Group 4
Welcome to the NEW TWO WEEK INTENSIVE on tonebase!
"Phrasing like a Singer" at the Piano with Leann Osterkamp.
Much of classical piano music evolved historically from vocal music. Voice, naturally being the most primal/organic instrument of all, is the source from which pianists draw our understanding of dynamic contour, pacing, and phrasing. By understanding how one might coach a vocalist, one can create an organic musicality and polished phrasing on the piano. Join Dr. Leann Osterkamp He as she demonstrates how her experience coaching professional singers in both opera and lied transformed her understanding of phrasing on the piano. She will break down the basics of vocal coaching into pragmatic learning steps and fun techniques for you to use in your own learning!
Post your progress with videos and written commentary on how things are going for you!
- Course Period: October 28th - November 9th
- Class Size: ALL are welcome!
- Optional check-In via Zoom:
- Saturday, November 9th at 8:30am PT
- ZOOM LINK
Assignment #1
https://youtu.be/GvYcVNFby4A?si=Svu_TDAPzv98ZOl_
1. Pick 8-12 bars of a solo piano piece of your choice that has a clear melody.
2. Put in your own lyrics in your most comfortable language! No need for fine poetry, just aim for something that you think fits the character of the piece/moment. Be careful when thinking over whether every note needs its own word or if you might like to draw out a word over multiple notes (by extending a vowel). The goal is to make it sound like natural speech.
3. Now go in and mark breath marks, making choices based off of organic pause in the language, punctuation of word, physical necessity, etc.
4. Now that you have intentional breathing, identify the dynamic contour of each smaller unit between each breath, thinking of the natural inflection of speech, the range of the pitches, word punctuation, etc.
5. Share a screenshot of your score, a recording of you playing your final result, or a video of you discussing interesting elements you discovered in your work.
Assignment #2
https://youtu.be/7UsE0DRWeyk?si=NxCV1KMsWUaaEqWh
Perform an excerpt from your own repertoire. Before your performance, explain what specific vocal phrasing elements/techniques from this intensive you incorporated into your interpretation and practice.
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Hi everyone! What a fun exercise this is! I've been working with "Berceuse" by Georges Delbruck. It has a very clear melody. I chose the first 12 measures. It's funny, I started working on this before watching the video, and chose a "fall" theme for my lyrics. For breaths, the first one I would like is after around, as that is one phrase. However, if needed a breath could also be taken after wind in the first line. The second breath is after red, to give enough breath for the high notes, and all the words that follow through bro---wn. For the second line, The first breath will come after "here", as it will then change to predicting winter. The second breath comes after behind. The next breath after warm, as that note is high, and the music lends itself to holding it just slightly, then the final breath on that line after chocolate. For the third line the first breath is after many, the second after come down, then a breath after each down, down, and the final breath after falling down.
For dynamics, the are little crescendos ad decrescendos in the first couple of lines. The third line is marked "poco piu animato". If is also mf, no longer p. This reminds me of the agitation among leaves when the winds blow them off the trees, and blow them around. The chromatic progressions add to this tension. The last couple of measures are these cool intervals of 4ths. The fourths themselves are going up, but the progression from fourth to fourth is down.
A recording will come soon! Thanks for this fun exercise.
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Dr. Leann Osterkamp He Thank you so much for your comments. I've attached a revision of the lyrics. I hope to have a recording by tomorrow. This has been very enlightening to me. I sight read pretty well, and can take these pieces and quickly work them up for whatever I need to play for. But, this has caused me to slow down, and really think about the music. And shown several things I never saw before. I'll explain when I record. It also reinforced that the fall theme was very appropriate for this piece :). This has been fun. Thank you.
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This was fun, and already it's helping me shape a line that sings.
I don't think my lyrics adhere to the rules outlined in the video. But I did try to write lyrics that reflect the lugubrious nature of the music. Also, the composer was clear about creating breaths with the rests in the melody.
The lyrics are: (note; written last night before the Yankees lost.)
Oh Aaron Judge
you done me wrong.
Why'd you do it?.
Your home runs they are gone.
Where did they go?
Now all you do is fan the plate.
The Dodgers win and win again in the World Series.
Tonight it's do or die.
The Yankees they must win or else the season ends.
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Betsy Wiesendanger your lyrics made me laugh out loud! So fun.
Great start! Now, I would encourage you to really get into detailed rules about fitting lyrics to the notes. For example, you can't have two words per sustained note. If you sustain a word, it can only be a vowel. Try to have important words on downbeats and beginnings of phrases, etc.
The reason for this, is that it further helps you define which notes (like words in a sentence) are connective, subjects, descriptive, etc. In doing this level of detail work, it enables you to have further specificity over articulation and dynamics choices and overall pacing. It also will help you memorize the piece much faster!
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Hi everyone! This is an enlightening way to look at piano music! I’ve chosen the 2nd movement of Beethoven Pastoralsonata No 15 and wrote a text in German (in bad handwriting- sorry!!). So here again readable:
1. Berg und Täler verschneit. Wie lang muss ich noch gehen?
Meine Füße sind kalt und nass mein Schuh.
2. S‘trägt der Winter sein Kleid. Ich kann das Ziel nicht sehen!
Lauf durch weißen Wald und find kein Ruh!
Hoch über Wipfeln kann ich‘s sehn; hoch über Wipfeln kann ich’s sehn. Da! Kann ich’s sehn. Ist‘s nicht mehr weit, ist‘s nicht mehr weit, nicht weit…
Drum lauf, du Wandersmann, du Wandersmann, du Wandersmann. Eines Tages wird die Sonne dir scheinen!
in English: Snowy hills and fields. How long do I still have to walk?
