Doll's Waltz Köhler 25 Romantic Etudes Op 66 No 2

Do you practice Köhler’s 25 Romantic Etudes? If not, you need to get these little gems and start practicing them today! You can download a free copy from me at the DOWNLOADS link in the menu above. These etudes are a wonderful addition to our already full and rich library of etudes. They add a nice melodic and picturesque touch to the repertoire. The Doll’s Waltz is a really beautiful lilting waltz. The tempo is “Valse” with a Lento. Generally when we practice a waltz we think of waltz as 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3 with a feeling of 1 beat per measure. But this waltz is a Lento. While the waltz feeling is still there, you do count a solid 3-beat measure. Another stylistic marking to look at is the “con eleganza” or with elegance. An elegant dance is never going to be wickedly fast. It’s will be lilting and somewhat slow. When you approach it, think about giving it a slower feel. It’s still in 1 but it’s a slow 1.

Mark the Cadences

The first thing I would suggest that you do is find and mark all the cadences. Köhler is very consistent with his phrase lengths. So, if you look through or play through, you’ll see and hear that at the end of every 8 bars there is a cadence. Almost without fail. Go through the etude right now and mark all the cadence points. Make sure you don’t count the first 3 notes, which are pickups into the phrase, as the first measure of the 8 bar phrase. Now, go through and play all the phrases, listening for the cadence and see if what you selected works. The next approach is to look at the phrases. Play through the first phrase. It ends with a question on the high E. It doesn’t feel like an end does it? The second phrase is going to be the answer. When you play the second phrase then you feel like you played a complete phrase and it makes sense to think of it as question and answer. Play both phrases together and you feel like its a complete thought.

Q & A

Let’s go back and talk a little bit more about the style of the waltz. I it’s very lilting. You’re just moving up and down these little runs as if you had a ball maybe in a concave hill and that ball is rolling down the side and up the other. It goes a little bit faster as it goes down and it pulls back a little bit as it goes back up the other side. When I play the first phrase I ever-so-slightly pick up the tempo as I go down, then pull back as I go back up. Now if I had a metronome on, I want my measures my 1 to a measure to always be with the metronome but in the middle, beats 2 and 3 can be pushed and pulled ever-so-slightly. I also like to pull or slightly tenuto the first note after the pick-ups. Look at the notes that you are playing and see that Kohler likes groups of 2. He writes a melodic idea then says it again followed with an answer to that idea. Sometimes the 2nd time that idea changes at the end. Kohler continues on with this idea adding a concluding cadence and begins section B.

Add Drama

In this section I like to get a bit more dramatic. Your articulation is just a little bit more solid and steady, not too staccato but stronger. I’m also going to think of style with more of a forte and a stronger tongue. You could also play around fortes, pianos and crescendos. Now we’re going to get into a transition back into the A section. I like to keep the transition bars full and forte until the chromatic passage which moves back to the elegant waltz. In measure 58 coming down chromatically you begin forte but then, to get back into the A -Section, you should begin to pull back until you reach those same 3 pick up notes. Take a breath before them and then come back in the same as you would from the beginning continuing on until you reach the ending cadence on that nice beautiful lilting high G which of course is not a great note to play nice and soft. That’s how I would practice through the Doll’s Waltz from Köhler’s 25 Romantic Etudes. It’s a beautiful etude, and the whole set is wonderful. Practice it, listen to it, and work on it. You’ll learn a lot. Have Fun! DoctorFlute Watch me demonstrate this: Practice with Me Dolls Waltz Köhler 25 Romantic Etudes Op 66 No 2