Thinking about the intimate aspects of late Schumann recalls the intimate aspects of early counterpoint, the historical moment when a second voice was added to the plainsong. The most intimate connection between the two voices occurs only when they share the same vowel on either a unison, a fifth, or an octave. Then it is as if the single voices merge into one voice.
Poor musicians, not enjoying this disappearance, will deliberately play out of tune so that everyone knows they are still "there." (I used to play with such a violinist.)
In the Op. 132 Schumann deals with the very unlike timbres of clarinet and viola by daring them, as it were, to merge within overtones, sympathetically reinforced or melded together by the piano. But, given the instrumentation, these overtones are not the run of the mill string overtones. They require some seeking after by all parties. Clarinets do not resonate in the same way as violas. Pianos can go with the flow -- can, in fact, direct the flow by not interfering with it.
None of this can be written down in standard notation. This leads me straight into the next blogpost on Tonal Refraction.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Monday, February 17, 2014
Late Schumann in the Hands of Fine Musicians: Fairy Tales, Op 132
Last night I went to hear a trio of fine musicians play late Schumann: Maerchenerzaehlungen, Op. 132, for clarinet, viola and piano. It is one of those borderline comprehensible works that tempt Philistines to attribute to the composer's madness.
One thing particularly struck me: In the third piece the players are asked to produce two startling, sometimes ugly sounds of equal intensity, one after the other -- effectively two downbeats in a row. It happens again and again in the piece, each time interspersed with scampering sounds evoking the image of little children running away from the menacing ogre. How apt.
It is, indeed, menacing to produce two equally strong sounds one right after the other. Well-behaved musicians do not do things like that. It took me a while to figure it out, myself.
What is a fairy tale, after all, but an excursion into a fantasy world where logic does not prevail, where control is abandoned temporarily in favor of excess? Schumann writes all kinds of excess into these pieces, including excess of intimacy.
I would have to say that these musicians did get it some of the time, but only as if by accident.
One thing particularly struck me: In the third piece the players are asked to produce two startling, sometimes ugly sounds of equal intensity, one after the other -- effectively two downbeats in a row. It happens again and again in the piece, each time interspersed with scampering sounds evoking the image of little children running away from the menacing ogre. How apt.
It is, indeed, menacing to produce two equally strong sounds one right after the other. Well-behaved musicians do not do things like that. It took me a while to figure it out, myself.
What is a fairy tale, after all, but an excursion into a fantasy world where logic does not prevail, where control is abandoned temporarily in favor of excess? Schumann writes all kinds of excess into these pieces, including excess of intimacy.
I would have to say that these musicians did get it some of the time, but only as if by accident.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
"Lonely Blossoms"
Einsame Blume is the title of the second piece in Schumann's Waldszenen. What might this title mean, as I am convinced he is not evoking pretty pictures but rather describing his compositional goal.
Making a Tonal Refraction of the piece clarifies it to an astonishing degree. The "melody" is, for the most part, changing without going anywhere. It moves neither up nor down, it embellishes vibrations briefly defined by disconnected harmonies, often skeletal, in the left hand.
This is a staggering effect, since it defies all the laws of projection-at-all-costs that characterize so much of a pianist's training.
Try moving without going anywhere. It attains a level of intimacy that is almost undescribable.
Making a Tonal Refraction of the piece clarifies it to an astonishing degree. The "melody" is, for the most part, changing without going anywhere. It moves neither up nor down, it embellishes vibrations briefly defined by disconnected harmonies, often skeletal, in the left hand.
This is a staggering effect, since it defies all the laws of projection-at-all-costs that characterize so much of a pianist's training.
Try moving without going anywhere. It attains a level of intimacy that is almost undescribable.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Square is Square
Explaining to a non-musician what it means to play beats I compared it to a fixation with right angles: everything has to line up nice and tidy with an identifiable beat.
If I hear more than, say, three of such beats in a row I am almost certainly going to lose interest. All kinds of things can occur to enliven beats: little things like unpredictable accentuation, or no accentuation at all; and bigger things like groupings of three within a 4/4 meter.
I am appalled at the amount of square playing I hear when I tune into the classical music station at random. How thrilling, on the other hand, to hear something that is the opposite of square.
Two performances I heard yesterday qualify for that: Stephen Hough playing the Grieg Piano Concerto, which squares maintain is an uninteresting piece - boy are they missing something!
Gustav Dudamel conducting those famous Dances from Borodin's Prince Igor, in a live performance with the Berlin Philharmonic.
If I hear more than, say, three of such beats in a row I am almost certainly going to lose interest. All kinds of things can occur to enliven beats: little things like unpredictable accentuation, or no accentuation at all; and bigger things like groupings of three within a 4/4 meter.
