I have the firm belief that there is no inherited talent for music; therefore, we could make a child become either an excellent musician or a tone-deaf person according to the law of ability and principle of the life force activity.
If we do not educate at all, the child will learn nothing. For instance, the talent for music can only be had by cultivating it and can not be achieved by itself. This is my conviction.
If music talent could be acquired naturally, the cultural history of mankind would have been quite different, I am sure.
If a newly bor baby is played a record of a Vivaldi violin concerto every day whenever it cries, the baby will have learned the concerto well after four or five months. The same thing is true if the baby is brought up listening to a Bach concerto.
This method of training is being put into practice today everywhere in Japan.
This fact entirely demolishes the common-sense notions that we have long held about the inborn talents of human beings, since it proves that there is no such thing as a person literally born with a special aptitude, such as an inborn talent for music.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Guitar Sheet Music - Tarrega, Gran Vals
I think almost everybody has heard the famous Nokia tune. It seems as it was the first remarkable ring tone from those times of first mobiles.
I was a bit surprised, when I’d found out, that this is a fragment of Gran Vals by Francisco Tárrega. This piece was written by composer in 1902. A virtuoso guitarist himself, Tárrega is considered as a musician who promoted a classical guitar. His guitar compositions are often performed in recitals and stand first in the guitar repertoire. You may download Gran Vals of Tárrega as many other guitar sheet music, and play these famous measures yourself. If you haven't got which measures I am talking about, see the picture.
Though many composers have written and are continuously writing nice guitar pieces, there is no as much sheet music for the guitar as for the piano. Especially nowadays, it is quite difficult to find some really interesting piece of classical genres, which can be of interest for modern public. And this concerns not guitar only. In the piano repertoire the situation with contemporary music does not look favorable too, as it is very difficult to find new expressive methods nowadays. It is often too difficult for contemporary composers to strike a happy medium between complexity and primitive keeping large scale of expressiveness.
I was a bit surprised, when I’d found out, that this is a fragment of Gran Vals by Francisco Tárrega. This piece was written by composer in 1902. A virtuoso guitarist himself, Tárrega is considered as a musician who promoted a classical guitar. His guitar compositions are often performed in recitals and stand first in the guitar repertoire. You may download Gran Vals of Tárrega as many other guitar sheet music, and play these famous measures yourself. If you haven't got which measures I am talking about, see the picture.
Though many composers have written and are continuously writing nice guitar pieces, there is no as much sheet music for the guitar as for the piano. Especially nowadays, it is quite difficult to find some really interesting piece of classical genres, which can be of interest for modern public. And this concerns not guitar only. In the piano repertoire the situation with contemporary music does not look favorable too, as it is very difficult to find new expressive methods nowadays. It is often too difficult for contemporary composers to strike a happy medium between complexity and primitive keeping large scale of expressiveness.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Etude
Once I had to do research in which I interviewed a great number of children from seven to twelve years, who learned to play different instruments. One of the questions I asked was: "Do you like to play etudes?" Some children answered, that they had not played etudes yet, others said that it wouldn’t make any difference to them whether they played an etude or any other piece. But most of them answered that they like to play neither etudes, nor exercises.
What is the reason for such an aversion to compositions of this type? The etudes, which are played by the novice musicians, have many negatives. A lot of etudes don’t have a figurative content. The theme for such an etude is nothing more than a simple melody, performed in the appropriate technique. The uniformity of the texture doesn’t promote the development of the child’s imagination. The expressive tools are limited to a few piano or forte and ritenuto between the middle part and the reprise. At the same time the sheet music of etudes is full of complex elements. The etude becomes faceless, non-emotional for the child. It turns into a mechanically performed burden, like a walk through the desert with a bag of stones on your back.
The question arises why musicians have to play etudes? Perhaps, they do it to learn to perform and improve the quality of a certain type of technique of performing. Meanwhile, one important point is missing. Why do you have to learn the new techniques? Of course, to gain the skills for a variety of compositions. Often, we are able to perform an etude correctly, based on some technique. Problems appear, when that same technique is applied in a piece. Here techniques are interweaved in the musical context of the piece, have a content, the musician must express in his performance, embodying the imagination, whereas playing etudes, many musicians play the appropriate notes without thinking about any expressiveness.
But we must keep in mind, an etude is also a musical work and at the heart of any piece of music is an idea. It is very important to teach the beginner to treat etudes like a concert pieces, which he has to play not only quickly, but also expressively. It goes without saying that the teacher has to select carefully etudes and exercises, selecting the most interesting from a musical point of view. If the etude becomes a music composition of full value for a student, which excersising he will be interested in, the work on the technical skills will be an additional bonus to the exciting study of the music world.
