Song Without Words (Op. 19b, No. 1)

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Outer Voice Reduction

Playing only the melody and the bass is quite easy to do, yet it teaches us a great deal about the phrasing. For one thing, it allows us to play the essential lines of the piece up to tempo with relative ease, helping us to form an ideal sound in our minds without the distraction of working out the technical details of the accompaniment. It also allows us to hear the bass line more clearly, and to realise how much influence this line has on the inflection of the melody. In the reduced score below, I’ve made some observations and...