I've just been thinking about how when you play music, you are meant to add your own personal character into music, and you can tell a good musician by the character they add to the music. Can you actually tell somebody's character just by listening to the way they play music? For example, if you had a friend that you knew very well play a piece of music, and 4 other musicians playing exactly the same piece of music, would you be able to recognise which one your friend played, not having heard them play before (and not by the amount of mistakes they make! )?

Wobby

QUOTE (Wobby @ Apr 14 2005, 06:38 PM)

I've just been thinking about how when you play music, you are meant to add your own personal character into music, and you can tell a good musician by the character they add to the music. Can you actually tell somebody's character just by listening to the way they play music? For example, if you had a friend that you knew very well play a piece of music, and 4 other musicians playing exactly the same piece of music, would you be able to recognise which one your friend played, not having heard them play before (and not by the amount of mistakes they make! )? Wobby

I don't think you can deliberately try to put your own character into the music you play, because some of don't know ourselves as well as the people around us do! So whatever "character" we tried to put into our music could end up being the character we think we are/have, rather than the character we really are/have.

What you can do is try to express the music you play in the way you think it should be expressed, knowing what you do about the music and what the composer might have wanted, but not letting that hamper your own individual expression.

Huberman is a good example of a musician who expressed himself in an entirely unique way, playing say, Bach in a way that other people might find a travesty but that actually works all the same.

By the way, in answer to your question, yes i do think you can recognise someone by the way they play. In a blindfold test I could probably name any of my pupils; I could also name jazz-playing friends by their style, plus some classical musician friends. I think people do put their character into their playing - a speedy, uptight sort of person will play in a speedy, uptight way, a dreamy person in a dreamy way, a thoughtful person in a thoughtul way, an intellectually exacting person in an intellectually exacting way etc etc.

However, a good musician will be able to express lots of different moods through their own individual way of playing. The good thing about the old violinists is that they're all recognisable, whereas a lot of today's violinists sound indistinguishable from one another - too much technical training and not enough encouragement to be themselves above all.

Violinia

I agree with Violinia, very well said! As my brother and mum are the only other people I know who play piano, I can say I would definitely recognise their style if you had the same piece played by them and a hundred other pianists and blindfolded me. Everyone plays with their own interpretation of a piece, and I think that to put your own personal stamp on a piece makes it nicer to listen to. (instead of 'template' styles like everything else seems to be like nowadays)

QUOTE (uberzoldat @ Apr 14 2005, 08:43 PM)

I agree with Violinia, very well said! As my brother and mum are the only other people I know who play piano, I can say I would definitely recognise their style if you had the same piece played by them and a hundred other pianists and blindfolded me. Everyone plays with their own interpretation of a piece, and I think that to put your own personal stamp on a piece makes it nicer to listen to. (instead of 'template' styles like everything else seems to be like nowadays)

Thanks. I was just thinking (while listening simultraneously to Jazz FM) how the great jazz players are all SO unique - you can recognise virtually all of them just by a phrase. Think Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Lester Young, Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster - all of them recognisable virtually from the first note they play even if you've never heard the tune before. This tells you a lot about jazz, although I guess the fact that they're improvising has some bearing; although you can also recognise them when they're playing the melody too.

Yes, to put your own personal stamp on a piece makes it so much more intresting for sure.

Recently I downloaded loads of different versions of the tune Besame Mucho (don't ask), and it was fascinating to listen to all the different ways of interpreting the same tune - some of them wildly unique. One of the most outstanding is Joao Gilberto's version; he puts chords in that the composer never thought of, and altogether ekes as much meaning and beauty out of the tune as seems humanly possible, without ever compromising the integrity of the music.

Ah ..... music!

Violinia

"Besame, Besame Mucho....."

I used to teach an eccentric elderly lady who loved this song and when I saw Anne Bancroft playing the Miss Havisham part in the updated movie "Great Expectations" it was her!!

Gae

Interesting... I think that it's easier to put emotions into a piece rather than actual character. For example, if I'm sad and I play my viola then the music I'm playing will sound sad. On the other hand, I'm extremely shy normally but I always get told off for playing my viola too loudly in orchestra! This is a very interesting topic!

I think your character goes into your music whether you mean it to or not, unless you've been highly trained in a way that didn't take your individuality into account but turned you into a well-oiled clone.

It takes a very skilled teacher to bring out the best of a student's individuality whilst at the same time helping them iron out the bits of their individuality that hamper the music.

Violinia

With some musicians the stamp of their character is unmistakable. It's almost impossible to listen to any of Sir Thomas Beecham's recordings without imagining the twinkle in his eyes, the wag of his beard or the smell of his cigar smoke. Other musicians imposed themselves on the music to such an extent that their performances became not so much Bach or Beethoven as Glenn Gould's Bach or Herbert von Karajan's Beethoven.

Beecham, Gould and Karajan are no longer with us, of course, and today's musicians are, on the whole, less individual in their interpretations. Whether or not their music making is better as a result is debatable.

Over the years, I have heard to all the students of a particular TEACHER sounding similar and that is worth a comment. (This is possibly less common nowadays, as students to tend to move and swap teachers more than in the old days)

I believe that as a teacher, one of the most rewarding things is to go digging for the individuality of the student as they prepare for an examination, a concert, or any other performing opportunity. This sometimes means finding a direction, encouraging it, and seeing what the student has come up with at the next lesson, after working under their own direction.

Taking the piano, I find that with Haydn (say) that best performances come with an attitude of some detachment. You simply can't pour enormous amounts of emotion into the brilliant classical quicker movements, and in that style I don't think it is generally appropriate. There are many other examples of the same thing.

On the other hand, the romantic and modern periods open up huge opportunities to encourage a performer of any age to make a personal statement. Rubato and cantabile - two of my favourite subjects! Where in a piece is the thrill and excitement for the performer and the listener? Where are the opportunities for climax and contrast?

The biggest thrill of all is when the student discovers something personal that the teacher did not expect because that is a win for everyone! It is presumably with these "fingerprints" that the unique and distinctly recognisable individual will grow.

QUOTE (Rainbow @ Apr 15 2005, 05:42 PM)

For example, if I'm sad and I play my viola then the music I'm playing will sound sad. On the other hand, I'm extremely shy normally but I always get told off for playing my viola too loudly in orchestra! This is a very interesting topic!

I was discussing this with my teacher last week - she is very shy of showing her emotions and always keeps them in check, but it all comes out through her playing, whereas I never hold back and when it comes to playing, mine seems rather restrained, either as if I've nothing left to put into it, or can't put across what I mean.

She thinks it's the fact that she's been playing for 65 years, and I for 4, but I do think for some it's more instinctive, whereas I will have to learn to add whatever character the piece requires.