INTERPRETATION AND TECHNIQUE

Chris Caulfield:

Do you both find that playing music that uses non-traditional forms of notation allows greater freedom for expression?

Gabriel Prynn:

Hi,

Yes unconventional forms of notation do allow for more freedom, that's why they are developed.

Something that is unfamiliar is often difficult to approach, and hard to perform convincingly. That's part of the challenge and the fun of contemporary music.

Stanislaw Hansel:

Hello, Chris. Thank you for your question. Personally, I think music must have total integrity in order that it be able to make something happen for the listener. I am not sure that I look to expression in art but rather for something to be stimulated in the listener ( perceiver )- something I have always called impression. I have been pleased to note that Paul Crossley, past conductor of the London Sinfonietta used the word in exactly the same way on occasion. I am not really involved with the improvising musicians that one hears of although the playing can have astonishing vitality. I feel, however, that without an interest in structure the improviser can stray and not really have the effect that he or she so obviously desires. I think this is a personal viewpoint and one which may change. I hope this answer aids you but let me know if there is more information you would like. Stan Hansel

Chris Caulfield:

I am a Classical trumpet player who also plays jazz and Big Band material. Do you both find that playing unfamiliar types of music affects your technique, as I do?

SH: Hi, Chris. Thanks for your question. It seems to me that playing an instrument is a lot to do with note and, in my case on the piano, finger patterns. Hence when unfamiliar music is played there will probably be a lot of unfamiliar patterning requiring technical work. A few years ago I was spending a lot of time on gaining the very wide hand technique for playing a couple of Xenakis pieces.I am also a church organist and found for several weeks that I had to take care to play even simple hymns since my fingers were prone to overshoot !. What an eye opener that was - I did not know I was that bad - it resolved itself when I did less and less Xenakis. There is no doubt that the wider styles of music one plays the better becomes one's technique for playing core repertoire. What is your experience with the trumpet - do you find different musics make you a better player of the music you love most ? Stan.

GP: Hi Chris, Yes for sure. Different styles in music - whether it be baroque, romantic, or modern classical or jazz - all require a different technical approach in order to present the content convincingly.

The challenge with contemporary classical music is that often the material is very conceptual and at times abstract. In practical terms this results in musical lines that are unidiomatic for the instrument and we have to find ways to overcome these technical barriers to give a convincing portrayal of the work.

As you are an aspiring professional trumpeter Chris this is a very real dilemna for you. Use the seminar to talk to these professional performers about their ways of coping with wide-ranging technical demands. (NB)

Kirsty Brown:

Do you find the music difficult to play?How do you interpret the notation of the music? For example in 'Winter music' where the notation is particularly complex.

How do you know which order to play the notes in? How do you play so many notes, for example the chords on page 17?

SH: Hello, Kirsty. Thank you for your message.

This sort of music is very difficult to play in many ways although I do feel I could teach someone to play the Stockhausen and the Cage.

The former requires a lot of careful counting and I do not think anyone gets it entirely right ! I hope I have not offended anyone by saying so.

The Cage does have carefully written instructions and I often refer to them.

The fact that the music is written on one stave with a myriad of ledger lines means that it is difficult anyway but when you also have to take note of the clefs he wants you to use it becomes very burdensome and time consuming. I have written a lot of the notes in for myself and hope in my practise that some of it stays in my hands rather than having to read each aggregate in turn.

Since the chords are often very big, Cage has asked the player to prepare some of the notes as harmonics - depressing the keys without sounding - and held through in the middle pedal ( all being well ).

However, there seems to be something open to interpretation when Cage says that the notes which are impossible should so be played - I am not clear which notes are impossible since this would depend on which part of the chord most of the fingers are placed - eg are we to assume that the bottom notes are always the ones to receive priority for playing and those out of reach from this position are the ones to play as harmonics, or may one prioritise the top notes, or have the hands at extremities and play the middle notes as harmonics ? I like to think that this freedom implicit in the instructions is intentional but am not sure.

There are a lot of difficulties in the Boulez Sonata ,in fact, one of the frustrations in this kind of music is that you can not pick up a score and expect to make something of it without working at the notes ( in more conventional music one can at least play the gist in most cases ). There are further difficulties if you are like me and are not convinced by the more lyrical episodes. I am not sure at all that lyricism has a place in such abstract music.

I hope this reply helps you but contact me if you need more. Stan Hansel

Stuart Jackson:

What kind of music do you prefer playing? Music of a 'traditional' form or that of a more abstract nature like Cage's music?

SH: Thanks, Stuart, for your question. I play an instrument invented for the most self indulgent entertainment possible and I have to make a distinction between pieces I play for the sheer satisfaction of a pianistic nature ( Rachmaninov , Tschaikowski come to mind )and those which I feel contribute more to the artistic nature of music. In any case, I find I do not play new music well enough without a diet of the first kind of music to keep technique on form.

NB: Gabriel.. You perform many works written specifically for the solo cello (rather than cello/piano ). Do you feel there are many attributes of the instrument as a solo instrument as yet unexplored? It must be an interesting departure for your audiences who probably are only familiar with the Bach 'cello suites?

GP: Regarding solo cello works in general, I would say that the Zimmermannn Sonata really reaches the limit of the instrument within a classical framework.

The move off into new areas has been characterized by three approaches. Firstly, as with works like 'Ne songe plus à fuir' by Richard Barrett, the page is covered with thousands of notes, the composer sculpting forms out of them ('New Complexity'), the performer having to give the gesture of the composer's intentions without it ever being humanly possible to fully recreate what's written.

Secondly, there is the exploration of non-pitch music, like 'Pression' by Helmut Lachenmann, where no traditional cello technique is needed at all, as the entire piece is made up of acoustic effects (twelve pages of notes to to study before beginning work!).

Finally, of course there is the combination of electronic and conventional string sounds, such as has been achieved so successfully with the music of Canadian Paul Dolden (a lot of Rock and Jazz influence there).

'An interesting departure for your audiences who probably are only familiar with the Bach cello suites', well, yes, it's tough. People have a fixed idea of what cello music is, and it can be a little disturbing for them when they hear one of my concerts, but I think that what I try to do, which is to give a healthy mix of styles in my programmes, reaches out to many people, even though the setting is clearly modern.

I play what's out there that attracts me artistically: I would say that trying to balance serious artistic endeavour and a will to move forward in the art whilst at the same time producing something audiences can relate to is more the preoccupation of composers than performers wouldn't you say?