DOCSLIB.ORG

Timbre As Discourse

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Timbre As Discourse Timbre as Discourse Contemporary Performance Practice on the Violin Mieko Kanno D. Phil University of York Department of Music February 2001 Abstract Timbre as Discourse: Contemporary Performance Practice on the Violin addresses first the issues of musical timbre that concern our general musical discourse, in order to clarify the foundation upon which we operate our practice of music making — both composition and performance. Our current performance practice, regardless of the historical period of the repertoire concerned, embodies the latest state of the continuum of philosophical developments surrounding music over the centuries. The violin is then taken as a reference point to examine this continuum through its position in the current state of practice. Musical performance raises inevitable questions of contextuality through its reliance on time and space for expression. On the other hand, musical composition has developed to extend beyond the boundary of the traditional notion of performance. Appropriate contextualisation of such manifestations — extended technique and unique notational practices — is sought by examining their effect on the perception of musical timbre. The examination concludes with a discussion on the employment of time and timbre in the context of Xnoybis for violin by Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988) and aims to elucidate issues relevant to the performance practice of new music. 2 Contents Abstract 2 Contents 3 Preface 6 Acknowledgements 8 I. Introduction to the question and framework of timbre 9 1. The fundamental location of timbre in musical discourse 9 What is musical 'content' ? 9 The composition of musical sound 11 The question of identity 14 Issues involved in the concept of timbre 17 Timbre and temporalities 21 Raw-timbre and the role of performer in musical practice 24 2. Timbre as cultural product 30 The influences of society and social 'ideas' 30 The fabric of tradition 33 Views on historicity 37 H. Timbre and composition: the idea of semiology in musical discourse 40 The work of art and its varied representations 40 The question of text 43 Notation in music 46 Contributions of semiology 49 The approach towards musical expression 54 i. Production of music 54 ii. Further production (reproduction) of music 57 The location of semiology 60 Concerning the elements of semiology 62 i. Discussion 62 ii. Example 65 3 III. Controlling timbre 71 1. Towards a pragmatic analysis of the function of some timbral parameters.. 71 The continuity of acoustic identity in varying contexts 71 The identity of a sound, and its timbral parameters and technical actions 74 2. Vibrato 80 Vibrato as an expressive technique 80 Historical examination of vibrato 82 The role of vibrato in the performance practice of new music 88 3. Fingering 97 Fingering technique and timbral parameters 97 Traditional approach 99 Fingering in new music 105 4. Speed and pressure of the bow 112 Functions of the bow on the violin 112 Musical differences offered by changes in the speed and pressure of the bow 113 i. Discussion 113 ii. Examples 118 5. Vertical actions of the bow 129 Varied points of contact and their relationship with the musical context 129 i. Discussion 129 ii. Examples 132 Theexistential instrument 140 IV. Musical notations and their 'code of practice' 144 Rhythmic indeterminacy in Medieval manuscripts: Hermetic semiosis in earlierforms of notations 145 Indeterminacy in indeterminate notation 151 Indeterminacy in action notation 159 Indeterminacy in standard notation 172 Subjective indeterminacy and opportunistic reading 177 V. Sculpting in Time: temporality and the music of Giacinto Scelsi 183 Density of experience 183 4 Xnoybis: the question of musical content 191 Time and movement 194 Xnoybis: time and its perceptual qualities 198 Xnoybis: timbre and multiplicity of representation 202 Performance as a work of art 207 Appendix I 213 Quotations on Vibrato 214 Appendix II 219 Richard Barrett: air — study for violin (1993) 220 Mathias Spahlinger: adieu m'amour for violin and cello (1983) 221 John Cage: Eight Whiskus (1985) 224 Helmut Lachenmann: Toccatina for solo violin (1968) 226 Appendix III 231 Scelsi: Xnoybis for solo violin (1964) — first movement 232 Bibliography 238 5 Preface Increasing specialisation in music has tended to enlarge the separation between the activities of composition, performance and musicology, leading to polarisation. One consequence of this has been a variety of startling technical advances in individual disciplines, where techniques have become refined to an almost esoteric level. However, this development has in some cases progressed at the expense of aesthetic and practical considerations. The growing variety of modern society brings into question whether contemporary musicians really have the necessary training and culture to execute an integrated and artistic performance which recognises the complexity of the music in hand. Specialisation in performance has modified the scope of practice on the violin centring around the works of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the period considered as the golden age of the instrument. The establishment of performance practice in this repertoire around the first half of the twentieth century culminated in several well-known publications on the 'art of violin playing' (these will be discussed in Chapter Three). The principles established at this time are still the basis of modern violin playing. However, this has slowed down further investigation into areas of recently developed