My feet are cold and wet my shoes.
Winter is wearing its dress. I can’t see the path. walking through the white forest, in search for peace.
Above the trees I can see where I need to go. It’s not far. So keep walking. One day the sun will shine for you again.
(thank you for the inspiration, Franz Schubert
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Andrea Buckland wonderful work!
I think the material on the last two lines is interesting to explore, starting in m. 17, when we begin the repetition of "du Wandersmann." Obviously, of the two words, "Wandersmann" is the important word. Therefore, having it on those downbeats on the beginning of those slur phrases is fantastic. Additionally, I love how that entire word is descending in pitch, which really delineates it from the surrounding words.
However, ''du" and "Wandersmann" obviously also are kind of a word unit, going together (hence your use of commas). Therefore, I initially wondered about putting "du" on the final eighth note of m. 17, m. 18, and m. 19. Since those final eighth notes are the ends of those slurs, one would think of those notes as the weakest in the phrase and NOT tied to what comes next. There will need to be obvious separation/space between these eights and the following downbeats.
As a result, I thought that I might not want "du" on those notes, as the "du" is connected to the "Wandersmann." However, on m. 18 and m. 19, there is a "sF"! This "sF" is interesting, as it contradicts how we would typically play that note, being the last note of the slur. It's effect is to make that final eight notes somewhat elide into the following measure, building a larger phrase. The retention of the slur will make it so that we still have a small space between the measures and placement of the downbeat, yet on a DYNAMIC level, there will be a sense of elision between the measures and the line carrying past the bar line at the same time.
In light of the "sF" and its purpose (leading us across the bar, NOT accenting), your text is a PERFECT fit. The "du" is not an accented word because it is not the important word.... yet, it connects us to the next measure based on grammar. Your commas then highlight the leap upwards before the next "du."
So, this is a great example of words illustrating phrasing that is not "obvious" at first.
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Hi everyone! Obviously, and you can see, English is not my mother tongue, but I thought it was a good idea to write the lyrics in this language (I don't know if the words I've chosen could sound a bit weird...).
I couldn't adjust the words to the music in the video edition as I would've liked, in some moments it was impossible, so I share the score (I don't know if it can clarify something with my handwriting...).
The piece is a beautiful page from Schumann Carnaval, "Chopin".
Thank you Dr. Osterkamp for this opportunity of learning more and more about phrasing.
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Juan Carlos Olite That was really beautiful! Bravo!
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Juan Carlos Olite BEAutiful!
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Vidhya Bashyam Jennifer Mehta Thank you very much!
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Juan Carlos Olite Wonderful job! I really love how your text helps illustrate the structure. For example, the way you used "night" to end the sub-phrase m.1-m.2 and then again in m.4-m.5 beautifully highlights how it's the same little sub-phrase, just transposed up by step. If the text was sung, it would help reinforce the compositional structure to the audience.
I thought it was beautifully played. Be careful, when you reach the end of beginning and end of each LH arpeggio that you don't slow down in the same way each time. If you slow in the same way each time, it makes the performance sound too patterned and pedantic. Use the text to inspire the nuances and differences in pacing with each arpeggio.
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Dr. Leann Osterkamp He Thank you so much for the feedback. I'll have in mind your remarks, I think I was very obsessed with the breathing between phrases and maybe that's the reason I slowed down the arpeggios again and again
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Juan Carlos Olite Great lyrics for a beautifully played piece. How do you do the lyrics editing on the video?
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Sedef CANKOCAK Thank you, Sedef. I have used iMovie for Mac adding titles with the lyrics. It's very easy (I'm not expert in these matters...).
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Here is first assignment. Some text added to the beginning of the second movement of Schubert’s Sonata 960. Sorry for the morbidity…but for me it’s Schubert thinking about his impending death while writing his last sonata.
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Vidhya Bashyam beautiful playing of this very sad tune,, Vidhya!
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Vidhya Bashyam Beautifully sung, Vidhya! Words and music match perfect.
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Vidhya Bashyam Your text is a great illustration of matching character with words. Also, how to help teach ourselves importance of given notes. You put many less important words on quicker notes and ends of phrases like, "the" and "to." Your downbeats over the longer multi-measure phrase create cool cohesion. Notice that if you got rid of all the notes except for the downbeats, we would STILL get a cohesive meaning "end...my...life...sun...dim..go...want..want...must...must..." That's pretty cool!
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Dr. Leann Osterkamp He Thanks for the feedback! Looking forward to the next assignment.
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Vidhya Bashyam sooo beautiful! I felt every note and word!
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Dagmar Thanks! You are very kind!
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Hi piano friends!
I am using Modere from Ravel's Sonatine for this assignment. It is the only piece I can think of that I was playing right before being away from the piano for 2 weeks. The first theme spans 12 measures exactly.
Such a great and fun idea to put lyrics to our pieces. I tried to match up each question/sentence/phrase of the lyrics to the phrases which Ravel has in the piece.
Edited to include the backstory- Ravel composed this piece for a competition but as beautiful as it was, did not win, even though he was the only person who submitted anything. It was determined to be too long, and was disqualified for being over the limit of 75 bars! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonatine_(Ravel))
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Natalie Peh Natalie!! This is so funny!
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Natalie Peh So funny Natalie! Poor Ravel!
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Natalie Peh Oh my dear Natalie! Very amusing lyrics
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Natalie Peh Very fun! I would explore deeper m. 9 and m. 10... I think there is an opportunity to do something unique with the fact that the texture has changed... the obvious separation of soprano and tenor voices are not as obvious... also, I want to highlight the poignant rests in the RH.
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