Klarinet Archive - Posting 000220.txt from 2005/06

From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Bounced babies
Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 11:52:52 -0400

On 12 Jun, Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net> wrote:

> Tony Pay wrote:
>
> > I did a bit more introspection:-) and came to the conclusion that there
> > is an auditory component to my internal pulse, too. So, it's a mixture
> > of kinaesthetic, visual and auditory components, and a mixture that seems
> > to be spread out over a short time duration, with a sort of centre of
> > gravity in the middle that determines a precise instant. Importantly, I
> > feel, it isn't at all associated with any bodily movement.
>
> But it can be *affected* by bodily movement, no? I mean, I'm willing to
> bet that there are certain movements you don't make when you play
> because they would disturb this sense. And in the case of difficulty
> with complex rhythms it wouldn't surprise me if part of that difficulty
> has something to do with the discrepancy between the physical movement
> being required. For example, if you're doing seven crotchets in the
> space of 4, in practise your fingers are going at one pulse while your
> internal sense is going at another.

What I want to say about that is something like, you can make movements of
that sort provided they aren't 'louder' than the pulse;-) That's usually a
matter of practice, which has the effect that the movements, being in memory,
don't need to be so consciously executed.

Another issue is that pulse needs to be capable of being continually updated
by musical events. It's no use continuing with your pulse if the pianist has
made a small ritardando before continuing with the next bar. In fact, that's
one of the main reasons why physical movement is rather a bad pulse keeper,
because you have to interrupt something that has its own inertia to make the
update.

> Then there are other things. We've all had the experience of trying to
> play a passage up to tempo and finding our fingers haven't got the hang of
> it yet (this happens often to people like me who combine technical
> deficiency with a lot of impatience:-). The moment you hit the difficult
> passage, often the sense of pulse goes out the window---the speed at which
> your fingers are trying to move takes over your mind. Of course, usually
> you *realize* you've lost the plot, but it's nevertheless true that there
> are lots of stimuli which disturb the internal pulse. I would imagine that
> a lot of the development of this sense consists of being able to keep the
> pulse going *even in the presence of these sorts of disturbance*.

Yes, that's the other side of the above. You want to keep the pulse going in
the face of some events, and adjust it in the face of others. A conductor
has to do both of these things and also *represent* the pulse, of course.

By the way, we're speaking as though it's simply a question of a 'steady'
pulse. But in more complex music, eg Stravinsky and well beyond that, you
need to have much more sophisticated frameworks at your disposal, and be able
to play across even those. (Think what you have to do to play Ferneyhough,
for example. Though of course, he's TRYING to screw you. "This piece is an
attempt to make palpable the positive structure of doubt." [BF, 'Transit'.])

> So, maybe a good way to try developing the inner pulse would be along
> the lines of the sort of thing they do in the BBC quiz show "I'm Sorry,
> I Haven't Got a Clue", which consists of the contestant starting to sing
> along with some music, then the music vanishes, and then it comes back
> in later---and they get points if they are still in time. Imagine
> setting up something like that with silences initially short, then
> getting longer and longer, and maybe beginning to include long rests for
> the player *during the period of silence*---you dig?
>
> Then you might build in extra disturbances so as to try to train the
> player to be able to filter out the kind of distractions that can occur
> during performance....

Could be. Though I suspect that that's an extreme of what we're talking
about. Local flexibility/immunity seems to be the more useful thing to aim
at.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd tony.p@-----.org
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

... Me, indecisive? I don't think I am, do you?

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