The organ

[AdamSmith]

For all the attention the Berlin conservatory study has received, this part of the top students’ experiences—their sleep patterns, their attention to leisure, their cultivation of deliberate rest as a necessary complement of demanding, deliberate practice—goes unmentioned. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell focuses on the number of hours exceptional performers practice and says nothing about the fact that those students also slept an hour more, on average, than their less-accomplished peers, or that they took naps and long breaks.

 

This is not to say that Gladwell misread Ericsson’s study; he just glossed over that part. And he has lots of company. Everybody speed-reads through the discussion of sleep and leisure and argues about the 10,000 hours.

 

This illustrates a blind spot that scientists, scholars, and almost all of us share: a tendency to focus on focused work, to assume that the road to greater creativity is paved by life hacks, propped up by eccentric habits, or smoothed by Adderall or LSD. Those who research world-class performance focus only on what students do in the gym or track or practice room. Everybody focuses on the most obvious, measurable forms of work and tries to make those more effective and more productive. They don’t ask whether there are other ways to improve performance, and improve your life.

 

This is how we’ve come to believe that world-class performance comes after 10,000 hours of practice. But that’s wrong. It comes after 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, 12,500 hours of deliberate rest, and 30,000 hours of sleep.

[AdamSmith]

Better recording.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1luHn8SjjE

 

Sills, for comparison.

 

 

Or for whatever.

Listening again to this performance just spurred the thought that it's something of a pity that the celebrity of Messiah eclipses this aesthetically quite different, and truly marvelous, work.

[whipped guy]

Listening again to this performance just spurred the thought that it's something of a pity that the celebrity of Messiah eclipses this aesthetically quite different, and truly marvelous, work.

I have found that the public has had a good track record over the years in mostly choosing masterpieces as the most popular works. However, many of those popular works while arguably of a very high level often tend to be the least "interesting" pieces by a composer. As such they are works in which everything falls perfectly into place... in apple pie order. Messiah can arguably be regarded as one of those pieces that has unjustly overshadowed other masterpieces by Handel.

[AdamSmith]

One more thing I love is Katchen's sympathetic, caring rendition of poor dear old Diabelli's much abused "patch." He treats it tenderly and with respect and affection.

 

Every other performer I've heard at best tosses it around as a beanbag, at worst treats it like a hockey puck, acting out their aggressions on the poor thing.

Yet one more thing. Katchen has an extraordinarily sensitive and precise, yet un-self-conscious, unmannered, seemingly purely intuitive (though surely informed by long reflection and study), feel for dynamics.

 

The word I was searching for is: his whole performance feels casual. Not tortured to attain "virtuosity."

 

Yet exactly right.

[whipped guy]

Yet one more thing. Katchen has an extraordinarily sensitive and precise, yet un-self-conscious, unmannered, seemingly purely intuitive (though surely informed by long reflection and study), feel for dynamics.

 

The word I was searching for is: his whole performance feels casual. Not tortured to attain "virtuosity."

 

Yet exactly right.

I think that I understand what you mean. On a very limited level with my limited technical ability I have always tried to study a piece to try and get the correct feel for it. My piano teacher once told me that that there are often a few measures in every composition that will give you the key to the correct tempo and feel. Yet a slight alteration in tempo can change how a piece feels based on those elusive measures. The perfect example is the second movement of Haydn's Piano Sonata Hob.XVI:19. The movement is marked "andante", but when those defining measures are played a bit quickly the piece has a fragmented, trite, and flippant quality. When played just a trifle slower it has a more mellow feel whereby the melodies smoothly reveal a reflective quality as opposed to a the disjointedness when played faster. Still simply finding the secret to the ideal tempo does not a great performance make.

 

The final result while "studied" should not have the feeling of "being studied". The performer might have gone through a process (be it tortured or not) to arrive at his conclusions, but the final product of those efforts should flow in a seemingly effortless and almost "casual" manner. This most often happens when performers do not have the score in front of them, but are able to play the piece in a matter that while respectful of the printed page allows for a more relaxed approach. However, it can be a balancing act. Being too casusl can smack of overly indulging in distortions that are foreign to the spirit of the piece. Being casual in the sence that one is relaxed and confident with their approach and thereby presenting things in a manner that makes it seem effortless is another matter entirely!

