Orford Musique! And a little ‘poetry’ from Mr. Laplante
There’s something about the summer festival environment that is so fun and inspiring and motivates all this growth and discovery and learning and progress in such a special, productive way. Perhaps it’s the nature - being engulfed by glittering green colors and fresh mountain air, encountering wonderful personalities and friendships, … and the luxury of focusing only on music music music …
It was such a privilege to experience and embody all the insight and wisdoms shared during these two weeks from both teachers and peers. An incredible amount of food for thought. ( … to make up for the lack of food to satisfy our stomachs … ?) :’P
But back to a serious note, I’d like to share some notes I took during Mr. Andre Laplante’s masterclasses. It’s difficult to capture the eloquence and depth of these concepts if I try to recount them without all the details and context, so I thought I’d just throw them out there as is (with a slight attempt at organizing the different main points) in this kind of free verse ‘poetic’ way. I think that’s kind of powerful and fascinating in it’s own abstract way. These words brought so many new ideas and understandings to me, and I will gratefully continuing to ponder on them.
Enjoy!
I. “Feel the movement”
the elegant swing
the choreography of the movement
Count round
Feel the wheeling movement
Play with the movement
Keep some element of what you just played
the tension and relationship, so there’s a continuation
Silence is like a bouncing element
Practice melody with fifth finger only
Make legato with only movement
Anticipate where your energy is going
The end of the phrase must attract you
Anticipate to the end of the phrase
Sustain the curve coming down
Sing every shape
Coordinate.
Think about the long phrase, leave room for the phrase to continue
Plan and anticipate the last note
The curve must attract you
Go into the curve
Hear the rhythm underneath, don’t force.
Integrate
Be organic
Understand
Sustain
Movement, movement, movement
What is movement?
To emote
To feel
To be moved, touched
To convey emotions
Dance, flow, choreograph.
Change, breath, time
Sound stops if only emitted from the fingers
Motion should come from the whole body, a continuous moving
Sing the flow
Romantic lyrical sections should still be played with a pulse
Play firmly with rhythm
Expressively needs to still hold together
Be eloquent
Project ideas in a clear way
Be expressive and firm, don’t fade away
Maintain rhythm
Sustain.
Pulse continues through rest, repeat the note in the silence, the phrase doesn’t end
Sing and shape each note, small notes have arch and direction and care, listen to each note
Play dynamically
Use facility of the whole body starting from the core, engage the whole energy
Hear the sound continue, hear in between the notes
II. “The real control is to let go”
Trust ourselves, and trust that people will understand.
Then they will listen in a better way
If you open yourself we’ll be integrated with you
If you struggle, we will struggle with you
Maintain a firmness.
Firmness comes from a convincing rhythm.
Confidence in your eloquence and understanding, idea.
Have ideas.
Practice emotional memory.
III. “Find the key to simplicity”
Become fascinated with a ‘simple’ piece like Mozart
Find joy in studying a piece like this
Make yourself feel good, feel okay
Don’t disturb the energy
Open a note, holding a long note and still going forward, not to interrupt the suspension
Keep it round, keep focused
Don’t lose energy
We can’t play what we don’t hear.
Assure yourself that you hear something with your energy before you play
Concentration isn’t just on the keys
Details are important but don’t be enslaved to the keys.
Hear what you want first
Make an effort to know what you want
The shape.
Coordinate your effort to create that shape you hear
Sustain the sound
Tell a story
Commit.
Be aware
Energy from the center core
Be in an open place
Think
What amount of energy you want to put in
And where is it going
Have patience, let the revelation come to you. Love every single note you play.
Have ideas, why do you like that? Why is that special? Every note is part of something larger.
Become aware.
We are privileged like that, we can feel in an emotional way and put order and beauty into it, that’s what Mozart is about.
Free yourself from being a slave of playing the piano
Find the key to simplicity
-Andre Laplante
I am fascinated by this concept of simplicity - it has been the core and focus of so many discussions throughout these masterclasses. It relates closely to my research and study of ‘cuteness, simplicity, and sincerity’ in my Ghibli project as well, and I will dive more into my thoughts on that!
In the meantime, some Mozart?