playing by memory: NYTimes article

College Majors Music Major
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<p>Today's New York Times has an article on the practice of musicians performing by memory: "Playing by Heart, with or without a Score" by Anthony Tommasini: </p>

<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/arts/music/memorizations-loosening-hold-on-concert-tradition.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130101%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/arts/music/memorizations-loosening-hold-on-concert-tradition.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130101&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>As the title makes clear, Tommasini supports performers who choose to play with the score. The practice appears to be spreading (although it has not hit my remote and isolated corner of the world yet, but we do look to New York as the final arbiter of performance practices--someone observes a cellist in a New York recital sitting a distance from the piano and that distance suddenly becomes permissible here--"they do it in New York"!). </p>

<p>Apparently Stony Brook University has made scores optional for pianists since the 1980's. Tommasini references another interesting article on the subject (from The Telegraph).</p>

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<p>Interesting article! I’ve sent it on to D3 for her reaction, especially since she’s thinking of performing a piece this weekend with the music. (She never, ever uses the music - sometimes even when it’s open! - but this was a last minute addition to the program.)</p>

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<p>Great article! Very interesting. I know D also feels that many contemporary pieces may lend themselves to memorization more easily, not less, than works from other eras.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the article. I’m delighted to read this in the New York Times, and hope to see the change continue to take place.</p>

<p>As I’ve written before, not all musicians find memorization easy, but many do. For those who can memorize after playing a piece only once, performing my memory does not demonstrate mastery. My daughter can memorize somewhat, but would not want to perform without the music, as all of her mental energy would be spent trying to remember the music, instead of performing musically.</p>

<p>I agree with the premise of the article that performing by memory is showing off. It would be like a wind player who can circle breathe flawlessly circle breathing entire pieces just to show off. While they can be useful techniques, I would not want to require all performers to use these techniques if they had other methods by which to deliver a fine performance.</p>

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<p>Thanks for raising the article ViolinDad. Without reading the article, my composition major son’s view was that performing earlier works from memory allowed the performer to better internalize the work during the performance (this is what Times article said). With modern pieces which are not necessarily completely tonal and may be more academic, the perforformer does not as much internalize the piece but serves to perform the work as written on the page. In his composer view, it has little to do with ease of memorization. I like the idea of pieces, whether older or not, being played from the score as it pays the composer some honor.</p>

<p>Several of the top conservatories allow some performance audition pieces to be played from the score. Despite this allowance, as many folks have said on this forum, it could deeply damage the auditioner’s chances if the person did so at an audition.</p>

<p>On a personal note, I am going back to Compdad as my user name. I think I like myself better with the less competitve or judgmental user name. While I listened to Bartok’s art songs last night, I chose to listen to Reich’s Octet at midnight.</p>

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<p>Reading a score while performing a concerto is akin to a Shakespearian actor having a copy of the play in their hands while performing Macbeth. I don’t see any difference. It’s distracting for the audience. Even when it’s appropriate, say with a sonata, I find it distracting. As a performer myself I find it impossible to have an artistic conversation onstage with a fellow musician who has their eyes glued to a piece of paper. We call them “chart potatoes”. Considering this forum is about college age , or about about to be college age musicians it’s hard to imagine anyone not memorizing a piece they have practiced three hundred times.</p>

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<p>There are many outstanding musicians who cannot memorize a piece they have practiced 300 times, or 1000 times. Why exclude them? Sure, a stand put up high can be distracting, but a stand placed very low, or to the side is hardly noticed. I personally find soloists who play by memory, but close their eyes, to be distracting. Midori plays with her eyes closed. I much prefer a musician who is engaged with the conductor and the orchestra.</p>

<p>Just because a musician has difficulty playing a full concerto by memory 100% of the time does not mean that musician has their eyes glued to the music. Certainly learning to work by memory during conservatory years is necessary as part of training, but there is no reason to require soloists to perform their works from memory. My daughter learns all her orchestral solos by memory to watch the conductor, and always seems to be communicating well with her chamber music group. She would never want to perform a concerto from memory however as she would have some memory lapses.</p>

<p>Referring to musicians as “chart potatoes” strikes me as a bit snobbish, no?</p>

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<p>In one of the most intimate forms of chamber music - the string quartet - music is used, yet the players must have an artistic conversation. But these musicians certainly are not glued to the scores. I don’t think the article was about glued to the score use though.</p>

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<p>I like the username Compdad better, also. Welcome back.</p>

<p>I can see why this is an interesting debate for classical pieces, but is the debate different for jazz, especially jazz standards? I saw several jazz groups over my break, and it seemed like the groups doing their shows with music were executing the music and the groups that played without sheets were playing the music such that I felt it better.</p>