[AdamSmith]

I think that I understand what you mean. On a very limited level with my limited technical ability I have always tried to study a piece to try and get the correct feel for it. My piano teacher once told me that that there are often a few measures in every composition that will give you the key to the correct tempo and feel. Yet a slight alteration in tempo can change how a piece feels based on those elusive measures. The perfect example is the second movement of Haydn's Piano Sonata Hob.XVI:19. The movement is marked "andante", but when those defining measures are played a bit quickly the piece has a fragmented, trite, and flippant quality. When played just a trifle slower it has a more mellow feel whereby the melodies smoothly reveal a reflective quality as opposed to a the disjointedness when played faster. Still simply finding the secret to the ideal tempo does not a great performance make.

 

The final result while "studied" should not have the feeling of "being studied". The performer might have gone through a process (be it tortured or not) to arrive at his conclusions, but the final product of those efforts should flow in a seemingly effortless and almost "casual" manner. This most often happens when performers do not have the score in front of them, but are able to play the piece in a matter that while respectful of the printed page allows for a more relaxed approach. However, it can be a balancing act. Being too casusl can smack of overly indulging in distortions that are foreign to the spirit of the piece. Being casual in the sence that one is relaxed and confident with their approach and thereby presenting things in a manner that makes it seem effortless is another matter entirely!

 

Facilità is what you identify here! A much prized quality in early and middle Renaissance art, first named I think by Vasari. Great and long study and practice that then let the artist give the appearance of casual ease in producing genius.

 

Ease, grace, speed, promptness, agility and dexterity are much looked-up-to qualities in any painter or drawer, as in anyone taking up a difficult and hard task... http://www3.uva.es/ega/wp-content/uploads/facilita-and-non-finito-in-vasaris-lives.pdf

 

One of the most absolutely marvelous books on art history ever (you will have encountered it in your studies?)...

 

Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy: A Primer in the Social History of Pictorial Style

Michael Baxandall

 

https://www.amazon.com/Painting-Experience-Fifteenth-Century-Italy-Paperbacks/dp/019282144X

[AdamSmith]

Together with this classic!

 

Ut Pictura Poesis: The Humanistic Theory of Painting

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00043079.1940.11409319

[whipped guy]

Ah! Facilità! Questo è proprio la parola perfetta per descrivere il concetto! The perfect word to describe the concept! As with the English word "facility" it implies an ease and fluency, be it based on hard work or natural ability! However not surprisingly it somehow sounds better in Italian! Still, most great artists, even when blessed with natural ability, did struggle to have facilità! That was definitely the case with Beethoven. Also, Haydn usually wrote the words "Laus Deo" at the conclusion of each composition which I always interpreted as thanking God for giving him the strength to get things done. Now in Mozart's case tradition says that the notes literally flew down from heaven and landed on the page! Still I wonder if even Mozart struggled at bit... or if he was really like as he was portrayed in Amadeus?!?!

[AdamSmith]

Now in Mozart's case tradition says that the notes literally flew down from heaven and landed on the page! Still I wonder if even Mozart struggled at bit... or if he was really like as he was portrayed in Amadeus?!?!

I read in some source of good authority (can't recall where any more, but I do remember the article was by some respected source) that, very late the night before the premiere of Figaro I think it was, he was rushing to finish up composing the overture, and his wife had to READ ALOUD to him to keep him awake!

 

So yes, evidently he could compose even when almost dead asleep!

[AdamSmith]

Together with this classic!

 

Ut Pictura Poesis: The Humanistic Theory of Painting

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00043079.1940.11409319

And Ut Pictura Poesis Is Her Name

By John Ashbery

 

You can’t say it that way any more.

Bothered about beauty you have to

Come out into the open, into a clearing,

And rest. Certainly whatever funny happens to you

Is OK. To demand more than this would be strange

Of you, you who have so many lovers,

People who look up to you and are willing

To do things for you, but you think

It’s not right, that if they really knew you . . .

