An Old Friend…

Something about the 2nd Bach Sonata feels like seeing an old friend.  I don’t know if it’s the key, or the gentle tempo or the sturdy opening rhythm.  I now I played this before, but I can’t remember, it’s been that long.  It was probably sometime in High School, because I get the feeling I was wearing my school uniform when I was playing it earlier.  Or, for some reason I remember playing it in the front living room at my teacher Pam’s Mom’s house in Kenner, then going shopping at the Esplanade mall with my Mom after my lesson.

Ah, memories…

Bach Project Re-Boot

Nothing like NFA to make you re-evaluate what you want to do…

I just got back from NFA. It was absolutely thrilling. I got to see some old friends and teachers, hear some amazing concerts, and went to some seminars on career-building. I really need to get cracking on these articles, now, because that would be a great way to set myself apart from everyone else. Plus, then I could be the “Bach Person” that everyone would go to if they had a Bach question. I know, I know, I’m getting ahead of myself.

So I had the opportunity to go to the Baroque masterclass at NFA and skipped it to have lunch with Pam, Orlando and Rob. That was more fun anyway. But I’m glad I did that, because after working through the guilt of skipping the class, I realized that I’m not writing from the perspective of a “Baroque Flutist.” I’m not interested in doing this stuff on traverso (anymore) and most people who play Bach, either casually or academically, won’t have access to a harpsichord and traverso anyway. What the world needs now is Bach for the rest of us – the “Regular Jane” flute player.

Yes, it’s important to play them stylistically correctly, but I don’t feel that historically accurate instruments are the most important thing to doing that. I think a true understanding of Bach and his music will lead to the best writing I can do on the subject.

So, I’ve started the articles, I’m working on the 2nd Sonata and we’re back on track.

Now What?

This is my current phase in life…”Now What?”

I’ve finished my Master’s and can’t afford to start my DMA yet, I have no “reason” to work up more repertoire, except for my own good health, I have no students, and I’m at a loss for how to start the writing part of this project.  Wow, now I feel better.

I think I need to do what Pam said and “create” performance opportunities, so I’ve decided I’m going to do a recital in Allen somewhere in the spring.  Maybe some of my elementary students and their parents will come to it.  I also think it would be good to give myself the month of July to write about the 1st sonata, then let some people read it and give me feedback.  As far as students go, I don’t know how to approach that, but I’m sure a moment of clarity will come to me.  I can email the directors around here and see if any of them are interested.  I really need to develop some curriculum for different levels.

Oh, and Rob fussed at me when we were walking the other night for saying I’ll probably never get my DMA, so I probably should start preparing for that in the next few years.  (!)

Notes from Zart

As part of the annual TWU Flute Pedagogy Seminar, I played the Bach B Minor 1st movement for Zart Dombourian-Eby, piccoloist for the Seattle Symphony. BTW – Zart is way cool and as an added bonus, she’s a native of NOLA, just like me!

My good friend Rebecca Simonfalvi took notes for me while I played – THANKS REBECCA!!!

Here’s what Zart said:

• Stylistically great (!)
• Needs more dynamics – you’re playing some, but not enough for the length and repetitiveness of the piece
• Es are fairly consistently low – you have a tendency to hear them low
• Build up more to the end of the phrase after the 1st statement of the theme
• You came in nice and strong, but then you backed off – don’t be so tentative
• Opening 2 notes – B-F# needs to sound like a perfect fifth (b was high, f# was low)
• Don’t let the F# sag
• Vibrato on the pick up
• Crescendo on repeated notes, even if it doesn’t say it
• Don’t go flat on pp
• You have a tendency to roll in – roll out and aim air down
• Rhythm at beginning – 16th not long enough – tends to sound like a triplet
• You never use your side Bb key on this why not (Old habits die hard WZH)
• Get rid of as much contrary motion as possible
• Use lever on F#-A#
• Wants to hear upper register – Don’t swell on each note – have a full sound on every note with or without vibrato
• Upper register was thin and closed in piece
• 49 – good place for high register
• use side key G-A#
• started oout fine but got smothered and flat
• Better! That’s nice, you didn’t get sacred of F# (I’m always scared of F# WZH)
• High F# – sensitive to finger co-ordination
• Triplets – too heavy on downbeats – the fact that they are slurred will bring out the important notes
• HUH the accents instead of tonguing harder – do a little less
• Don’t let the accents screw up the rhythm of the notes afterwards

This was a really cool masterclass and hopefully I can disseminate this into something that makes sense after the seminar is over!!

The Scope of the Articles

So, what should these articles be about?

