15 September 2019
Just a short snippet on the past week–it’s late as I write this here, and classes start today.
Piano, Aural, and Written placement evaluations took place this past week.
Piano evaluation: this was mostly for the 1-year Diploma students and the exchange program students here for the semester. Since BA students had already done the audition and been accepted, we didn’t technically need to do this for placement. However, since my audition was irregular, being in California with just Laszlo Nemes, the plan was for me to play my piece (Bach 3-pt Invention No. 3), sing my aria (Gratias Agimus Tibi, BWV 235), and Folk song (Streets of Laredo) so the other professors could hear me. However, the schedule was running extremely late, so when my turn came, they waved me aside and went on to the next person.
The written test was very easy, except for the atonal melody at the end. There was a brief rhythmic dictation, melodic dictation (perhaps I should have waited and done it by memory, but I had the solfege written down by the time he finished playing it the first time). There was a two part dictation, and a short segment of a Bach chorale to dictate at least two parts, and then analyze. I managed to dictate all four parts (spending 24 hours transcribing the King’s Singers arrangement of Kelele sharpened up my ears quite a bit, thankfully), so analysis was not bad, although I forgot to label one chord. I think I might have gotten the atonal mostly down correctly, but I’m pretty sure I “corrected” myself into a mistake in the last two minutes. It was really a repetition of the same material that was in the BA audition, so on the whole, I was quite comfortable with it.
My aural test took only about 3 minutes, which was a surprise considering the average before me had been closer to 10. I think Laszlo Nemes was able to give me sight reading and sing-and-play exercises right at my level, having taught me over some previous summers in Oakland, CA at Holy Names University. There was a bit of figured bass I muddled through (although I did get some right), which I am particularly looking forward to learning more of. “We’ll teach you how to play that.”
Classes and placements were posted this evening, so there was a rush to the Institute to see, and to sign up for times (voice lessons, piano lessons, and score reading for me). I am in Solfege VI, the highest level, which I am quite happy about. It is also nice, because two of my three roommates (Jackson and Filipe) are also at that level and in that class. I am glad that the Kodály background I have been given by my mom, middle school teachers and directors at the American Boychoir, and those during my high school years have allowed me to start off this well. It confirms the worthwhile benefits of long term investment with compound interest. I am the happy beneficiary.
I’ll post my classes soon.
We also had two choir sessions with the music director of the institute, László Nemes, to learn and memorize a short piece for the opening ceremony (we got another piece as well as the Hungarian National Anthem that morning which we used music for).
Sincerely,
Samuel
Rausch
Hungary4Harmony 