Last semester was filled with many challenges in almost every aspect of my life: musical, academic, social, and emotional. Having never lived on my own before, moving to a new state, and starting school at a new university, I had a lot of things to figure out. I’ve always been the type of person that processes my emotions and situations internally. I value those moments alone when I get to think about my life and current situation because afterwards I always feel better. It really is no surprise to me that I began to look forward to my daily time in the practice rooms. Being in the practice rooms meant two things: I would be alone (sometimes for two or three hours at a time) and I got to do what I love most, which is make music.
Now, this doesn’t mean that I was never frustrated or stressed while in the practice room. There were multiple times I had to pull myself together and not cry all over the piano keys (sometimes that had something to do with Brahms, and sometimes it did not). But still, everyday I made it into a practice room and practiced my pieces until I felt a little better.
The piece I spent the most time on was Brahms’ Intermezzo in A Major. Often thought of as his great love song for Clara Schumann, this piece was by far the most difficult piece I was learning to play that semester. Johannes Brahms, a German composer who lived from 1833-1897, composed his piano Intermezzo in A Major around 1893.
It was a slow learning process and there were moments I never thought I would get it right. Some days, I repeated the same five measures at least 20 times in a row trying to perfect the notes, the fingering, or the phrasing. Sometimes my friends would pop in and ask how I was doing, and I’d reply “oh you know, Brahms is just trying to kill me,” and we’d laugh about it. Sometimes they asked if I would play it for them, and with my shaking hands I would play this incredibly beautiful piece as best I could. I spent so much time working on this piece, it played in my head in the moments I wasn’t in the practice room. But I loved every moment I spent breaking down that piece and slowly playing through each section. It has become one of my favorite pieces to listen to and to play and I still play through it when I get the chance because it reminds me of the things I can accomplish when I choose to put in the work.
If you were to walk by me in the practice rooms in the fall of 2020, I’m sure you would have heard me playing Brahms’ Intermezzo.
