Wood Putting in the Expression

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Putting in the ExpressionAuthor(s): Ralph W. WoodSource: Music & Letters, Vol. 11, No. 4 (Oct., 1930), pp. 375-382Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/726870

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PUTTING N THE EXPRESSION

WHEN Tessa, the Constant

Nymph,

efers wice

in

the

play)

to

people

putting

n

the

expression

the audience

s

aware of

what

music is in question. In

the first

case

it is

the

'

Sonata

Pathetique,'

n

the seconda ballad

(sung-no, rendered-by hose

delicious

nincompoops,

he

Leyburns).

But

even

without uch

knowledge e should

be able to

imagine, t least, certain

imits

o

what hepieces ould e

thatwere

being peratedpon

n

the manner

so irritatingo thesubtle ndsensitive ess.

For although

xpression f some

sort-meaning, eally,

nothing

but

variations

f

pace,

tone nd

attack-is

indispensable

o

every

ind

of musical

performance,he

type

of

treatment

bjected

o

by

Tessa

is

conceivable

ot

merely

n

connection

nly

with

certain

ypesof

performers

ut n

connection

nly

with

ertain

ypes

fmusic.

I

include ere

four

ery nteresting

ists:-

(1)

(This void s nota printer's rror.)

(2) Allegro

piano

piano forte

forte

(3)

Vivace,

ma non

troppo. p

cresc.

sempre egato

f

p

p

dolce

cresc. cresc.

cresc.

f

p

Adagio spressivo

crese.

p

f f

dim.

p

(4)

Andante

pp

molto

antabile

non

roppo

sempre p

f

p

cantabile crescendo

diminuendo

p p

cantabile

No. 1 is

a

collection

f

the

written

irectionsound

n any

page of

any

work

y Byrd

roughly 620).

No. 2 is a similar ollectionaken rom pageof a clavier ieceby

J.

S. Bach

say 1720).

No.

3

is

from he

first

age

of

Beethoven's

iano sonata,op. 109

(written

n

1820).






376 MUSIC

AND

LETTERS

No. 4

is culledfrom

he first

age

of a

piano

piece

by

Bax

('

Hill

tune,'

1920).

Each list is, I think, ypical f its period except n so faras

Beethovenwas

rather

more

avish

of

expression

marks han

a

good

many fhis

contemporaries).

It

is

intriguing

o

speculate

n what

parallel

ist derived

rom

composition

rittenn

2120

would ook like-unless

one

assumes

a

backward

wing

f

that

pendulum

hich s

so

often eferredo

in

making onvenient

istorical

eneralisations

So

the

ancients

f music

were

notably

parse

n their

directions.

There s muchto be said for hatpractice, ut t is to be assumed

that hey

ollowed

t

not

from

ny

deliberate

olicy

o

much

s

from

sheer

gnorance

f

any

other

possibilities.

Their

music

tself

was

undeniably

impler

han

that

of

ater

ges,

and

also

it was

predomi-

nantly

ocal.

If

we

leave

out

of

account

olk-music-about hich

we

don'tknowmuch

nd

which,

n

any

case,

was

never

written

own-

it

was

also

predominantlyhurch

music,and

that too

wouldhave

a

restrictingffect

n

the

range

f

style

nd

emotional ontent.

If we

admitthat

even nside

a

church

considerable

ariety

f

musicalexpressions possible, t is obviousthat the wordsmust

dictate t

in

every ase. Thus

a

vocal acred

omposition

ven

to-day

could

quite

conceivably

et

alongwell

without

ny

expression

marks

beyond he

commencing

empo

and

any

radical

changes

herefrom.

Therefore

don't think

hosewriters

ho

have

on

occasion

auded

the

ancients or

their

conomy f

expression

marks,

nd

rated

the

moderns or

not

imitating

hem,

have

been

quitefair.

