Exploring new sounds: contemporary performance techniques for the pre-college student.

As a frequent performer and fervent advocate of new music, I believe we have a critical responsibility to prepare the developing pianist for the expanded performance requirements that have emerged since the latter half of the twentieth century. Just as we carefully develop sequential steps ,r introducing a student to a Mozart sonata, we, as thoughtful teachers, need to examine the variety of avant-garde piano skills that have now become essential components of a well-formed piano technique. In this way, we can better facilitate the logical development of those skills and foster their integration into the standard piano repertoire.

Fortunately, there are many extraordinary compositions that effectively can introduce students of all levels to twentieth-century performance techniques. Through the exploration of new sonorities and colors, the interior of the piano and rhythmic complexities, students can come to understand the diverse possibilities that contemporary music offers. By exposing students to these performance techniques and sonorities at the beginning and continually incorporating them into their basic musical studies, students will be able to gradually prepare for the great works of the twentieth century and beyond.

Precise Performance Indications and Abrupt Changes

One of the most intimidating characteristics of contemporary music is the demand for precise and abrupt changes in dynamics, articulation, duration, register and texture. Since twentieth-century music often is less melodic in a traditional sense, pianists are required to perform large leaps, execute quick changes in direction and negotiate unusual intervallic groupings and clusters. As a result, it is imperative that students have effective practice strategies when encountering these challenging performance requirements.

Widely Spaced Sonorities and Registral Shifts

In Norman Dello Joio's beautiful Night Sang, the widely spaced sonorities help create the nocturnal sound environment. Because of the frequent register changes, the student continually must be moving to and preparing for the next sound in order to create a fluid, legato line within a predominantly pianissimo dynamic range. In this work, Dello Joio introduces four triads that serve as the building blocks for the entire work: D minor, F-sharp major, C major and G-sharp minor. Recognizing this foundational, compositional device allows the intermediate student to more easily execute the large leaps and registral shifts. Without a clear melody, color becomes the paramount musical element. Special attention should be given to issues of voicing to create layers of sound, listening closely to how changes in register, dynamics and pedaling impact the composite sound.

Pointillistic Texture

Bruce Wise's Four Pieces for Piano requires advanced pianistic skills and musicianship. In the first movement, "Fast," the pointillistic texture demands economy of movement, precise preparations and a clear understanding of how physical gestures correspond with the musical phrases. Negotiating the wide leaps and rapid changes in direction calls for the pianist to avoid a "note-wise procedure," defined by Abby Whiteside in Indispensables of Piano Playing as "a separate use of power for each tone--exactly what is achieved by independent fingers producing the tone." (1) Whiteside goes on to say that "there must be a physical action in the playing mechanism which proceeds from the first tone of the phrase to the last tone.... This action may go directly from one accent to another and use these accents as stepping stones in its procedure to the close of the musical statement." (2)

Exercises away from the piano can help the student initially realize the larger rhythmic framework, overall phrasing and corresponding choreography. Taking time to tap and verbalize the rhythm, utilizing the whole body, until the phrase-rhythm is internalized, is absolutely imperative and should occur before a note is played. For example, the downbeats of measures 13 and 14 represent clear rhythmic arrival points and should be played with a full-arm gesture, while the previous three measures clearly lead to those downbeats. The physical gestures used should reflect this musical hierarchy, These decisions must be made at the onset of studying the work. Otherwise, students will dwell on the difficulties of reading the score, and a note-by-note production will result.

Although a thorough compositional and theoretical analysis is well beyond the scope of this article, an understanding of how the basic four-note motive (G, F-sharp, E and F) is developed through transposition, inversion and retrograde procedures encourages a more holistic examination of the work.

Unusual Note Groupings and Clusters

Many contemporary compositions are based on non-diatonic scales and chords. As a result, pianists are required to negotiate unusual combinations of note groupings and clusters that go beyond the fingerings used in traditional scales, arpeggios and chords. Students who rely on intervallic reading skills will make this transition more easily.

Based on a hexachord, presented at the top of the score, "Jack Rabbit," from Youth's Companion by Ross Lee Finney, poses several challenges for the late-intermediate pianist, including exposed dissonances, angular phrases and unexpected rests and fermatas that depict the jackrabbit leaping and hovering on the North Dakota prairie. A heightened awareness of how the hand and fingers correspond with the black-and-white keys will assist in determining the angles of the hand and arm, as well as quickly identifying positions on the keyboard. Because Finney offers no fingering suggestions, teachers will need to carefully guide students through this decision-making process so they understand how to effectively choose fingerings based on the note groupings, as well as the direction and destination of each musical gesture. By blocking the note groupings, designated in Example 3 with shaded boxes, unusual finger configurations will become more familiar. The fingering indicated is performed easily by a student with modest hand size and capitalizes on diatonic scale patterns.

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Pioneered by Charles Ives and Henry Cowell, clusters are widely used now in many contemporary works, calling for the pianist to use fingers, palms, forearms and the entire arm in unconventional ways. Depending on the particular work, care should be given to avoid unnecessary twisting of the wrists and keep the body and arms aligned whenever possible. It also is important to recognize how the center of gravity shifts when playing large clusters. Students should strive to find a balanced distribution of weight, even when leaning on one elbow.