I am appalled at the amount of square playing I hear when I tune into the classical music station at random. How thrilling, on the other hand, to hear something that is the opposite of square.
Two performances I heard yesterday qualify for that: Stephen Hough playing the Grieg Piano Concerto, which squares maintain is an uninteresting piece - boy are they missing something!
Gustav Dudamel conducting those famous Dances from Borodin's Prince Igor, in a live performance with the Berlin Philharmonic.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Visualizing Schumann's Waldszenen
I am working on Vol II of the Tone Perception Visualized series documenting early development of my technique for visualizing my perception of several musical elements. The subject of Vol II is Schumann's Waldszenen, a late cycle for solo piano. As the efficacy of the method relies a process, its sense is revealed in the doing.
I set out to make a third (perhaps fourth) visualization of Eintritt (Entry), the cycle's opening. Since first working on this music in 1993 I have played it repeatedly and am now preparing to perform it when the book comes out.
It is unbelievable how lazy the ear becomes when faced with detail that borders on the incomprehensible. Why such deviations in articulation? Why such inconsistency of phrase length?
How much I miss in the pursuit of a musical common sense that this music seems to exist to transcend.
A few weeks my son found 3 other natural hornists and we gathered some men's voices to read another late work of Schumann: Jagdbevier. Since experiencing that highly graphic setting of the forest as scene of a primordial meeting of man with nature, of dark with dawn, of danger with conquest, I find throughout this piano piece references to hidden horn calls, to wanderings as if in a musical half light in which connections are unclear and the imagination must take over.
A work of great genius.
I set out to make a third (perhaps fourth) visualization of Eintritt (Entry), the cycle's opening. Since first working on this music in 1993 I have played it repeatedly and am now preparing to perform it when the book comes out.
It is unbelievable how lazy the ear becomes when faced with detail that borders on the incomprehensible. Why such deviations in articulation? Why such inconsistency of phrase length?
How much I miss in the pursuit of a musical common sense that this music seems to exist to transcend.
A few weeks my son found 3 other natural hornists and we gathered some men's voices to read another late work of Schumann: Jagdbevier. Since experiencing that highly graphic setting of the forest as scene of a primordial meeting of man with nature, of dark with dawn, of danger with conquest, I find throughout this piano piece references to hidden horn calls, to wanderings as if in a musical half light in which connections are unclear and the imagination must take over.
A work of great genius.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Internal Rhythms - Never Enough
Variations provide the ultimate source of rhythmic activity. I strive to be as active as they are. I want my brain activity to match theirs.
This requires me to stop restricting the number of musical events to which I respond at any given moment. Do not count - that is the first musical commandment!
Do not identify sounds - every satisfying sound is made up of so many variable components that, as soon as you identify that sound, you have probably killed off any chance of dealing with its many aspects.
Contrary to accepted wisdom on piano playing, I do not teach my students any theory whatsoever. Result: Those who react to sound never tire of it. What music do they love most? The music that makes the most imaginative use of sound: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Bartok - can't beat it.
This requires me to stop restricting the number of musical events to which I respond at any given moment. Do not count - that is the first musical commandment!
Do not identify sounds - every satisfying sound is made up of so many variable components that, as soon as you identify that sound, you have probably killed off any chance of dealing with its many aspects.
Contrary to accepted wisdom on piano playing, I do not teach my students any theory whatsoever. Result: Those who react to sound never tire of it. What music do they love most? The music that makes the most imaginative use of sound: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Bartok - can't beat it.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Lost Chords
Last night hearing my daughter's remarkable piano improvisation, I was struck by the power of listening to beautiful sounds that I could not identify--not that I need to identify the sounds I hear, but that these sounds were coming straight from the gut, as it were.
She has never learned music theory. She knows what she knows by listening. I dream about those chords. They are not incidental to her music, but integral to every mood, every transition, every state. Where does she get them?
Try looking at 32,000 vibrating hair cells and you may find that we base most of our music training and conceptualization on vast over-simplifications. It takes a master like Rachelle to unlock the gates. I have no hesitation referring to her as a master, even though she is my daughter. I go every month to hear her. Though it is a trek I wouldn't miss it for the world.
She has never learned music theory. She knows what she knows by listening. I dream about those chords. They are not incidental to her music, but integral to every mood, every transition, every state. Where does she get them?
Try looking at 32,000 vibrating hair cells and you may find that we base most of our music training and conceptualization on vast over-simplifications. It takes a master like Rachelle to unlock the gates. I have no hesitation referring to her as a master, even though she is my daughter. I go every month to hear her. Though it is a trek I wouldn't miss it for the world.
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