To say

the

very

least

of

it,

the

ancients

cannot

be said

to

have

had

the

temptationshat

have

beset

ater

omposers.

In factthe increaseof

expression

marks

through

he

yearshas

been

a

matter

f

perfectly

atural

volution-a

fact

which

s

worth

remembering

ven if

we

conclude,

s is

always

possibleof

any

evolutionary

rend,

hat t

has

led us

eventuallyn to

a

wrong

ath.

Whether

t

is a

wrong ath

feel

chary f

udging.

There s

so

much

o

besaid

on

both

ides.

The

average

erformer

eels

palpably

andicapped

hen

acedwith

the

starkness

f

most

ofthe

musicup

to

the

time

of

Mozart.

He

does not alwaysfind n the original ersions n indication f the

pace

intended, nd

when

there s

one

it is

of the

vaguest

mport.

Dynamic

marks--and,

gain,

very

uncertain

nes at

that-are

rare.

The

characterf

the

music s

naturally

emote rom,

n

a way

alien

to,

the

stuff

f

which

his

own

musicality

s

made.

(It is

important

to

remember

hat,

however

musician

may

extend

he

range

ofhis

sympathies

n

the

eruditionnd

experience

fhis

maturity,

e

would






PUTTING

IN THE

EXPRESSION 377

never

ave

been musician

t all

butfor

younger

nthusiasm

hich

generally

s

extremely

imited

n

its

material.

One

may

roughly

estimatehat heaveragemusicians bredfirst n the musicwhich,

at

thedate

of

his

birth,

s

between

hirty

nd

one

hundred

nd

thirty

years

old;

that little

ater

he

gets

o know

morerecent

works;

nd,

later

still,

he

earlier

tuff.

There

re,

of

course,

nfinite

ariations

in

the

process.)

Onlyone

in

a

hundred,

erhaps,

akes

kindly

nd

easily

to

Byrd

or Lassus

at first.

For most

t is of all tastes

the

most

'

acquired

one. That

means

that it

is

not

at

all

a

simple

thing for

the

average

playerto

'

jump to

'

the

expression

necessary

in

performinguch

music.

On theother and I thinkmostperformersust ecretly eplore

the

multiplicityf

directionsn

modern

cores.

Personally,

confess

that

am

often

lusterednd

worried

ythem.

I

feelthat

t is

my

duty o

attend o

them,

nd at'

the same

time

t is a most

rksome

and

ticklish ask. Yet

I

do not

call

myself

naturally

nexpressive

player.

Perhaps

my own

attitudes a

peculiar ne; but

think, t

best,

thatmany

performers

ust

viewthe

army f

expression

arks

that

s

marshalledn

most

modern

ageswith

n

amused

olerance.

Undoubtedlyhe ideal page for player r conductor ouldbear

only

metronome

arks nd

salient

dynamicsplus,

of

course,

lurs,

staccatos, nd

all

other

ndicationsf

method f

attack;they

are

very

mportant-in

act, n

integral

art

of the

text). The

composer

will

grumble

hat

rit.'s and

accel.'s are surely

ssential.

But

very

nearly ll

minor

ariations

fpace

are

divined y

a

really

ensitive

interpreter;nd

one

whois

not

sensitive

annotbe

trusted

o get

life

ut

ofeven

the

most

ainstakingeries

f

guides.

Perhaps t

is

nomore

han an

odd

notion nmy

part,

but t

does

seemto methatmany dynamicntentionfa composermight,f

not

specified,

o

entirely

nsuspected

y

any

really

good

nterpreter,

whereas

hat

would

veryrarely

happen n

respect f

tempo. The

same

principles seen

in

the

undeniable

actthat

tempo is by

far

the

most

mportant

actorn

interpretation.

ack of

subtletyn

rhythm

r

quite

light

misjudgments

f

pace can

mar a

performance

more

than a

comparatively

ooden r

inept

treatment

f

toneand

volume.