From the collection Monsterpieces (and Others) by William Bolcom, "Big Mountain" utilizes full arm clusters. (Bolcom offers an alternative cluster for students whose arms are too short.) Bolcom uses the standard notation of placing a natural or flat sign to designate white or black key clusters respectively. Effectively executing the pianissimo clusters requires sitting closer to the keyboard than usual, so the arm forms a straight line from the elbow to the fingertips. If a student opts to use the palm clusters instead, it is important that the elbow is still aligned with the hand to prevent twisting the wrist.

"The Guinea Hen" creatively utilizes white-key clusters to evoke this "crazy, totally unpredictable pheasant." (3) The opportunity to generate massive sounds on the keyboard never fails to delight piano students. Referring to measures 3-5, Bernstein indicates, "It makes no difference which white notes are played as long as the down-up swirl of the passage is followed." (4) Due to the percussive nature of this passage, it is best to play on the back part of the palm, with the fingers loosely shaped and relaxed. Without the fear of note accuracy, this passage is an excellent tool for developing the ability to shift weight between alternating hands.

Inside the Piano and Prepared Piano

In 1923, Henry Cowell began to experiment with sounds produced by playing directly on the strings of the piano and employing the use of harmonics, glissandi, pizzicati and other innovative effects. Later, George Crumb developed his own unique, highly personal musical voice through the incorporation of sounds produced by the fingernails or fingertips on the strings, as well as striking the strings with objects like chains or a percussionist's wire brush or muting the strings with a cloth.

There are many excellent examples of works that allow the student to explore the inside of the piano and the abundant sonorities that can be achieved. Much of this repertoire requires marking the dampers with drafting tape to label the necessary pitches. It is crucial to keep the damper pedal depressed while placing the tape on the dampers, making sure not to press down. Strings should be wiped with a clean, cotton cloth after each use to prevent any damage. During performance, most students will need to stand while depressing the damper pedal to access the interior of the piano.

Emma Lou Diemer's Space Suite, which was commissioned by Clavier, contains several compositions that call for the student to creatively explore the piano's interior. In "Out in Space," Diemer uses silently depressed keys (harmonics), glissandi, sympathetic vibrations and plucked strings to create a magical effect. Throughout the work, she provides clear directions for the execution of the more unusual notation.

American composer John Cage is credited with first experimenting with modifying the sound of the piano by inserting pieces of felt, rubber, metal and other objects between the strings--an experiment for which he was honored by the American Society of Arts and Letters. While accompanying dance classes given by Bonnie Byrd at the Cornish Institute in Seattle, Cage had no room for additional percussionists. This dilemma led him to the creation of a "percussion orchestra" within the piano.

Among avant-garde piano music, Arthur Greene's Seven Wild Mushrooms and a Waltz is a charming collection of intermediate compositions for prepared piano. Greene provides a clear, lengthy preface describing how to prepare ten strings of the grand piano with rubber erasers and wood screws. Greene also outlines certain precautions to take to avoid damaging the instrument:

* Do not insert or slide the preparations too close to either end of the strings, taking special care that the dampers are not moved out of their proper positions.

* Use clean hands when inserting or removing objects; wipe with a cloth after use.

* Never leave preparations in the piano for an extended time. (5)

From Greene's collection, "Waltz for a Distracted Sole" features bitonality and surprising meter changes within a traditional waltz context. Since preparations alter the "feel" of the keyboard, it is helpful to first learn this comical, bitonal piece without them. Once the preparations are added, slight physical adjustments will need to be made to project the desired dynamics and articulations.

Rhythmic Complexities

The gamut of diverse rhythmic techniques used in twentieth-century works presents several performance challenges for the pianist. At one end of the spectrum, complex rhythmic procedures, such as syncopation, jazz rhythms, shifting or changing meter signatures, asymmetrical meter signatures, metric modulations, shifting accents and polyrhythms, are used by composers like Stravinsky, Bartok and Muczynski. Some contemporary composers favored rhythmic simplicity in compositions that have no meter signature or feature time-span or spatial notation.

The following examples present a variety of rhythmic challenges for the late-intermediate or advanced piano student. The student must already have a firm grasp of most rhythmic values and meter signatures to successfully embark on the study of these pieces. A curriculum that sequentially incorporates these rhythmic devices will ensure the student is prepared for the complexities that contemporary music presents. In the preface to Rhythmic Training, an excellent resource for rhythmic exercises and drills, Robert Starer states, "In my experience as composer, performer and teacher I have come to the conclusion that an inadequate grasp of rhythmic patterns is often the cause of poor sight-reading. It has also become increasingly apparent that lack of familiarity with five and seven time and changing meters, particularly in the early stages of musical training, has contributed much to the unjustified fears of performing twentieth-century music." (6)

Shifting (Changing) and Asymmetrical Meter Signatures

The incorporation of shifting or changing meter signatures within a work is a hallmark of twentieth-century composition. Robert Beaser's "Landscape with Bells" incorporates both shifting and asymmetrical meter signatures. These rhythmic challenges demand an excellent sense of the inner pulse to move smoothly from one meter signature to another. Initially, practicing with the metronome set to the eighth-note (the smallest subdivision of the beat) helps develop a steady inner pulse within the shifting meter context.

