- Hi, I'm Gareth Green, and in this video,
we're going to be thinking about
making better use of dynamics.
Now, this is something that's particularly going to be
an issue for performers, but it's something for composers
to think about as well.
Now what do I mean by this?
Because surely if it says f in the music
you play loud, if it says p you play it quiet,
you know, it's pretty obvious, isn't it?
The composer tell us what he or she wants
and we just get on with it.
Well, okay, at a very basic level, that is certainly true,
though it's amazing actually, how many performances you hear
that are being played perfectly accurately in terms of
notes and rhythms and so on, but actually you notice
that the dynamics are not really coming across
with great clarity.
Now that could be simply because
someone isn't paying enough attention to them,
and I think it could also be for another reason
and this is always something to watch out for.
Sometimes when we perform something we kind of internalise
things without really making them that obvious
to the outside world, so we imagine that we're playing
something louder or quieter, but actually its not really
coming across.
And I know that sometimes
I've recorded myself play, particularly in advance
of a concert or something, and I think I'm delivering
dynamics and when I hear it played back I think actually
they're not as clear as I thought they were.
Maybe the recording squashed the dynamics a bit,
could be that, or just maybe that I'm sort of thinking
and feeling these things inside,
but they're not quite coming across.
So its a good thing just to sort of check out the obvious
if you like.
If it says forte, is that really a forte
that I'm producing?
And comparing like with like
because that's something I find is often a trap.
You look at a passage of maybe mezzo forte, mf writing
near the beginning of the piece, few pages later
there's another passage that's also marked mf,
and when you put the two little passages
alongside each other, you realise actually,
you're playing this mf a little bit louder
than you're playing the other one, and its a good thing
just to kind of match up things of different dynamic levels,
it's something I love to do when I'm practising myself
or when I'm teaching, is to say, let's put together
all the passages that are marked piano or mp or mf or ff,
whatever it is,
let's make sure they've all kind of matched up
reasonably well, and then we can kind gauge everything else
from there, because sometimes that just kind of
moves out of kilter a bit.
But I'm really wanting to focus
in this video on something more subtle than that,
because sometimes we've got to do something with dynamics
that maybe the composer hasn't even indicated,
and I'm going to use a very famous example.
So, what you can see on the screen here, is this Traumerei
piece by Schumann, the title as you can see, means dreaming,
and when you look at this, it's all, beautiful piece
and lots of people love to hear it and to play it.
What do you see in the score in terms of dynamics?
Well, at the beginning, it says p.
Where does it change?
Doesn't change anywhere.
There's phrasing marked in the score,
there's various bits of ritardando and so on,
but it's all piano. So what do I do?
Do I think, okay, this is my level of decibels for piano,
and then every single note is going to be exactly the same.
Well let me suggest that that would not be a very great way
to play the piece really.
What he's really saying here,
is that in the sequence of pieces that this comes from,
this is going to be a quiet movement.
But it doesn't mean
play it exactly piano from start to finish.
So actually, there's quite a bit of responsibility
left to us as the performer, to work out
well what are we going to do with that?
On balance, it needs to feel as if it's quiet,
it's dreamy, it's reflective, that's the mood of the piece.
But we are going to have to inject dynamic shape
to make this work.
Doesn't mean we're suddenly going to play forte,
it just means we're going to put some subtle dynamic
shape into the piece, so we follow the direction of it.
Now, when I look at this score,
what's going to help me decide how I'm going to do that?
Well, it may be the melody.
There's quite often a natural rise and fall in a melody,
that encourages us to get a bit louder as we go up,
get a bit quieter as we come down.
Now, don't take that in some religious way,
so you say you always get louder when it goes higher,
you always get quieter when it comes down,
I don't mean that at all.
I'm meaning that sometimes,
the contour of a line suggests some dynamic shape.
But there are other things as well, aren't there?
Like, for example, you notice in this piece
at the end of bar four,
everything kind of comes to a standstill,
but the bassline gets busy for a moment,
so whereas the bassline hasn't been terribly exciting
melodically to that point, suddenly there's a chance,
isn't there, just to say, that bassline could just
be a little bit louder than everything else,
the bassline itself in that corner might have a sort of
rise and fall shape, actually there is that little crescendo
written under the stave just before that, isn't there?
So he has put a crescendo in there, we'll give him that.
But other places where the bass does that,
the end of bar eight,
there's a little bit of activity there,
is that going to get louder, is it going to get quieter?
Maybe it's going to just,
kind of be a little bit more prominent and then
it's going to get a bit quieter
as it kind of melts back into the bassline,
you know, so we can think about the subtleties of that,
maybe there are moments in the middle parts
where there's something going on that's a bit
more interesting melodically or rhythmically,
when the melody is just sitting still for a moment.
So, there's lots of stuff that's in the music,
that's making us think, hmm, actually yeah, rise and fall
in the melody, bit of movement in one of the lower parts
that I could just draw a bit of attention to.
Sometimes the chords are a bit thicker
than in other places, that might indicate a bit of rise
and fall in tension that we can paint in the dynamics.
Sometimes you get kind of ordinary chords, sometimes you get
more dramatic chords, so in the beginning, you know,
this is a chord of F major, well we're in
the key of F major, so it's a tonic chord in F,
nothing terribly surprising about that,
we don't particularly need to bang it out do we,
we don't need to play,
there's no reason to draw attention to that chord.