What is the reason for such an aversion to compositions of this type? The etudes, which are played by the novice musicians, have many negatives. A lot of etudes don’t have a figurative content. The theme for such an etude is nothing more than a simple melody, performed in the appropriate technique. The uniformity of the texture doesn’t promote the development of the child’s imagination. The expressive tools are limited to a few piano or forte and ritenuto between the middle part and the reprise. At the same time the sheet music of etudes is full of complex elements. The etude becomes faceless, non-emotional for the child. It turns into a mechanically performed burden, like a walk through the desert with a bag of stones on your back.
The question arises why musicians have to play etudes? Perhaps, they do it to learn to perform and improve the quality of a certain type of technique of performing. Meanwhile, one important point is missing. Why do you have to learn the new techniques? Of course, to gain the skills for a variety of compositions. Often, we are able to perform an etude correctly, based on some technique. Problems appear, when that same technique is applied in a piece. Here techniques are interweaved in the musical context of the piece, have a content, the musician must express in his performance, embodying the imagination, whereas playing etudes, many musicians play the appropriate notes without thinking about any expressiveness.
But we must keep in mind, an etude is also a musical work and at the heart of any piece of music is an idea. It is very important to teach the beginner to treat etudes like a concert pieces, which he has to play not only quickly, but also expressively. It goes without saying that the teacher has to select carefully etudes and exercises, selecting the most interesting from a musical point of view. If the etude becomes a music composition of full value for a student, which excersising he will be interested in, the work on the technical skills will be an additional bonus to the exciting study of the music world.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Great pianists. Ferruccio Busoni, part 4
Details of Phrasing and Accentuation
"Some students look upon phrasing as a detail that can be postponed until other supposedly more important things are accomplished. The very musical meaning of any composition depends upon the correct understanding and delivery of the phrases which make that composition. To neglect the phrases would be about as sensible as it would be for the great actor to neglect the proper thought division in the interpretation of his lines. The greatest masterpiece of dramatic literature whether it be Romeo and Juliet, Antigone, La Malade Imaginaire or The Doll's House becomes nonsense if the thought divisions indicated by the verbal phrases are not carefully determined and expressed".
"Great actors spend hours and hours seeking for the best method of expressing the author's meaning. No pianist of ability would think of giving less careful attention to phrasing. How stupid it would be for the actor to add a word that concluded one sentence to the beginning of the next sentence. How erroneous then is it for the pupil to add the last note of one phrase to the beginning of the next phrase.
Phrasing is anything but a detail".
"Fine phrasing depends first upon a knowledge of music which enables one to define the limitations of the phrase and then upon a knowledge of pianoforte playing which enables one to execute it properly. Phrasing is closely allied to the subject of accentuation and both subjects are intimately connected with that of fingering. Without the proper fingers it is often impossible to execute certain phrases correctly. Generally, the accents are considered of importance because they are supposed to fall in certain set parts of given measures, thus indicating the meter".
"In instructing very young pupils it may be necessary to lead them to believe that the time must be marked in a definite manner by such accents, but as the pupil advances he must understand that the measure divisions are inserted principally for the purpose of enabling him to read easily. He should learn to look upon each piece of music as a beautiful tapestry in which the main consideration is the principal design of the work as a whole and not the invisible marking threads which the manufacturer is obliged to put in the loom in order to have a structure upon which the tapestry may be woven".
"Some students look upon phrasing as a detail that can be postponed until other supposedly more important things are accomplished. The very musical meaning of any composition depends upon the correct understanding and delivery of the phrases which make that composition. To neglect the phrases would be about as sensible as it would be for the great actor to neglect the proper thought division in the interpretation of his lines. The greatest masterpiece of dramatic literature whether it be Romeo and Juliet, Antigone, La Malade Imaginaire or The Doll's House becomes nonsense if the thought divisions indicated by the verbal phrases are not carefully determined and expressed".
"Great actors spend hours and hours seeking for the best method of expressing the author's meaning. No pianist of ability would think of giving less careful attention to phrasing. How stupid it would be for the actor to add a word that concluded one sentence to the beginning of the next sentence. How erroneous then is it for the pupil to add the last note of one phrase to the beginning of the next phrase.
Phrasing is anything but a detail".
"Fine phrasing depends first upon a knowledge of music which enables one to define the limitations of the phrase and then upon a knowledge of pianoforte playing which enables one to execute it properly. Phrasing is closely allied to the subject of accentuation and both subjects are intimately connected with that of fingering. Without the proper fingers it is often impossible to execute certain phrases correctly. Generally, the accents are considered of importance because they are supposed to fall in certain set parts of given measures, thus indicating the meter".
