Music X Four

Last night we had our first glimpse of the theatre as it has been decked out for Oscar night; Hollywood glamour meets ‘high tech’, I would say. Incidentally, if you tune in on Sunday, you will see me in the first row of violins, second in from the left, when the orchestra is on camera.

Now, a couple of days ago I was asked to write more about my chamber music experiences and, specifically, about what goes into making a successful ensemble.

Most groups fail for one of two reasons. There are either un-resolvable personality conflicts or un-resolvable musical differences.

Being in a small ensemble, like a string quartet, is like being in a marriage. In fact, for some full-time touring groups it is possible one will spend more time with these colleagues than with one’s own spouse.

Instead of one ‘relationship’ to maintain, however, there are six. Just do the math.

And where it comes to the music making itself there are really just two ways, in my experience, for things to proceed fairly smoothly. Either the ensemble functions as a true democracy, or there is one member of the group who is recognized as the team leader, musically speaking.

The level of maturity and self-control required to maintain a successful performing quartet is enormous, really. My hat goes off to groups that manage it for entire careers.

Of course there is the famous quip by Michael Tree, the violist of the Guarneri Quartet, who responded to the question of how they’d managed to stay together for so long by saying, ‘Money’.

I suppose it can be a sad but true reality of any marriage, actually.

Yet from the audience point of view, it only matters that the music making is compelling. What is going on behind the scenes to produce it is of no consequence.

There is even the case of the Budapest Quartet who were known to travel separately to every performance, only even speaking to each other when was absolutely necessary to making music. Not a fun way to share the magic of music if you ask me.

Speaking of behind the scenes, there is nothing so frustrating to me as arriving to a rehearsal to find a member(s) who does not have the part in their fingers.

The secret of playing string quartets well is listening. You can’t listen adequately unless you have no worries with what is in front of you. And this is especially true of rhythm and intonation.

Many people think that pitch is somewhat open to interpretation. And as a soloist this is true. One can push a note one way or another to create either color or tension.

In a string quartet this is almost never the case. With the timbre of the instruments so close, the over-tones and resultant tones must be in absolute agreement. This means there is only one way to play a B flat chord in tune; and that is through accommodation to the laws of acoustics.

When a piano is in the mix things are different, but only insofar as what you have to adjust to. Now you’re dealing with a ‘tempered’ scale, a compromised scale, really, and everyone must bend themselves to accommodate it.

Getting back to rhythm, and time. I’ve never encountered a better way of mastering ‘time’ than the counting technique I teach in my courses. The idea of being able to verbally count the music as you play it should be taught in every conservatory or school of music.

Beating time with a foot, toe or torso is an absolute no-no. It is the use of the MIND to track the flow of time that is essential. And good chamber players must have a rock-solid sense of this.

Now, the idea of mastering time is not to put one in a straight jacket, mind you. It is, rather, a kind of liberation, where one is free to alter the flow of time or hold it absolutely study in service of the music.

One of the best ways to understand how to do this, and practice it, is with my course on the Kreutzer etudes. If you don’t have it in your DVD player it may be time now to get moving on it.

Now I’ve got to get over to the Kodak Theatre for another rehearsal.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. I just have to say this one more time. The ability to listen is fundamental to music making, as it is to so much of life. The more you can sharpen your ears, as a violinist, the more successful you will become.