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<p>Thanks Snowflake. I agree with you on jazz because jazz by nature undertakes at least some improvisation on a theme even when playing the standards.</p>

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<p>I agree on jazz due to the improvization. However I have seen several excellent local jazz groups that used sheet music on a stand, probably more as a reference and only during the beginning of their pieces when they were performing a set theme.</p>

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<p>Your point on use as a reference is a good one woodwinds. I think even with classical, the music is used as a reference rather than a crutch.</p>

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<p>I’ve seen top soloists (eg, Leonidas Kavakos playing Mozart #3) with music on a low stand, performing with the Philly Orchestra. I’m pretty sure Leonidas Kavakos has had that concerto memorized for a while… I’m always glad for trends in classical music that edge towards less stuffiness, a more generous attitude. Someone below made the point that professional chamber ensembles traditionally play with sheet music even though they have, through hundreds of hours of rehearsal, certainly memorized their parts.</p>

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<p>It is an interesting argument and it was controversial when the practice started, from what I know of music history playing concertos started in the late classical/early romantic period and Beethoven for one felt it was a circus trick to have performers do it from memory (we know Clement had the music for the Beethoven violin concerto, he only got the final movement in the middle of the performance, because it hadn’t been finished yet!)</p>

<p>One of the theories about playing a concerto from memory is that it is less distracting, that it connects the performer with the audience, but as others have pointed out, sonatas are almost never memorized, and with a piano how distracting is having a score there, would the audience even notice? I have heard arguments the soloist would lose touch with the conductor if they didn’t memorize it, yet 20th century (aka “modern” concertos) are almost always played with a score by the soloist, I saw Joshua Bell premiere a concerto by Jay Greenberg and he used a score, and I have heard (but can’t confirm) that Hillary Hahn when she premiered the Higdon violin concerto played i with a score as well…</p>

<p>To be honest, I think memorizing concertos and such for auditions is more about the audition panel upholding traditions, of ‘this is the way we did it, so you should too’, because memorizing or not memorizing a piece has absolutely zero to do with the way someone plays a piece. The fact that musicians do so with modern pieces and with Sonatas and it doesn’t seem to hurt the experience so I find the argument about it being disruptive logically a bit dicey.</p>

<p>On the other hand, someone who is totally ‘score reading’ during a performance is ill prepared, because performers have to look up, to keep with the conductor, a sonata partner, chamber group members, and in an orchestra if you have the music mostly memorized, you can watch the conductor (I was blown away recently at the NYSOS programs at Carnegie Hall, all the kids were frequently watching the conductor). with a concerto the music is there as a guide and to allow them to keep their place, and if they do slip to recover easier IMO.</p>

<p>I suspect it is going to become a moot point in the near future, there are glass being perfected that would allow a performer to have the music in front of them without blocking the audience, the score could scroll on the screen on the glasses and be controlled by eye movements. The technology behind this is still in the prototype phase, but eventually it is going to happen, or they will have a kind of virtual teleprompter that to the audience is invisible, but to the performer appears right in front of their eyes I suspect.</p>

<p>Now another shiboleth, not clapping between movements, may need to be addressed:)</p>

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<p>Excellent point, musicprnt, about technology and future scores. I am in technology and can totally see this happening in the not too distance future.</p>

<p>Here is a Corning techno-story someone forwarded me over the holidays (I don’t work for Corning Glass). [A</a> Day Made of Glass… Made possible by Corning. - YouTube](<a href=“YouTube”>YouTube)</p>

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<p>

Haha, musicprnt, were you at the NYSOS concert in Carnegie Hall on December 24th? </p>

<p>SnowflakeVT, thanks for posting that video-- love it! D2 is a glass major (glass arts, not technology) and has studied at Corning. She started out as a violist and one of her interests is making glass musical instruments.</p>

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<p>Glassharmonica, very interesting. Does she make them as art or can they be played while also being art?</p>

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<p>They can be played, although, as a player of those particular instruments I wouldn’t quit my day job. ;)</p>

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<p>GH–
Yep, I was at both concerts. The reviewer in the NY Times specifically talked about clapping between movements and said what I do, that the whole non clapping is ridiculous. Most people think this is some ancient tradition, when as far as I can tell it started in the 1930’s, reputedly with Wilhelm Furtwangler (not surprising if true) when he was conducting orchestras here. </p>

<p>There are pieces where clapping between movements would be awkward (like in the Mendelsohn violin concerto between 2nd and 3rd movement) or where there is a bridge…</p>

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<p>Agreed! We did not managed to haul ourselves back to NYC for the second concert, but my daughter told us it was better, and longer than the first.</p>