I watched a wonderful masterclass
recently on PBS television. The show was called
Barenboim on Beethoven. Daniel Barenboim is a classical
concert pianist and conductor with a penchant for
the music of Beethoven. I am always fascinated with
these masterclasses because one only needs to come
away with a small soundbyte of wisdom or expertise
and the experience has been worth it. Also, I think
it is always interesting how the mind of a classical
musician works when interpreting the music of another
composer, something that is inherently different
from the jazz improviser.
The one thing that I always come
away with from these classical maestros is the deep
respect they have for the original composition.
Of course this is a very classical musician's approach,
and quite different from the jazz musician who is
free to take a composition and butcher it as he
or she sees fit!
In fact at one point during the
masterclass Barenboim asks his student why he chooses
to play a particular section loud. The student replies
"Because I like it that way". The maestro
responds "Not good enough!", and then
proceeds to explain why that section might have
sounded better played pianissimo, and gave extremely
substantial musical reasons why it would have been
so, even though individual interpretation was certainly
valid.
Now if Herbie Hancock was giving
a masterclass and he asked the student the same
question, the response "Because I like it that
way" might have been more acceptable.
But I think in both scenarios,
if the individual can justify his chosen interpretation,
provided it does justice to the music, whether it
be respecting the original content of the composer
or not, is to my mind valid. And I think that is
actually what Daniel Barenboim was getting at. He
just didn't think his student justified his own
approach.
But the one thing that struck
a chord with me (if you will pardon the pun), is
when Daniel Barenboim discussed the 'miracle of
music'. He said that no matter how much a musician
practices, no matter how technically adept he or
she is, the concept of individuality and personal
emotiveness, simply cannot be taught. How much passion
and feeling one puts into a piece, how involved
in that performance the player is at the time, are
all factors that simply cannot be learned in a classroom.
And at the end of the day this
is of course why one great musician who plays the
same set of notes in a phrase as another great musician,
sounds so different. Once the maestro is out of
the room, that individual player is left to his
own personal unique self expression.
And as far as I am concerned,
this is the real wonder of music.