musical discourse. It is thought that as composition and musicology develop and diverge, ideas in performance practice ought to change accordingly. The question is therefore why such a development has not influenced performance. The answer lies in the unique circumstance of music whereby performance is the only discipline that deals with a single dimension of time. Assuming that developments in other disciplines in the twentieth century have their foundation in the written form of their medium, this thesis considers first the converging area of musical being (as expressed in the temporal dimension) and then the relationship between composition and performance. Historical and theoretical studies of music may advance the level of understanding of a musical work. The expertise derived from musicological studies may lead to a more informed notion of performance practice, which then deserves to be realised by an appropriate means of execution. However, the investigation into the means of execution has often been left unchallenged. I suggest that this is the 6 most elusive but perhaps the most crucial of all interpretative skills because of its immediate affectivity in performance. Interpretation is a combined act of intellectual and physical understanding. In the end what is at stake is creativity, since the lack of such aggregate skills may restrict an imaginative space. Hence this thesis approaches the question of musical timbre, the nucleus of energy which projects music in space and time, as a process towards understanding the network of relationships between all levels of interpretation. Although cross-disciplinary studies have been developing in recent years, certain areas of the repertoire are left behind, such as the music of today. Indeed, performance practice in contemporary music is rarely discussed; the expertise involved in the separate disciplines is such that the gulf between performer and composer has tended towards a mutual distrust. Arguably, however, this new repertoire demands an even higher level of interpretative skill. It is when interpretative skills achieve competence and become subject to an imaginative function that a truly artistic performance may emerge. The final and most important feature of any reading/execution of a musical text is the exposure of that text to the vitality of the imagination. 7 Acknowledgements Many thanks to Prof. Roger Marsh for his support throughout this project. Others have also made numerous contributions to the project and I would like to thank Anton, Daniel, James, Nic, Nicky, and Paul in particular. However, the outcome of this project is my own work and I am responsible for all the attributes within it. This work is dedicated to my parents with appreciation of their support for my vocation and of their belief in the power of education, to both of which I owe a significant part of what I am. 8 I. Introduction to the question and framework of timbre 1. The fundamental location of timbre in musical discourse' What is musical 'content'? Eduard Hanslick addresses this question in The Beautiful in Music: • . it is precisely the "specifically musical" element of the creation of inventive genius which the contemplating mind apprehends and assimilates. These concrete musical images, and not the vague impression of some abstract feeling, constitute the spirit of the composition. The form (the musical structure) is the real substance (subject) of music — in fact, is the music itself, in antithesis to the feeling, its alleged subject, which can be called neither its subject nor its form, but simply the effect produced.2 For Hanslick music possesses an aesthetic autonomy, so that what he calls 'feeling' (GefiAl) does not manifest itself except in specifically musical elements. It is in the form's communicative capacity that we perceive the feeling. Therefore the musical structure is the substance by virtue of accommodating 'concrete musical images'. The 'specifically musical' element (the combination of definite successions of sound)
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Performance Commentary
    PERFORMANCE COMMENTARY . It seems, however, far more likely that Chopin Notes on the musical text 3 The variants marked as ossia were given this label by Chopin or were intended a different grouping for this figure, e.g.: 7 added in his hand to pupils' copies; variants without this designation or . See the Source Commentary. are the result of discrepancies in the texts of authentic versions or an 3 inability to establish an unambiguous reading of the text. Minor authentic alternatives (single notes, ornaments, slurs, accents, Bar 84 A gentle change of pedal is indicated on the final crotchet pedal indications, etc.) that can be regarded as variants are enclosed in order to avoid the clash of g -f. in round brackets ( ), whilst editorial additions are written in square brackets [ ]. Pianists who are not interested in editorial questions, and want to base their performance on a single text, unhampered by variants, are recom- mended to use the music printed in the principal staves, including all the markings in brackets. 2a & 2b. Nocturne in E flat major, Op. 9 No. 2 Chopin's original fingering is indicated in large bold-type numerals, (versions with variants) 1 2 3 4 5, in contrast to the editors' fingering which is written in small italic numerals , 1 2 3 4 5 . Wherever authentic fingering is enclosed in The sources indicate that while both performing the Nocturne parentheses this means that it was not present in the primary sources, and working on it with pupils, Chopin was introducing more or but added by Chopin to his pupils' copies.
