I’m taking lessons again, from myself…

Am I Ready?

I am in a phase when I am learning music I wrote from September 2019 to January 2020. It’s a blast. I want to record soon, but am I ready? Never, of course! But my time is limited and so I struggle to look deep and deeper into my expressive capabilities. As always I want this to be my best ever…yeah, yeah, it’s a silly notion, but it’s there. How can I do it?

Let’s go Deeper

I go to great lengths these days to make sure my expressive markings are clear and thorough on my new compositions. In my early years as a composer, coming out of two decades of focusing on early music that had no marking whatsoever, I was committed to the idea that the performer had total freedom, and total responsibility to be intelligent, responsive to the musical language, etc. Tempo, dynamics, etc. were not to be ignored, but rather puzzled through and creatively crafted.

Along the way, I became aware that modern players need guidance  particularly when they don’t have a lot of time to prepare a score. Large guitar ensembles or even smaller chamber groups need assistance, and so I changed and started to enjoy the ability to finely craft what I was doing. Improvements in Finale software made it gratifying when listening to a few of the more authentic midi sounds of flute, English horn, cello and violin.

I have also been working intensely on a pamphlet to guide students and professionals in the special techniques  and demands of polyphonic music. Some of these ideas (presented in Polyphonic Exercises) are very useful in crafting dynamics and many expressive devices as well. I have some personal concepts of particular markings, such as when I write mezzo piano I mean to play sul tasto. Fortes I generally intend to be more ponticello to enhance the quickness and drama of louder notes, chords and passages. There is more resistance in the string closer to the bridge and the natural response of the hand is to meet that resistance with more force. As always, these are just guidelines. a starting point for true inspiration in performance.

In this example, I use one of the suggestions I make in Polyphonic Exercises: on each crescendo I move from sul tasto to sul ponticello to enhance the growth and expressive potential. So at the beginning of the second measure, the high A is played with my a finger close to the bridge, while my thumb is extended far to the left, over the sound whole, so as to be soft both timbrally and dynamically. The two staccatos in the third measure contrast markedly with the legato that follows on exactly the same notes and the staccatos that follow need to be very clear.

sample of expressive marks from Of the Spheres

Teaching Myself

So, all that is written into the score. Am I doing it? NOT! That’s where the teacher comes back — the teacher being me the composer! Telling me the performer what to do. But I often ignore or alter the markings myself! Come on — the composer is not God, certainly he couldn’t mean all these things literally! Sometimes this leads to a change in the concept and I do alter markings, but often I simply need to pay attention. So “going deeper” is no big mystery, it’s just a refinement of attention to be totally present in the sound I am making now. If it’s soft, how soft? Go softer. Should it be a pianissimo, or just a piano. If mezzo piano is sul tasto, what is pianissimo? That’s a rhetorical question for you, but my opinion is that it can be whatever you want, determined by the gesture, the phrasing, the musical intention. Extreme sul ponticello can be used for a very light free stroke that does NOT meet the resistance, but rather passively submits to it. What timbre might be most supportive of the dynamic, the mood, the intent.

Ultimately, the performer has all power, and she is right, the composer is NOT GOD, simply a human trying to do the best they can at the moment. But those highly pondered markings should not be totally ignored and can in fact be used for real inspiration and contemplation. They should inspire the desire to always be searching for deeper truths about the music and ourselves. All in all, I’m going deeper into the endless subtleties that are possible in music, on the guitar, in the mind, the concept, the execution. Following instincts can be good, but sometimes the mental process can examine new possibilities and lead to creative solutions as well.

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