I've noticed an unfortunate trend in student performances lately, and I think that it is our fault as music educators.
Which part is important in this section?
I've been asked and, unfortunately, have asked this question many times. The "correct" answer to this question would be wherever the melody is, whether that means in the right hand for a pianist or in the violin part of a violin/piano duet. The obvious conclusion that anyone would draw from this is that the melody is *important* and the accompaniment is *unimportant*. However, this is a gross oversimplification and, honestly, is just downright wrong!
Here are a few negetive results I've seen from the "melody is important, accompaniment in unimportant" teaching:
- Pianists put so much focus on the hand/fingers playing the melody that the accompaniment gets neglected both musically and technically. I don't know that Mozart would be too pleased to hear one of his sonatas performed with a beautiful, clean, well-phrased melody if the LH albertti bass were a lifeless blur of unsecure notes.
- Instrumental soloists also struggle to find purpose and direction in their accompaniment figures. I recently attended a student chamber music concert and on the program was a Beethoven trio. The violinist in this group caught my attention early on with his robust tone, impressive agility, and lovely phrasing. As soon as the melody moved into the piano, however, I was disappointed to hear that all those qualities that impressed me in the violinist's playing disappeared as soon as his part became "unimportant."
- Accompanists playing too softly. I think back to playing in instrumental studio classes in college. It seems the only comment the professors ever had for the pianists was, "The piano's too loud!" While this may have been true in some cases, I believe that this stemmed from an unbalanced view of melody/accompaniment relationship. The result was a a whole group of future collaborative pianists who developed a tendency to just mash down the soft pedal and play in a dull, lifeless fashion.
- In chamber music groups, those who have the melody tend to stop listening to those who don't. When we think wrongly about the melody/accompaniment relationship, we can easily develope a god-complex. I have the melody therefore I make all the decisions and all must listen to me. The problem with this is that when any one member of a group stops listening to the others, they can never sound like one instrument and true unity can never be attained.
Now don't get me wrong. Of course, the melody is where we want to bring the listener's attention, and we should teach our students how to do that. That being said, just because one part is getting the most attention does not mean that the other parts around it are unimportant. Think of a Broadway musical. The performers on stage get the most attention by far! But I don't think anyone would dare say that the members of the stage crew, light crew, etc. are "not important". In fact, without them, the show would not be able to go on, so it could be argued that they are equally important. This is how we need to start viewing accompaniment in music.
Next post we will look more closely at the melody/accompaniment relationship and how we can give the accompaniment the importance it derserves while giving the melody the attention it needs.
Thoughts? I'd love to hear them!