From Myra Hess' arrangement of the Chorale from Cantata No 147, known as "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring".

I have the OUP Version.

Two questions.

1. In bar 5 there is a harmonic 10th in the bass from E2 to G3 which is marked as a broken chord. I can just about reach it to play as an unbroken chord - would this be wrong?

2. This is somewhat more tricky. In Bar 9 (marked "Cantando il tenore") the first bar consists of a very low octave G1 and G2, B3 (just below middle C4), then D4, G4, B4 and G5. This is not marked as a broken chord. How should this be played? FYI, in my copy there is what looks like a square bracket joining the B3 to the D4.

TIA

Edward

Hello

1) The chord is probably marked broken to make it easier to play, since it's such a big stretch. But it might also be intended to be played that way, so maybe someone who knows the piece will be able to comment!

2) If it's a bracket, does it mean you could play the top notes with your right hand and the lower notes with your left? I don't know the piece, so there might be other things happeneing around it.

Sorry I'm not much help!

The second chord is seven notes, ranging from G1 to G5, which is not playable by anyone currently alive. Unless they've got three hands!

Edward

Follow your musical instinct and play what sounds best. Myra Hess had small hands and could not stretch a 10th.


Most likely, the intention is to play the bass octave first and catch it with the pedal, then leap with your lh to play the remainder of the chord all together.

Steve

Good questions, I'll give my opinion.

1. Sure, play it non-arp if you can do so without any hint of smudging. Otherwise just do the arp.

2. The brackets by their context indicate the hand ownership (LH/RH). In this case, I'd say the bass octave is treated as a grace note 1/5 immediately preceding the B/D third played by LH 2/1, with the RH simultaneousy striking G/B/G 1/2/5. You could arp the two bass octave notes if you preferred but the tenor parts must be struck in unison.

Lots of arrangements have these low octave parts which have to be fitted in: they are usually somewhat casually notated, as here, leaving it to the player to decide wherabouts in the beat to strike them.

You can override these hand distribution suggestions as you see fit, for example in bar 2 you could strike that optional LH E with the RH if you have really big hands and can play the resulting RH chord E/B/G easily.

Thank you to you and to Steve Hopwood. I entirely agree with what you both say. In fact, I remembered that I had a recording of Angela Hewitt playing the piece, which I listened to closely, and she does in fact play the bass octave as a grace note.

Best wishes

Edward