As if it were not enough that we were quarter-noted to death as music students, the current pop music scene is making sure that there is not a trace of life left in us. Four on the floor and the walls and the ceiling and the brain--all over the place.
It is harder and harder to play classical music without pointing out beats even where there are none or, even better, where the composer has deliberately obscured the beat so that the listener has to listen more carefully, wondering what might have happened to it.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Saturday, February 2, 2013
The Quarter Note
I have been known to malign the quarter note, even in print. In fact, back in the 80's I envisaged a formal "happening" in which people stationed all over New York, on bridges, in parks, on balconies and overlooks, each carrying an inflated balloon on which was emblazoned a single quarter note would, on a given signal, explode their balloon (i.e., their quarter note) once and for all.
We have been quarter-noted to death.
Until Haydn comes along to save the poor maligned beastie.
For there they are, the darlings, underlying Haydn minuets like you wouldn't believe but--and there's the catch--only if articulated, exaggerated, elevated to unimaginable importance.
Take any Haydn minuet; play the quarter notes emphatically, detached (not the same as staccato), all of equal importance. Caution: a quarter note slurred to another quarter note ain't no real quarter note but a half-note that slips out of joint onto a shadow pitch. Listen to the quarter notes strut their inflated egos up and down across all registers and beats, ignoring stop signs (double bars) and just generally getting in the way.
If this doesn't vitalize the minuet please send me an email and complain.
We have been quarter-noted to death.
Until Haydn comes along to save the poor maligned beastie.
For there they are, the darlings, underlying Haydn minuets like you wouldn't believe but--and there's the catch--only if articulated, exaggerated, elevated to unimaginable importance.
Take any Haydn minuet; play the quarter notes emphatically, detached (not the same as staccato), all of equal importance. Caution: a quarter note slurred to another quarter note ain't no real quarter note but a half-note that slips out of joint onto a shadow pitch. Listen to the quarter notes strut their inflated egos up and down across all registers and beats, ignoring stop signs (double bars) and just generally getting in the way.
If this doesn't vitalize the minuet please send me an email and complain.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Wikipedia, Public Radio and Me
Yes, it's about funding. If whatever it is is worthwhile, if someone who is serious is putting effort into it and if you are taking anything of value from it then it is worth supporting. Do you agree? Go to www.tonalrefraction.net to find out how.
Cognitive and Sensory Reading
That the two must go together to produce meaning is well-understood by those who study how young children read, especially how dyslexic children learn to read.
The flaw in the way most music reading is taught is that the sensory is left out in favor of the cognitive: i.e., the quickest possible identification of the symbol in alphabetic or theoretical terms. The ear, the only meaningful indicator of sensory experience, is traditionally left out. As a colleague once explained: "It takes too long."
I beg to differ.
Recommended reading on reading: Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf.
The flaw in the way most music reading is taught is that the sensory is left out in favor of the cognitive: i.e., the quickest possible identification of the symbol in alphabetic or theoretical terms. The ear, the only meaningful indicator of sensory experience, is traditionally left out. As a colleague once explained: "It takes too long."
I beg to differ.
Recommended reading on reading: Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
On the Trail of Moderato
Schubert was not the first composer to use the term to indicate what Alfred Einstein called the "lyrical quality." Clementi used it from time to time; Haydn used it often. Now, revisiting Haydn intensively, I am struck by how many problems are solved by interpreting the word in this way.
Like Schubert, Haydn was very much a vocal composer, though most of the time he is not characterized in this way. But he heard vocal inflection in every instrumental piece he ever wrote, much as Bach did. This was not only the highest compliment that could be paid an 18th-century composer, it reflected the soundworld they knew and which was all around them.
When I worked as a chamber musician, both performing and teaching, I was struck repeatedly by the lack of vocal awareness on the part of most players, both amateur and professional. Whereas amateurs were curious about this, however, professionals had a way of turning up their noses at the notion that text might underlie some of their precious sonatas. Does this signal a simple-minded notion of what words convey?
Like Schubert, Haydn was very much a vocal composer, though most of the time he is not characterized in this way. But he heard vocal inflection in every instrumental piece he ever wrote, much as Bach did. This was not only the highest compliment that could be paid an 18th-century composer, it reflected the soundworld they knew and which was all around them.
When I worked as a chamber musician, both performing and teaching, I was struck repeatedly by the lack of vocal awareness on the part of most players, both amateur and professional. Whereas amateurs were curious about this, however, professionals had a way of turning up their noses at the notion that text might underlie some of their precious sonatas. Does this signal a simple-minded notion of what words convey?
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Schubert or a Cliche?
Recently I sat through a trailer for a new award-winning release in which a recording of the G-flat Schubert Impromptu figured heavily. As it was a thoroughly cliched recording, it completely turned me off.
An actress friend asked whether I had seen the film. She was somewhat shocked when I told her why I had no desire to see it, having been so put off by that deadly recording. After a few minutes she brought the conversation around to her intense dislike of a much celebrated actress who, in her view, in all technique and no heart. When she sees this famous actress on screen she wants to get up onto the screen and slap her into paying attention.
So I got up this morning asking myself whether the film might not have made some usage of the cliche aspects of performance in revealing its subject matter: Perhaps this cliched recording figures deeply in unearthing levels of meaning rather than being assumed, like wallpaper, to be a mere background. (Granted, there is wallpaper and then there is Cezanne, Matisse, Bonnard...)
So I will, after all, go see the film.
An actress friend asked whether I had seen the film. She was somewhat shocked when I told her why I had no desire to see it, having been so put off by that deadly recording. After a few minutes she brought the conversation around to her intense dislike of a much celebrated actress who, in her view, in all technique and no heart. When she sees this famous actress on screen she wants to get up onto the screen and slap her into paying attention.
So I got up this morning asking myself whether the film might not have made some usage of the cliche aspects of performance in revealing its subject matter: Perhaps this cliched recording figures deeply in unearthing levels of meaning rather than being assumed, like wallpaper, to be a mere background. (Granted, there is wallpaper and then there is Cezanne, Matisse, Bonnard...)
So I will, after all, go see the film.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Free Downloads
In today's New York Times appears a thorough expose of the state of the income of independent artists because of the upsurge of free and almost free downloads. I am heartened that the number of people who stream my CDs on-line grows all the time, but discouraged that it takes longer and longer to reap a royalties check from the distributor (cdbaby).
Us indies produced the CDs ourselves at some cost and we have cartons of unsold inventory awaiting a far off market of antique CD collectors to pay top dollar for them.
In the meantime we collect either $0.000 or, on average, $0.006 for each streamed track.
My occasional remarks on the cost of "free" apply here as well.
Oh, by the way, you can figure out for yourself how the business works: www.cdbaby.com or just Google my name. You can also purchase actual CDs at www.tonalrefraction.net.
Us indies produced the CDs ourselves at some cost and we have cartons of unsold inventory awaiting a far off market of antique CD collectors to pay top dollar for them.
In the meantime we collect either $0.000 or, on average, $0.006 for each streamed track.
My occasional remarks on the cost of "free" apply here as well.
Oh, by the way, you can figure out for yourself how the business works: www.cdbaby.com or just Google my name. You can also purchase actual CDs at www.tonalrefraction.net.
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