Ivan Sings, Classics to Moderns bk 3 and elsewhere Options

[linda.ff]

I was wondering how some of you teach the right hand at the top of the second page of this piece. Obviously there is a melody in minims, so that if it were to be played on another instrument, using the left hand as accompaniment, you would play right through the minim; but since the LH immediately afterwards plays a crotchet and a quaver at the same pitch, there's no real way to sustain the minim on a piano, apart from letting the pedal help with the illusion.

Part of the problem is that it's quiet (can't quote the exact dynamic as my pupil has my book) so the obvious solution of bringing out the tune more strongly on that beat so that the LH can just whisper the off beat notes is slightly compromised by the melody note needing to be soft.

Given that every piano tone has no choice but to die away anyway, I suppose everything to do with legato laying is a bit of an illusion anyway

[Stephen Barber]

I was wondering how some of you teach the right hand at the top of the second page of this piece. Obviously there is a melody in minims, so that if it were to be played on another instrument, using the left hand as accompaniment, you would play right through the minim; but since the LH immediately afterwards plays a crotchet and a quaver at the same pitch, there's no real way to sustain the minim on a piano, apart from letting the pedal help with the illusion.

Part of the problem is that it's quiet (can't quote the exact dynamic as my pupil has my book) so the obvious solution of bringing out the tune more strongly on that beat so that the LH can just whisper the off beat notes is slightly compromised by the melody note needing to be soft.

Given that every piano tone has no choice but to die away anyway, I suppose everything to do with legato laying is a bit of an illusion anyway

I like this piece and used to do it a lot (I tend to use "Music through Time" these days).

I would do what you're already saying: use the pedal for the first half of the bar and play the left hand Cs more quietly. The dynamic is mp so the right hand can "sing" (it's marked cantabile) and the left hand will be a notch quieter right through the 2nd page anyway.