Rhythm

How is a rhythmic sense created?

Musicians know that a sense of rhythm is essential to participation in music. One must feel the beat at all times. To lose the beat is to lose one's place in the music and it all falls apart.

How do people develop a sense of rhythm, a sense of pulse?

In my case, I was lucky enough to have a mother who was an accomplished musician. She felt that "rocking the baby" was essential for developing a a sense of pulse. When my own daughter was born, she immediately purchased a rocking chair for us to use with the baby.

Also, my favorite childhood activity was dancing in the living room while listening to classical music. Of course, repeating poems while nodding, bouncing, clapping, etc. is another important activity.

The most important test of whether a person has a sense of pulse is to play in a group with others.

It simply isn't possible to play music with other people without a sense of pulse. The group must agree on the pulse and feel it together. If it's a rock band, of course the drummer provides the pulse. In an orchestra, the conductor sets the pulse, but it's still up to each musician to feel the pulse, as well. There's no "going back", there's no "wait until I'm ready to play this note" - - you must keep up, even skipping notes or measures and going forward to where the pulse has gone.

The Meaning of Music, part 2

To what extent does a composer's music reflect his or her personality?

First of all, a composer is a product of his times and will compose music in the style of the period. Also, he composes music in the styles with which he is familiar, whether folk-inspired, classical, popular, etc. Beyond that, however, is it possible that an individual composer reveals his basic outlook on life in his music? For example, we hear Mozart's wonderful music as a product of the period, but we also see and understand that he pushed the classical style to its limits and introduced new expressiveness and great artistic inventiveness in his music. In addition, we have external evidence that Mozart was a playful person, for example, and we can find many examples of "playfulness" in his music.

Examining Mahler's music and thinking about the joys and tragedies of his life, we see that, not only did he explore new kinds of expressiveness in his music, but he represented his own personal story in the music. Great joy was juxtaposed with great sorrow, as happened in his own life.

A personal quirk of Mahler's was his use of cowbells to indicate peaceful happiness because, in his own life, he remembered his moments of peace and happiness while in the Alps, listening to the cowbells. (When I heard the cowbells in the Alps, I cried, remembering how many times I had heard the cowbells in Mahler's music, and now I was actually in the Alps!)

My composer/songwriter friend has sent me a draft of a new song. The music starts out slowly, tenderly. Then a warm and lovely melody is presented. After that, the music becomes more intense. Does this represent the composer's thoughts or personality? Does this music tell a story? I think all of this is possible.

The Meaning of Music

On my birthday, my friend took me to see a noon-time performance of the Lar Lubovitch dance company. Their dances were energetic and flowing.

The notes of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto "came to life". Every gesture in the music was represented by a physical gesture. After awhile, I began to think it might be a little too "Disney-esque", but, loving music as I do, I couldn't help but be thrilled by this magnificent interpretation of the meanings and feelings of Mozart's music.

The next piece they danced was Dvorak's Serenade for Strings. This one was so amazing and wonderful. I imagined my granddaughter dancing to this music. Indeed, yesterday, we played that music for her here at home and she danced beautifully to it.

Click the player to hear one of the movements from Dvorak's Serenade for Strings.

The next day, I traveled with two other members of my quartet. We went by car for three hours to the Sinsinawa Mound, where we filled in the orchestra for Handel's Messiah. We arrived in the chapel just in time for the rehearsal. The afternoon sun's rays glowed softly in the beautiful stained glass windows.

As I played the familiar themes of the music, many memories flooded back to me in vivid fashion, memories of singing the Messiah choruses in high school (as I actually visualized the face of my director and my fellow students), memories of learning music under my mother's direction, memories of my high school boy friend and how we used to play piano duets together, memories of college music experiences, memories of being in church and believing in the whole Christian thing. I even thought about my friend in Europe who had a great choral experience when he sang with hundreds of people in a huge auditorium. I realized again how music can be such an intimate, living memory and all it takes is an experience such as playing in an orchestra for Messiah to bring all those memories and feelings to life.

Here is a very lively rendition of "And He Shall Purify". Isn't it fun to watch the notes fly by?