Opportunities For Teaching Musical Nuance

Opportunities For Teaching Musical Nuance
by John Bell

Serving as an adjudicator in the region on numerous occasions, I've had the opportunity to offer suggestions and recommendations about music performance at various marching festivals and to comment on festival concert performances. Directors and their students are always concerned about "playing it right" but often do not take advantage of indications composers and arrangers offer in the music to elevate the "playing it right" aspect of their performance.

Prompting students to go beyond what they see on the written page can be somewhat intimidating. However, the best place to begin the process of focusing on musical nuance is to bring to students' attention indications in the score marked by the composer or arranger.

I know this seems like an obvious statement, but I'm often disappointed when ensembles do not convincingly convey nuance indications in the printed parts. As an adjudicator in these circumstances, my attention is then immediately drawn to all of the markings in the score, and (barring wrong notes, rhythms, blend and balance issues, questionable intonation, etc.) my attention becomes focused on what the ensemble brings to the musical aspect of their performance.

When I work with any ensemble, or make comments at festival performances, at some point I inevitably make the comment; "Use the markings on the page as opportunities to do something different with a note or phrase in the music". This is always in relation to markings for various articulations, crescendos and decrescendos, tenuto markings, tempo changes, subito dynamic indications, etc. With these markings, the composer/arranger of the work being performed has given us permission to do something other than just play the black marks on the page!

When rehearsing an ensemble, even this statement does not always convince the group to "use" markings convincingly. So, I usually follow by saying,"...do more than you think you should..." particularly regarding dynamic changes and articulations. This is always tempered with a plea to NOT do more than is expected with fortissimo markings...which apparently is the only marking in music universally accepted to play with abandon!

After all of the technical aspects of a work are under control, when an ensemble experiences this expressive freedom musical nuance can become the focus of future rehearsals and ultimately the performance. Obviously the choice of music being rehearsed and performed has a tremendous impact on the opportunity for meaningful musical nuance. But by beginning with a focus on the composer's or arranger's written indications, any work can become a more musical experience for all involved, and your students can develop meaningful insight to the expressive nature of musical performance.