Keep it Simple

 

Everyone who listens to music (I'm speaking here in particular of classical music) has their own preferences when it comes to performances and interpretation. One person will love a particular performance of a piece and another will not like it much at all. There is no one right or wrong way to play a piece of music; it's really all a matter of taste. So it is not for me to tell someone what to like or not like. That being said, I'm going to share one of the attributes of playing that I feel contributes to the beauty and power of a musical performance. It is this: keep it simple.

Some musicians feel they must "do something" to a piece they are playing in order to put their personal "stamp" on it, to make it different that other people's playing of the piece. They would call this their "interpretation." It would be almost impossible for two people to play identically, so you are already going to play it differently than anyone else due to the way your body moves, the way you hear things, and all the other influences throughout your life that will affect how you play. I've heard pianists say they want to "decide" on their interpretation of the piece, as if it were an intellectual decision. Personally, I'm completely mystified as to how one would "decide" that. Rather than impose my ideas on the piece, I would prefer to let the music flow through me, unemcumbered. I'm not exactly saying I would be "channeling" Beethoven, for example, but I am getting out of the way so the music can speak to the listener without a filter, so to speak.

When I listen to someone play who is trying to "interpret" the piece, I usually experience it as "fussy," that is, too oriented to small details. Their performance misses the forest for the trees. Their playing gets bogged down in details and lacks the sweep and emotional power that I want to hear.

I recall a performance of a Chopin Nocturne by someone I know. From the very first measure she was doing all sorts of extreme rubato (nuances in the timing) and fluctuations of dynamics, and then piling on more and more of that type of thing as the piece went on. The performance was, to my ears, almost a jumble of unrelated phrases. She seemed incapable of just making a simple statement, letting the beauty of the music speak for itself. Someone I knew years ago said "You don't have to try to make the music beautiful; it is already beautiful." I believe that the work we do in our practice, improving our technique and strengthening our ear, is in order to have the mastery to let the music come through. 

When you start working on a new piece, just see if you can play it simply, without trying to "do too much." It would be analogous to a sentence with a straightforward message, without a lot of flowery language. I'm not saying to play it without emotional involvement -- quite the contrary. You must be emotionally engaged, but as the listener. Just listen to the music you are producing and you may, over the course of learning the piece, instinctively add the nuances that your ear is searching for.

I realize this goes against come of the conventional "wisdom" about playing and performance in classical music. I believe that too much emphasis is placed on the performer. They become celebrities. When you hear a really great performance, in my opinion, you get carried away by the beauty of the music to the extent that you become almost unaware of the performer. I believe that we, as performers, need to get our egos out of it.

Please ready my earlier post entitled Interpretation (2/13/15) for more in-depth discussion.

As with many areas of life, it would benefit us to keep it simple.