Week 2: Phrasing and Timing
This week, youâll add the melody and poeticize it through phrasing and timing. Now that you know the harmonic colours, voices, and texture, this should help you discover numerous ways to interpret the melody.
First, we will use poetry itself. Poetry as performance can be delivered in numerous ways that highlight themes and their emotional ranges. Read a poem and underline key words that you would emphasize if reciting it. A few poems to give you some inspiration:
TS Eliot: The Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock, Rhapsody on a Windy Night, The Waste Land
William Shakespeare: Sonnet 18
ee cummings: I Carry Your Heart
Anne Carson: Swimming in Circles in Copenhagen A Sonnet Sequence, Spring Break Swallow Song
Margaret Atwood: No Name, Letter from Persephone, Morning in the Burned House
Watch this video on articulation, pedal, and phrasing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF4viQlmT2w
For inspiration, listen to this performance of Concerto Op. 54: https://youtu.be/tDxa2aOQ0w0?si=99uaiefEX2vghDd1&t=57
- Anatomy of Poetry: Phrasing
After taking time to read a few poems and imagine where youâd emphasize specific words, return to the piano to read through the melody and play it in different ways:
-up or down an octave
-in a faster tempo according to your speech/singing
-play melody as if it is a bass line
-write text to the melody and sing it
-orchestrate or arrange as another genre
-play it with varied accents or emphases
2. Anatomy of Poetry: Timing
Timing in performance is a state: we are aware that musical beats and rhythmic positions of various notes do not govern our placement of them. Rather, when we use timing poetically, we take a more open-ended attitude toward where tones are placed. Essential to timing is the element of caesura in Schumann: breaks in the line, sudden stops or cuts in the melody or texture, long fermatas, double bar lines separating one section from another etc.
Study your score as follows:
âFind all fermatas: do they align with section changes? Does a new melody emerge after the fermata?
âCircle rests that are half-bar or full-bar length or longer (Grand Pause âGPâ marks, etc).
âLocate all double bar lines: write the technical changes that take place at these bar lines, eg, key change, time signature change, texture change, new theme, etc.
âLocate any indications between two movements that signal they are related and should be played continuously, or delayed and noticeably separate from one another.
Timing practice tools:
âplay the melody along with a recording and mark rubato/phrasing
âpauses may happen in one voice but not others: find voices that continue in spite of others stopping and vice-versa
âwhen pausing, listen to the silence carefully and think of the first note that will follow the silence: what is its character? Dynamic? Articulation? Intention?
Subtext and Listening:
Imagine silences having subtext: a deeper reason motivating the silence, caesura, or fermata at a specific time. Silences with dramatic intentions are powerful tools in timing a performance, eg, Silences can, âInterrupt a noisy character,â âPose a question,â âCalm a stormy argument,â âConnect two intimate voices,â or (a favourite) âGive the audience a break from an otherwise overwhelming texture.â
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I'm looking forward to working on this. Will a video be posted or are we text only this week? (Just confirming!)
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Marc M videos on the description as the content! Iâll upload video material later if needed!
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Jarred Dunn A ha, thank you!
Here's video of me playing the harmonic voices for Waldszenen no. 2. It's not as good as I want it to be, but it may be the best I can do given the time constraints. Next I'll work on this week's assignment.
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Marc M this is a great start, the harmonic outline is clear. Practice the bars where you hesitate in tempo and gradually work your way outward to the rest of the phrase (eg. mm. 34-35). Next assign some dynamic changes that aren't written but are implied by the appearance of homorhythmic declarative passages like m. 29 and 34.
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Jarred Dunn Thank you! Here's where I currently am with the piece. I'm honestly not totally sure what to do with the dynamics towards the end (m. 29 and 34 included)--I need to think about it more, and your thoughts would be appreciated.
My left hand is doing its best to keep up with my right, but it still feels like molasses in comparison, so when I'm practicing the quick octave melody/run at the beginning my hands' timing is sometimes slightly off and it sounds like a garbled mess. I think this take turned out pretty OK in that regard though. And maybe I just need more practice--I learned the piece from end to beginning, so the start is the part that I've practiced the least.
I'd like to up the speed to match Richter's, but I'm not sure that goal will be realistic any time soon! I think my left hand will be the limiting factor.
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Eliso's Masterclass is by far one the the best things on YouTube! Her young student certainly got the lesson of a lifetime. Much as I love Eliso's playing, I love her teaching even more, because of the way she articulates her musical thinking with Showin' and Tellin'
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Hi Jarred Dunn and everyone. I would like to post my video. I wonât have time to practice much the rest of the week, so Iâve decided to record how it goes so far.
This is a miniature piece of one page. Thanks to Jarredâs instructions learning the piece went extremely much faster than my usual.
This is such glorious music and Iâm singing in my head âAll hail the Kingâ
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Sachi - second theme's fluency, voicing, and energy are in good order! I'd suggest 4th finger less often in LH octaves - your hand looks rigid. There should be a greater precision in the dotted eighths/sixteenths. The last phrase has ^ marcato on each chord, keep the sound's focus and energy in spite of there being a hairpin.
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Jarred Dunn Thank you so much for feedback! I have finaly watched all of the materials you`ve provided us the first week: Schumann and his music. I will definitely spend more time listening to Schumann`s music and Brahms, too. I look forward discovering them even though I have to sacrifice my time listening Chopin
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Still some insecurities but this is how far Iâve got. Any feedback is very welcome. Thanks Jarred Dunn for these inspiring assignments!
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Andrea Buckland Very beautiful already! Love the warmth and tenderness of your Schumann playing.
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Vidhya Bashyam Thank you, dear Vidhya! Itâs such a gorgeous piece!
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Andrea Buckland allow eighth notes in bass to breathe after striking new and important harmonies (D minor deceptive cadence in first phrase; C7 at end of second phrase). Poetic timing includes momentary space/breaths: hear the harmonies bend expected chord rhythms.
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Jarred Dunn Thanks, Jarred! Will see what I can doâŠ
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Andrea Buckland Sounds beautiful, very expressive, full of poetic melancholy!
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Juan Carlos Olite Thank you, my friend!
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Andrea Buckland That's so beautiful and poetic. /Lynn
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Lc Thank you so much, dear Lynn! I canât get this gorgeous piece out of my mind at all! Donât know why especially Schumann touches me so deeply. How are you doing?
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Jarred Dunn
Theres so much going on in this piece. The title Herberge means At the Inn.
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Here the second video. In spite of the title of the piece -with all mental imagery associated (serenity, innocence, calmness...)-, it's inevitable to be touched by the melancholic mood of this music...
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Juan Carlos Olite sounds beautiful, Juan Carlos! Iâm curious about your poetic ideas you connect with the piece.
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Andrea Buckland Thank you so much, Andrea! It's a difficult question, because I can't avoid feeling the sadness in the piece. So, it's like a mystery for me why Schumann wrote the lullaby in this way.
It remains me of one of the most beautiful and tragic poems of Miguel HernĂĄndez, Spanish poet. He wrote "Nanas de la cebolla" (Lullaby of the onion) in jail, a lullaby-poem for his baby newly born (he never met him, because he died in prison) after receiving a letter from his wife.
I've found an English version on Internet:
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Juan Carlos Olite Thatâs so beautiful and touching! I wish I could read and understand the Spanish text! And yes - I can see how the imagery and mood fits Schumann.
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Thank you for this wonderful challenge. I am going to work on the pointers for a few weeks. I am attaching a video of Abschied from Waldscenen.
