Introduction by Bruce Berr, Editor
on-musicians frequently marvel at and yet
wonder about all of the motions that pianists make while playing.
Even a casual observer at a recital cannot help but notice how
active much of a pianist's body is during a convincing performance.
Besides the expected blur of fingers, much more presents itself
to the viewer-arms and wrists glide in graceful arcs from here
to there; head and trunk drift up and back slowly at times as
if being covertly drawn by some offstage puppeteer; a foot unexpectedly
sweeps across the floor. Many who have not played an instrument
are fascinated and yet suspicious about all of this. They mistakenly
come to the conclusion that most, if not all, of these "extraneous"
motions are meant for show-to impress or entertain the audience.
After all, common sense says that a piano cannot know or care
what gesticulations the pianist makes, as long as a finger hits
the right key at the right time.
But as pianists, we know differently. We are aware that to make engaging music at the piano is to achieve the seemingly impossible task of creating continuous lines of horizontal and circular energy on a machine teethed with eighty-eight distinctly separate vertical mechanisms. It is no wonder then that what we do between the notes is just as important as what we do when we actually produce a tone. Therefore, one explanation of what makes certain music pianistic is that the gestures needed to play the music are the same gestures needed to play the notes. In that case there is a marriage between the prosaic and the poetic, between the practical and the ideal.
One of my teachers, Etsko Tazaki, once said, "When we play the piano, we create a dance with our bodies, and the keyboard translates that dance into sound." (It is probably not a coincidence that this marvelous pianist studied ballet for several years as a very young child before starting on the keyboard.) What better way is there to induce our early-level students to experience this facet of piano playing than by using music that itself is born of dance?
Last year when I was perusing the index of titles of all past
KEYBOARDCOMPANION articles (available on the magazine's website
right here),
I was surprised to discover that the word "dance" did
not show up in a single one! Our two authors this issue help fill
that void in very interesting but different ways. Kathleen Theisen
discusses how the underpinnings of dance rhythms can be created
in our students through large body motions and different types
of chanting and singing. Belinda Green focuses on how to teach
the actual choreography that helps early-level pianists dance
at the keyboard. Both writers vividly demonstrate their points
with audio and video clips that can be found on the KBC website.
Chasse onward!
Article by Belinda Green
n order to
fully appreciate the importance of teaching dance rhythms to early-level
students, look for a moment at the dance content of any standard
repertoire collection. In the Baroque section, you will
find it filled with Minuets, Sarabandes, Bourrees, and Gavottes;
in the Classical section you will find Minuets, German Dances,
and maybe an Ecossaise or two; in the Romantic section you will
see Waltzes; and you are also sure to find several dances in the
contemporary section.
It is certainly a challenging task to communicate all the subtleties of the rhythmic style of a particular dance to a student. Have you ever had the following experience? You are teaching the rhythm of a minuet to Johnny. You use the phrase "slight emphasis on beat one," only to hear Johnny, at his next lesson, play his minuet with a conscientious ACCENT on the first beat of each measure! Another experience that may be familiar to you: Jessica, who is a diligent student, is learning to play a bourree. She comes back the following week with all the right notes, rhythms, articulations, and fingerings. However, there is absolutely no feeling of the dance rhythm in her playing. How do we help this student feel the sparkle and rhythmic vitality of this lively dance?
Because the topic of teaching dance rhythms is a broad one, I would like to focus on one aspect: teaching the choreography-the movements and gestures we make when we play a dance on the piano. Without the appropriate gestures of the hand and wrist and arm, it is difficult to bring the rhythm of a dance to life.
First, I would like to outline the general approach I take when teaching a dance:
Consider a well-known dance: "Minuet in G Minor" (from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach) now attributed to Christian Petzol
In this minuet, the rhythmic style that we
are trying to capture is a gentle lilt in 3/4. There is a "slight
emphasis on beat one". Beats 2 and 3 should feel as if they
are flowing forward to beat one. There is a circular feel to this
graceful dance that students may be able to feel if, before trying
to play it, they practice making a circle in the air with the
hand while counting "1-2-3". They will feel more energy
during beat 1 if they can drop their wrist slightly as they come
around to beat 1.
When we are ready to teach students about the
rhythmic feel of the notes of this minuet, the circular idea still
applies, only it is the wrist and forearm that are making small
circles (the French word, minuet, means "small," referring
to the small steps in this dance). The fingers play with a legato
touch on tones that are stepwise or with a semi-detached touch
where there are leaps in the melody, such as the right hand in
mm. 2 and 3 or the left hand in m.4.
Notes with asterisks in Example 1 are played semi-detached and
notes without astericks are played legato. The wrist drops slightly
into the key on the first beat of the measure, rolls up as the
second beat is played and rolls through the note on the third
beat and back down to the first beat, to start the cycle again.