From the bench

Denk on Ives by Denk

jmm — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 07:42:42 +0000

Jeremy Denk is a terrific writer, the best I’ve read among contemporary serious pianists. His blog, Think Denk, is erudite and funny, passionate and inspired.

He recently published an article in The New Yorker. In it he recounts his experience making a professional recording of Charles Ives’s Concord sonata, with reflections on the frustrations, opportunities and challenges of recording.

Tickle those ivories

jmm — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:09:07 +0000

A lovely article by David Dubal about the power and joy of playing the piano: http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Let-s-tickle-the-ivories-7274.

Some of my favorite quotes:

When you commune with Bach or Schubert, you can reach the heights of Mount Parnassus, where the atmosphere is rarified.

Playing the piano should be an act without material value.

The piano won’t serve the ego’s craving for recognition.

In a clash of wills, the piano will always win.

Tears for appogiaturas

jmm — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:35:39 +0000

An article in the Wall Street Journal discussed research, some old. that suggests why certain musical pieces tend to arouse sentiment. The author focuses on the use of appogiaturas, octave jumps (generally in songs), and transitions from narrow frequency range, low dynamic passages to passages that swell in dynamic and frequency range (think Celine Dion). http://goo.gl/oW9Wd

Some days playing the piano feels like this…

jmm — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:28:52 +0000

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1770507/

More virtuosity?

jmm — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 13:15:26 +0000

Why does there seem to be such a significant increase in technical proficiency among young pianists (NYT)? Better diet and training (like athletes)? Growing population (more chances for genetics to provide outliers)? Greater wealth enabling more and better study and practice?

I was floored by Yuja Wang’s combination of flawless technique (at age 20) and sensitive, expressive interpretations when I saw one of her first major performances. And though I think she is near the top of her class, she is not alone.

Musical expression and the brain

jmm — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 21:29:20 +0000

There’s been interesting work for several years on the importance of expectation — and foiling expectation — in musical expression. This article in the New York Times seems to think the idea is newer than it is, but it does a reasonable job of making the point, including interviews and examples from significant musicians and researchers.

Otomata: cellular automata music generator

jmm — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 04:51:43 +0000

Batuhan Bozkurt has created a simple cellular automata music generator that runs in Flash in a browser window: Otomata. You don’t need to understand cellular automata to play with it, and it generates fascinating, lovely music (he chose an interesting scale, and shapes the tones very nicely).

Bozkurt has a lot of other interesting computer generated music, based on tools he writes. He wrote a very interesting effort (with code and audio examples) to recreate the THX audio logo (which you hear at the beginning of any THX movie). Reminds me of the famous crescendo in the Beatles’ “Day in the Life”.

Sonatina in Laugh Major

jmm — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 17:36:31 +0000

As my friend and occasional teacher Polly vanderLinde pointed out, the sonatina form is not correct, but one wouldn’t want to take this *too* seriously.

Kathy Jensen of Hornheads performing Unaccompanied Laugh Sonatina for Soprano Op.99.2.

Schiff on Beethoven

jmm — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:19:08 +0000

Over the past two years, Andras Schiff played the entire Beethoven sonata cycle in a series of concerts. As I recall, he played them only in Chicago, Ann Arbor, and New York (Carnegie Hall, natch). I attended all of the Ann Arbor performances. They were delightful: Schiff brought a different, very thoughtful and warm sensibility to the pieces, emphasizing interpretation over tempo and dazzling technique (though, nonetheless, his playing was always clean and respectful of the score — so much so that he played the first movement of the Moonlight with the pedal down the entire time: go check your score).

A friend just alerted me to a wonderful resource: Schiff gave a series of lecture – demonstrations on the entire cycle, which has been published online by The Guardian. I just listened to him play and talk through the entire Op 10 No 2, F Major, which I have recently been playing and performing. His comments are like his playing: thoughtful, restrained, but admiring and warm. I got several new ideas, and really enjoyed detailed discussion. Not as scholarly as Robert Greenberg’s well known (Learning Company) lectures on the Beethoven sonatas, but very informative to a performer.

Pianos are more fun than climbing stairs

jmm — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:01:03 +0000

The Fun Theory (from VW!)