I cannever uiteunderstandhy o much nkhas beenspiltover

the

Chopinian

ubato. The

fact s that

most

elicate nd

exquisitely

proportioned

ubato

s

necessary

to-is

thevery

ife-blood

f-almost

all

the

music

that has

ever

beenwritten.

t

is a

rubato

so

subtle

as

never

o

be

noticed s

such when

t is

present;

ut ts

absence s

immediately

bvious

nd is the

most

common oot of

unsatisfying

performances.






378

MUSIC

AND

LETTERS

It

is also a rubato

which

efies

ny

attempt

hatever

o

reduce

t

to printed

directions.

Every composer

must

know

this,

either

consciouslyrelseinstinctively. ndwhilementioninghecomposer

it is as

well

to

examine

what

his

deal

n

the

way

of

expression

arks

may

be-particularly

ince

t

is

he

alone,

generations

f

him,

that

has

implementedhe

evolutionary

rocess

n

respect

fthem

o

which

I

have

already eferred.

Unfortunately

ost

composers re

not

outstanding

xamples

of

clear-headednessnd

ogic,

ny

more

hanmost

f he

rest

f

mankind

are.

Neither s

the

average

composer

nything

o

speak

of

as

a

theoreticiann

his

own rt.

That

s

perhaps

he reason

why

lthough

everycomposermust subconsciouslyeel the infiniteubtlety f

rhythm

nd

ought to

realise

its

incommunicability

y

printed

instructions,

et ever

so

many,

practically

ll,

make some sort

of

compromising

ttempt o

indicate

ubatos.

Even those

who are

too

lazy or too

sceptical o

bespatter

heir coreswith

rallentandos

nd

affrettandos

ay

be

found

committing

he

supreme

bsurdity f

With

lastic

hythm'

r

Dans

un

rythme

ansrigueurt

caressant.'

It

is,

as

a

matter

f

fact,

most

exacting ask to

'

put

in the

expressionfrom hecomposer'sideof thematter-thats to say,

to

write

own he

nstructions.

he

mere

ettling

fthe

nitial

empo

is often n

extraordinarilyifficult

usiness,

s

anyoBie

who

has

experimented

ith

metronome

ay

realise.

The

impossibilityf

indicating

dequately

ubsequent

ariations f

pace I

have

already

mentioned.

Dynamics re

equally

difficult

omark,

lthough

heymatter

ess

in

effect.

To start

offwith,

one

man's

rnf s

another's

and

yet

another's

.

So

when

composer

ishes

passage to

be

played

t

whathecallsmfhehasnoguarantee hateverhat nterpreterwill

not

play

t a

good deal

too

loudly nd

Y

a good

deal

too

softly.

It

maybe

objected

hat

the

differencef

values,

as

betweenne

inter-

preter

nd

another,

would

persist

hroughout

he whole

rangeof

volume,

o

that t

any

ratethe

proportions

esired y

the

composer

would e

preserved.

Thatmay be

partlyrue:

but,for ne

thing,

t

is

notreally

t

all

satisfactoryo have

an

entire

iece

played

t the

wrong

evel

of

loudness

ven f

the

nternal

elations

re

preserved;

and, for

another, t is

never

quite

so

simple

as that,

for

many

performersannotbe trusted o workoutmeticulouslyven those

internal

elations.

It

is

not

only

difficult

ut a

boring

ob

for

composer

o

mark

the

expression

if

he is

tackling t

conscientiously,

owever

mis-

guidedly,

nd

not in

the

slapdash,

rhapsodic

manner

which

would

seem

tobe

the

habitwith

o

many).

All the

most

mportant

oints,

as

well as

all

the

really

ubtle

nes,he

himself

as

so

thoroughly

n






PUTTING IN THE EXPRESSION 379

his own head thathe rarely, believe, others o write

hem

down

as he goes along. He has to go through he work fterwards

o

add

them ust as he does for he majority f the pedalling r bowing r

such like. Particularlys the task troublesome

henan

orchestral

score s in question, orthere he relation etween

bassoon's

mf

and a horn's

mp,

or between he

ff

f

thirty

iolins nd the

f

of a

trumpet, as to be considered. And there are other, subtler,

perplexities.

