This project aims to demonstrate how the affordances of modern musical instruments can influence phrasing. My goal is to expand on our understanding of these affordances and how this affects the way we express musical ideas.
Phrasing is how a musician shapes music. Phrasing is the performer's musical language and is strongly linked to how well one masters one's instrument and can communicate musical ideas and interpretations. Instrumentalists have seen technical developments and innovations over hundreds of years, leading to the instruments we use today. Modern orchestral instruments are often very different from their historical predecessors with the development generally being in the direction of more evenness through the registers, larger volume, and projection[1]. The methodology of playing is also highly focused on evening out the idiosyncrasies of the instrument to make all notes through the registers have the same shape. But what happens when everything sounds the same? Has phrasing become a victim of evenness?
This project uses a period boxwood instrument, modern boxwood instruments, modern mopane instruments, and modern grenadilla instruments (which are the norm today) as tools for research on phrasing. By switching tools between these instruments, I have identified and related various techniques to establish how the affordances of the different instruments can influence phrasing.
Research questions:
1. What is the relationship between phrasing on a period instrument and a modern instrument?
2. How can phrasing from a period instrument be transferred to a modern instrument?
3. What is the future of phrasing on a modern instrument?
Keywords: phrasing, modern orchestral instruments, evenness, volume, projection, period instruments, boxwood, grenadilla, mopane
[1] Weinzierl S., Lepa S., Schultz F., Detzner E., Coler H., and Behler G.«Sound power and timbre as cues for the dynamic strength of orchestral instruments» The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 144, p. 1352-1353 (2018)