in image 1a is what creates this “heavy” sound. In simple terms, a heavy staccato touch is focused on downwards motion instead of upwards motion. Because this piece is so soft, a heavy staccato touch would not be appropriate. Instead, students will need to use a light staccato touch. This is achieved by striking the key without an upwards motion before the attack. See images 2a-c. In image 2a, the hand is resting directly in the keys. In image 2b, the finger is flicking the key. In image 2c, the hand is in a slightly forward position as a result of the finger’s movement. The hand position in image 2a is what creates this “light” sound. In simple terms, a light staccato touch is focused on upwards motion instead of downwards motion, and is much more appropriate for this piece.
Students should also know not only arpeggios, but different arpeggio patterns. See images 3a-c, which indicates the three arpeggio patterns that will be used in this piece. Teaching these patterns by rote, and encouraging a student to play the patterns in many different keys and tonalities, will aid the learning process once the student sees them in the score. Image 3a shows the first arpeggio pattern: 1–5–1–3. A teacher could teach this pattern to their student by rote, along with the patterns in images 3b-c, and perhaps some other patterns as well. As stated before, the student should be able to play this pattern in many different keys and tonalities. There’s a wealth of activity opportunities to take advantage of. For example, a student could listen to the teacher play one of the patterns, then instruct the student to play this pattern back, perhaps in a different key or tonality. The student could also use the patterns in improvisation. The teacher may start by guiding the student to improvise a melody over a simple chord progression with blocked chords, then transition the student into improvising over this same progression with an arpeggio pattern or patterns. Keep in mind that it would likely take a few weeks to accomplish this, so the teacher should carefully plan lessons accordingly.
Dynamics: Piano vs Pianissimo
More than 75% of this piece remains in the piano/pianissimo range. A common problem here is that students see the “piano” marking and play as quietly as they can. Once they reach the pianissimo section, a student is likely to struggle to create a desirable tone in this section, or any tone at all! There are a few different ways to approach this. Firstly, focus on playing the first motive of the main theme, as shown in image 4. Have the student play this motive at both dynamic levels, back-to-back. While a teacher may want to maintain the order of the piece by playing piano, then pianissimo, it may be beneficial to start with the softest dynamic level, depending on the student. Either way, make sure the student practices both dynamic levels in close succession so they get the chance to hear and compare. Keep in mind that because this piece remains in soft dynamic levels for so long, it would be acceptable to aim closer to a mezzopiano dynamic in the piano sections.
On the technical level, a student will need to be informed on how to physically create a contrast at such a soft dynamic level. There are multiple ways to create various dynamic levels. These include: intensity of the finger strike (“strong” vs “careful”), speed of attack, arm weight, body weight distribution, and finger position prior to attack (high or low). In this context, the best approach would be to consider the speed of attack and finger position prior to attack. These two aspects of dynamic control work hand-in-hand: adjusting the height from which the student begins the finger attack will have an impact on the speed of the attack due to the impact of gravity. In the pianissimo section, the student should keep their fingers as close to the keys as humanly possible. Of course, the student will need to lift their finger at least a little bit to prepare the attack. However, the height of this finger strike is negligible. For this reason, I often tell my students that their fingers should be “practically glued to the keys.” For a student who takes these types of phrases literally, this may not be the best means of teaching this concept. Teachers should be careful not to rely too heavily on this terminology, and make sure to have other ideas for helping the student achieve this. The student should also be sure to strike the key as slowly as they can without losing a desirable tone. A good exercise would be to have the student experiment with many different slow attacks on a single note. Watching the piano hammers as they work through this process, if possible, would also aid in this process. Then, the student can use a slightly higher and a slightly faster attack to find the correct level for the piano section.
Double-Dotted Rhythm Patterns
This piece uses three instances of the same double-dotted rhythm pattern. The first appearance of this pattern is detailed in image 5, and comes from mm 7–8. The other two instances are in mm 15–16 and mm 31–32. In other words, the pattern is found at the end of the main theme. By now the student should know that the dot next to the note means to add half the value of the note, but it would be a good idea to review this concept. When first introducing double-dotted rhythm patterns prior to the first lesson on this piece, a teacher would also need to explain what the second dot means: it adds half the value of the second dot. When I teach this, I like to add the note values in terms of note value symbols, as depicted in image 6a. If a student struggles with fractions, it would be a good idea to show them a visual to help them conceptualize the length of the double-dotted note, such as the one depicted in image 7 below.
However, the most important part of this rhythm pattern is actually what comes after the double-dotted quarter note. Being able to play the sixteenth note and downbeat of the following measure will aid the student’s understanding of this pattern more than anything else. To do this, the teacher should simplify the double-dotted quarter note so it can be audiated and played with ease. To do this, I adjust image 6a to include ties between the notes, as shown in image 6b. When the student first attempts to play this pattern, they should play the pattern without any ties. Then they can add the second tie. Once they can play that comfortably, they can go ahead and use all of the ties, thus playing the pattern as written. This will encourage the student to audiate the macrobeats and microbeats within the meter. For students who use the numeric counting approach, it also may be helpful to simplify the counting. Some students get tongue-tied, or just plain overwhelmed by the number of syllables. For these students, I have found success in having them count as if they’re playing in a 4/8 meter. Instead of 1e&a 2e&a, they will say 1&2&3&4&. This approach is detailed in image 8.
Other Pedagogical Concepts to Explore
While I just covered a lot of concepts, this post is far from exhaustive. Other ideas are described below in less detail:
5-Finger Scales in a Round:
As detailed in image 9, the opening of the main theme begins with a 5-finger scale in a round in G minor. The hands are offset by two notes. Because of this, it would be majorly helpful to practice 5-finger scales in round. Of course, the teacher should make sure to cover G minor, but they should also use this concept in many other keys and tonalities.
Finger Changes:
This piece uses several instances of repeated notes using different fingers. The student and teacher should make sure to practice this concept outside of the context of this piece. Isolating the notes where these finger changes occur is a good start. It’s also a good idea to find the individual hand positions for each of the two notes in a repeated note pattern, and practice by pausing between hand position changes. Make sure the pauses relate to the meter somehow. Shorten this pause incrementally until the gap is closed.
Phrasing:
Because 75% of this piece is the same material, a good way to differentiate the repeated material would be to change the phrasing. This repeating phrase, which opens the piece, is shown in image 10. The student can choose from a wide range of phrasing combinations: 2+2+4, 4+4, 2+6, and 8-measure phrasing. Make sure the student knows how to technically open and close their phrase motives. When taking a breath, the hand should relax and move towards the player’s body. When pushing through a phrase, the hand should be moving forward until the student is ready to take a breath. The hand movement should peak at its forward-most point at the peak of the phrase/motive, or in the middle of the predetermined phrase motive length.
Closing
“Old French Song” has a huge range of pedagogical content to explore. It’s a good choice for a student who knows some of the aforementioned concepts very well, but have gaps in their understanding in other areas, or perhaps just haven’t gotten to apply some of the concepts at all. However, if the student has not yet mastered any of the concepts mentioned, it wouldn’t be such a good idea to introduce this piece. A teacher should wait to introduce this piece until some concepts have been mastered in other repertoire. This piece, along with the others in this set, is also a great choice for students who are enthusiastic about the Children’s Album of Robert Schumann. There is an abundance of different reasons to teach this piece, and a wealth of lessons to learn.
Sources
Children’s Album. (n.d.). Retrieved October 2, 2020, from http://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/Children's_Album
Tchaikovsky, P. I.. (1904). Old French Song [Sheet music]. In A. Ruthardt (Ed.), Children’s Album. New York: G. Schirmer. (Original work published 1878)
