Listening to Mozart and Musicality in Playing

[allegroamabile]

I felt for a while that my musicality and phrasing was very intervalic, which was probably because of the music that I choose to listen to and influence me. My teacher advocated listening to more Mozart, which has helped me become much more linear in my phrasing. Has Mozart's music help any of you with these concepts in music playing and how so?

[steltz]

Short answer - yes it has. Longer answer -- try also to decide what is the "long" phrase, and choose a "pivot" note within it (I think this concept may have been central to Farkas' horn teaching, but I'm not sure). The pivot note is the note to which you crescendo, or move forward. The pivot note gets the most stress, or at least is the top of the crescendo, and the rest of the phrase is the release of the stress, i.e. the falling away or diminuendo.

This won't work for all phrases, but it does get you to think linearly (not sure that's a word . . .).

Another saying that works well -- and someone please insert who should be credited, because I don't remember any more -- is that a phrase contains one note, but that note has many pitches in it! (You might have to think a little bit about that in order to get it.)

[allegroamabile]

She also stressed today in studio class that baroque music can help with musical control of tempo. Did I catch what she was saying correctly?

[steltz]

When I did my Master of Music degree at USC, a required postgrad course for everyone, including trombone and tuba players, was Baroque Interpretation, taught by Malcolm Hamilton, a renowned harpsichord player. I thought it was going to be a useless class for me, but it turned out to be one of the best classes ever. Your teacher is right, but it's more than just tempo control -- it's also learning to feel ebb and flow of tension in the most simple of harmonic passages. Get out those Bach transcriptions!!

[allegroamabile]

Yes, she also stressed that when two were playing Telemann's Canonic Duets, and then she mentioned Bach transcriptions. A little off topic, but curious, at USC did you study with Yehuda Gilad or David Howard?

[steltz]

Yehuda and I were fellow students there -- shows my age ). We studied with Mitchell Lurie.

[Philidor]

The pivot note is the note to which you crescendo, or move forward. The pivot note gets the most stress, or at least is the top of the crescendo, and the rest of the phrase is the release of the stress, i.e. the falling away or diminuendo

Unless those and similar techniques are used in baroque and classical music it's just so boring to play and listen to. A related technique which I believe is mentioned in the Treatises (Quantz & CPE Bach?):

1. In 4/4 time use rubato to group beats 2 & 3 and 4 & 1, extending the 2nd and 4th beats so you land with emphasis on the 3rd and 1st.

2. In 3/4 time, group the 3rd and the 1st, landing with emphasis on the 1st.

It can be overdone, of course, but if carefully deployed the technique gives a piece a sort of internal dynamo, driving it forward, giving it a constant tension, getting the audience on the edge of their seats. Particularly powerful in Telemann & Vivaldi.