"In instructing very young pupils it may be necessary to lead them to believe that the time must be marked in a definite manner by such accents, but as the pupil advances he must understand that the measure divisions are inserted principally for the purpose of enabling him to read easily. He should learn to look upon each piece of music as a beautiful tapestry in which the main consideration is the principal design of the work as a whole and not the invisible marking threads which the manufacturer is obliged to put in the loom in order to have a structure upon which the tapestry may be woven".
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Great pianists. Ferruccio Busoni, part 3
FINDING INDIVIDUAL FAULTS
"I trust that my experience will set some ambitious piano students to thinking and that they may be benefited by it. There is always a way of correcting deficiencies if the way can only be found. The first thing, however, is to recognize the detail itself and then to realize that instead of being a detail it is a matter of vast importance until it has been conquered and brought into submission. In playing, always note where your difficulties seem to lie. Then, when advisable, isolate those difficulties
and practice them separately. This is the manner in which all good technical exercises are devised".
"Your own difficulty is the difficulty which you should practice most. Why waste time in practicing passages which you can play perfectly well? One player may have difficulty in playing trills, while to another player of equal general musical ability trills may be perfectly easy. In playing arpeggios, however, the difficulties which prove obstacles to the players may be entirely reversed. The one who could play the trill perfectly might not be able, under any circumstance, to play an arpeggio with the requisite smoothness and true legato demanded, while
the student who found the trill impossible possesses the ability to run arpeggios and cadenzas with the fluency of a forest rivulet".
"All technical exercises must be given to the pupil with great discretion and judgment just as poisonous medicines must be administered to the patient with
great care. The indiscriminate giving of technical exercises may impede progress rather than advance the pupil. Simply because an exercise happens to come in a certain position in a book of technical exercises is no reason why the particular pupil being taught needs that exercise at that particular time. Some exercises which are not feasible and others which are inexpedient at a certain time, may prove
invaluable later in the pupil's progress".
"Take the famous Tausig exercises, for instance. Tausig was a master of technic who had few, if any, equals in his time. His exercises are for the most part very ingenious and useful to advanced players, but when some of them are transposed into other keys as their composer demands they become practically impossible to play with the proper touch, etc. Furthermore, one would be very unlikely to find a passage demanding such a technical feat in the compositions of any of the great masters of the piano. Consequently, such exercises are of no practical value and would only be demanded by a teacher with more respect for tradition than common sense".
"I trust that my experience will set some ambitious piano students to thinking and that they may be benefited by it. There is always a way of correcting deficiencies if the way can only be found. The first thing, however, is to recognize the detail itself and then to realize that instead of being a detail it is a matter of vast importance until it has been conquered and brought into submission. In playing, always note where your difficulties seem to lie. Then, when advisable, isolate those difficulties
and practice them separately. This is the manner in which all good technical exercises are devised".
"Your own difficulty is the difficulty which you should practice most. Why waste time in practicing passages which you can play perfectly well? One player may have difficulty in playing trills, while to another player of equal general musical ability trills may be perfectly easy. In playing arpeggios, however, the difficulties which prove obstacles to the players may be entirely reversed. The one who could play the trill perfectly might not be able, under any circumstance, to play an arpeggio with the requisite smoothness and true legato demanded, while
the student who found the trill impossible possesses the ability to run arpeggios and cadenzas with the fluency of a forest rivulet".
"All technical exercises must be given to the pupil with great discretion and judgment just as poisonous medicines must be administered to the patient with
great care. The indiscriminate giving of technical exercises may impede progress rather than advance the pupil. Simply because an exercise happens to come in a certain position in a book of technical exercises is no reason why the particular pupil being taught needs that exercise at that particular time. Some exercises which are not feasible and others which are inexpedient at a certain time, may prove
invaluable later in the pupil's progress".
"Take the famous Tausig exercises, for instance. Tausig was a master of technic who had few, if any, equals in his time. His exercises are for the most part very ingenious and useful to advanced players, but when some of them are transposed into other keys as their composer demands they become practically impossible to play with the proper touch, etc. Furthermore, one would be very unlikely to find a passage demanding such a technical feat in the compositions of any of the great masters of the piano. Consequently, such exercises are of no practical value and would only be demanded by a teacher with more respect for tradition than common sense".
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Great pianists. Ferruccio Busoni, part 2
SELF DEVELOPMENT
"In my own development as an artist it has been made evident to me, time and time again, that success comes from the careful observance of details. All students should strive to estimate their own artistic ability very accurately. A wrong estimate always leads to a dangerous condition. If I had failed to attend to certain details many years ago, I would have stopped very far short of anything like success".