Now what do composers o, face

to

face

with

this problem

f

putting

n

the expression? My original

ists

give some

sort

of

reply o the question. My ownopinion s thatthey eally ome

out

of thetestrather adly.

One

most

bvious

ault

o

which

ome,by

no

means ll, are

liable

is thatof puttingn expression arks hat re literallympracticable.

A

perfectxample f this s to be found

n

the firstmovement

f the

'

Eroica Symphony, here eethoven rites his

ort f

hing

or

he

wood-windt one point:

Ex

There are

obvious

ways

of

emerldingt, but the fact remains

that

as

it

stands t

is

not

exactly eproducible. he last threebars

of

'

II

vecchio castello,' from Moussorgsky's

'

Tableaux d'une

exposition,'

re

reallypractically nrealisable n the piano as the

composer as marked hem, lthough is general ntentions simple

and

clear

nough. Finally, would nvite he reader o runthrough,

say, Debussy's

first

et

of preludes,with view to comprchending

his

distinctionetween notewith dotover t and a notewith line

over

t,

and

to observingt faithfully,onsistentlynd perceptiblyn

performance.

nce

again,

I will

not say the

composer's

ntentions

are not

usually pparent t any given pot even n so remarkable

passage s this






380

MUSIC AND, LETTERS

-but

he

printed irections

re neither

onsistently

sed

nor

always

strictly

eproducible.And

f

expression arks

re neither

xact

nor

consistentheperformers as muchhindereds helpedbythem nd

their

se can

onlybe termed

rosly

nefficient.

3

ILvwei

casteLLo

loussorlsk

But themost

niversal

allacy

s thatof

giving

nstructions

hat

re

not directdefinitions f

pace,

attack or volume

at all.

These

instruc-

tions

range upwards,

inutil_it

and

wrong-headedness,

rom

the

ubilquitous

spressivo

nd cantabile

the

atter

s

really

not

very

bad,

buta

simple

egato,

ombined ith

meticulous

hrasing,

s

preferable)

to

themostfantastic

utbursts,

uch

as, to quote

but one

extreme

example, Moving

xorably,rim,nd

prodded.'

('Demons'

Dance,'

op. 66, No. 2. JosefHolbrooke.)

The

temptationo insertthese

remarks

s, I

am

onlytoo well

aware,

tremendous.

But I

mustpointout

that

theirreal function

is

a comical

nversion

f their

supposed

one. All they

actually

convey,

n

ninety-nine

ases out of a

hundred,s

how the

passage

in

question

always sounds

to the

composer

hinwelf Let

us take

a

simple llustration.

A

fewbars

from he

end of

Moussorgsky'sortraitfthe

twoJews,

in the Tableaux d'uneexposition,'hefollowinghrase s found:-

marked.

In

e

ce

th

o

producenyad itinl efc nwasdone y t epait'shad

at~~C

hi

point

Prsualythpassage

fr

plye

ahepaen

Itwillbenoticed

hat

dynamiecs

tempo

and

phrasn

allcarefully

marked.

In

the

circumsto heom

Butoe

impcannot

oncivably

produce

ny

additional

ffect n

what s'done

by

the

pianist's

hands

at

th'is

point.

Presumably

he

passage,

f

played

t

the

pace

and

with

he

variations fvolume

pecified,

h-ould

ound

dolorous;

re-

sumably

t

seemed O

to

the

composer.

But

the

importfant

oint

s






PUTTING IN THE

EXPRESSION

381

that f the interpreterulyregards

he poco ritard, he

piano, the

.

