 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: John
Date: 2002-05-12 00:16
i cannot stand it when people play music without an emotion going through them, feeling the music. i guess in the professional world you have many/most/all players who play with emotion because they feel what the composer had in mind, or atleast hold their own interpretation and play based on it. but in high school it seems so many/most of the people don't have a clue as to what playing with emotion means. it's not as simple as a swell in a phrase or a certain articulation. it's something far deeper but so few people can even truly grasp it.
must be all that rappy rap g dawg bling bling homie home slice music
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2002-05-12 01:32
Or perhaps just musical maturity, which takes years to develop (if it does at all). Most students at the high school level are way too young to have had the experience and experiences necessary for deep music.
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Author: Pam
Date: 2002-05-12 01:49
Sometimes playing from the heart can be taught but probably only after a person has reached a certain "musical maturity" in their playing ability. My private teacher is always telling me to play from the heart and a lot of times I can. He's also told me about some of his previous students that can play very well technically but just cannot put any feeling into their music. Maybe, for reasons unknown to me, some people can play from the heart and some can't even if they are quite skilled. I can't imagine really enjoying the music without putting some emotion into it.
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Author: Kim L.
Date: 2002-05-12 02:48
Sometimes experiences we have cause us to play emotionally. As said in earlier posts, high school students have not reached a certain point in their lives to allow them to play emotionally. As they go through experiences, i.e. someone in their family dies, emotion will be heard through their playing. Sometimes, students do not know how to feel the music and can never play emotionally, not to say they never will. Some people just do not possess the musicianship that will allow them to play to play with emotion.
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Author: John
Date: 2002-05-12 03:23
I guess i'm not like most high school students then. but I see what you mean; i played tichelli's "amazing grace" a few years ago and it meant absolutely nothing to me. a few years go by, things happen, and now i can hardly get through it without a tear coming to mine eyes.
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Author: Julie
Date: 2002-05-13 00:15
middle school bands play with no emotion and it drives me crazy... i hate being part of that bunch of idiots (no offence to anyone, but the people at my school ARE idiots)
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2002-05-13 10:46
Warm heart and cool head. This was said by a famous British economist(Alfred Marshall?). But it is applicable to music playing too.This was especially so when I watched Heifetz playing Bach's Partita on CBS TV programme many years ago just before he retired.
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Author: DougR
Date: 2002-05-15 03:49
BUT, and here's a big BUT--are you saying the player's emotion helps communicate the music to the listener?? I'm not so sure. I'm thinking of a blind test that was done at a prominent music school (I read about this, by the way, in 'The Inner Game of Music,' an invaluable book). In the experiment, a (I can't remember the specific instrument, but let's say) a cellist played a piece twice.
The fist time, he/she was told to play with as much emotion as possible, be as expressive as possible, get carried away by the music as much as possible. At the end of the selection, everyone agreed it was wonderfully played.
The second time, the instructions were whispered so no one could hear. And this time, the music shone and soared, the audience couldn't believe how much more expressive and moving and glorious the performance was. Everything was clear; the contrasts were amazing, the emotion seemed much more clear as well.
The whispered instructions? "Play the piece like a computer: make each forte the most perfect forte ever, observe each articulation at exactly 100% of what it should be; be computerlike in observing note lengths, crescendoes and diminuendoes, tempo makings, etc.-- and play with no emotion whatsoever."
Not that one shouldn't play with emotion; that's part of what makes music so fulfilling. But, to me, before that should come a rigorous and scrupulous observance of the composer's markings. Because sometimes, in fact, emotion can make things LESS clear, rather than more so. And sometimes, maybe, it's enough to just "show up," play the piece rigorously literally, and let the composer speak for him or herself. (again, maybe not as much fun for the player, but the player doesn't get trapped in contrived emotion for effects' sake either).
Any thoughts?
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Author: David Dow Symphony NB
Date: 2002-05-19 16:16
Interesting topic and muck a subject of debate among musicoligists as well as players...interesting when I was younger the emotional quality of playing was much sought after and this in the early 80s. I'm not that old, but one thing is for certain there is a variety of musical tempermants out there and sometimes they reflect the values of our society and where it is going. For certain Western Art Music is on a decline, Brahms and Mozart are not the norm when you compare it to Vanilla Ice and all that sort of thing, but within a broader context just as valid and if not more so. The tradition behind Art Music per se has been rooted in Church and Family, and despite the move from music from church to the home in the mid 1700s with the advent of the piano by the 1850s we really have here one of the cornerstones of our western ways. Much of our music is rooted in the desire to look upwards and inward and therefore it is a deeply rooted personal experience for everyone. when music is enjoyable it may speak on many levels..for example the Requiem of Mozart says things about death and life and therefore should and has to be an emotional experience...the clarinet player then has to realize that the emotion has to be imparted through our performance and also our technique must reflect intention and desire to speak on a metaphysical and emotional context. In recent years the music schools are just popping out technicians and this will also never do as well...the tradition of performing also must be part of a broader way of reflecting our humanity and sympathy for our fellow mankind/humankind. The disaster is that the world is in a defintive bind and music is one of the things that make our world much easier to take....sadly musicians are sometimes only reflecting the value of the worldly by the useless pursuit of endless technique which has to be tempered with artisty and musicality. Music is a reflection of what all of hopefully value and that is beauty and peace. How does this relate to the clarinet? In every eway that can be imagined.
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