Layering the Listen

Guest posting by Kevin Sherwin

Early sound recordings served as the impetus for my further exploration of applying Romantic-era performance practice as a performer. The extraordinary soundscapes, colors, and textures that were evoked by early 20th century recordings of Romantic-era music were so compelling that I felt obliged to understand the ways in which these musical effects were created. Contrary to some modern pedagogical approaches that consider the evocative quality of music to be built into a refined execution of the notes, rhythms, and expressive markings in the score, my artistic intuition felt that more was required to actualize the musical intent of Romantic-era music.

Naturally, the deliberate application of musical approaches beyond contemporary practice and the written score is embraced across performance practice movements. Romantic-era performance practice introduces the source material of early sound recordings. How do we develop an approach toward incorporating early sound recordings into one’s own performance work? I was drawn to the early sound recordings because on listening to them, I was emotionally moved. This led me to consider how I could use the approaches of historical performers to move audiences today. However, my own personal enjoyment of the recordings could not provide the pathway toward gaining some level of artistic facility with the type of musicality on these recordings. After all, these techniques were passed down, refined, and practiced as often the sole occupation of some of the most accomplished performers of over a century ago.

In other words, how could I approach these recordings with the mindset that I’m a complete beginner as compared to the performers that I admire on these recordings? What kind of approach would allow me to begin at “Square 1” in terms of applying Romantic-era performance practice into my own work?

I thought back to early lessons in my own musical development, hoping that some general principles of effective learning could be applied to gaining a practical understanding of historical sound recordings. The main problem I found was that when you’re listening to a recording, you are confronted with an overwhelming amount of information that is passing you by in real-time. It’s essential to find a way to process the recording’s performance practice information aurally, because the process of performance has to involve a highly active aural attention. After all, I considered that starting at Square 1 should also involve refining the training of my ear in a way that would have some relation to the early 20th century performers. Nevertheless, I needed some way to break down the process of listening into manageable pieces that could be further considered. Then, these analytical pieces could be back together into an artistic process.

These considerations led to the process that I’ll call “Layering the Listen.” The first stage is to consider the different expressive devices heard on recordings in different “listening passes.” After I feel that I’ve digested the recording as a whole, I start a series of listening passes, each one focused on a different element of the performance. I find it most effective to start with more “macro” oriented elements and then proceed to more “micro” details of expression.

Often at first, I will consider tempo and tempo rubato. Within the category of tempo rubato, I will generally consider this from two angles. The first is “macro” tempo rubato. Are there sectional tempo changes that are not marked into the score? Are there noticeable changes in pulse from phrase to phrase? Then, I will consider “micro” elements of tempo rubato. How is the pulse varied (or not varied) within a phrase? How are agogic accents used from note-to-note?

For me personally, I like to have multiple printouts of the score, and a pencil in hand when listening. Each “listening pass” can involve pauses within the listening, and multiple listenings. I remain on each listening pass until I feel comfortable that I’ve understood each element well enough before moving on.

I will then do a listening pass for tone quality and dynamics. How does the performer vary dynamics in response to written expressive markings? Do they always start dynamic changes right when they are marked in the score? Or are there other patterns of their dynamics in relation to score markings? Also, how would I describe tone of the performer? How does the performer vary the timbral quality and create different shadings within a phrase, and across the piece? Timbral quality is created in highly different ways depending on the instrument, and the more understanding that the listener has of these different technical processes, the fuller understanding one can develop.  

I will then do a listening pass for articulation. How do the performers interpret the notated articulation markings? Are accents always treated the same way? Are dynamic markings solely a change in volume, or do they involve an articulation that creates the “effect” of louder or softer? After all, there is a difference between the effect that the listener perceives and the process that the performer employs. This is especially true for Romantic performance practice. One example is how a listener can perceive a passage to be louder, or more intense, but the performer’s process is to speed up of the tempo. Another example can be seen in instances of accent markings: rather than just play these notes louder, the performer sometimes creates a slight separation or lift between notes.

As the listening passes continue, I start to build connections between the different elements. If a performer today were to actualize gestures of tempo rubato without any consideration of dynamics or timbral shading, one would sound mechanical (think of the performance of a piano roll as an example, which due to the limitations of the technology, was generally devoid of recording dynamic information from the performer). We can agree that that effective performance brings together the expressive elements into an artistic whole. Separating the elements through the listening passes is a means to an end: for me personally, I need to be confident in understanding each element before feeling like I can thoroughly engage in the more complex stage of drawing connections between the elements.

Then, for orchestral, choral, string, or chamber music recordings, the next listening pass will be for portamento. There are many different kinds of portamento, and a variety of techniques that string players or singers employ to create different shadings of portamento. The more understanding that the listener has, the more specific the observations can be. It’s also important to develop connections with how the portamento functions in terms of the overall interpretation. Portamento can sometimes be a stand-alone expressive effect meant to pop out and catch the listener’s attention. More often though, portamento serves a wholistic impact on the interpretation. Within phrases, portamento can create an extra sense of legato. Portamento can also contribute to the pathos of the interpretation, whether it generates excitement, sadness, or longing, to name a few affects. Portamento is also often intimately linked with tempo rubato. Certain gestures of tempo rubato rely on the portamento to come off in a musical way. Vice-versa, certain gestures of portamento that are executed without tempo rubato sound forced and unnatural.

The listening passes can continue for as many distinct elements as one feels necessary to begin their understanding of a recordings. Other listening passes I often find important include listening for balance/voicing, expressive dislocation of melody and bass line, and rhythmic alterations (as apart from agogic accents).

As I mentioned earlier, “Layering the Listen” is by no means a way to become as artistically fluent as the accomplished performers we hear on early sound recordings. Since early sound recordings are so immediate to our ear, I think it’s an easy mistake to make to consider that artistically re-creating the musical ideas that we hear could be a relatively immediate process of direct application. Rather, it’s more reasonable to assume that convincingly taking on the artistic costume of another time period is a process that needs to be broken down into manageable steps that can be digested one at a time. For me, “Layering the Listen” is that first step in gradually incorporating the advanced artistic stylings of some of my favorite performers on early sound recordings.