On 17 Mar 2010 at 11:14, Darcy James Argue wrote: > The other, more fundamental, problem is a lack of emotional connection to > the beat, which is endemic in classical circles. It's changing -- the > generation of classically-trained players in their 20's and 30's is *much* > better about this, judging by NYC new music circles at least -- but for > the most part, older orchestral players are incapable of playing music > that demands rhythmic authority or the ability to control placement in > relation to a regular pulse. They don't hear it and they don't feel it. > But it's hard to swing if you can't play four consistent quarter notes in > a row.
I would say that the problem you've described quite eloquently is the reason so many traditional classical musicians can't play their *own* repertory in a way that is the slightest bit interesting. I hate to slag my own alma mater, but last night I listened to the Pipe Dreams broadcast for the week, which features a 2006 Bach birthday celebration from Oberlin (http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/). The performances by the students (not all on organ) sound timid and careful, as though someone advised them to take no risks since it was a radio broadcast. A few are very, very good, but most are just not interesting, even though there's an awful lot of beautiful stuff going on at the small- scale phrasing and articulation level. A perfect example of not getting it is clear from comparing the two continuo pieces, the first an aria from a Bach cantata, the second a trio sonata (not necessarily by Bach, actually). There is just no comparison -- the two continuo players in the first are wooden, contributing nothing at all to the forward movement of the piece (in fact, holding it back, I'd argue), while the second continuo group is the best part of the performance, tons of nuance and forward movement throughout (though in that case, the poor harpsichordist is almost inaudible), while the two mis-matched violins have some lovely moments, but little in the way of large-scale momentum. Some of the pieces played on the concert are incredibly exciting and wild on paper, but you wouldn't know it from the way these students perform it. I don't know if my memory is faulty or not, but back in my day, the playing was messier, but there was a lot more risk taking so that performances were lively and *exciting*. Notes were missed, but the music wasn't. And it's rhythm that's the issue here when you're talking about an instrument that can't do anything with loud/soft note-to-note. It's all about articulations, agogics and small-scale rhythmic adjustments to give the illusion of dynamic shape within a line. I was very disappointed. On the other hand, my teaching at NYU (ended in 2002, so not really current) showed me a change in students from rebels against their teachers to compliant sheep who just wanted to know what the teacher wanted. At NYU this also happened at the same time as a quantum leap in the quality of students, and a transition from a glorified commuter school to a near Ivy-level national university. My students in the early 90s didn't know anything about poetry, but they sure knew how they felt about music. My students in my last years of teaching knew all about poetry but didn't have any opinions they were willing to express or argue for. Give me the first batch of students any day! But maybe what I observed was a cultural change and the timid Oberlin student performances are just a very high-level instance of the same thing. In the end, though, I really do think it comes down to rhythm as the thing that makes compelling music making, despite the traditional overemphasis on pitches and harmonies in the way students are taught about music. It is, perhaps, a case where the oral tradition has been lost but the old-fashioned teaching methods that ignored rhythm because students just had it naturally are still used despite the fact the students don't have it any more. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