, the

sf

and

the

slurs

it

is

virtually

mpossible

for

him

to do anythingurther: ot the mostprecious eights fvirtuosity

or

artistry

an do more.

If condolore

esults,

welland

good,

f

not,

the

performers notto blame.

That,

I am

convinced,

s

an

example f the loose-thinking

asis

of

practicallyll the

expression

arkingsn thiscategory.Wagner's

zarts nd Elgar's

nobilmentesre

familiar ases n point. The set of

Debussypreludes rom

which have alreadyquoted

fairly

ristles

with uch comments.Look at them:

'

tres doux-egal et doux-

tranquillet flottant-commone

lointaine onnerie e

cors-joyeux

et leger-lumineux-Ce ythme oit voir a valeur onore 'un fond

de

paysagetriste t

glace-comme

un

tendre et triste

regret-

tumultueux-plaintift

lointain-strident-tres

alme et

doucement

expressif-and so on

and

so

on.

Debussy lso dotes on those

ridiculous irections o

a

pianist

o

imitate thernstruments. ne such

nstance ccurs n

the foregoing

list, and another

from he same

volume)

s

quasi guitarra.

But

perhaps he most rritatingxample

know-irritating

n its quite

childish bviousnessnd naivete nd in its sheerstupidity, ot to

speak

of its

cheapness-is the quasi

fagotto

cherzando

n

Bax's

Burlesque for

piano.

Lastly, here s the

question f anguage. Not onlydo

our present

daycomposerslmost

without xception

oin thesefanciful

ut futile

comments

y the

handful, ut they

perpetratehem

n

a fascinating

variety f tongues.

This practice, orwhichwe have

to thank,

believe, chumann nd

Wagner, eemsto me

indefensible.Why

a

Russian conductor, or

example, houldhave to grapplewith uch

Graingerismss louden ots-why Englishmenhouldbe involvedn

learningGerman

nd French before

hey can read the scores of

Schumann,Wagner,

Reger,

trauss

r

of

Ravel,Debussy,HuO,

and

therestof

them-why n Italian,feeling imself t

homewith he

directions

I

take

as an

example

ereJohn

reland's

orchestral

iece,

'

The ForgottenRite

') Poco lento e

mistico and Lontano possibile

only

to

be faced on

the self-samepages with broad and

'

soft,and

distinctly arked

-these are things

hat entirelyail oappreciate.

SinceEsperantohas neverwon tsway ntouniversal avouretusat leastdo thenext

est hing, nd stick o one anguage,

nd

that

he

one that

s

(by

whatever

ccident

s now

irrelevant)

anctioned

y

tradition nd is by far the most

predominantn the

music of the

past.

Composersevert o

their

mother

ongue

or

variety freasons,

not

one ofwhich, owever, illbear

analysis.

Sometimeshe nsane

fetish

of

'

nationalism

is responsible; sometimes

the inadequacy of

thecomposer's

nowledgef Italian in face of his

growing xtrava-






382 MUSIC

AND

LETTERS

gancein expressionmarks; sometimesheer aziness; sometimes

mere personalwhimsey as with Grainger). In each

case

the

invaliditys too obvious o need abouring.As for hose omposers

whouse two anguages, ven three n occasion, heekby owl . . .

Whether,

hen ll

is said

and

done, nybody

s

much

heworse

or

the state of affairs have outlined deplorable s

it

is,

of

course,

viewed n the light of strict eason and logic and orderliness)s

questionable. myself

m

inclined o think,

s

I

hinted

arlier,

hat

themajorityfexpression arks re virtuallygnored y themajority

of

performers. he result s goodor bad simply

n

accordance ith

the musicianship f the performer. Presumably eresa Sanger's

scornwas aroused y the painstakingbservancef expression arks

by playerswhosemusicianship as poor-a quitefamiliar ccurrence,

of

course.)

If

this uppositionf mine s correctmyarticle bviously

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RALPH W. WOOD.

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