—2002/5/7, 17:10-19:30, Tokyo College of Music, Hall A—
A starting time of 5:10 was difficult for me as an office worker, and I arrived around 5:50. The venue was Hall A at Tokyo College of Music. When I arrived, Professor van Sice had gathered students onstage and was lecturing on mallet use. He demonstrated how many tone colors could be created by changing the striking point on the bar and the mallet angle. He also emphasized the importance of singing with one’s own voice when considering expression: “Many people say the marimba does not sing, but that is merely because the performer does not make it sing. The marimba itself has the ability to sing.”
After the onstage lecture, 3 students performed and received coaching.
The first was 3th-year student Aya Takano, who performed Zivkovic’s Ilijas. The professor praised her beautiful sound, then offered this advice.
“The left hand at the beginning is strictly accompaniment and should bring out the right-hand melody more. To do that, reduce the volume as the left-hand arpeggio rises.
“This piece has a strongly ethnic dance section. You must play it not like a dance, but as a dance. (Quoting Bob Becker: ‘If you’re going to play a dance, then make it dance properly.’) You need to dance more.” (He prompts Takano to play again.) “My grandmother certainly dances like that, but you can go further. Like this.” (He dances while humming the piece.) “There is a problem if a young, beautiful girl like you has less groove than a bald, fat, middle-aged man like me.”
The second performer was 4th-year student Sayaka Yasumoto, playing A. Thomas’s Merlin II.
Before commenting on the performance, he departed from the generally humorous atmosphere and first discussed the attitude required of a musician.
“Whenever you play a new piece, you must do 3 things. They are:
(1) Research the piece and composer
(2) Study the score
(3) Unite composer and performer
(Addressing Yasumoto) “Do you know what kind of person Andrew Thomas is?”
(1) Research the piece and composer
First, research the piece and composer: what kind of person is the composer, and how should his music sound?
For this piece, you must first investigate Andy Thomas. He is a composer teaching at Juilliard in New York, and all his works are influenced by South American music, especially samba. He is also deeply influenced by mysticism.
The next question is who Merlin is.
Merlin is a magician in mythic stories and poems. (Author’s note: The magician in Arthurian legend, who also appears in Celtic mythology. The stereotypical wizard—an old white-bearded man in a dark-blue gown and pointed hat covered with stars—is precisely Merlin. In the West he is as famous as Santa Claus.) Every component of this piece—its harmonic progression and rhythm—is taken from the poem about Merlin (Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Merlin”). You must therefore understand that poem first. (This fact and the poem itself are printed inside the score. For a proper understanding, one should read the entire poem rather than only the excerpt, and probably Robert de Boron’s Merlin and Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur as well.)
(2) Study the score
First study how it would sound if performed by a computer.
Learn everything in the score.
Everything means everything, even the margins.
If the staves were covered with correction fluid, you should be able to rewrite that section from memory, including dynamics. When Maurizio Pollini plays a piece, he has of course studied it to that level.
Before I die, I want to see someone perform the marimba at Pollini’s level.
(3) Unite composer and performer
Only then can you achieve the happy union of composer and performer. But this should be attempted only after (1) and (2) are complete; before that, you are not qualified.
The author once heard a similar point elsewhere from someone else. Composer Akira Miyoshi lectured at the 2th World Marimba Competition and lamented that Japanese musicians performed Liszt’s Après une lecture du Dante without reading Dante. There are many similar stories. Regarding score study, too, far too many keyboard players are careless about phrasing and other matters. I suspect a problem in Japanese elementary music education—why are students made to dash through Burgmüller and similar pieces?—but I will leave that for another occasion.
Returning to the subject: after discussing attitude, he began explaining the piece itself.
“Count how many tempo changes there are in this piece. Only 3.
It is therefore clearly not Romantic-style music.
It is plainly dance music in a single tempo and must be played that way.
“However, Andy Thomas overlooked one thing.
The tempo marking 72 initially feels comfortable, but the octave section cannot be played at that tempo. Even L.H. Stevens cannot play it, so nobody can. In light of the above, the piece should use throughout the fastest tempo at which the octave section remains controllable.
“Next is the issue of wrong notes. How many wrong notes are acceptable in marimba performance? Ask the pianists and violinists practicing nearby.
‘How many wrong notes may occur in a performance?’
At best, they will think you are high on drugs.
“If a 10-minute piece has more than 5 wrong notes, it is too difficult for you.
“In a 2-hour concert, Yo-Yo Ma might have 5 at worst, normally 1–2, and on a good day 0.
That is reality.”
The next performer was Yuni Kan, a 4th-year student, playing J. Schwantner’s Velocities.
His first words afterward were, “Wonderful. Honest and full of spirit,” after which he explained the piece.
“Schwantner teaches at Yale, and we sometimes teach this piece together. Stroking his long beard, he says the same thing every time.
‘What is written at the beginning of the score?’
When someone answers quarter note = 108
, ‘Relentless,’ and so on, he next asks,
‘Where in my score is a tempo change written?’ ‘Not on page 1. Nor page 2….’
“This was an experimental piece for Schwantner.
Rather than structuring it through harmony like traditional music, he structures it through dynamics. It therefore has 10 kinds of dynamic markings. The dynamics are thus as important as the key signature in Mozart.
“Breznick’s concerto has similar harmony, but in a fast piece using the marimba’s entire range, the mallets must be kept low.
Her many wrong notes were probably caused by lifting the mallets too high.
“Do not lean forward. Lowering your center like tai chi prevents wasted release of energy. Clap your hands and the difference in sound is obvious.” (He called interpreter Mr. Komori, had him extend a hand, and demonstrated the difference by striking it from above while leaning forward and while lowering his center.)
“Conversely, this can change tone color. Raise the center of gravity for a light, quick sound; lower it for a heavy sound.”
Kan then asked, “I understand keeping the tempo constant, but natural pauses also arise. How should we think about them?” Van Sice replied, “The pulse beneath the surface must remain constant.”
After the clinic, 7 minutes remained, so he and Mr. Komori performed Table Music and The Lonely Santa Claus.
Thierry De Mey composes for dance companies. In Table Music, every hand movement has an assigned symbol written in the score. This is also one of my favorite pieces. It is originally for 3 performers, but that day they performed a version arranged for 2. It was a witty and delightful performance typical of Van Sice, though it was unfortunate that the amplified sound blasted loudly from both sides of the stage. The sound image was displaced from the performance location, creating an unnatural sensation.
The Lonely Santa Claus is by Frederic Anderson, Van Sice’s former student in Rotterdam who now works as a composer. When Anderson had to return to Sweden upon graduation, he compared his loneliness to Santa Claus and wrote this very quiet but deeply affecting piece.
Van Sice said, “At a competition where I recently judged, everyone played fast, loud pieces.
But the marimba is not only that.
Producing a gentle, beautiful sound is more difficult.”
Exactly.
(Natsuhiko Sakimura)
Robert van Sice Public Marimba Masterclass
—2002/5/7, 17:10-19:30, Tokyo College of Music, Hall A—
Interpreter: Kunihiko Komori
Aya Takano (year 3) N.J. Zivkovic: Ilijas
Takano, AyaSayaka Yasumoto (year 4) A. Thomas: Merlin II
Yasumoto, SayakaYuni Kan (year 4) J. Schwantner: Velocities
Kan, YuniRobert van Sice, Kunihiko Komori
Thierry De Mey: Table Music
Frederic Anderson: The Lonely Santa Claus
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