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SPACE - TIME CONTINUIM: THOUGHTS ON AGOGICS, INFLECTION AND PULSE IN MUSIC by HUNG-KUAN CHEN
Mr. Chen has performed extensively in the major cities of Asia, Europe and the Americas. He also appeared with many important orchestras and highly esteemed conductors around the world. He holds an Artist Diploma from New England Conservatory and is on the faculty there. He is also piano chair of the Shanghai Conservatory and director of the International Piano Academy in Shanghai. Mr. Chen has been thinking about the space-time continuum for six or seven years and his ideas have been stimulated by many discussions with his wife Tema, who is also a pianist. Here are the thoughts he shared.
We are often reminded of time in our culture but not of space. We have clocks, phones, computers and alarms to keep us informed of time, so that we are never to stray from the appointments and our schedules. We are reminded of our space to a lesser degree such as living space, teaching space, inside-of-the-car-space, etc. There isn't a common instrument to tell us about the size or shape of space like we have with time. Space is not something we can do much about; we are in the space provided to us such as a small studio. When Mr. Chen was a teenager in Germany, he lived in a dormitory of the Cologne Music Hochschule and had a Steinway O piano lent to him by his sister in his dorm room. The room was so small that he had to maximize the space by calling the space under the piano his bedroom, above the piano his living room and sitting with his back to the wall the studio.
In music, we have the metronome and we seem to be predominantly concerned with the temporal aspect of music. We make sure we have a steady tempo, a steady rhythm. Robert Schumann advised young musicians to play with good rhythm, and not sloppy like the 'virtuosi'. We have some control over the tempo or so it seems. But do we really? We rarely talk about space in music because it seems to be too abstract. But is it really?
Mr. Chen became fascinated with time in music early on when he had to use a mechanical alarm clock as a metronome. As a result, he felt a continuous awareness of the ticking. The use of an alarm clock was limiting so he began working on rubato and agogics in a pedantic, but precise manner. He was also influenced by his sister, Pihsien, who is an advocate of modern music. She plays music with the utmost precision but it is a predetermined precision. Some composers like this as evident in their meticulous notation. However, there is another kind of precision of the empirical kind; the kind that happens in the moment. We are part of that equation when we 'perform' a piece of music. We impart the 'human-ness' quality, something that acts as a bridge, a catalyst between music and human. We act as the transmitter, the transformer, the translator. Mr. Chen feels his playing reflects both of these: a continuum of time and a free feeling.
So what is the space-time continuum? Drawing from modern physics, neither time nor space is absolute. If we come near the speed of light, space shrinks, etc. In Einstein's Theory of Relativity, even Einstein eluded to the emotional factor: if you are looking forward to meeting a loved one, the wait seems terribly long; yet when you do meet, it seems at first timeless but then the time seems very short.
In talking about time and space in the realm of music, there are several parameters: Melody, Dynamics, Rhythm, Harmony, Articulation, Texture, Timbre. These parameters are all variables. It is never too early to teach students about them. As an artist, one must listen carefully and children will become more involved when they are asked to be creative. It is a good practice to have students think about and write out the parameters as a checklist.
Young students respond first to melody. How to shape a melody can be learned from singing or playing string instruments. We can alert students to the awareness of intervals in a melodic line: different intervals require different dynamic shaping and different amount of time.
Rhythm is related to the breath and the heartbeat. It is also related to movement in nature, in society and in the universe. Rhythm is sometimes part of a melodic line and articulation can influence rhythm. Mr. Chen played the beginning of the slow movement of Beethoven's Op. 7 which is famous for its rests. He feels it is impossible to tell a student how long to wait for these rests; it must be felt by the performer.
Rhythm can be perceived as a quality, as found in the third variation of Beethoven's Op. 111. They are triplets, not dotted rhythms whereas in the first movement, there are strong double-dotted rhythms, which indicate a sign of strength and of the mind. The second movement relies on threes and has a milder gesture; a gesture of the heart or of love. It is not harsh but rather velvety and sweeping.
Mr. Chen's performance of the Liszt B minor Sonata has caused debate in China because he held the fermata after the big climax about 18 seconds. He felt this long silence is necessary because it allows the transformation process to take place for the listener. After the fermata, the neutralizing Coda goes through reconciliation, salvation and a spiritual transformation. A conductor asked how he would conduct this Sonata since he played it so slowly. It is something of the Furtwängler type with very unclear beating but the music decides when the performer begins and the speed of the progression.
Articulation is the essence in music, the semantics, the language. These are not absolute because different languages have different emphasis and customs allow for personal tastes. Texture is a level of refined playing and timbre reaches to the abstract and unknown.
It would seem that time would be the variable that one could hold on. After all the above mentioned variables, it would be nice to say 'yes, you can rely on it' but musicians want to take a little time here and there, "to be flexible', hence time has already become abstract.
Art or music is abstract by nature. It has great complexity like all things that are beautiful. Yet, music has order or a higher degree of order: 'disorder'. Mr. Chen feels that through minuscule manipulations of time, space is altered. Is this the fundamental quality of space-time which we humans share where the interpretation of messages are carried out? Is it possible that this is how we connect with one another, through this 'disorder'?
There is one factor in music which is difficult to explain: harmony. On a basic level, harmony is the fundamental element of organization in music. Even a single note has specific overtones and harmony and it also has a suggestive harmony.
There is the academic understanding of harmonic progression but there is also the effect a harmony can cause. It is an important factor in the creation of the space. A particular harmony can have different appeal depending on how it is voiced. Each harmony has a potential to sound a certain way or to create a particular color. The harmony has to be given enough time to sound but not so much that it becomes indulgent. When we give harmony the potential it calls for, this harmony creates a space for it to exist in. Conversely, if we allow the space, we insured the existence of the harmony. Since space often involves time, harmony requires its intrinsic time to exist.
Mr. Chen played several excerpts to illustrate some of these ideas:
Beethoven Sonata Op. 109 - It is important to allow enough time to hear the severity and juxtaposition of two chords
Beethoven Sonata Op. 101 - The slow movement should portray longing and wistfulness
Schubert C minor Sonata - The challenge is to honor the chords but artistic judgment determines to what extent the performer does that.
Mr. Chen talked about the difficulty of explaining to students the concept of giving the necessary time for a particular harmony or melody or a pause. He tries to introduce this concept early in their lives and has had positive results. Of course, much depends on the constitution of the student, such as intelligence and talent. Gifted youngsters show their interests and potential early. At first, for various reasons (e.g. pushed by parents) a young student likes to see quick results by simply copying. That is acceptable in the beginning but very soon they should be encouraged to strive for independence. This is when the more curious ones usually strike out first; curiosity is closely linked to the potential of the student.
Our job as teachers and performers is difficult. We are searching for the truth and to connect to the audience. The goal of playing and performing music is to create something that is beautiful rather than a strict dictation of what a composer wrote. It is like cooking: you add a bit of this, a bit of that without overdoing it.
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