Handel Passacalgia

[barbara-brundage]

I should maybe have said that the reason I would guess Magistretti came first is that both Magistretti and Beon have the some of the same very non-Handel variations, although the Beon ones are not so big, and it’s always seemed to me that Beon was probably trying to make the Magistretti more accessible, rather than Magistretti elaborating on Beon’s inventions.

Of course, there may have been a popular keyboard edition back then that both were copying from.

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

Dear Mel,
I think it is always best to use a fingering which has a 100% success rate over one that has a 50% rate. Besides, we all have different hands, so it only makes sense that we have to design our own fingerings for tricky passages. Now, if there is an international competition in which there is a standard fingering that everyone is expected to use, that would be one circumstance in which it is worth the extra effort to use it. But if it isn’t working, I think it would still be smarter to use one that guarantees the best performance.

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

Dear Mel,
I just pulled out my copy of Tiny Beon’s edition of the Passacaille, and I see Var. IX as the one I think you must be referring to. Mine does not have any fingerings printed in it, so I think that gives us carte blanche to do as we see fit. My two cents’ worth: I take the first three notes in the bass as 4, 2, 1 in my left hand, and then the next four notes in my right, then the top quarter note (crotchet?) in my left hand.

[Mel Sandberg]

Dear Elizabeth.

[zoraida-avila]

Other transcrptions by Tiny Béon:

[leonard-lim]

Can I ask which version is the more difficult one?

[barbara-brundage]

They’re pretty close, I think.

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

Dear Mel,
I am sorry I didn’t read post #7 carefully enough. I understand now what you mean. I have another alternate fingering for that one: Take the first four sixteenths with 4,3,2,1 in the left hand, then the next three as 4,3,2, of the right hand and then the chord also in the right hand. In the second half of the bar, I take the last three sixteenths as 3,2,1 in the right hand. That means the thumb just replaces on the same note in the next bar. This won’t suit everyone, of course, and I am always changing my mind about fingerings myself. In the third bar, I keep all the sixteenths in the left hand. I think it’s good that the student should practice it as an exercise with all the running sixteenths in the left hand, but try the other way as well for a “Plan B”.

[Mel Sandberg]

Thank you very much Elizabeth.

[unknown-user]

I think using an alternate fingering is a great idea if the student is having difficulty with the passage.

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

Dear Mel,
I wouldn’t penalize on the basis of fingering but I cannot answer for my colleagues.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Tiny Beon was a petite harpists who toured with Tom Thumb’s circus for P.T. Barnum in the 1880s-1900s. Tiny played on a Lyon & Healy Style 12, often with an orchestra of “little people” playing the smallest instruments. The concertmaster had a particularly affecting way of playing that would make audiences sob, hence the expression “the worlds smallest violin” as one rubs one’s index finger over the thumb.

This one’s for you, Mel.

[catherine-rogers]

Saul, how did you find this out? I have searched for more information on Tiny Beon but haven’t been able to find anything. I’d like to know more about her life and career.

[Maria Myers]

Catherine,

Saul is just kidding around.

Maria

[Mel Sandberg]

Dear Saul.

[Author]

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