"The worst crime"
In the latest issue of Eastman Notes (Winter 2009), Stephen Hough told the interviewer:
"The fun thing about playing is alerting a person to something special, to stimulating the brains of your audience. If there is anything predictable about your recital, from the pieces you play to the way you play them, I think that is the worst crime."
How true this is of music analysis! I recall how great analyses opened my eyes/ears to wonderful things in the music which I was previously unaware of, or they gave me a different pair of ears to listen to a familiar piece differently. Whichever the case, the experiences are often intellectually stimulating and, equally importantly, aesthetically enriching: I came away feeling mentally energized and wanting to go play or listen to the piece.
I should aim to teach music analysis with similar goals as Hough does in his piano performances.
Labels: pedagogical thoughts
posted by ec @ Wednesday, May 20, 2009
4 comments
4 Comments:
I wasn't too impressed by his rendition of the Tchaikovsky when he was in town.. After reading this quote, it starts to make sense! I guess what he did, unpredictably, was to bang so hard on the piano that it gave me a headache afterwards. :P
Oh dear, sorry to hear that. Didn't think he would go for "physical" impact on the ears to "stimulate" his Singapore audience.
Hope I didn't give you headaches in my lessons back then. :) This semester, I actually have one yr-3 student "complaining" to me that my 20C music course gives him "headaches". I'd like to think that my music lessons should give students a good mental workout. If initially there are some muscle aches, that's normal, but over time, the muscles should tone up healthily if the pedagogy is right. I'm working towards that for this student and his class.
Yeah, it was quite a turnoff!
Headaches? Not at all- my brain is quite sturdy when it comes to interesting input :) It was more of feeling drained after lessons cos of too much info to absorb! I thought you were awesome-- you actually made the effort to revisit some stuff instead of speeding ahead when people were getting lost. And the notes that you provided were very useful too. Not many teachers bother to do that. :)
Yes, I know you were made of sterner stuff.
Hope the things you've learnt in music analysis can be put to good use in some ways, musical or otherwise.
Do "drop by" my blog whenever.
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