So much for self-analysis. Now,

About what to put in your poem-painting:

Flowers are always nice, particularly delphinium.

Names of boys you once knew and their sleds,

Skyrockets are good—do they still exist?

There are a lot of other things of the same quality

As those I’ve mentioned. Now one must

Find a few important words, and a lot of low-keyed,

Dull-sounding ones. She approached me

About buying her desk. Suddenly the street was

Bananas and the clangor of Japanese instruments.

Humdrum testaments were scattered around. His head

Locked into mine. We were a seesaw. Something

Ought to be written about how this affects

You when you write poetry:

The extreme austerity of an almost empty mind

Colliding with the lush, Rousseau-like foliage of its desire to communicate

Something between breaths, if only for the sake

Of others and their desire to understand you and desert you

For other centers of communication, so that understanding

May begin, and in doing so be undone.

 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/47769

[whipped guy]

I read in some source of good authority (can't recall where any more, but I do remember the article was by some respected source) that, very late the night before the premiere of Figaro I think it was, he was rushing to finish up composing the overture, and his wife had to READ ALOUD to him to keep him awake!

 

So yes, evidently he could compose even when almost dead asleep!

It was the overture to Don Giovanni that supposedly was written the night before the premiere. Of course Rossini did him one better and supposedly wrote the Overture to La Gazza Ladra the day of the premiere. The impresario locked him in a room and the manuscript was tossed out the window page by page so the copiests could get the parts ready for the prima rappresentazione!

 

Of course in both cases some (but not all) of the thematic material of the overtures was based on music that appears in the opera and that certainly facilitated things. Plus, being in pseudo sonata form there was enough repetition involved to make things predictable as well. Still, it must be remembered that both Mozart and Rossini had great musical minds. Both were able to copy down music that they heard performed. Mozart did so as a youngster of 14 by transcribing an illegal copy of Allegri's Miserere as performed at the Vatican. The music that was not allowed to be circulated outside the Vatican to insure the Vatican as the only place where it could be performed. When the music was published shortly thereafter based on Mozart's copy the Pope actually praised the youngster when many thought he would be excommunicated! At a similar age Rossini was hired to steal the music of an entire opera which was kept under lock and key. He did so piecemeal over the run of performances. Therefore, with minds that were able to store music in the deep recesses of their brain both probably had both overtures already composed in their minds long before and only had to take the time to actually write down the notes on paper! Even given the fact that both compositions are relatively simple compared to the music of later eras, both are still remarkable feats.

 

The closest that I can come to such a feat concerns reviews that I have written for this site. That is in the good old days when there actually was an active review site! I would leave the escort's place and in the time that I got back to my place would have everything virtually written in my mind. I would just need the time to take pen to paper, or fingers to iPad as things later developed! Somehow such events became indelibly etched into my mind! It does not work that way for me with music. Perhaps for the certain composers music is considered to be better and more memorable than sex... who knows?!?!?

[AdamSmith]

Listening closely, Katchen's use of pedal is similarly revelatory.

[whipped guy]

Listening closely, Katchen's use of pedal is similarly revelatory.

Regarding pedals in Beethoven's day there were a number of variations. One confuguration was the basic damper, una corda, and something that muffled and mellowed the sound, but did not soften it as much as the una corda. It has been proposed that something like that later effect would work for the piano introduction of the Fourth Concerto where an emphatic statement was not the order of the day... but rather something more mellow that would then be taken up by the orchestra. Such a pedal has also been considered for the second movement of the Third Concerto as something that would create the proper subdued mood that would contrast with the more energetic outer movements, yet not be overly delicate from use of the una corda. That pedal was referenced as the moderato.

 

Also, such softening pedals were not really used much for echo effects (after all the piano could do that based on touch), but rather in sections of movements or entire movements.

[whipped guy]

As an addendum to the above posting in something like the Diabelli Variations the use of the una corda and moderato pedals could be used to enhance the effect of certain variations. On a modern piano it is only the una corda that is now available so the choices are limited. However, when I was taking lessons in high school I discovered that on my teacher's Steinway grand that if you depressed the una corda only half way that it altered the sound to give another option.

