Doll’s Waltz – Ernesto Köhler
Practice and teaching notes.
Although only a study, this elegant and lyrical masterpiece from Köhler would easily stand on it’s own as an interlude during, or even an encore at the end of a flute recital.
There are also several technical issues and challenges within, which makes it engaging, constructive and musically stimulating to play.
As it is a waltz, there should be movement and flow, beyond just shifting from one note to another. In other words, the melody line should ‘dance’ and the study in it’s entirety should ‘smile’.
The fact that this is the dance of a doll implies that a child-like, or innocent atmosphere should also be created. Do keep in mind the fact that a 19th century porcelain faced doll, would have been a more fragile and unique (and therefore special) creation to the bland, garish, mass-produced plastic trolls of today!
A sweet and light tone, with contained dynamics would be appropriate at the start and a heavier, more intense sound, would sit well for the minor section with trills.
In the end, this study is an exercise in charm. Please be careful not to drop this particular china doll!
In the following exercises you can work on the technical issues that the study throws at us. These include, chromatic scales, intervals, single articulation and trills.
Exercise 1
This exercise has been written around the first three notes of the study. Any type of scale will present problems of one description or another and one of the most important elements is that of moving evenly between notes.
In a chromatic scale, as we are always playing semi-tones or half steps, every finger movement has the tendency to feel more ‘tight’ than for example when playing a major scale. The concept of moving evenly between notes becomes more complicated and potentially less easy.
There are three areas to focus on here:
Firstly, it is crucial to keep the fingers close to the keys. Just remember, that if you allow your fingers to travel far away from the body of the flute, they also have to come back again when next required to push a key down. In slow tempi, this can probably be done without losing notes. However, the discipline of keeping fingers close to the flute at all times is not a bad one, as with increased speed, untrained, planet hopping fingers are going to very quickly become out of order and unevenness and even disaster will not be far away! It might even be worth practicing a slow melody (Gluck-Dance of the Blessed Spirits springs to mind), with fingers always touching the metal of the keys. Initially, although deeply exasperating, this will have the effect of reining wild fingers in and as a result, greater efficiency should follow. Initially, it will be very worthwhile practicing this in front of a mirror. You will be amazed at how unruly your fingers can be!
Secondly, when we are playing legato passages (and in this case at speed), it is important for the fingers to act in a legato way as well. From the early years, holding a flute is an awkward experience and as we struggle with the complexities of ‘managing’ the instrument we tend to tighten our hand/finger muscles. Over years, this can lead to an ‘on/off’ approach to moving the keys up and down. In this case, legato movement is difficult to achieve, as each new note is likely to have a more percussive arrival. This is due to fingers ‘slamming’ the keys down and effectively moving in a ‘staccato’ manner (this method could be useful at the start of the second page of the Prokofiev Sonata, where a more ‘military’ approach is required). Try to keep tension to a minimum.
Personally, I like to think of my fingers ’feeling’ their way around the instrument in slurred passages, be they slow or fast.
Thirdly, there should always be energy and direction in this study. Without sustained air pressure there is a danger that the passage between notes will not be smooth. We also have to take into account the fact that the length of the tube of the flute will be altering from one note to another. Once again, at speed this becomes more accentuated, so greater air control is required to compensate for this ‘defect’. Think about blowing through the flute, rather than simply into it. To keep your sound alive, energy has to be transmitted all the way to the end of the flute, not merely into the mouthpiece.
Finally, the frequently used phrase “you can’t run before you can walk”, is totally applicable in this exercise, so be sure to set off at a speed, which will coax your fingers into the correct activity. They will swiftly lose interest if you try to bully them into action! You will also gain a huge amount of information through playing these exercises very slowly and analyzing exactly how your fingers are moving.
The weak links will always be the 4th (ring) and 5th (pinky!) fingers in each hand, so no harm should come from repeating the exercises where some or even all of these fingers are featured!
Exercise 2
To play large, legato intervals on the flute, musically and with an even transition to high notes, requires great reserves of energy, anticipation and highly toned support muscles!
When slurring upwards (as at the end of bar 11 into bar 12), there is a great danger that the upper note, with its increased air speed will ‘scream’ out. As in this instance the interval is to be executed over a diminuendo, this is to be avoided!
Exercise 2 is written in such a way that if practiced over a period of time, large intervals should eventually become easier to manage.
The first area of focus should be how we control the air speed, to shift both upwards and downwards throughout the exercise.
To make a big interval in an upwards direction will require greater air speed. If you push your air through more rapidly at the same time that the fingers change to the new note, the transition from the first note to the second one will be too violent and the upper of the two will stick out and sound as though it is accented. There is also the danger that it will be sharp.
To avoid this happening, start building air pressure as soon as the lower note sounds, by squeezing the support muscles inwards. In this way the energy can gradually build and by the time the second note sounds, there should be sufficient air flow to ‘land’ comfortably on the upper note. With large intervals, once that air energy is in place, I try to think of dropping down onto the upper note, rather than crawling up to it.