    [Show full text]
  • Timbre in Musical and Vocal Sounds: the Link to Shared
    TIMBRE IN MUSICAL AND VOCAL SOUNDS: THE LINK TO SHARED EMOTION PROCESSING MECHANISMS A Dissertation by CASADY DIANE BOWMAN Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Takashi Yamauchi Committee Members, Jyotsna Vaid Jayson Beaster-Jones Thomas Ferris Head of Department, Douglass Woods December 2015 Major Subject: Psychology Copyright 2015 Casady Diane Bowman ABSTRACT Music and speech are used to express emotion, yet it is unclear how these domains are related. This dissertation addresses three problems in the current literature. First, speech and music have largely been studied separately. Second, studies in these domains are primarily correlational. Third, most studies utilize dimensional emotions where motivational salience has not been considered. A three-part regression study investigated the first problem, and examined whether acoustic components explained emotion in instrumental (Experiment 1a), baby (Experiment 1b), and artificial mechanical sounds (Experiment 1c). Participants rated whether stimuli sounded happy, sad, angry, fearful and disgusting. Eight acoustic components were extracted from the sounds and a regression analysis revealed that the components explained participants’ emotion ratings of instrumental and baby sounds well, but not artificial mechanical sounds. These results indicate that instrumental and baby sounds were perceived similarly compared to artificial mechanical sounds. To address the second and third problems, I examined the extent to which emotion processing for vocal and instrumental sounds crossed domains and whether similar mechanisms were used for emotion perception. In two sets of four-part experiments participants heard an angry or fearful sound four times, followed by a test sound from an anger-fear morphed continuum and judged whether the test sound was angry or fearful.
    [Show full text]
  • A Countertenor's Reference Guide to Operatic Repertoire
    A COUNTERTENOR’S REFERENCE GUIDE TO OPERATIC REPERTOIRE Brad Morris A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF MUSIC May 2019 Committee: Christopher Scholl, Advisor Kevin Bylsma Eftychia Papanikolaou © 2019 Brad Morris All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Christopher Scholl, Advisor There are few resources available for countertenors to find operatic repertoire. The purpose of the thesis is to provide an operatic repertoire guide for countertenors, and teachers with countertenors as students. Arias were selected based on the premise that the original singer was a castrato, the original singer was a countertenor, or the role is commonly performed by countertenors of today. Information about the composer, information about the opera, and the pedagogical significance of each aria is listed within each section. Study sheets are provided after each aria to list additional resources for countertenors and teachers with countertenors as students. It is the goal that any countertenor or male soprano can find usable repertoire in this guide. iv I dedicate this thesis to all of the music educators who encouraged me on my countertenor journey and who pushed me to find my own path in this field. v PREFACE One of the hardships while working on my Master of Music degree was determining the lack of resources available to countertenors. While there are opera repertoire books for sopranos, mezzo-sopranos, tenors, baritones, and basses, none is readily available for countertenors. Although there are online resources, it requires a great deal of research to verify the validity of those sources.
    [Show full text]
  • Common Opera Terminology
    Common Opera Terminology acoustics The science of sound; qualities which determine hearing facilities in an auditorium, concert hall, opera house, theater, etc. act A section of the opera, play, etc. usually followed by an intermission. arias and recitative Solos sung by one person only. Recitative, are sung words and phrases that are used to propel the action of the ​ ​ story and are meant to convey conversations. Melodies are often simple or fast to resemble speaking. The aria is ​ ​ like a normal song with more recognizable structure and melody. Arias, unlike recitative, are a stop in the action, where the character usually reflects upon what has happened. When two people are singing, it becomes a duet. ​ ​ When three people sing a trio, four people a quartet. ​ ​ ​ ​ backstage The area of the stage not visible to the audience, usually where the dressing rooms are located. bel canto Although Italian for “beautiful song,” the term is usually applied to the school of singing prevalent in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Baroque and Romantic) with emphasis on vocal purity, control, and dexterity blocking Directions given to actors for on-stage movements and actions bravo, brava, bravi An acknowledgement of a good performance shouted during moments of applause (the ending is determined by the gender and the number of performers). cadenza An elaborate passage near the end of an aria, which shows off the singer’s vocal ability. chorus master Person who prepares the chorus musically (which includes rehearsing and directing them). coloratura A voice that can sing music with many rapid notes, or the music written for such a voice with elaborate ornamentation using fast notes and trills.