Later on though, you might think, well actually,
when we get into bar eleven, well from bar ten maybe,
we've got a phrase there
where there's more interesting harmony.
Bar nine starts off in this F major chord again,
that's sort of a moment of repose isn't it?
And it all sits down quite quietly there,
and there's a natural diminuendo
as we're holding on to that, but then we have a rising
thing that could get louder, but listen to that chord,
woah that's quite a kind of strong chord, isn't it?
And then going on, we've got an ordinary chord there,
we've got a more chromatic chord there,
what we call a diminished seventh,
we might want to draw attention to that.
So, there are places where there's more drama happening,
in the harmony and the chords,
and that might be an indication just to draw that out
by raising the dynamic temperature a little bit.
So think about what's happening melodically,
what's happening rhythmically,
what's happening in the lower parts,
what's happening in the harmony or the key movement,
what's happening in the phrase structure,
when do we come to the end of a phrase
and it just wants to have a sense of repose
at the end of a phrase,
what happens when we're getting kind of busy and active
in the middle of the phrase.
Do you see how all these things
might indicate some dynamic direction,
some dynamic variation, but by the time we get to the end
of the movement, we want to feel that, actually, overall,
it has been quiet, and its painted this dreamy title,
but we haven't all gone to sleep, because the whole thing's
just boring on one level.
So, if we go through some of this piece.
We start quietly, because that's what he's asking us to do,
so there's a nice quiet start,
and I've got the key established
it's all quite kind of steady,
a bit of melody on the move,
you can see that melody is going up
to that peak so I've done a slight crescendo to get there,
and then maybe I can step back a little bit,
and then maybe get a little bit louder because
we're getting busy there,
but then let the bass part come through,
and then let the bass part diminuendo,
as I pass the focus back to the top part again,
crescendo, maybe more of a crescendo than we did
at the beginning because its gone higher,
and the chord is more dramatic isn't it,
we've got a sort of movement towards D minor,
and then get the focus back on to the melody,
now here there's a more chromatic chord but I'm feeling that
more intimately, so I'm personally going to play that
a bit quieter, and then a kind of bit more colour there,
and we're heading towards a cadence where its written rit,
so I'm getting quieter.
Let the bass come through a bit,
and then we're going to go back and repeat all of that.
So again, and building up a little bit to focus
that moment, and then I'm letting it subside a bit,
build up a little bit,
let that left hand come through a bit,
let the bass speak to us and then melt away again.
Then let the top line crescendo,
enjoy that chord, isn't that wonderful?
And then on we go, colourful chord, a bit more intimate,
the hands closer together, and you can see we've modulated
to C major, the dominant key there,
so its a moment of repose,
the bass just comes through a little bit.
On we go to bar nine, it's the same as the opening,
so let's play it the same way that's fine.
And then we're on the rise again but there's something
different happening now, kind of more crunchy chords,
but we're on the move, diminished seventh,
a bit more drama, but relaxing into the cadence,
maybe a bit of bass comes through,
and then enjoy that low note in the bass,
but pass the baton back to the top part.
And then a more dramatic chord so a bit louder for that,
we're higher up here, diminished seventh,
drama in the harmony,
movement in the rhythm we're reflecting that,
ritard, end of the cadence, slow down, get quieter.
Repose, because we're going back to this opening thing
again, aren't we?
A little bit of a rise there,
painting that with a slight crescendo.
Not as dramatic as before, so I'm being a bit
more reflective, but using a bit of dynamic shape,
here comes the left hand,
and melt back in again.
Now, a bit more of a crescendo in the right hand,
because look at this great moment of drama there
with that wonderful chord there, that G nine chord,
so that's a moment of climax, then we kind of hold on
to that pause, and then we let it go,
and then we've got a ritardando, we're slowing down,
and we're kind of letting the dynamics kind of come down
as well, so we really feel by the time we get to the end,
something very dreamy, relaxed, a sense of repose.
And the dynamics just help to paint all that.
So, it's a great piece, in a way I'm sort of feeling bad
about destroying the piece by talking over it,
but what I'm trying to do, is to say,
gosh, isn't there a great deal we can do with dynamics
within that piece, that make the difference between it
being kind of, just a rather boring representation of late,
and something that has an ability to really communicate
and speak to the audience.
Now, it's not just about dynamics, it's about balancing
the textures, are there notes in the texture
that are important that want to be louder
than accompanying notes, I've tried to do a bit of that
it's combining with the phrasing,
it's combining with possibilities for rubato,
you know, tempo variation.
So all these things belong together, but I'm hoping,
what I've tried to demonstrate anyway, is that dynamics
actually make a huge impact, and it isn't just what's marked
in the score, it's then your capacity to interpret
what's there, and to offer dynamic shape to the music,
so the music is always travelling somewhere,
never let a performance stand still.
People disengage as soon as that happens.
But think about how you're going to give it dynamic shape,
we're always going somewhere, we're travelling to there,
or we're travelling back down again,
to make lots of colour and variety in the performance.
So, I hope that's a little helpful video,
on thinking about the detail of how we can use dynamics
to great expressive purpose.