I recently agreed to be the wedding pianist for a dear friend of mine.
(She obviously doesn’t know too many pianists, that’s why she decided to take the risk of choosing me, haha! Just kidding.)
And whilst brainstorming on appropriate pieces which I could play at the service, one of the pieces I thought of was the first piece in Schumann’s Kinderszenen Op. 15.
It’s a short piece, lasting no more than one and a half minutes. But I felt it was a rather optimistic and elegant piece, and would work well in a wedding service setting, so I tried learning it tonight.
One thing I have to say…the apparent simplicity was definitely deceiving!
This piece (to me, at least) is to the fingers what a tongue-twister is to the mouth. All I can say is that it requires quite a bit of finger coordination, as it is played in a rather awkward way. The right hand has to help out in the accompaniment whilst playing the melody, which makes things a bit tricky.
It took me quite awhile to get used to playing this short little piece. Even now, I’m still not fully familiar with it yet.
But it’s always fun to learn a new piece.
This piece has got some very beautiful harmonies.
