Orford Musique! And a little ‘poetry’ from Mr. Laplante

public.jpeg

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!

public.jpeg

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?

newsTong Wang