 

Along those lines there were a variety of pedal options that were experimented with in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries. Some gave a raspy sound, others provided Turkish percussion. I recall hearing Mozart's "Alla turca" from the Sonata K 331 played on such an instrument and it was a hoot! Haydn specifies a flutter pedal effect in one of his late sonatas based on a pedal that is no longer available.

 

Now the most famous direction of all regarding the use of pedals is wrtiien by Beethoven at the beginning if the first movement of his Moonlight Sonata: "Si deve suonare tutto questo pezzo delicatissimamento e senza sordino." That means to play things very delicately which is obvious, but how do you interpret the senza sordino (without mute) direction?

 

This has been argued as nauseum regarding its meaning. Some say you should use the una corda, others say no, some say that you keep the damper pedal down, others have no clue as to what it means!!! Etc......

 

However, the bottom line and the ultimate answer is that modern performers can't relate because the mute option is not available. Beethoven didn't want the mute to be used perhaps because he did not like the sound it produced. He wanted the performer to achieve that most delicate of sounds only by playing softly. Still others argue that on a modern concert grand using the una corda will approximate what the sound of a piano from Beethoven's day! So we are back to square one and the argument continues...

[body2body]

Regarding pedals in Beethoven's day there were a number of variations. One confuguration was the basic damper, una corda, and something that muffled and mellowed the sound, but did not soften it as much as the una corda. It has been proposed that something like that later effect would work for the piano introduction of the Fourth Concerto where an emphatic statement was not the order of the day... but rather something more mellow that would then be taken up by the orchestra. Such a pedal has also been considered for the second movement of the Third Concerto as something that would create the proper subdued mood that would contrast with the more energetic outer movements, yet not be overly delicate from use of the una corda. That pedal was referenced as the moderato.

 

Also, such softening pedals were not really used much for echo effects (after all the piano could do that based on touch), but rather in sections of movements or entire movements.

Once again you have sent me down the rabbit hole listening to music with new ears. I found this recording of the 5th Piano Concerto on period instruments and it was a revelation ( to me).

[+ g56whiz]

Listening again to this performance just spurred the thought that it's something of a pity that the celebrity of Messiah eclipses this aesthetically quite different, and truly marvelous, work.

 

Agreed with respect to Samson but it's rather unfair to compare the performances. The contexts are wholly different. But the Sutherland clip demonstrates my biggest beef with her artistry. She can't even manage a decent tongue flip on the initial "l" in "Let" for fear that it will interfere with the production of that stupendous tone. Any other vocalist in competition would be severely marked down for diction but she did it her whole career.

 

I was blessed to have seen both Sutherland and Sills perform at the Met. Bubbles singing was no match for La Stupenda but Sills acting was such that she could turn her back to the audience shrug her shoulders and tear your heart out like she did in the last act of Thais.

[AdamSmith]

Once again you have sent me down the rabbit hole listening to music with new ears. I found this recording of the 5th Piano Concerto on period instruments and it was a revelation ( to me).

OMFG!

 

After several deliberate re-listenings, not to add the first blazing experience of hearing, that mode of performance makes every later conception sound like a mechanical product of the Industrial Revolution.

 

Thank you beyond saying!

[whipped guy]

I am simply posting this example because recently I compared the following two performances of Uriel's aria from Haydn's Die Schöpfung. The first is by Timothy Bentch a relatively unknown tenor supported by a period band. The second is by the exalted Fritz Wunderlich with a German Radio orchestra under Bernard Haitink from 1958. I know which of the two I prefer and it is not the one that is, at least on the surface, sung and played with more perfection and finesse. Of course, while there is much to enjoy and admire in Wunderlich's phrasing, I love Haydn for the love of life that characterizes his work... and life in general is not characterized by polished delicacies as exemplified by Dresden china or in the case of the above Beethoven example (and for different reasons) an Imperial Bösendorfer!

