“Some students may have an easier time distributing these tremolo figures between the hands. At a presto tempo, any lack of coordination between the hands (as written) results in a ragged, jangly version. Alternating between the hands keeps the articulation crisp.”
Submitted by Sam Welsh
Published on 3/26/2020
“I treat all of these figures as tremolos between the hands. The increased awkwardness is overshadowed by immediate gains in rhythmic precision.”
Submitted by Michael Clark
Published on 8/11/2021
SPECIAL COLLECTION | Dorothy Brandwein’s Ravel Fingerings
Published on 4/30/2022 with the author’s permission
First appeared in Dorothy Woster Brandwein, "Divisi Fingering in Selected Passages from Ravel's Solo Piano Works" (DMA diss., University of Missouri–Kansas City, 1981), 50, 103.
50: “Ravel experimented with the effect which is produced when two harmonies are repeated in rapid succession at the softest dynamic level possible. Divisi fingering allows the pianist to easily coordinate the rapid alternation of the two sonorities by playing the chords as shown in Example 33.”
SPECIAL COLLECTION | Dorothy Brandwein’s Ravel Fingerings
Published on 5/2/2022 with the author’s permission
First appeared in Dorothy Woster Brandwein, "Divisi Fingering in Selected Passages from Ravel's Solo Piano Works" (DMA diss., University of Missouri–Kansas City, 1981), 115.
50: “Ravel experimented with the effect which is produced when two harmonies are repeated in rapid succession at the softest dynamic level possible. Divisi fingering allows the pianist to easily coordinate the rapid alternation of the two sonorities by playing the chords as shown in Example 33.”
SPECIAL COLLECTION | Dorothy Brandwein’s Ravel Fingerings
Published on 5/5/2022 with the author’s permission
First appeared in Dorothy Woster Brandwein, "Divisi Fingering in Selected Passages from Ravel's Solo Piano Works" (DMA diss., University of Missouri–Kansas City, 1981), 51, 121.
50: “Ravel experimented with the effect which is produced when two harmonies are repeated in rapid succession at the softest dynamic level possible. Divisi fingering allows the pianist to easily coordinate the rapid alternation of the two sonorities…”
51: “The same technique may be used for the double-note trill at the end of the ‘Menuet,’ in order to preserve the sounding intervals of a third. If the right hand depresses the final notes of the trill, as marked, the left hand is free to depress silently the bass notes as the pedal clears all vibrations extraneous to the tonic harmony.”