music workshop
Performer, teacher, arranger and composer Penny Weedon continues her series of popular classics. Part 4: ‘Lohengrin - Prelude to Act III’ by Richard Wagner When I was a wee babe, my father used to reliably empty the sitting room by putting on his records of Wilhelm Richard Wagner. My mother used to describe the music as “Those awful screaming women” but, as I was too young to get up and walk out, I was brought up on a diet of fairly undiluted Parsifal, The Flying Dutchman, Die Walküre, Tannhäuser, Rheingold, Meistersinger, Götterdömmerung and Tristan and Isolde. Today's piece is one I clearly remember as my favourite - Prelude to Act III from Lohengrin - which appealed to me because of the lovely harmonies and march-like tempo. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, and it doesn't cause a mass exodus when you play it! Richard Wagner's 1848 opera is based on a character in German Arthurian literature. Lohengrin, a knight of the Holy Grail, is sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story is a version of the ‘Knight of the Swan’ legend - known from a variety of medieval sources. My recipe for Lohengrin There are lots of chords in this one, but these needn't present a problem if one adopts a stately tempo. I used the Proms March style on our Tyros5 with the tempo turned down to 100 beats per minute. For both the right and left hand parts I used classical pipe organ sounds. (Preset 6 in Tyros5’s ‘Concert Organ’ does nicely for the right hand with ‘Diapason’ for the left). The piece doesn't need an intro - and only the simplest of endings (I used ending 1). One can have some fun, however, and introduce variety by changing the MAIN VARIATIONS, and putting in some FILLS. I started with Variation A. Then, just before bar 9, I changed to Variation B, finally going to Variation C just before bar 17. You will notice that the chord stays on C for bar after bar at this point so you can use your left hand to press the Variation C at the start of bars 20 and 24. If you can fit in another press in bar 31 that will sound great too... and one final press before you use the ending button makes the finale a bit less 'sudden'. Chord chart (MIDI and MP3 file performances by Penny Weedon are available to subscribers from the Yamaha Club website)) A
5
3
Am
1
5
2
D7
4
2
1 1
12
2
1
5
2
Dm
4
G
4
Bb
2
5 4
1
Yamaha Club Magazine
2
1
5
E
G7
1
C
5
3 1
4 2
1
4 3
E7
5
Gm
1
3
D
3 2
1
F
1
4
2
1
G#o (G#dim)
1
4 2
1
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