Yuri Gagarin and Amur Waves

[wirralaccordion]

This old Russian waltz is said to have been listened to by Yuri Gagarin as he orbited the earth in 1961. I read this detail in “Space” by Tim Peake, published in 2023.

For me, I think I would have been satisfied to take in the view from the space capsule ( assuming there was a window ) but there might just have been a spare 3 minutes during the flight!

It is played on a single clarinet reed and as such I think it reflects a serious and solemn mood, fitting for the occasion.

 

[dak]

I think it could benefit this version if you focused on not giving the bellows an extra push for every bass note: that disrupts what should be long legato notes in the right hand. Just "passively" maintain the pressure in the left hand that is necessary for keeping the right hand notes singing at their own idea of the volume line. One way to make this easier is making sure that the "melodic" pressure comes from left hand palm and back exclusively while the fingers hit the buttons without conveying pressure to the bellows. The metric for this kind of left/right articulation contrast is that it becomes hard to tell whether this is one or two instruments or takes because left and right hand do their own things without disrupting the other.