For more classes like this one, please visit the Benjamin Zander Center - www.benjaminzander.org/ Joe Cradler, horn Interpretations of Music: Lessons for Life with Benjamin Zander David Jamrog Audio/Video
"That applause is saying: you know, we spend our lives in ordinary mundane afares. We behave in a mundane way, we dress in a mundane way. We walk to the office, we work in the office, we come home on the train, we say hello to our family and then wie die... and then Tchaikovsky comes in and reminds us that we have another whole world of passion, of love, of frustration, of sorrow, of tragedy, of desire. You know, the entire range of human emotions available... Through your Horn!" Benjamin Zander
"The desire, the aim, the goal... is NOT to play perfectly, that is not the aim. The aim is to make music like THAT... what you just did, and you touched everyone."
It's amazing how much one learns from these interpretation classes and how Maestro Zander brings out the very best in the music and in the players! His love and passion for music is most infectious and he is such a wonderful teacher. Bravissimo Maestro!
Music is much more than just music. It is the essence of life. Among many things it is saying I love you, and I want to tell you how I feel. I guess you could say it is a form of communication and the messages it passes on may be excepted differently by different people. I guess in a way it brings out feelings that may or may not be put in words but are transported to our inner feelings reaching down to our soul!
Whenever I would play this for fun in my head I would just automatically feel lyrics to the notes without thinking about it. It made me for the first time put true emotion into my horn and I never forget how playing this makes makes me feel 🥲🥲🥲
Benjamin Zander is the Conductor and Music Director of the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, a youth orchestra in Boston composed of both high school and college age students.
Maestro Zander's classes should be required study for all of us brass players, who really aren't encouraged to go to heart of the music. His first comments about the "just the facts" (my phrase) approach to orchestra playing was right on. Great brass-player musicians like Frank Kaderabek, Philip Smith and others talked a lot about imagination and expression in lessons, but many teachers and players do not look for that enough. I think this fine hornist should practice while closing his eyes and playing from his heart. Concern about following Tchaikovsky's detailed markings can actually distract the performer. I used to think of this passage as being somewhat tragic. I think Zander's sense of it as a deep expression of love and devotion is a more inspiring and moving idea. Mr. Zander could have borrowed a concept from Ray Mase and told the hornist to think of the tongue as a brush: Brushing the notes rather than attacking them. Playing it slurred and then gently letting the tongue participate (dee-da-da) can be helpful practice. Zander got his point across, though; The hornist did a beautiful job of responding at the end! Adding actual words to the excerpt is a very powerful tool for finding the soul of the music, as Zander illustrated. One caveat: The horn is a bit like the violin in that the sound you hear next to your ear is not the same as the one the audience hears out in the hall. Sometimes articulations that seem a bit heavy up close work for the hall. You have to have someone listen from the middle of the hall. I believe the advice here was good, though. Maestro Zander's words are always ear opening and profound!
The music states: "Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza". Translated: Moderately slow, in a singing style, with some freedom. ---- Always follow the composer's directions as well as the conductor's. Wonderful recording!
When the score says 3 quavers, but you don't play them evenly, but with some stretch, is this what makes an 'interpretation' but not playing wrong notes?
This is in a way what Tchaikovsky was trying to figure out with all his markings in his music. There is only so much a composer can put in the score, and it is up to us the players to interpret those things and enhance the music. If we strictly played the notes on the page by themselves, then there's no point in playing then since the same could be done by a computer. The composer wants you to play with passion, and they tell that to us in any way they can. On a side note, you know how insane it would be to write in every note EXACTLY how much length they have to be? A dotted 32nd here a double-dotted 16th here. That would make it sound even more mechanical, so writing in a way that is both legible and playable is optimal.
That makes sense :) Thanks for this, I guess this is why people can like and dislike different interpretations, or why some people would think it's wrong. I feel inspired and will implement this in my playing in the future, to stretch the dynamics and even rhythm more and be more rhythmic where it needs to like in Beethoven but more free in say Chopin.