Added to this is the fact that there are diminuendos and crescendos throughout the exercise. In this instance, the crescendos are easier to play than the diminuendos, which require a different approach.
In the first beat of the exercise, the ‘squeeze’ to the upper note needs to be firm, but not forced. In the second beat, you should think of ‘pushing’ your air faster through the flute, in order to achieve the crescendo.
These intervals will also become easier if you very slightly raise the air column for the higher notes and equally, bring it back down again for the lower ones. It has to be stressed though, that any lip movement should be kept to a minimum. Your embouchure should be as undisturbed as possible!
I find that my top notes speak more readily if I am not applying too much pressure from the lip plate onto my lower lip. Pressing hard here has a tendency to force the air column down, which is the opposite of that which is required for the top octave notes and ultimately ‘strangles’ them. You might also like to experiment with releasing any tensions in the arms and fingers for these high notes, by imagining that the flute is being very gently pulled forward, in front of you.
Finally, many students make a buzzing sound with their lips when playing very high notes. Because they know that the air speed needs to be quicker, they press their lips tighter together, which does indeed bring about a swifter air speed. However, this will also cause lip buzzing and due to volume of air, the tone will be thin and lacking in warmth. The embouchure should be more relaxed.
For these upper notes I think of my upper and lower teeth being ever so slightly further apart. This will open up the aperture and ‘buzzing’ will be vastly reduced, if not completely eliminated. Now that there is more freedom in the embouchure, there will need to be greater activity from the support area to provide sufficient air to trigger the upper notes!
Exercise 3a
This exercise has been written around the material to be found in bar 30 of the study, with the emphasis on articulation. This is one of the major topics of discussion among flute players and as articulation mainly takes place in that dark cavern known as the mouth, there can be uncertainty as to exactly what takes place in there!
To start with, it is important to realise that our respective languages will have an influence over how we articulate. In English, consonants such as T and D are ricocheted off the roof of the mouth. This is potentially useful for the opening of Petrouchka (as an example), but for much of the flute repertoire (both solo and orchestral) where subtlety is required, these consonants are simply too hard and dry.
Doll’s Waltz is a very lyrical study and when groups of staccato notes appear from bar 30 onwards, I believe that they should reflect the nature of the material around them, which is mainly legato.
The staccato notes should be light and flow easily. ‘T’ will come across as over clipped, so I would suggest that you try ‘DAH’ here. Even if you simply speak a string of ‘T’s and then the same again of ‘DAH’s, you will hear that the latter has more resonance and whilst still detached, has a more legato flow.
Try to keep ‘DAH’ as soft as possible and keep the tongue close to the point of contact on the roof of the mouth (in this way, you should find it relatively easy to single tongue fast articulated passages, without needing to resort to double tonguing. This is particularly useful in baroque sonatas). In Doll’s Waltz, in the articulated passages, your tongue should ‘dance’ on the roof of the mouth. It doesn’t necessarily have to keep returning to the same point on the roof of the mouth. By gently varying where the tongue ‘lands’, you should avoid fatigue.
Finally, in this exercise of 4 bars, I have written a crescendo over 2 bars, followed by a diminuendo over the same distance.
Be sure to make the crescendo only by pushing more air through your flute and not by increasing the strength of your tongue. This is particularly important to remember when the exercise arrives in the top octave of the instrument, where there can be a tendency to violently ‘spit’ notes into the instrument!
Exercise 3b
This exercise follows on from the interval of a 6th, which occurs at the beginning of bar 30 and is an exercise in dealing with wider intervals.
Much of the information from Exercise 2 will be helpful when practicing exercise 3b. Once again, always try to follow the dynamic markings and make shapes. This exercise is also useful for finger discipline in the top octave, where movements between notes at speed can be awkward for the hands. It will be worthwhile playing this exercise slowly.
Exercise 4
In bar 35 Köhler introduces trills into the study for the first time.
Even though I have never particularly enjoyed playing trills, they do bring a quite unique character to the musical line and as such, are worth practicing in their own right.
When working on these embellishments it is worth remembering a few points.
When playing a trill that is a whole step, or tone, the upper note of the trill should be in tune and this fact is more often than not ignored by flute players. The general thought is that as long as a finger is moving up and down, the work has been done! However, if it isn’t in tune, the trill sounds somewhat lifeless, dull and sad.
I find that most (but by no means all) whole step trills on the flute need to be very slightly lipped up, for the upper note to be both in tune and vibrant.
I also find trills to sound more true, if for the first one or two movements of the trill, the notes in question are played with the full fingerings. If the listener’s ears have heard genuine notes from the start of the trill, they are less likely to notice any changes that you might subsequently make to the trill for ease of performance (once again, this is particularly important for trills in the top octave, where unusual and awkward fingerings often come into play).
As an element of speed is associated with a trill, it makes sense to keep the moving fingers as close to the key work as possible, in particular towards the resolution of the trill.
Finally, a trill is part of the music, so always try to give it shape. In this exercise I have written a crescendo to the middle of the trill and then a decrescendo towards the end. If played this way, the trill will hopefully have character and elegance.