Intonatsiia by John Bell Young

[rohansahai]

I guess this will put an end to all criticisms of the Russian School. This is a paper presented by John Bell Young at the world piano pedagogy conference. Read it and then lets discuss it!
http://www.geocities.com/rohansahai/intonatsiia.pdf

[rohansahai]

Any comments anyone??

[bernhard]

Any comments anyone??

Yes.I read the article. Very interesting, and I will have more to say about it. Thank you for the link. Please be patient. I am working on it.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[CC]

I believe discussions of this type to be very useful. We always talk about the necessity to play (practice) "musically", but what does it mean? There are precious few "concrete" instructions. If you take too many liberties, you are an amateur. If you are totally accurate, it is uninteresting. The concept of intervals and how to view them seems such a fundamental idea.  I find that it helps me to connect notes and to connect bars and to create a conversation between voices and hands. These connections form a basis from which you can start the music. In striving for musicality, it is always helpful to learn how each individual approaches this subject, because it has infinite possibilities.  How do we deal with infinity? Infinity means that at times, you will be criticized, but at the same time, there is this high level of musicality that is very real. Just as you tend to play better golf when playing with better golfers, musicians need to communicate (although most are poor verbal communicators) to uplift each other.  That is why it is so important to listen to recordings and performances, as long as you realize that exact imitation is neither possible nor desirable.  The end product must be a burning desire to run to the piano and start making music.

[doowlehc]

Hi here are my 2 cents:

1) I don't understand why the author stresses that notes with larger intervals will take a little bit of longer time (or did I just read it wrong?)  Because I can think of tons of melodies, or even just make up one in my head - in which a melody with say the following notes (in the key of say C-):

D -- E flat --- G

let's assume the 3 notes are of equal duration on paper.  I can imagine an interpretation where I can feel that it takes longer to reach from the D to E flat (where it has more dissonance) and shorter time to go from E flat to G - where both notes belong to the tonic c- chord.   

I don't agree, therefore, with the generalization of larger intervals will take longer time... or may be i interpreted the paper wrong


2) I totally agree with his analogy with actor :  they don't 'act out' their emotions but keep it in control.  Actaully I find this impulse to 'wanting-to-feel' vs 'holding-myself-back' keep myself in balance all the time.  if I play with too much emotions, I will get lost and start playing inaccurately.  But if I hold myself back too much I will play without conveying any emotions.

3) I totally agree with what he said about 'practising softly but with emotions'.  I do that also softly + slowly, and try to listen every single tone with total concentration.  For example I am playing Brahmas INtermezzo e flat -  ... u know how quiet the first notes are... so I play them extremely extremely slow - like each note take 3 seconds.. and try to feel and exagerrate my emotions in them, and listen each note attentivelly.  Then when the left hand 'appregious' come in, again I play each note very slowly...may be 1 note per second but making sure each one is conveyed with the utmost feeling of 'misty-ness'... so when I play it regular speed, I can feel the emotions an listen to the sound with much less effort.


honestly, after reading the paper, I am not sure what is meant by 'Intonatsiia ' except that it meant everything about music.

[rohansahai]

1) I don't understand why the author stresses that notes with larger intervals will take a little bit of longer time (or did I just read it wrong?)  Because I can think of tons of melodies, or even just make up one in my head - in which a melody with say the following notes (in the key of say C-):

D -- E flat --- G

let's assume the 3 notes are of equal duration on paper.  I can imagine an interpretation where I can feel that it takes longer to reach from the D to E flat (where it has more dissonance) and shorter time to go from E flat to G - where both notes belong to the tonic c- chord.   

I don't agree, therefore, with the generalization of larger intervals will take longer time... or may be i interpreted the paper wrong

Well, of course its possible to have D-Eb-G which takes a longer time betweet D and Eb rather than Eb-G ::: by having D and Eb as crotchets(quarter notes), and the G as a quaver or semiquaver !!! So you have actually misinterpreted the paper.....it does not say that a smaller interval will take lesser time than a larger interval !! It says that in a larger interval, you just have to stretch out the gap (howsoever big or small it is) by a bit, and THIS STRETCH IS more than THE STRETCH you would have in a shorter interval. It does not mean that the total time should be lesser in the smaller interval....otherwise it would create a lot of MUSICAL CONFUSION !!
Hope you got my point there ! Plus , i would like more responses to this thread, read the article everyone, I'm sure we can have a very healthy discussion which would be very beneficial for all of us !