    [Show full text]
  • Williams Percussion Ensemble Noise/Signal
    Williams Percussion Ensemble Noise/Signal We call “noise” any undesirable signal in the transmission of a message through a channel, and we use this term for all types of perturbation, whether the message is sonic or visual. Thus shocks, crackling, and atmospherics are noises in radio transmission. A white or black spot on a television screen, a gray fog, some dashes not belonging to the transmitted message, a spot of ink on a newspaper, a tear in a page of a book, a colored spot on a picture are “noises” in visual messages. A rumor without foundation is a “noise” in a sociological message. At first sight, it may seem that the distinction between “noise” and “signal” is easily made on the basis of the distinction between order and disorder. A signal appears to be essentially an ordered phenomenon while crackling, or atmospherics, are disordered phenomena, formless blotches on a structured picture of sound. However, there is no absolute structural difference between noise and signal. They are of the same nature. The only difference which can be logically established between them is based exclusively on the concept of intent on the part of the transmitter: A noise is a signal that the sender does not want to transmit. Or, more generally: A noise is a sound we do not want to hear. — Abraham Moles, from Information Theory and Esthetic Perception In the ordered world of Western art music, percussion has long been employed to bring in the noise. The bulk of the percussion family is in fact comprised of instruments that produce noise rather than tone.
    [Show full text]
  • NO TEA, NO SHADE This Page Intentionally Left Blank No Tea, NO SHADE
    NO TEA, NO SHADE This page intentionally left blank No Tea, NO SHADE New Writings in Black Queer Studies EDITED BY E. Patrick Johnson duke university press Durham & London 2016 © 2016 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of Amer i ca on acid- free paper ∞ Typeset in Adobe Caslon by Westchester Publishing Services Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Johnson, E. Patrick, [date] editor. Title: No tea, no shade : new writings in Black queer studies / edited by E. Patrick Johnson. Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2016022047 (print) lccn 2016023801 (ebook) isbn 9780822362227 (hardcover : alk. paper) isbn 9780822362425 (pbk. : alk. paper) isbn 9780822373711 (e- book) Subjects: lcsh: African American gays. | Gay and lesbian studies. | African Americans in popu lar culture. | Gays in popu lar culture. | Gender identity— Political aspects. | Sex in popu lar culture. Classification: lcc e185.625.n59 2016 (print) | lcc e185.625 (ebook) | ddc 306.76/608996073— dc23 lc rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2016022047 Cover art: Philip P. Thomas, Sharing Tea, 2016. © Philip P. Thomas. FOR ALL THE QUEER FOREMOTHERS AND FOREFATHERS This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS foreword Cathy J. Cohen xi acknowl edgments xv introduction E. Patrick Johnson 1 CHAPTER 1. Black/Queer Rhizomatics Train Up a Child in the Way Ze Should Grow . JAFARI S. ALLEN 27 CHAPTER 2. The Whiter the Bread, the Quicker You’re Dead Spectacular Absence and Post-Racialized Blackness in (White) Queer Theory ALISON REED 48 CHAPTER 3. Troubling the Waters Mobilizing a Trans* Analytic KAI M.
    [Show full text]
  • City, University of London Institutional Repository
    City Research Online City, University of London Institutional Repository Citation: Pace, I. ORCID: 0000-0002-0047-9379 (2021). New Music: Performance Institutions and Practices. In: McPherson, G and Davidson, J (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Music Performance. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. This is the accepted version of the paper. This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/25924/ Link to published version: Copyright: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to. Reuse: Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. City Research Online: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/ [email protected] New Music: Performance Institutions and Practices Ian Pace For publication in Gary McPherson and Jane Davidson (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Music Performance (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021), chapter 17. Introduction At the beginning of the twentieth century concert programming had transitioned away from the mid-eighteenth century norm of varied repertoire by (mostly) living composers to become weighted more heavily towards a historical and canonical repertoire of (mostly) dead composers (Weber, 2008).
