Learning a J.S. Bach Invention requires an understanding of right-side-up, upside down, inside out, and other relationships
Month: December 2012
Pearly words of wisdom flowed so naturally from the pen of Irina Morozova, a concert pianist and teacher, who responded graciously to my set of pointed questions.
As introduction, she’s a Mannes College of Music piano faculty member and teaches children at the Special Music School/Kaufman Center in Manhattan.
Immersed in a richly rewarding career mentoring students, performing, and giving masterclasses in local and international venues, her inspired thoughts are shared in unedited form with videos interspersed as they pertain.
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1) There’s a dualism to your career that’s bound up in teaching and performing. How does preparing for a recital grow your mentoring skills?
Frankly, there is no connection whatsoever. To prepare a recital involves time where I concentrate on myself. At least I try.
If we look at this issue somewhat more generally, there are apparent advantages for students to study with a teacher who is active as…
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Knee-jerk technology brings the keyboard closer to an Online piano student
By reassigning a web cam to my knee, I was able to assist a student with a nagging measure.
Piano Learning and Technique: The Value of practicing in SLOW motion or behind tempo
On one of the piano forums, students, teachers, amateurs and professionals are debating the value of slow practicing in developing performance fluency. Some insist that motor movements enlisted in slow motion are different from those employed in a brisker tempo, so why bother going through a laborious phase one. I can affirm that layered learning… Continue reading Piano Learning and Technique: The Value of practicing in SLOW motion or behind tempo
When it comes right down to it, musicians “sing” through their instruments, and pianists with generous polyphonic resources (many voices) will find the melody and flesh it out as the tour de force of a composition.
On this special day of Christmas I therefore chose la creme de la creme of a vocal model performance.
A grand display of elegance.
Arleen Auger sings “Hallelujia” from Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate K. 165
If we can learn from the phrasing and nuance of this diva, we can play more expressively.
Merry Christmas! And may music always have a sacred place in our lives!
I was deeply moved to have discovered the Marble Hill Reunion site which inspired my own cherished memories of the projects in the Bronx where I romped during my childhood and early adolescence.
My family moved from Featherbed Lane near Tremont Avenue to Marble Hill when I was about four. It was quite a notch up from a one room flat that had roaches, rats, and an ice box, barely containing enough food for a week. The iceman cometh. My parents needed the space, and rents were reduced for wartime veterans, so the projects were a perfect match.
During the early years we watched the construction of the Major Deegan Highway and P.S. 122, but having spent my first year of school at P.S. 95, I had a painful memory of being lost in the school yard with a dog tag around my neck. Fortunately, I managed to find my…
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An old cardboard box that yielded my New York City High of Performing Arts Yearbook and a flood of memories, revealed my portrait. I looked innocent enough, with a riveting quote beneath: “I know what is missing in the barrel rather than what is there.”
Perhaps it was a time-honored insecurity that adolescents might disclose about themselves?–A Catcher in the Rye moment for a teenage girl?
Reva Cooper, in the Drama Department, and my best friend at the time, admits that her quote actually belonged to Constance DiGiovanni, but was misprinted.
A simple exchange of inspired words between the two would have straightened things out:
Reva: “Music is my Best Medicine.”
Connie: “Cry the Beloved Country for Wasted Youth.”
So as we three exited our star-struck school, it was in the spirit of an empty barrel, music medicine, and wasted youth worth crying about.
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The seeds of insecurity…
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Revisiting Bach’s Fugue form (BWV 847 in C minor)
Bach's Fugue in C minor, BWV 847 is analyzed and taught
A J.S. Bach Little Prelude: Making decisions about phrasing and articulation
The Urtext (original) editions of Bach's keyboard music offer sparse directions about phrasing/articulation, (groupings of notes) so the player has to make important decisions that reflect a Baroque style. But what are the guidelines in a process that has an intellectual and affective dimension? To the extreme, some pianists use pedal and soak up linear… Continue reading A J.S. Bach Little Prelude: Making decisions about phrasing and articulation
Patrick Schmidt sparks an East Bay Cultural Renaissance in the Meet-up Universe!
Everyone loves a self-starter--a wide-eyed visionary who transforms dreams into reality. Patrick Schmidt comes quickly to mind, immersed in his universe of mult-media explorations but always reaching out to an "international" community of creative spirits. Here's how he describes himself: "I'm a tinkerer, artist, scientist, crafter, and many other things. I do small sculpturing and… Continue reading Patrick Schmidt sparks an East Bay Cultural Renaissance in the Meet-up Universe!
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