As advocated by Kodaly, Dalcroze and Edwin Gordon, using a method of counting that reflects the larger beat rhythm allows the student to better internalize the macrorhythm and phrase structure. In asymmetrical meters, it is important to recognize how the big or macro beats are organized within each measure. For example, in measures 2-4 where each 7/8 measure breaks down into a pattern of 3 + 4, the student can count using metric counting, "tah" or "du," depending on the preferred method. If the student has a firmly established sense of the inner pulse, he or she should be ready to make the necessary shift to feeling the music in macro beats. An excellent exercise for developing the ability to experience the micro and macro beats simultaneously involves tapping the micro or inner pulse on the chest, while outlining the macro pulse with the feet:

Hands   R L R L R L R / L R L R L R L
7/8     1 2 3 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 1 2 3 4
Feet    R     L       / R     L

The use of unpredictable accents also can add to the rhythmic complexity of a musical work. In "Little Gorgon" by Christopher Rouse, shifting accents and syncopation provide rhythmic vitality and energy. In this piece, the rhythmic shifts should be experienced away from the piano via movement, clapping and some type of verbalization of the beats. While tapping the rhythm, the accents sfffz's and ffff's need to be incorporated into corresponding physical gestures that will transfer easily to the keyboard. In addition to tapping and counting the rhythm, practicing with an "outlining" technique as advocated by Whiteside can prove helpful. She defines "outlining" or "pulsing" as "a reading which leaves out everything which can be deleted without destroying the emotional reaction to the beauty of the music." (7) Initially playing only chords associated with sfffz's, the notes closest to those arrival points should be gradually filled in until the whole passage is played. The metronome serves as an invaluable tool for making sure the inner pulse is steady, especially after syncopations and unexpected rests.

The type of "off-the-key" physical approach required in this piece, so common in the piano works of Bartok and Prokofiev, demands a flexible wrist to achieve the fast and violent tempo indication. This exciting and dramatic composition provides an excellent performance vehicle for students with small hands who have the necessary pianistic and musical skills.

Measured Without Meter Signature

Contemporary composers sometimes avoid meter signatures altogether for varying reasons. In many cases, this creates a more improvisatory, spontaneous effect without the predictable, implied emphasis established when a meter signature is indicated. In Seymour Bernstein's "The Black Fly" from Insects, Book 2, the absence of any meter signature, changes in duration, dynamics and register, and the extra-musical sounds created by clapping hands and slapping the leg, neck, wrist and piano lid establish the erratic, frenzied motion of the black fly as he tries to avoid termination. Bernstein calls for "strict rhythm" throughout and designates important structural points with a dotted line. Prior to learning the notes, students need to tap and count the rhythm, incorporating all accents and dynamics, with the metronome set to the eighth note. It also is very important to determine the important moments of rhythmic arrival so the gestures sweep forward to their ultimate destination.

Time-Span (Spatial) Notation

In time-span, or spatial, notation, the composer indicates the exact time span of one unit or one beat. In "The Computer's Revenge" (Scherzo) from The Machine Age by William Albright, the performer strives to imitate the "irregular typing or the patter of rain." Here, the beat, or unit, is one second. Although the placement of each note is approximate, the performer must try to keep the basic pulse unit steady. The metronome set to the macro beat (quarter = 60) will provide a rhythmic anchor for the student.

In conclusion, our students will live most of their lives in the twenty-first century. We need to facilitate this bridge to the future by re-evaluating traditional teaching methods and materials to determine their ability to help students embrace the diversity and complexity of contemporary music. By supplementing traditional materials with contemporary compositions and studies from the earliest lessons, we can expose our students to the ever-changing concepts of musical sound and expanded performance and practice techniques that will accommodate the diverse range of challenges presented in this music. As teachers, 1 hope you will use some of these ideas and musical examples as a springboard for your own quest in discovering new and exciting repertoire for the pre-college pianist.

NOTES

(1.) Whiteside, Abby, Indispensables of Piano Playing. (Charles Scribner's Sons: New York, NY, 1938): 78.

(2.) Ibid., 118.

(3.) Bernstein, Seymour, Birds, Book 2. (G. Schirmer, Inc.: New York, NY, 1973): v.

(4.) Ibid., v.

(5.) Greene, Arthur, Seven Wild Mushrooms and a Waltz: Easy Pieces for Prepared Piano. (Galaxy Music Corporation: New York, NY, 1976): preface.

(6.) Starer, Robert, Rhythmic Training. (MCA Music, Inc.: New York, NY, 1969): preface.

(7.) Whiteside, 25.

Jessica Johnson is assistant of piano and director of graduate studies in piano pedagogy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She holds a D.M.A. degree in piano performance and pedagogy from the University of Michigan.