Undercover theory.

This presentation explored various ways of introducing theoretical concepts as part of a student's practical training. After establishing some basic analytical categories--tonal organization, sectional organization, dramatic structure, texture and compositional technique--the discussion stressed the importance of tuning into a student's receptivity and introducing concepts in a manner that can easily be grasped. A healthy curiosity about what is actually happening in a piece can lead to appropriately probing questions.

Differing opinions about the role of analysis in performance--or in the preparation for performance--have called forth much scholarly debate in recent years. Certainly, the way we understand a piece will influence how we play it, but musicians do not agree on the extent to which analysis should influence performance. William Rothstein, for example, in his article "Analysis and the Act of Performance," has emphasized that "the performer's task is to provide the listener with a vivid experience of the work, not an analytical understanding of it." (John Rink, ed., Musical Performance: A Guide to Understanding, Cambridge University Press, 2002, 238.)

It is also interesting to survey the attitudes of composers to the relationship of analysis to performance. Debussy, for example, criticized Ricardo Vines's playing of the Images, Book 2, because he felt that Vines did not feel their architecture clearly and was distorting the expression. Rachmaninoff was acutely aware of the importance of projecting a work's climax and felt that a performer had to approach it in a precise and calculated way or risk destroying the entire sonorous edifice intended by the composer.

After examining several examples of junior- and intermediate-level pieces in which analytical awareness can provide keys to performance, we focused briefly on sonata form. Sooner or later, most of us indicate at least the outline of sonata form to our students, but we often neglect to indicate the many ways in which it can be modified. Analytical elements in the first movement of Beethoven's Sonata in G Major, Op. 14, No. 2, were mentioned briefly and explored more thoroughly in a handout.

The central portion of this presentation examined the structure of Manuel De Falla's "Miller's Dance" and aspects of three recorded performances. This character piece is the composer's arrangement of a dance De Falla added to his 1919 ballet The Three-Cornered Hat as a solo for Leonide Massine. It is a type of flamenco dance called a farruca, a sensual male dance in 4/4 time. The "Miller's Dance" can be divided into two roughly equal sections, each of which includes two subsections. Section A opens with Theme 1, whose eight bars feature a variety of snappy rhythms and richly textured, sometimes dissonant chords. The musical gestures are clearly intended to imitate the sound of guitar-strumming and foot-stamping. Theme 2, with a thinner texture of melody and broken chords, is the melodic core of a traditional dance, the ale gaditano. The second half of Section A incorporates and expands on the rhythmic gestures of the first. Section B opens with a variant of Theme 1 and continues with a variant of Theme 2. hs second subsection, slightly longer than the first, consists of three eight-bar phrases containing repeated statements of a two-bar precadential progression, capped by a decisive cadence. In the ballet, this section accompanies the increasingly frenzied gyrations of the miller. In the piano score, a crescendo marked at the fifth bar of the first phrase culminates in a fortissimo marking at the beginning of the third phrase. Tempo markings indicating increasing animation appear at the beginning of each phrase.

Magda Tagliaferro's performance (EMI Classics 0946-351867-2-7 [1966]) is amazing for its clarity, rhythmic precision and carefully etched lines. Tagliaferro is scrupulous in observing the composer's many markings. Her interpretation of the final subsection, however, is curiously lacking in momentum and dynamic interest. Her strict adherence to the composer's markings precludes a real accelerando until just before the end, and her insistence on the left-hand upper-voice accents ultimately becomes monotonous.

Teresa Llacuna, in our second performance (EMI Classics 09436-336139-2-8 [2005]) produces a more sensually satisfying experience, with thick-sounding chords and subtly colored tonal gradations. She invests individual components of each phrase with personal energy, as if she is molding the material from scratch. Her final subsection includes a gradual crescendo and accelerando that reflects the buildup of excitement implicit in De Falla's score.

Byron Janis produces the most spellbinding performance (Mercury Living Presence 432002-2 [1990]), although his artistic decisions may not always reflect the composer's wishes. The tempo, for example, is more animato than moderato assai, and the rhythmic freedom and subtle tonal coloring seem intensely personal. His feeling for phrase structure and for the "macho" kind of energy that underlies the piece is quite gripping. His final subsection literally whizzes by. It gathers speed very fast and ends in a blaze of energy. What is Janis's secret? Actually, he eliminates six bars of the repeated precadential formula. Was this a spur-of-the-moment decision, or did it reflect a clever calculation? In eliminating these bars Janis makes the B section of the "Miller's Dance" exactly the same length, in terms of measures, as the A section. In terms of performance time, of course, the B section is shorter due to the vigorous accelerando.

The concluding portion of this presentation briefly considered the study of musical compositions as inspiration for the student's own creative efforts. Plagiarism is a frequent topic of conversation in academic circles nowadays, but the truth of the matter is that most ideas are derivative to some extent. Composers often acquire ideas from various aspects of their environment, including tunes or pieces they have heard or studied. One interesting example of a composition for students that falls into this category is Stephen Chatman's "Olie the Goalie," which is based on melodic ideas that are heard at crucial moments in Canadian hockey games.

Thomas Green, presenter