Listening Like a Composer; Holistique Pianism (15)

How do composers actually hear music when they create and shape a piece?

In an AT class a little while ago,

a vague feeling I had been sensing

finally became clear.

So I though

tI should put it into words.

Once something becomes clear,

more things start to attach themselves to it

and it keeps expanding.

So I want to let it circulate.

Interpretation, much like expression.

Few topics ignite arguments

as quickly as these do.

Not only in music,

not only in art,

but probably in almost every topic

in the world.

Child-rearing,

education,

economics,

politics,

and so on.

Doesn’t that come to mind?

So when it comes to interpretation,

my view is simply

as you like.

Because everyone is different.

And returning to music.

When we say interpretation,

I feel it might simply be

the passion

to understand the work.

You could call it love.

You could call it curiosity.

Depending on where that perspective sits,

there are many tools available.

Things we learned at school.

Music history,

theory,

counterpoint,

and so on.

At one time I also thought

that using those tools

might be the fastest way.

Because they are the tools of composition,

so perhaps they could bring us closer

to the reasons the composer used them.

And I do think that is true.

Especially when it comes to autograph manuscripts.

Sometimes they are fascinating.

I once saw how a composer used

the very paper with the staff lines

almost like a map.

And I thought,

oh, so that’s how it works.

It surprised me.

That made me interested in manuscripts,

so I tried digging into them a little.

But since I do not have

a composer’s soul,

in the end I simply could not understand them.

Playing the piece

and entering through the sound

is overwhelmingly clearer.

And most of the timeit is not off the mark.

I do not think this is only me.

It is something everyone feels.

If we pick that up properly,

I believe we can always get closer

to the core of the piece.

In that place,

things like music theory

or harmonic analysis,

those detailed realities

are not necessarily decisive.

But then the question becomes

how?

That question mark

has been with me

over the past decade

since finding my way back to the piano.

And just now I suddenly thought

maybe this is the only way.

Granados.

Born at the end of the nineteenth century,

a composer of the twentieth century,

you might say.

Stylistically romantic

rather than modern.

But the form is hard to grasp.

The harmony endlessly complicated.

The melodies repeat.

And then

who are you?

Questions like that

keep rising up.

Of course I had the thought

if I simply learned one of his pieces,

I would eventually understand.

But that never quite became

a conviction.

It did not fully land.

Recently my practice has been focusing on

movement

and

harmony.

Perhaps my ears suddenly opened

during the basic course

on the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Variations.

Within a single beat

there can be several chords.

Even if they are inversions

of the same harmony,

when the position of the notes changes

the resonance changes.

Something Chopin loved.

When I realized

that Mozart was listening to that,

it was a shock.

Who am I to say anything

in front of such a genius.

But that is why

I started trying to hear

each harmonic change

one by one.

Goyescas

is written in such a complicated way

that it seems difficult to understand.

But when you play it,

you know that is not really the case.

Yet if I try to explain it

through theory,

my brain simply is not enough.

It overheats.

Still,

somehow I can sense

that the whole piece

is already there

in the first two measures.

And apparently

he even began composingfrom the second piece.

Which means

the elements here

are developed

throughout all of Goyescas.

At least

they should be.

The opening and the ending connect.

Or rather,

the second piece ends

with the same material.

That part is unmistakable.

But if the feeling of

I know this

does not drop into place,

it simply becomes

oh, I see,

and that is the end.

I have a rather decisive personality.

So I gave up

and started tasting

each harmony

one by one.

And suddenly I understood.

Ah,

this is how he was listening.

Music is sound,

so perhaps it is obvious.

But composers

were thinking in sound.

I finally understood that.

That is what I wanted to say,

and I ended up writing all of this.

Conviction.

So in the end,

interpretation

is simply

how I hear it.

Because we listen

and feel,

playing as we like

is probably

the best way. 😉

These reflections connect with other explorations of listening, movement, and musical perception in piano playing.

Related reflections

• Mind, Thinking and the Body

• Playing the Piano with Relaxation

• Expression: What You Sense, What I Sense 

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These reflections grow out of ongoing work at the piano, in teaching, and in performance.