CLASSICAL MUSIC ARCHIVES: Students Tip 13

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Students Tip 13
WHAT'S THE STORY? #3

Dear Friends,

Welcome back to the Opera! (If you say "Opera? What opera? Visit Tip 12 to find out what we're up to.)

If you DO know what's going on, let's quickly review the opera exercise we started in the last Tip before I share what I think is going on in measures 6, 7, and 8.

Reminder: we're developing our ability to make up a story about the music we're working on in order to learn it more quickly and to play or sing it with more expression. We began considering this approach back in Tip 11, where we conceived the beginning of a Bach Flute Sonata as a dialogue between lecturer and audience.

Now, we're imagining that the opening of the Beethoven Second Piano Concerto is an opera. We're creating roles in that opera the music suggests to us, and we're writing words that our characters might be singing.

To make things easier, let's get the Beethoven "opera" right in front of us:

In Tip 12, I suggested it was a king--King Macho the First--who declared his magnificence in the 1st measure, and that his queen reminded him she was also a ruler in measures 2, 3, and 4. In measure 5, the king interrupted her to bring the spotlight back to him.

At the end of that Tip, I asked you these questions:

After the king has finished his little fit of ego in measure 5, who do you think sings next in measures 6, 7, and 8?
What is being said?
Think about the narrative I've suggested, compare the pitches of the notes in those measures with the notes in measures 2, 3, and 4. Who and what do you come up with?

I finished by saying "I'm going to wait until the next Tip (the one you're reading now) before I tell you what I think." I know you already have too much homework, but did you answer those questions? Here's my thinking:

To get the answer to "Who sings next?" I looked at measures 2, 3, and 4 and saw that measures 6, 7, and 8 were almost exactly the same: the rhythm and dynamic is the same in both spots, and the intervals are almost exactly the same, so my call was: it's the queen. And you?

For the answer to "What is being said in measures 6, 7, and 8?" I reviewed the conversation in measures 1-5, and looked at the words I had added to the music in those measures:

I understood that, in measures 6, 7, and 8, the queen isn't intimidated one little bit. The music says so. It's the same tune she sang in measures 2, 3, and 4, when she asserted herself. But this time, she's even stronger. How can we tell? You tell me. Here are her two statements: measure 2, 3, and 4... and measures 6, 7, and 8:

Check it out. The queen starts singing two notes higher (A) in measure 6 than she did in measure 2 (F). In fact, all the music in measures 6, 7, and 8 is higher than in measures 2, 3, and 4. I think she's singing higher (stronger) because she's wants the king to understand that his precious little power play isn't working (in doing so, she's clearly a model for all young women.)

What words might she be singing to express these feelings? Here's my suggestion:

Can you hear it? What was your version?

Now, to see how creating these characters really helps you develop your interpretation, why not sing or play the first eight measures in a way that expresses the opera we've developed.

Then, to experience the difference this approach can make, sing or play it "straight" without thinking of the story. Having a story makes a big difference, right? Right!!!

OK, on to measures 9-16. Here they are:

At the end of Tip 12, I asked you to "continue to assign characters and words to measures 9-16..." Did you get a chance to do it? What did you come up with?

I made up two different stories for those measures. The first is that the king and queen start to argue. They go offstage, and we hear members of the court--divided into two choruses--singing:

The other version that came to mind was that the king and queen realized how inappropriate it was to bicker, changed their tune (ha, ha!), and expressed their affection for each other (but not without the queen warning the king in measures 15 and 16 to clean up his act!):

There are, of course, lots of different stories and words you can make up to fit the music in measures 9-16, or anywhere in almost any piece.

The point is that developing stories and characters suggested by the music you're working on can be very, very helpful. There's no law that says you can't learn music and express it with great feeling without creating stories and characters. At the same time, you may find that this approach helps from time to time; in my own life, I've found that having several different ways of understanding something can be a big help.

With All Best Wishes,

David Barg, Learning Center Director
The Classical Archives, LLC
email: david@prs.net

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