And read the following articles:
- Roger Marsh, "Heroic motives." The Musical Times, Vol. 135, No. 1812. (Feb., 1994), pp. 83-86. An entertaining look at the rhythmic notation in Ferneyhough's solo violin piece Intermedio alla ciaccona.
- Steven Schick, "Developing an interpretive context: learning Brian Ferneyhough's Bone Alphabet." Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 32, No. 1. (Winter, 1994), pp. 132-153. An account by a master percussionist.
- Finally, for the musical examples (I don't have a score for this piece): Roger Redgate, "Brian Ferneyhough's Etudes Transcendentales." (pdf download) Contemporary Music Review, 2001, Vol. 20, Part 1, pp. 79-100.
1 comment:
Of particular interest to me was "Bone Alphabet" and the accompanying explanation and description by Stephen Schick. His essay was of particular interest to me, and what stood out (and what I have been mulling over) is a quote in which he says, "Performance, then, is a real-time explosion of the rich complexity of a work: what took months to learn takes only minutes to play."
It's a great statement, and it makes me wonder about the value of a piece and how to rationalize the amount of time it takes to prepare versus the amount of actual performance time (or number of performances, or number of audience members).
For me, being in full "band camp" mode at this point in the summer, the ratio of time spent practicing versus actual minutes of music is of interest. For a composer, how much is too much? How long should a piece "take to learn?"
Schick's essay outlines (in very specific detail) the steps he took to learn "Bone Alphabet." While I enjoyed the piece and enjoy learning and studying the parts of the score I have, I can't help but think that nine months to learn a piece of music may be a long time for a 10-minute piece.
As a band director, however, I have to note the contrast in my own career-- we spend four months learning a 10-minute marching show, so who am I to talk?
If nothing else, it's interesting to me.
Post a Comment