THEME 2.Artistic Sensibility and Expression
“All practice should aim at acquiring sure taste.”
„Tout exercice doit tendre à acquérir un goût sûr.“
COUPERIN, L’Art de toucher le clavecin, 1716
→ For Couperin, the final destination of technical work is goût, the refined sensibility that allows a musician to make stylistically appropriate and beautiful choices.
“Every instrumentalist must, as much as possible, learn to sing, for playing should, as it were, become singing on the instrument.”
„Jeder Instrumentalist muß, so viel möglich, singen lernen. Denn sein Spielen soll gleichsam ein Singen auf dem Instrumente werden.“
C.P.E. BACH, Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen, 1762
→ singing is the model of all expressive playing. Bach insists that instrumental practice should serve the ultimate aim: rhetorical phrasing, breath-like gesture, and vocal affect.
“Playing well consists not in much fingering, but in playing with judgment and with feeling.”
"Bien jouer ne consiste pas à beaucoup de doigté, mais à jouer avec jugement et avec sentiment."
HOTTETERRE, Principes de la flûte traversière, 1707
→ virtuosity is secondary to taste and expressiveness. Hotteterre reminds flutists that technical brilliance must be in service of affect.
“The fingers, once they are accustomed to obey the mind, perform marvels, and the soul, moved by harmony, transports others.”
MERSENNE, Harmonie universelle, 1636(paraphrased)
→ Mersenne connects disciplined technique to expressive transcendence. When the body obeys the musical will, the result can stir both the performer’s and the listener’s soul.
THEME 2. Artistic Sensibility and Expression
Frank
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Transcript
THEME 2.Artistic Sensibility and Expression
“All practice should aim at acquiring sure taste.”
„Tout exercice doit tendre à acquérir un goût sûr.“
COUPERIN, L’Art de toucher le clavecin, 1716
→ For Couperin, the final destination of technical work is goût, the refined sensibility that allows a musician to make stylistically appropriate and beautiful choices.
“Every instrumentalist must, as much as possible, learn to sing, for playing should, as it were, become singing on the instrument.”
„Jeder Instrumentalist muß, so viel möglich, singen lernen. Denn sein Spielen soll gleichsam ein Singen auf dem Instrumente werden.“
C.P.E. BACH, Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen, 1762
→ singing is the model of all expressive playing. Bach insists that instrumental practice should serve the ultimate aim: rhetorical phrasing, breath-like gesture, and vocal affect.
“Playing well consists not in much fingering, but in playing with judgment and with feeling.”
"Bien jouer ne consiste pas à beaucoup de doigté, mais à jouer avec jugement et avec sentiment."
HOTTETERRE, Principes de la flûte traversière, 1707
→ virtuosity is secondary to taste and expressiveness. Hotteterre reminds flutists that technical brilliance must be in service of affect.
“The fingers, once they are accustomed to obey the mind, perform marvels, and the soul, moved by harmony, transports others.”
MERSENNE, Harmonie universelle, 1636(paraphrased)
→ Mersenne connects disciplined technique to expressive transcendence. When the body obeys the musical will, the result can stir both the performer’s and the listener’s soul.