    [Show full text]
  • Some Preliminary Thoughts on Chiyoko Szlavnics' Music
    Some Preliminary Thoughts on Chiyoko Szlavnics’ Music Makis Solomos To cite this version: Makis Solomos. Some Preliminary Thoughts on Chiyoko Szlavnics’ Music. Πoλυϕωνια, Athens, 2015. hal-01202895 HAL Id: hal-01202895 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01202895 Submitted on 21 Sep 2015 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Some Preliminary Thoughts on Chiyoko Szlavnics’ Music Makis Solomos Listening to Chiyoko Szlavnics’ music opens up broad questions having to do with music, aesthetics, and human existence. The Canadian composer achieves significant depth in dealing with these questions in a variety of works, including chamber-orchestra music—Heliotrope (2007); pieces with electronics—Constellations I–III for piano and sine waves (2011); chamber music, such as the recordings collected here; and multichannel sound installations. Her compositions also vary widely in duration, ranging from short pieces, such as the five-minute-long chamber-orchestra piece Wind in the Ceiling (2004–2005), to longer ones, such as the forty-five-minute Interior Landscapes II A for sine waves (2010). Chiyoko Szlavnics clearly positions herself within the recent North American tradition of such composers as Morton Feldman and James Tenney (Szlavnics studied with Tenney)—a practice that eschews the old tradition of development, replacing it instead with a new world of "immersion in sound".
    [Show full text]
  • Weirdo Canyon Dispatch 2018
    Review: Roadburn Thursday 19th April 2017 By Sander van den Driesche It’s that time of the year again, the After Yellow Eyes it’s straight to the much anticipated annual pilgrimage to Main Stage to see Dark Buddha Rising Tilburg to join with many hundreds of perform with Oranssi Pazuzu as the travellers for Walter’s party at Waste of Space Orchestra, which is Roadburn. As I get off the train the another highly anticipated show, and in heat kicks me right in the face, what a this case one that won’t be played massive difference to the dull and rainy anywhere else (as far as I know). What morning I left behind in Scotland. This happened on that big stage was is glorious weather for a Roadburn phenomenal, we witnessed a near hour Festival! Bring it on! of glorious drone-infused psychedelic proggy doom. In fact, it felt a bit too early for me personally in the timing of the festival to experience such an extraordinarily mind-blowing set, but it was a remarkable collaboration and performance. I can’t wait for the Live at Roadburn release to come out (someone make it happen please!). Yellow Eyes by Niels Vinck After getting my bearings with the new venues, I enter Het Patronaat for the first of my highly anticipated performances of the festival, Yellow Eyes. But after three blistering minutes of ferocious black metal the PA system seems to disagree and we have our first “Zeal & Ardor moment” of 2018. It’s Waste of Space Orchestra by Niels Vinck not even remotely funny to see the On the same Main Stage, Earthless Roadburn crew frantically trying to played the first of their sets as figure out what went wrong, but luckily Roadburn’s artist in residence.