• Performance practices – how authentic should we be in our performance of baroque music? What is the history of the movement toward authentic performance practices? Should we only use Urtext editions and ornament the music ourselves? What is the merit of the differing editions?
• Pedagogy of Bach – What editions should teachers use? How should we approach teaching baroque ornamentation – do what I say, or construct it on your own? At what age/level should we start playing Bach? Should we listen to Bach before we play Bach? What literature should be performed prior to the study of Bach (if any)?
• Who was this guy, anyway – Who was Bach, really? What was his life like? Any ideas about his personality? What was going on in his life during the period in which he wrote the flute sonatas? What’s up with the 20 kids??? Bach in General
• Reconciling Bach in the 21st century – How should we perform Bach in 2008 and beyond? Why should we perform Bach? What should we perform? Would Bach have believed that we would be studying his music today? Bach to the Future
• Now, the obvious… – detailed performance guides of all movements of the 6 sonatas. Review of literature about Bach and his music. Specific literature about Bach’s flute music. Discussion of Bach’s OTHER flute works – especially the Partita. List/review of recordings of the sonatas Obvious …or Oblivious

Lots to Think About…

Last Saturday, I gradutated. I now hold my Master of Arts in Music Performance from Texas Woman’s University. Mom, Dad, Rob, and his parents were there and we had a party afterwards at Razoo’s in Plano and at our house where we were joined by Rob’s sister and her family. It was a lot of fun. Then I had the talent show at school this week. To make a long story short, I haven’t played my flute in a while.

But I’ve been doing some thinking about this project. I think I need to outline some goals before embarking on this quest. First of all the performance goal is key to the whole project. But – and I can’t believe I’m writing this – that’s the easy part.

The articles are going to be the part that really matters. In the next few weeks I really need to decide what direction I want them to take. Do I want them to be general articles or specific to certain components of the performance of Bach? If I’m going for specificity, what should those topics be? Who is my audience? Are these articles to be written for pedagogical purposes? Lots to think about

The Authenticity Debate Continues

I read an article this weekend, about Bach in the 21st century.  I’ll post details about it later – it was a good article.  However, before I forget to comment on it, I wanted to write about the one of the parts that stuck with me.  Would Bach have used modern instruments if they had been available at the time?  The author of this article – whose name escapes me at the moment – says, yes.  I think I agree.  I still want to play Bach on a traverso, but my decision to never perform on one seems to be a good one. 

 

We know from the range of the Sonatas that they were written for flute, not recorder.  One could argue that Bach was using the most technologically advanced flute of the time when he wrote for the one-keyed traverso.  If this is the case, shouldn’t we continue to play on the most technologically advanced instruments?  Wendy Carlos’ brilliant Switched on Bach comes to mind when arguing this point.  Does the fact that the performance is on an electronic instrument diminish the virtuosity of the playing?  I think not.  In fact some have said that S-OB is one of the most technically perfect recordings of these works. 

 

So why should I feel bad about playing on the Miyazawa I have?  Maybe I don’t need that traverso after all…

How “authentic” should the performance of Bach be?

At Monday night’s Pedagogy class, we were talking about lots of things.  One was the recordings of Rampal -  How he recorded so much stuff and the “accuracy” of his recordings.  This came out of a discussion of the “French School” of flute playing.  We discussed how we may get a glimpse of this “school” by listening to his recordings – especially the earlier ones.  We also discussed how he recorded a lot of Baroque music before the trend to play the style as accurately as possible was in vogue.  And we discussed whether this devalues these recordings.  (I don’t feel that it does, and neither did the class – just want to make that clear!)

So, how do we play Baroque music?  Should we all buy traversos (traversi?) to perform this music?  Should we only play with harpschord?  (I hope not, but I am getting a Baroque flute as a graduation gift, so I’m going to try to learn Bach on it.)  How far should we go in our attempts to play authentically?

Is it wrong to want to use the technological advanced of the 19th-21st centuries to perform music of the Baroque?  And if we are to only play on period appropriate instruments, should we extend that to Mozart as well?  The Boehm flute as we now know it came about in 1847.  Should everything written before that be played on transverse flutes?

Lots to think about…

Now I’m Happy!

I checked with the Graduate School and I’m all set to Graduate on May 10!  I’m going to make everyone call me “Master” for a week after that, so everybody knows…

 

I started analyzing the score to the 1st movement of the B Minor Sonata.  I’ve found some interesting things going on with the themes and motives throughout the piano and flute part.  I haven’t decided if I want to do a full harmonic analysis yet.  I’m leaning towards not doing that, but it would be great theory practice. 

Getting Depressed…

Today was the Honors Recital at TWU and my last performance as a Graduate Student there.  I just cried for a half hour about that and expect to do more of that in a little while.  OY!