Author: hbaer

  • Playing Music for Non-Keyboard Instruments

    You will often find piano transcriptions of popular music pieces. In all other cases, you will have to achieve this work yourself. Or just try out if the original score sounds well on your virtual instrument. You will possibly learn that some pieces sound well as if they were originally written for the piano while others apparently show unwanted artefacts or generally produce an unpleasant sound.

    The reasons for an unsatisfactory sound are manyfold. As a listener, you will have your expectations. For example you will like a tremolo on a violin, but when played on a piano, the sound feels unnatural. You would possibly prefer octaves as a tremolo. Or you would prefer a voice at a different pitch.

    An important point to consider is the fact that different instruments may play the same note at the same time. Espressivo is able to detect and remove common notes, but the question remains which note should be kept. Turning on MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) might mitigate the problem without solving it completely. As a final resort you might consider editing the score. To give Espressivo a hint, place the less important note in brackets.

    Sometimes, it is just not the appropriate instrument. Try an other one or design an instrument yourself using a software synth.

    Did you experience any problems when trying to play scores written for non-keyboard instruments? Let us know.

  • Espressivo Web App

    The first version of the Espressivo Web app is now online.

  • Mozart: String Quartets

    This collections contains Espressivo recordings of Mozart’s later string quartets. The performer only discovered the beauty of these pieces in the piano version.

    Link to the Espressivo recordings of Mozart’s string quartets.

  • Beethoven: String Quartets

    This is now a complete recording of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets including the Grand Fugue from mostly unaltered scores.

    Link to Beethoven’s string quartet playlist.

  • Questions and Answers

    QUESTION

    The score I’m using has a change of tempo within a measure, but Espressivo does not respect the proper position. What can I do?

    ANSWER

    The design of Espressivo assumes tempo changes to occur per measure. Currently, your best option is to break the measure into two parts and mark the second part as a non-countable measure.

  • Transcriptions

    This site links to a number of Espressivo recordings made from transcriptions. As shown below, several composers are also known for their piano transcriptions.

    Franz Liszt

    The list of transcriptions and arrangements written by Franz Liszt is huge. See for example Wikipedia: Transcriptions by Franz Liszt. You will find links to a few recordings from Liszt’s transcriptions below:

    Beethoven: Grand Septuor Op. 20

    Complete recording of the transcription for piano four-hands. The score is available from the MuseScore website.

    Beethoven: Symphonies

    There are a few recordings from Liszt’s transcriptions for piano solo.

    By the way, Liszt also planned to transcribe the quartets for piano but never executed the plan. As a substitute for the missing work, you will find Espressivo recordings made from the unaltered scores of the string quartets.

    Carl Czerny

    Mostly known by his didactic piano pieces, Czerny also wrote transcriptions for the piano.

    Mozart: Requiem

    Complete recording of the transcription for piano four-hands. The score is available from the MuseScore website.

  • Schubert: String Quartets

    Schubert’s string quartets such as D. 703 and D. 810 are great pieces of music. The author made recordings of these two quartets with the Espressivo piano. Don’t they sound as if they were written for the piano originally? The player pretends that he didn’t change of single note for the recordings.

    Link to Schubert’s string quartet playlist.

  • Beethoven: Piano Sonatas

    This is a complete recording of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. Live recording made with Espressivo.

    Link to Beethoven’s piano sonatas playlist.