Filming day for Beethoven Moonlight sonata + Fly me to the moon!
By Clare
We had been asking for arrangement suggestions from our supporters! Scott mentioned he received a list, and was trying to decide which one to arrange and how to go about it. A few days later, during lunch he said “I think I might try to combine Moonlight Sonata and Fly Me to the Moon together. They are both about moon!” (Update: apparently I lost my sense of time, this is not how it was! Haha… so for Scott’s side of the story, check out his post here!)
I said “How?” He answered “I don’t know yet, but I’ll figure something out and see if it works!”
Then a few days later, there it was! He was done with it! The opening was the usual Moonlight Sonata, and I was definitely waiting for that ‘transforming moment” as I was listening to it. As soon as the theme came in, I just started laughing! How brilliant! Hahaha!
Then it was the testing stage. We usually try to read it together for him to see if things work! For example, are there any notes that are being played or held while the other part also has those notes, are there awkward hand positions at any spot, or sometimes it’s just to check if his wife has any complaints about any parts…Hahaha! In this particular arrangement, I thought everything worked pretty well, especially that my part was actually quite straightforward! So then after this stage, will try to actually practice individually to see how the parts actually work, because reading it is quite different from actually practicing it. So sometimes you may notice some new problems as you dig deeper into some passages. I do remember that on my first day of practicing this piece, I kept getting confused with my keys… Because the key signatures were changing several times. For example, from E major to A major…and so on my first day of practicing this piece I kept playing D sharp by accident when I’m in A major. Hahaha! But then it was all good after about five times making the mistake throughout all the piece!
We planned to film Scott’s arrangement of Beethoven’s Moonlight combined with the famous Fly Me to the Moon on the day when we recorded the Elegy of the Dynast. However, we ended up having a shorter recording session that day (I can’t remember why anymore), so we had to wait a few days until today to record it!
Since we planned to record earlier, we both had learned and memorized our parts! When I was setting up the lights, Scott was setting up the microphones. Then, he went to the shelf and took a Beethoven and put it on the piano facing the direction of the keys, which means we would be facing Beethoven when we record! I started laughing, and wondered if Beethoven would find it fun that we added Fly Me to the Moon to his Moonlight Sonata! (Given his well-known hot temper…..I highly doubt it! Hahaha)
Actually, I originally had the idea that we can do an intro looking at Beethoven and then start playing as if we are being judged by him. Then at the end when we are done, we look at him again, and he can go from the usual frowning face to a happy smiley face! Haha…… I haven’t decided yet if that’s how I will do it…or maybe just keeping it simple and with no animation?! Well, there are still a few days until we publish this video, so I might still don’t if I can figure out how to make that animation! If not…….then next time I guess! Stay tuned!
*Update: The video is published now! Watch till the end to find out if Beethoven smiled! Haha
