Help with RH fingering in 3rd mvmt. of Appassionata
Christopher A. Mejia
I'm having trouble with the right hand fingering of a particular of a
particular passage in the third movement of Beethoven's Appassionata sonata.
This particular passage is repeated many times throughout the movement. The
notes are:
rest C F Ab C Db C Bb Ab Bb Ab G F G Ab F
I've found two sources of fingerings. One is the version on
sheetmusicarchive.net:
rest 1 2 4 3 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 3 4 2
And the other is from the Henle edition:
rest 1 2 3 5 3 5 1 2 4 3 2 1 2 3 2
Unfortunately, both of these seem awkward. The sheetmusicarchive.net
fingering seems to do a good job of aligning the beats with a crossover or
the thumb. Has anyone come up with a fingering for this passage that they
really like?
Thanks in advance for your suggestions,
--Chris
Cc88m
well once you get used to it. I haven't found a better fingering, so you can't
go wrong by using that. The only caveat might be that each individual is
different, but this passage does not allow too many other variations that are
workable because of its speed.
C. C. Chang; more on piano practice at
Christopher A. Mejia
Thank you for your response. I've read good things from other sources
regarding the fingerings in the Schnabel editions of Beethoven's sonatas, so
I will try to find a copy. Does anyone know who is publishing that edition
now?
Regarding the version of the Beethoven sonatas at sheetmusicarchive.net, the
webmaster emailed me that "I believe it is a C.F. Peters edition from the
early 20th century, maybe edited by arthur schnabel." (An unauthorized
quote--please forgive me.) Can anyone confirm whether or not these are
Schnabel's fingerings? Or can anyone tell me what Schnabel's solution is to
the fingering problem I presented in my original post?
--Chris
"Thomas F. Unke" <th...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:I04Ks...@news.online.de...
> I cannot help you in this specific case, but for fingerings of the
> Beethoven sonatas, I found nothing better than the edition by Artur
> Schnabel. They are extremely well thought out, not only for making it
> easier to play difficult passages, but also for improving your musical
> expression. Compared to that the fingerings of the Henle edition are
> pale.
>
Daniel G. Emilio
Let me quote Donald Francis Tovey in the Craxton edition of the
sonatas. "Bulow's excellent if unorthodox fingering & 1 2 4 3 4 3 2 |
1 4 3 2 1 3 4 2 | brings this theme at all tone-values within the
grasp of a small hand, and ensures an accent on the second beat
ranging from the normal clearness needed in pp to the powerful sf
indicated by Beethoven in forte developments. The fingering & 1 2 3 4
5, etc, is not so difficult as it is found to be by players who will
not carry their hand, but insist on leaving the thumb in its note. In
any case it is well to bring the thumb on to the Ab at the beginning
of the second bar."
When I first learned this sonata, I played with & 1 2 3 5 4 5 4 | 3 4
3 2 1 3 4 2 | for a while, which works very well at speed. However, I
quickly changed to Bulow's fingering which is much superior because it
allows for clear accent at the beginning of each beat. The jump from
4 to 3 is not awkward once learned. Simply hop and quickly shift the
hand horizontally. At speed there is no perceptible break and the 3
on C gives a good accent and nicely prepares for the thumb on the Ab.
Don't confuse Tovey's term "unorthodox" with the word "awkward." The
fingering is not how one would normally approach such an arpeggio and
is therefore unorthodox. But it is not awkward once the shift is
learned and you will actually find it far easier in every respect to
any alternative.
Good luck,
Daniel G. Emilio