Actually Beethoven himself said 'To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable.' I guess from your comment that you see Beethoven's music as strict and Chopin's as free. Perhaps Beethoven himself didn't care much about rhythm and getting all the notes correct. Just a thought:)
Con alcuna licenza. Mit etwas Freiheit. Hier sollte der Hornist "singen". Viel Luft ist erforderlich um die Phrasen nicht auseinander zu reißen. Dohr und Stransky sind GUTE Beispiele
For the professor of his caliber it is really unnecessary to use profanity. I love Benjamin's teaching (so refreshing) and his spirit but this little remark at the end of the video tells me tons about him....so sad.... :( Please refrain from it in the future dear professor...
He could have conformed to basic classical music elitist rules and omitted it but didn't because true artists will use profanity, sparingly of course, but will use it. They don't conform to elitist views because the most important thing is the art and expression itself. As someone who's studied both art and music I can say the lesson doesn't truly start until your teacher lets loose and puts the problem straight to you. When the mentors say "fuck", you know they see you with some respect as a close friend that they're going to actually try and teach, not another robot student on the assembly line at arm's length(this kind of treatment is a waste of tuition). In regular academic settings or strict professional, business settings, yes it'd be less appropriate but with music and the arts, it's really much more relaxing when people can disregard rules that hinder us to express how we feel and instead just go with the flow and enjoy the process~
andy mas Thanks for your thoughts. Alas, I do not agree with you. Not at all... Your comment seems to be full of prejudices. What is "basic classical elitist rules"? There's no such thing. It's all about people not some ethereal categories that people make up. Art (any kind of art) is not alive of itself, it does not posses innate life. It is people who make it alive or dead, appealing or repelling. People like you and I, people like Benjamin. We make it good or bad. Benjamin blew it when he used the F word. I am fortunate enough to know high class artists who do not need to express themselves in a natural way by using profanity and base thoughts. Their art is enough. It speaks volumes of words. Also you state a classical contradictio in adjecto when you say: "When the mentors say "f**k", you know they see you with some respect as a close friend..." Seriously? Is this how you communicate with your friends as well. You call each other names and feel good and real because of that? Really? Also, what is a "regular academic setting" for you? Maybe when you have an audience eager to hear beautiful interpretation of amazing classical work that arouses deepest feelings within human being and having minors mixed in it too? Is that not regular or strict professional setting for you? Well, think again, man. According to you I am not the true artist because I do not curse. You know there is a beautiful proverb that says: "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh."
The reason why your comment comes up as "elitist" is because, first, (as it was stated before) you act as though the world needs to conform to your standards, but most importantly it comes from a popular perspective among classical music listeners that conflates moral virtue with musical virtue or musical talent. The reality is that intrumentalist, composers, directors and artists in general, even of the highest class, weren't and aren't necessarily morally virtuous and the expressions of music itself don't need to be either, music can be quite ugly or distressing and still be aprecciated and valuable for what it is, because the human spirit ecompasses more than "that which is good" and acknowledging that is important. Now you may not want that and that's fine, but to think that people should conform all the time to that line of thinking to portray themselves in a "behaved" manner, is not being entirely honest to oneself or to others. Just my opinion.
Thanks for your candid thoughts. Appreciate that. But I disagree.... :) First, my comment cannot be elitist only because I urged to be polite and mindful with the usage of words. It is not just adults that watch Benjamin's clips, nor are just adults present at his sessions. Therefore, this kind of vulgar profanity is absolutely not welcomed in any civilized setting, let alone in front of live audience. Second, it is not my standards. It is the standards of civilized history that has always been able to express itself in a constructive and productive way. Third, the problem with your statement about conflation of virtues is doubtful. What is Benjamin trying to evoke in his listeners? Pride, egotism, hatred and envy? No! Love, passion, benevolence, meaning of one's existence, etc. The piece he is interpreting in the most brilliant way has nothing to do with ugliness and distress. He is trying to show us the real feelings of the composer. The feelings that have been buried for ages and succeeds only to shoot himself in the leg by using profane word which busted the bubble and put us right back where we started. And fourthly, it is not the question of conforming to anything. It is the question of being good, noble, benevolent, and longsuffering as a true standard of one's daily life. I try to adhere to these, and the bad stuff in my life I try to keep for myself working every day to be better person than yesterday. I do not throw skeletons from my closet to other people's paths since they cannot contribute to anything, but can hurt so many. Thus, I am no better than you, but I try to be and do not hide behind artistic "freedom". Therefore: "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh." Have a good day, sir....