"I remember that when I concluded my term as professor of piano at the New England Conservatory of Music I was very conscious of certain deficiencies in my style. Notwithstanding the fact that I had been accepted as a virtuoso in Europe and in America and had toured with great orchestras such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, I knew better than anyone else that there were certain details in my playing thta I could not affort to neglect".
"For instance, I knew that my method of playing the trill could be greatly improved and I also knew that I lacked force and endurance in certain passages. Fortunately, although a comparatively young man, I was not deceived by the flattery of ellmeaning,
but incapable critics, who were quite willing to convince me that my playing was as perfect as it was possible to make it. Every seeker of artistic truth is more widely awake to his own deficiencies than any of his critics could possibly be".
"Take the famous Tausig exercises, for instance. Tausig was a master of technic who had few, if any, equals in his time. His exercises are for the most part very ingenious and useful to advanced players, but when some of them are transposed into other keys as their composer demands they become practically impossible to play with the proper touch, etc. Furthermore, one would be very unlikely to find a passage demanding such a technical feat in the compositions of any of the great masters of the piano. Consequently, such exercises are of no practical value and would only be demanded by a teacher with more respect for tradition than common sense".
"In my own development as an artist it has been made evident to me, time and time again, that success comes from the careful observance of details. All students should strive to estimate their own artistic ability very accurately. A wrong estimate always leads to a dangerous condition. If I had failed to attend to certain details many years ago, I would have stopped very far short of anything like success".
"I remember that when I concluded my term as professor of piano at the New England Conservatory of Music I was very conscious of certain deficiencies in my style. Notwithstanding the fact that I had been accepted as a virtuoso in Europe and in America and had toured with great orchestras such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, I knew better than anyone else that there were certain details in my playing thta I could not affort to neglect".
"For instance, I knew that my method of playing the trill could be greatly improved and I also knew that I lacked force and endurance in certain passages. Fortunately, although a comparatively young man, I was not deceived by the flattery of ellmeaning,
but incapable critics, who were quite willing to convince me that my playing was as perfect as it was possible to make it. Every seeker of artistic truth is more widely awake to his own deficiencies than any of his critics could possibly be".
"Take the famous Tausig exercises, for instance. Tausig was a master of technic who had few, if any, equals in his time. His exercises are for the most part very ingenious and useful to advanced players, but when some of them are transposed into other keys as their composer demands they become practically impossible to play with the proper touch, etc. Furthermore, one would be very unlikely to find a passage demanding such a technical feat in the compositions of any of the great masters of the piano. Consequently, such exercises are of no practical value and would only be demanded by a teacher with more respect for tradition than common sense".
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Great Pianists. Ferruccio Busoni
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DETAIL
Ferruccio Busoni
"In fine piano playing all of the details are important. I do not mean to say that if one were in another room that one could invariably tell the ability of an artist by hearing him strike one note, but if the note is heard in relation to the other notes in a composition, its proportionate value should be so delicately and artistically estimated by the highly trained performer, that it forms part of the artistic whole."
"For instance, it is quite easy to conceive of compositions demanding a very smooth running performance in which one jarring or harsh note indicating faulty artistic calculation upon the part of the player would ruin the entire interpretation. As
examples of this one might cite the Bach Choral Vorspiel, Nun Freut euch, of which I have made an arrangement, and such a composition as the Chopin Prelude Opus 28, No.3, with its running accompaniment in the left hand."
"It is often perfection in little things which distinguishes the performance of the great pianist from that of the novice. The novice usually manages to get the so-called main points, but he does not work for the little niceties of interpretation which are almost invariably the defining characteristic of the interpretations of the real artist that is, the performer who has formed the habit of stopping at nothing short of his highest ideal of perfection."
Ferruccio Busoni
"In fine piano playing all of the details are important. I do not mean to say that if one were in another room that one could invariably tell the ability of an artist by hearing him strike one note, but if the note is heard in relation to the other notes in a composition, its proportionate value should be so delicately and artistically estimated by the highly trained performer, that it forms part of the artistic whole."
"For instance, it is quite easy to conceive of compositions demanding a very smooth running performance in which one jarring or harsh note indicating faulty artistic calculation upon the part of the player would ruin the entire interpretation. As
examples of this one might cite the Bach Choral Vorspiel, Nun Freut euch, of which I have made an arrangement, and such a composition as the Chopin Prelude Opus 28, No.3, with its running accompaniment in the left hand."
"It is often perfection in little things which distinguishes the performance of the great pianist from that of the novice. The novice usually manages to get the so-called main points, but he does not work for the little niceties of interpretation which are almost invariably the defining characteristic of the interpretations of the real artist that is, the performer who has formed the habit of stopping at nothing short of his highest ideal of perfection."
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