    [Show full text]
  • Music Braille Code, 2015
    MUSIC BRAILLE CODE, 2015 Developed Under the Sponsorship of the BRAILLE AUTHORITY OF NORTH AMERICA Published by The Braille Authority of North America ©2016 by the Braille Authority of North America All rights reserved. This material may be duplicated but not altered or sold. ISBN: 978-0-9859473-6-1 (Print) ISBN: 978-0-9859473-7-8 (Braille) Printed by the American Printing House for the Blind. Copies may be purchased from: American Printing House for the Blind 1839 Frankfort Avenue Louisville, Kentucky 40206-3148 502-895-2405 • 800-223-1839 www.aph.org [email protected] Catalog Number: 7-09651-01 The mission and purpose of The Braille Authority of North America are to assure literacy for tactile readers through the standardization of braille and/or tactile graphics. BANA promotes and facilitates the use, teaching, and production of braille. It publishes rules, interprets, and renders opinions pertaining to braille in all existing codes. It deals with codes now in existence or to be developed in the future, in collaboration with other countries using English braille. In exercising its function and authority, BANA considers the effects of its decisions on other existing braille codes and formats, the ease of production by various methods, and acceptability to readers. For more information and resources, visit www.brailleauthority.org. ii BANA Music Technical Committee, 2015 Lawrence R. Smith, Chairman Karin Auckenthaler Gilbert Busch Karen Gearreald Dan Geminder Beverly McKenney Harvey Miller Tom Ridgeway Other Contributors Christina Davidson, BANA Music Technical Committee Consultant Richard Taesch, BANA Music Technical Committee Consultant Roger Firman, International Consultant Ruth Rozen, BANA Board Liaison iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..............................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Timbre Perception
    HST.725 Music Perception and Cognition, Spring 2009 Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology Course Director: Dr. Peter Cariani Timbre perception www.cariani.com Friday, March 13, 2009 overview Roadmap functions of music sound, ear loudness & pitch basic qualities of notes timbre consonance, scales & tuning interactions between notes melody & harmony patterns of pitches time, rhythm, and motion patterns of events grouping, expectation, meaning interpretations music & language Friday, March 13, 2009 Wikipedia on timbre In music, timbre (pronounced /ˈtæm-bər'/, /tɪm.bər/ like tamber, or / ˈtæm(brə)/,[1] from Fr. timbre tɛ̃bʁ) is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices or musical instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that mediate the perception of timbre include spectrum and envelope. Timbre is also known in psychoacoustics as tone quality or tone color. For example, timbre is what, with a little practice, people use to distinguish the saxophone from the trumpet in a jazz group, even if both instruments are playing notes at the same pitch and loudness. Timbre has been called a "wastebasket" attribute[2] or category,[3] or "the psychoacoustician's multidimensional wastebasket category for everything that cannot be qualified as pitch or loudness."[4] 3 Friday, March 13, 2009 Timbre ~ sonic texture, tone color Paul Cezanne. "Apples, Peaches, Pears and Grapes." Courtesy of the iBilio.org WebMuseum. Paul Cezanne, Apples, Peaches, Pears, and Grapes c. 1879-80); Oil on canvas, 38.5 x 46.5 cm; The Hermitage, St. Petersburg Friday, March 13, 2009 Timbre ~ sonic texture, tone color "Stilleben" ("Still Life"), by Floris van Dyck, 1613.
    [Show full text]
  • 131 the Ambiguity of Musical Expression Marks and the Challenges
    The Ambiguity of Musical Expression Marks and the Challenges of Teaching and Learning Keyboard Instruments: The Nnamdi Azikiwe University Experience Ikedimma Nwabufo Okeke http://dx.doi./org/10.4314/ujah.v18i1.7 Abstract The relevance of musical expression marks —technical words, symbols, phrases, and their abbreviations— in music is to guide the performer through a thorough interpretation and appreciation of the dynamics and subtleties of a piece of music. These marks, though fundamental to piano pedagogy, sometimes appear confusing to the enthusiastic piano student owing to the fact that some of the performance marks demand subjective expressions from the performer such as, ‘furiously’, ‘fiercely’ ‘with agitation’ ‘brightly’, tenderly, etc. Piano-keyboard education is still a ‘tender’ art in Nigerian higher institutions where most learners start at a relatively very late age (17-30 yrs) and so, it becomes burdensome and sometimes unproductive to encumber the undergraduate piano-keyboard student with a plethora of performance marks when he is still grappling with scales and arpeggios. This paper therefore suggests teaching keyboard basics and technique and employing fundamental musical expression marks/dynamics first for undergraduate piano teaching and learning in our institutions. Only when students have shown competences in the basic dynamic/expression marks such as, crescendo, accelerando, andante, moderato, allegro, larghetto etc, can the more complex and subjective ones be introduced in their keyboard repertoire. 131 Okeke: The Ambiguity of Musical Expression Marks Introduction The New Harvard dictionary of Music (2001) defines musical expression/performance marks as ‘symbols and words or phrases and their abbreviations employed along with musical notation to guide the performance of a work in matters other than pitches and rhythms’.
    [Show full text]