Etude in D Minor: Right Hand

Hello and welcome back.
I'm Joseph Hoffman, and in this lesson we're going to be working on the right hand part for "Etude in D Minor" by Cornelius Gurlitt.
Let's check out the score to get started.
Here's the score for "Etude in D Minor". Tell me what you notice about the right hand part.
Looks pretty easy right? We've got a lot of repeating two note chords.
So let's analyze some intervals. What's the interval between these two notes?
From D to F is a third.
I'm going to write a 3 there,
and we stay on that third for a long long time right? Finally changes here.
What interval between these two notes?
This is the interval of a second now a second.
A second is a very interesting interval.
We sometimes call seconds steps,
but when they're played together at the same time we would usually call that a second,
and when they're played together we call it a harmonic interval.
So here's the harmonic interval of a third.
Harmonic interval of a second.
If we play them one at a time, we call that a melodic interval.
Here in the right hand part though we see that we're always doing harmonic intervals.
And if you scan this entire page, do you ever see any intervals other than thirds or seconds?
Let's look.
I've got seconds it goes back to thirds, thirds, thirds, thirds,
What interval is here?
Here are more seconds, and then thirds again. So all thirds and seconds.
Now, what do you notice when you hear a second
compared to a third.
In music, this is called dissonance,
and this is called consonants.
Dissonance in music is when two or more notes create tension together
making a somewhat unpleasant or clashing sound.
Hear that second.
The most common dissonance in music is the interval of a second.
Take a couple of seconds on your piano and just play
some seconds.
Listen to the sound.
Notice that tension, that clash created by those.
Just try it anywhere.
Now, another dissonant interval is the interval of a seventh.
Start on C, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
Hear how that kind of creates some tension?
Listen to that.
That's not a very peaceful sound even if you play it quietly there's some tension.
On your piano try playing a few sevenths.
Notice that dissonant sound.
In music, composers use dissonance to make their music more interesting by adding tension.
Think of a story or a movie you love.
Does everything in the story go smoothly and nicely the entire time?
Once upon a time there was a smart beautiful princess who lived in a castle.
Nothing ever went wrong, so she lived happily ever after.
No, that would be boring right?
If there's a princess, you know she's going to get captured or she'll get lost,
or she'll have to fight some evil someone or something to save her kingdom.
Those problems and conflicts are what make the story interesting.
In music, dissonance can provide that same kind of interest.
Now, in music when a composer introduces a dissonance like right here,
it almost always resolves to a consonance.
Just like in a story, you have some kind of conflict or tension, and then it usually, in the stories I love, has a happy ending.
Now some authors like to torment the readers and actually give a sad ending at the end,
and sometimes a composer may end with some dissonance, but that's pretty rare.
Usually in music we love happy endings, and the dissonance will resolve into consonance.
What happens down here when we have this dissonance of this second?
It resolves into a consonant sounding third.
Consonance is the opposite of dissonance.
When two or more notes sound harmonious or pleasing together, we call that consonance.
Thirds are a great example of consonance. You can hear this how nice thirds sound to our ears.
There are lots of other consonant intervals as well.
Fourths have a pleasant consonant sound, fifths also, and sixth are also very beautiful.
So the most con-- the most dissonant intervals are those seconds and sevenths,
and the other intervals until you get to an octave are the more consonant or peaceful intervals.
Pause the video for a minute and just experiment with different intervals and see which
sound to your ears the most dissonant and which sound the most consonant.
Just take a few moments to experiment
with dissonance and consonants, then press play to go on.
Now I'd like to challenge you to try and learn the right hand part on your own.
Pay very careful attention to the fingerings.
Now, this isn't going to be super hard, but I challenge you to really notice
the fingerings. Like here in measure five, we've got a two and a four on this D and F,
and then the fingering changes to 1 3.
Same notes but different fingering. Why would that be?
Well, trust the finger ...