It is so interesting when asking a small chamber group to think of certain things and to see what generally happens to the music and of course them.
When asking a group to blend, the dynamic gets softer.
When asking a group to listen to pitch, the music gets very dry and tentative.
When asking a group to play with a resonant sound, the dynamic gets louder.
When asking a group to play with better time, articulation gets cleaner and so does the group beginnings of each note.
When asking a group to focus on pitch and blend, the tempo gets slower.
These are some things I've noticed for a long time and it says something about what happens to the person when they focus on individual aspects or 2 at a time. It is really says something about group and individual tendencies. When asked then to just focus on the spirit of the music, the technique in groups that do not have a clearly defined musical agreement on what the piece is about, starts to fall apart. I'm going to experiment with these things more.
I love this series Norman!
ReplyDeleteThis one is somewhat related to a thought that's been forming in my mind about "separation of powers."
So often, one thing seems to naturally come with another - such as hard articulations with loud dynamics and vice versa - and a big part of refining one's skills is cultivating the ability to change only the aspects one intends to.