BY JESSICA CARRASCALÃO HEARD
It’s a pretty special thing when you’re lucky enough to find yourself learning new things from experts who are passionate about their field.
Last week, I was very lucky; I had the opportunity to attend the open masterclasses at the Melbourne International Festival for Lieder and Art Song.
For 12 hours over two days, I sat in Melba Hall at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, watching, listening, and furiously taking notes as two experts in lieder and art song – pianist Dr Graham Johnson and baritone Dr Stephen Varcoe – guided young singers and pianists through the delicate subtleties of this art form.
Over and over again, doctors Johnson and Vacoe demonstrated with each musician that, though a song might be short, the more you know about it, the better your performance will be. How can the pianist and singer convey the right feeling if they don’t understand the text? How can they set a scene or convincingly play characters if they don’t know the composer’s background and historical context?
Thanks to the expertise of both mentors, I came away with a book full of notes, and a brain full of facts, technical pointers, and things I already knew but needed to be reminded of.
This list could have gone on forever, but here are just 10 of the many things I took away from MIFLAS 2018.
1. The singer and pianist are equally important (and need each other!) in lieder and art song.
This artform is not complete without both. Sure, the singer is conveying the text, but the pianist plays an active role in the song, painting the scene for the audience, or representing a different character in the story. In order for an art song to be fully realised and properly conveyed, the pianist needs to understand the text, and the singer needs to understand the symbolism of the piano part in relation to the text.
2. Think of lieder and art songs as productions, like an opera.
Songs tell stories, just like an opera does. But, in lieder and art song, the performers don’t have the luxury of a set, costumes, lighting, musical director… All of those elements that help place an audience within a story aren’t outwardly there. Instead, they are inside the heads of the singer and pianist, and together they must use their skills to capture the audience’s imagination in the same way an opera would. Which brings me to my next point…
3. Learn as much as you can about the composer, the poet, the language and the historical background of your song.
In order to capture the audience’s imagination, deep knowledge about all of these things is vital. Dr Johnson is the author of a three-volume encyclopaedia on Schubert’s songs, and every time he sat down at the piano, you could tell. At one point, what I was hearing ceased to be notes on a page and turned into dew-drops on a summer night. They just did. This was because he knew, in great detail, the scene Schubert was trying to convey.
Another reason is that audiences can sense authenticity in a performance. A song performed without contextual knowledge might be pretty to listen to and just fine; but a performance with deep knowledge behind it will be emotional, memorable, authentic and authoritative.
4. Don’t try too hard to be too…artistic.
We’ve all been guilty of this one! It can be easy to get caught up in trying hard to be beautiful and artistic; but that can detract from the beauty that is already in the music, placed there by the composer. In lieder and art song, use the text as a guide. It drives the shape of the music, so if you understand it and can imagine the scene, the right tone colour and emotion will shine through without needing anything extra.
5. If anything is happening without your intention, that’s a technical area you need to work on.
Maybe you’re unconsciously looking for resonance by changing a vowel in the middle of a long note. Perhaps a note in the phrase sticks out where it shouldn’t, or your dynamics are changing where they ought not to. You are in control of your performance; if you didn’t intend for something to happen, make sure you work on it so it can’t happen.
6. Each setting of a text must be learnt fresh, without preconceived ideas.
Many texts have several different settings by various composers. Just think of how many settings there are of poems by Shakespeare, Housman, Goethe and Rückert. But it’s important to note that although the words for each setting might be the same, the meaning each composer took from it was different. What they took from it would have affected how they set it, and therefore how the performer interprets it.
7. If a Schubert piece has an opus number, follow the markings on the page!
Schubert was meticulous in the final stages of publication. His works went through revisions, and the final published manuscript was marked exactly how he wanted that piece of music performed. If the work has an opus number, it means it was published during his lifetime and, generally speaking, has gone through this revision process. Also, if you understand his style from these works, you can apply the same stylistic knowledge to pieces which were published posthumously; they are less likely to have been polished in the same way.
8. Don’t use turn-of-the-20th-Century recordings as an example of how music by the likes of Schubert was originally intended to be performed.
This is because by the mid-19th Century, rubato had taken hold as a conventional way singers could put their own spin on a performance. It’s useful to remember that though Schubert is an early romantic composer, he lived in the time of late classicism. He was a contemporary of Beethoven. He adored Mozart. His composition teacher was Salieri. Generally speaking, Schubert’s songs were intended to be performed with the same tempo throughout, with perhaps a tiny bit of flexibility where tasteful.
9. Being a native speaker of the language you’re singing in has its strengths and weaknesses.
A strength is that you innately have a deeper knowledge and understanding of the text, simply by knowing the nuances of your language. A weakness is that you can lapse into singing words the way you speak them; a problem if you have an Australian accent but are singing a British or American song! Make a study of your own language as thorough as you would a foreign language.
10. No piece of music is your plaything to show off technique.
It’s a beautiful piece of music. Treat it with respect, and engage with it. Your performance will be all the better for it!
BONUS!
I couldn’t finish this piece without sharing this bonus piece of advice I was given when chatting to one of the singers participating in the masterclasses – soprano Teresa Ingrilli. It’s not about lieder and art song, but rather her philosophy as a performer.
Everything you do needs to be better than the last thing you did.
Big goals can be scary. Instead, just enjoy the process of improving just a little at a time.
The Melbourne International Festival of Lieder and Art Song took place at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music this month. Did you read our interview with featured singer Leon Vitogiannis?
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Images supplied, courtesy MIFLAS. Leon captured by Panagiotis Karamanos.
