Comments on: Playing What Is

By: Jessie

Jessie — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:49:44 +0000

Jessie…

I’m a real sucker for anything to do with accelerated learning ideas. Thanks for your post. I’m going to get back into this next month….

By: Garnet

Garnet — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 19:50:57 +0000

rambler- last word. I feel how to make the music great without feeling emotion.

By: rambler

rambler — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 07:25:35 +0000

Perhaps Stravinsky is right. I spend a lot of time without pages, I suppose, different perspective. But I maintain that the written music is just a scientific approximation for what an artist/composer hears… (thanks to the Greeks, and Italians) but music is ephemeral, it is all meant to be interpreted. I believe the role of the performer is to recreate the moment of inspiration when the piece was conceived. Muse-ic, is the work of inspiration and should be conveyed as such. Someone has a vision in it’s reproduction, the conductor, I suppose, in the case of an orchestra. But what about chamber music? There is surely interpretation in that realm… and this is where improvised music and classical music meet.

But in the long run, I defer to you, Garnet, since you sit in the trenches day in and out, where I bounce around like a butterfly. Perhaps we are really talking about the degree of art vs craft, hmmm?

By: Garnet

Garnet — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 06:30:00 +0000

Thanks, rambler- I like the meal metaphor. “He doesnâ€™t have to digest it because he made it.” I often weep at great music making, but I can’t do that in performance. Yes, I do put my soul into the show, but then I often miss some technical details. It’s like a puppeteer, who runs the emotion of the character from above. I feel, but at a distance.
And yes, there’s still satisfaction at having played well regardless of the audiences reaction. (my colleagues usually take up the slack)

I also think Stravinsky had a good point when he said in his “Poetics of Music” that the performer should play what’s on the page with great integrity and nothing more.

By: rambler

rambler — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 06:02:03 +0000

Garnet, you are right, the listener feels something different than the performer, but the performer surely FEELS. It’s the difference between a real magician and a charlatan. A chef creates a masterpiece and serves it, the lucky diners enjoy the fruits of his labor… which is both an art and a craft. He doesn’t have to digest it because he made it. He takes care to make sure the end result is well presented, in a professional manner, made up of excellent ingredients, but it is truly his SOUL which brings the meal, the music to life. If it is just craft, methinks there is no standing ovation. On the other hand, often you can present something with true deep emotion which is not absorbed by your listeners… yet the creation of it should still be satisfying. Where’s Ayn Rand when I need her?

Thank you for your story, you have a unique way of telling and one can’t help but have their own thoughts bubble up while reading you.