Pietzsch #8 strikes me as a very “orchestral” sounding etude. Meaning, I want to play with a big, broad sound and play the dotted rhythms as squarely as possible. I don’t mean square as in a non-jazz sense but I’m thinking the shapes of squares and rectangles when I approach these rhythms. Keep the corners of these shapes as sharp as possible. Keep the long notes in the phrases as stable as possible (like a rectangle) and try not to let the pitch bend as to “telegraph” where your next note is going. (Guess the quote: “Finish the note you are on before moving to the next note.”) I’m trying to make the 32nd notes as short as possible while still giving them sonic value. It’s easy to “ghost” some of the fast notes especially in the larger intervals.