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra50gLKfvtM

[AdamSmith]

 

Anchored in Love Divine

 

I found a sweet haven of sunshine at last

In Jesus abiding above

His dear arms around me are lovingly cast

And sweetly he tells his love

 

The tempest is o'er

(The dangerous tempest forever is o'er)

I'm safe evermore

(My anchor is holding, I'm safe evermore)

What gladness, what rapture is mine

(What gladness, what rapture is mine)

The danger is past

(The waters are peaceful, the danger is past)

I'm anchored at last

(My spirit is happy, I'm anchored at last)

I'm anchored in love divine

(I'm anchored in love divine)

 

He saw me endangered and lovingly came

To pilot my stormy doomed soul

Sweet peace he has spoken and bless his sweet name

The billows no longer roll

 

The tempest is o'er

(The dangerous tempest forever is o'er)

I'm safe evermore

(My anchor is holding, I'm safe evermore)

What gladness, what rapture is mine

(What gladness, what rapture is mine)

The danger is past

(The waters are peaceful, the danger is past)

I'm anchored at last

(My spirit is happy, I'm anchored at last)

I'm anchored in love divine

(I'm anchored in love divine)

 

His love shall enfold me through life and in death

Completely I'll trust to the end

I'll praise him each hour and my last fleeting breath

Shall sing of my soul's best friend

[whipped guy]

 

Anchored in Love Divine

 

I found a sweet haven of sunshine at last

In Jesus abiding above

His dear arms around me are lovingly cast

And sweetly he tells his love

 

The tempest is o'er

(The dangerous tempest forever is o'er)

I'm safe evermore

(My anchor is holding, I'm safe evermore)

What gladness, what rapture is mine

(What gladness, what rapture is mine)

The danger is past

(The waters are peaceful, the danger is past)

I'm anchored at last

(My spirit is happy, I'm anchored at last)

I'm anchored in love divine

(I'm anchored in love divine)

 

He saw me endangered and lovingly came

To pilot my stormy doomed soul

Sweet peace he has spoken and bless his sweet name

The billows no longer roll

 

The tempest is o'er

(The dangerous tempest forever is o'er)

I'm safe evermore

(My anchor is holding, I'm safe evermore)

What gladness, what rapture is mine

(What gladness, what rapture is mine)

The danger is past

(The waters are peaceful, the danger is past)

I'm anchored at last

(My spirit is happy, I'm anchored at last)

I'm anchored in love divine

(I'm anchored in love divine)

 

His love shall enfold me through life and in death

Completely I'll trust to the end

I'll praise him each hour and my last fleeting breath

Shall sing of my soul's best friend

Catchy tune with just enough contrapuntal textures to make it interesting!

 

I marvel at the depth and breath of Mr. Smith's musical knowledge. It ranges from seemingly simple (at least on the surface) southern mountain top gospel tunes to the Mount Olympus of Bach and Beethoven! That is the mark of a truly well rounded individual who is not afraid of researching all aspects of a given subject. I would bet that he is on the cutting edge of a few other disciplines as well! (...but probably not discipline in the BDSM sense, though I might be wrong there... as the sky seems not to be his limit! So who knows!)

[AdamSmith]

(...but probably not discipline in the BDSM sense, though I might be wrong there... as the sky seems not to be his limit! So who knows!)

Not yet.

[AdamSmith]

A time for every thing, and every thing in its time!

[whipped guy]

Not yet.

So I guess you have "not yet" sat through an entire performance of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen...

[AdamSmith]

So I guess you have "not yet" sat through an entire performance of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen...

That would be the understatement of the decade.

 

Life is not long enough!

 

If I lived in Bayreuth, then just possibly...

[whipped guy]

A time for every thing, and every thing in its time!

 

That would be the understatement of the decade.

 

Life is not long enough!

 

If I lived in Bayreuth, then just possibly...

 

Yes as you say there is a time and place and life is certainly not long enough for Wagner!

 

Well, the closest that I came was sitting through two performances of Die Walküre... and believe me when I say that they were dropping like flies during the second act. The snoring was so loud that one could barely hear Wonton's (auto correct changed that and thinking it priceless I decided to keep it... but it's supposed to be "Woton's") narrative!

 

Well if I lived in Bayreuth, and someone gave me free tickets, then just possibly... However, my first impulse would be to scalp them...