Clefs and Keys

Scene: At Polly's.  Drinking Chai.  Listening to ABBA.  Thinking about Brahms... and the fact that I have not heard from either church yet after my interview.  What if I do not get an offer from either place?  I definitely over think things.  Such as, "One of the churches had a council meeting on Tuesday night to discuss their appointment.  But I have not heard from them.  I probably will not receive an offer."  Well, I suppose we shall see.  And I need to remind myself that I cannot guess how others think or how the appointment process works in specific congregations.

Okay, so back to Brahms.  

I bought the Kalmus version of "Gesang der Parzen."  Mulitple clefs.  Even most of the vocal parts have different clefs.  I can read these, it's just a slower process.  This is fine, except when trying to analyze the thick textures that have offset rhythms.  I know I have to listen to it, but I like to do as much mental analysis as possible and give myself multiple options before I let my ear make a decision.  The mental work is slowed because of the multiple clefs, although even this isn't so bad.  The worst is when most of the parts are written in D minor, but one of the parts is in E minor and three others are written in A minor... I forget which direction to transpose (in undergrad, vocalists did not have to take any sort of instrumental classes, and it didn't seem to be something my orchestral class in grad school focused on).  If I think hard enough about it, I can figure it out, but it takes so long and it is difficult for my brain to hold onto.  And then, when I have talked about this with people before, nothing is more irritating than hearing, "It's easy!  Just think of it this way..." or "Just think up a fourth."  It's not a problem thinking of an intervalic relation, it's the knowing which direction to think... "if I'm an instrument playing in A minor but everyone else is in D minor, I'm playing up a fifth (or down a fourth) to get to their key... so to figure out how my notes fit in D minor, I need to transpose down a fifth or up a fourth.  Up a fourth?  Or down a fourth?  Ahhh, how do I get to D minor on paper?"

So, I came up with a solution, at least a temporary one, to understanding the chords.  I bought a vocal/piano reduced score.  I didn't do this at first because I felt like it was cheating.  I no longer feel this way... I'm not trying to prove anything by studying Brahms or Berlioz.  I'm trying to learn and love and understand this piece.  Plus I want to know what's going on in the piano reduction.  The other perk is that I can play it on the piano, instead of listening to recordings to help me determine some of the progressions.

But... off to look at Brahms.