10

In ep. 2, the entrants to the competition are shown playing extracts from the first movement of Beethoven's sonata no. 9 (often referred to as the Kreutzer). This is most likely the only movement played, given the portrayal of Kaori's performance and the length of the Kreutzer.

It would not be appropriate to show a performance of the entire movement. (It could bore viewers, and it could easily take up half the episode.) We can thus justify an abridgement of the piece or the removal of some of sections. The omissions I have found so far, however, do not make sense.

  1. At the beginning, the section after the violin opening and before the statement of the theme (m. 5-18, mvt. 1) is omitted. The continuity of Kaori's movements might with the soundtrack imply that in-universe, she did not play those omitted bars, but it is unclear.

  2. Later after the piano finishes its reiteration of the theme, there is a pause (which exists in the original score). Kaori then jumps to a later section (the adagio shortly after), which is merged with the ending of the first movement. It seems that this jump also occurred in-universe.

  3. The "bland" part that the other violinists were shown playing, which should have fallen after adagio mentioned above, is skipped.

This leaves me with the following question. Is there any suggestion that the movement is actually being played with these omissions and discrepancies in-universe? If so, why would this be the case? Are these instead just badly executed (in that they are misleading) cuts? After all:

  • For the purposes of a performance used to assess musicians, certain omissions, particularly skipping repeats, could be acceptable. The sections involved do not fall into such a category.

  • Surely if all the violinists are playing the same set piece in the same competition, there should not be any obvious variation in what is played, even if some parts are removed for length.

  • The movement seems to be a reasonable length for a short performance, particularly if the one repeat that appears is taken out.

Maroon
  • 14,564
  • 14
  • 71
  • 137
  • There's probably also some merging of the piece played in ep. 4, but I'm not familiar with it. The instance of the Kreutzer is particularly striking, in any case, because there are one or two instances (examples 1 and 2) where the omissions appear to happen in-universe. (There is clearly a pause in the music, and Kaori and the pianist jump ahead in the soundtrack.) – Maroon Mar 02 '16 at 22:31
  • It might be worthwhile to note that the manga has no specificity over what you have observed in the anime. Thus, it can be safe to conclude all discrepancies you mention are from the anime production side of things. This, however, does not exclude the author collaborating with them still. – Tyhja Jan 12 '17 at 02:08
  • @Tyhja: perhaps you could write that as an answer? I suspect something like that (combined with my suggestion that these are perhaps badly executed "cuts") is about as conclusive as we're likely to get. – Maroon Jan 12 '17 at 07:57

2 Answers2

4

As requested, while this is not a conclusive answer, we might never know unless there is more information released.

The manga only specifies the piece, but never details the performances of the characters musically. The characters might gush over how "lively" or "beautiful" it sounds, but nobody ever talks in technical terms, much less describe sections of music.

Chapter 6 page 30-32 : The extent of description of Kaori's Performance. Chapter 6 page 30 Chapter 6 page 31 Chapter 6 page 32

Thus, we can conclude that your observations about the discrepancies in the musical pieces stem solely from the anime production. There could have been artistic/directional decisions for the eventual editing of the said pieces, such as time constraints or perhaps wanting to get a feeling across because that section or piece of music only fits that part. We might not know more unless more information is released (AFAIK) from the studio, such as interviews with the director/staff.

However, this stand does not exclude the author collaborating with the studio and affecting the said pieces. It could well be what the author had intended to portray in the first place. Again, we do not know the extent to which he has influence over the production, notwithstanding that the plot of the anime is pretty filial to the manga.

In my opinion, the "cuts" as you describe are not noticed by the general audience, and serve more as a mood setter and a plot driver than an actual portrayal of a performance. Only a more discerning and a informed listener would be able to tell that there was something amiss.

Tyhja
  • 1,752
  • 1
  • 21
  • 38
0

She purposely jumped to different parts of the song - not to make it shorter - but to instead show us that she will play the music the way she wants to. (This is stated in her letter to Kousei.) She is a very intense person and this is shown through her performance by her playing the intense parts of the piece. (I also think that she may have avoided the slower and calmer parts of the song because slow/calm music can be associated with the sadness that she secretly feels about her illness) Kaori plays the upbeat and loud/exiting parts of Kreutzer because she wants to portray the loud and exiting parts of herself and not show her vulnerable side.

AprilCat02
  • 1