Player Piano Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

To re-create the music that we perform as truly as possible without fear of being individual and original on the stage – accomplishing the balance between these two, sometimes conflicting interpretative "aspirations", we would have attained the mastery, the essence of the performing art. How the music performer wants to sound the work, what is his own ideal for the piece that he re-creates – this is a strictly personal decision and is usually the result of a prolonged process, representing the individual interaction of thoughts, feelings, states, perceptions, imagination, musical abilities, erudition, artist's life experience, all of which influence what he/she is able to detect in the work.
The exciting process of building the performer’s concept for the musical work, the own interpretation of the piece, as well as many and various methods for enlarging the interpreter's horizon and enriching the concept for the particular work are examined and supported by examples in this book. Many of these approaches can be used by all performers, others are specifically applicable by pianists.
After the introduction and formulation of the research aims, the third section of the book examines and comments on the research of various authors on the neurophysiological and psychological foundations of the process of formation of the performer's concept. The selection and the ordering of these studies throws light on the very essence of the creative process.
In the fourth section are concerned the problems of the responsibility of the interpreter for the means of expression that are at his disposal. Grounded is the need of considering these means not in isolation but in their combinations, as from the vast amount of possible combinations of means are choosed the optimally suitable for re-creating the author's and performer's idea. Suggested there are also ideas for accumulating style culture and performer's erudition.
The fifth section is the most extensive and versatile. In it are described a large number of unconventional methods for enriching the pianist-performer's concept. Some of these methods, such as performing of the piece in another musical instrument, typing of a fragment from the work or of the whole work in a computer program for note writing, have not been used so far. They are introduced for the first time in this research. Therefore, these methods are discussed in more detail in the book. Others, such as the arrangement of a clavier piece for a suitable ensemble of performers, the visualization of a musical image and the dramatization of a clavier work, are used in the methodology of piano sketchily, usually on a separate music theme or small fragment, and especially in the form of imagery comparisons offered by the educator (for example, in Etude op. 25 No. 7 of Fr. Chopin the notion of imitation the thimbre of the cello, is used to improve the cantilene legato of the pianist). In the present work they are deployed as independent methods for enriching and deepening the performer's perusal of a musical piece. Method of using a school video, I tested in the general school for the purpose of explaining a musical form, musical means of expression and insight into the character of a tone work. After developing it as a method for enriching the performer's concept and after conducting an experimental lesson with a student, I described in the book. Well-known methods, such as listening to the performances of notable interpreters, are not considered in detail, but are cited as opportunities to work on the artistic concept.
In order to provide a clearer explanation of how to apply the specific methods and to present factual material to prove the effectiveness of the examined method, I have described lessons that I conducted with students in my class, the specific result on the student's conception of performance, and the reflection of the applied method in the long-term plan – on the development of the stylistic sense and the interpretive imagination of the learners. The description of the conducted lesson gives an opportunity to trace how the particular method is actually applied, how it works. Because these approaches are creative and provoke the students' imagination, work on them, and the results motivate students for additional search for options, for their own attempts. Their attempts are resourceful, interesting, sometimes even daring and lead to a new expansion of the performers' horizon of young interpreters, and when a try fails, it brings different types of benefits - such attempts contribute to sharpening the stylistic sensitivity and reactivity of the learning artists. The methods I use are applicable by instrumentalists with different levels of piano preparation, which is illustrated with relevant musical examples. When the experimental application of a method involves more than one lesson, I have tracked the work on the piece in a series of exercises and, where possible, consider the following experimental tasks that I set for the student. This approach casts even greater clarity on the development of interpreting skills in the students using the methods described in this book.
To each subsection relating to enrichment of the interpretatorial concept is set a rubric, which lists the advantages and disadvantages of suggested in the subsection method. This is done with the purpose for the reader to navigate as quickly as possible in the information and to choose exactly this method, which, under the specific conditions, is the most suitable to the interpreter's task that he or his alumnus fulfills. This is essential because on the choice of the optimally appropriate method depends to the large extent the success of its implementation. The pieces I work on with students in the experimental classes, have very different level of complexity, different style, different character. Many examples are of works by Bulgarian authors. Experiment participants have various specialties and various main musical instrument. What is common is that among students in my class, nobody has the main instrument piano. This again proves that examined methods are applicable by performers with less clavier experience. The specialties and the first instrument of the students are indicated in order to trace their relation to the particular method chosen for application.
Some sections start with motto - inspirational quotes from different creators who can encourage and support young performers in their search for their "I", their originality in interpretive art.