Towards an integrated method for practicing: internalizing the composer’s language.

Pim Witvrouw

Name Pim Witvrouw Main Subject Music Theory Supervisors Paul Scheepers / David Kuijken Title of Research Towards an integrated method for practicing: internalizing the composer’s language Research Question In which ways can we use the outcome of an analysis to develop a practice method focused on learning the general musical language of a score, instead of just memorizing the right notes? Summary of Results Musicians who could very well play, improvise and compose wrote down the majority of repertoire, which we encounter as Western classical musicians. In conservatories and music schools often an attitude towards classical music is developed from a narrower point of view: learning and performing a score. There are extra classes in solfeggio, harmony, improvisation, analysis and counterpoint. However, the reality is that, for most students these subjects are not connected to their practice as instrumentalists. As a pianist, I don’t use all the resources I have as a theorist, and there seems to be a separation between these two practices. Might there be a different way to start practicing a classical work? For the purposes of my research I have chosen one piece as a case study: the first movement of Beethoven's piano sonata n. 31 (op. 110, in A flat major). First I analysed the movement and then I looked at what I can do with the data generated from the analysis. I developed some exercises in order to prepare one for studying the actual work. These exercises could bring theoretical knowledge and improvisation skills into the instrumental lessons and give the player a deeper insight into Beethoven’s harmonic language and use of formal structures. Further research is necessary in order to work out these exercises for more repertoire of all levels, styles and even instruments. It is my intention with this research and future work to bring music theory and activities in the practice rooms of musicians closer together. Biography Pim Witvrouw began his professional music studies at the Young Talent Department of the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven (Belgium) where he studied piano with Stefan Celen. He continued to study in the Netherlands at the Utrecht Conservatory, where he studied with Paolo Giacometti. In addition to this he studied musicology at the University of Utrecht. Pim is currently engaged giving piano lessons and music theory classes at the CKV-Almere. Since September 2018 he also teaches music theory at the Conservatory of Zwolle. In recent years he performed a solo program devoted to works of J.S. Bach.

In the year of my final exams at the conservatoire I was able to spend a limited number of study hours behind the keyboard and was forced to focus on the method for mental practicing by Karl Leimer.1 It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. As frustrating and annoying as it was in the beginning not to be behind the keyboard, it soon proved to be extremely useful and effective. In order to let the physical problems calm down I decided not to move on for a master's degree in piano, but to take a break. In the years after my final exam, I was working as a piano teacher. The physical complaints disappeared and spending more hours at the keyboard was ultimately no longer a problem. The result was that mental practicing disappeared into the background and eventually even lost my interest.

Several years later, a new teacher of music theory was needed at the school where I was teaching piano and I decided to take on that task, in addition to my piano lessons. Partly because of this, in 2009 I started studying music theory as a major at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. After completing my bachelor in music theory in 2011, I took a 'music- theoretical' break. I now had obtained a bachelor degree in classical piano, musicology and music theory.

It seemed to me at the time a nice challenge to study a solo program with only Bach's music. It struck me then that my music-theoretical knowledge was used to a limited extent at the start of the study process. Analysis and harmony played an important role at a later stage in studying the score, but this only came about after assimilating the notes. Once I realized this, the idea for my research topic started to emerge. It seemed more useful to me to use these kinds of theoretical insights from the very first glance at the notes and in this way to make studying the notes a more creative experience, by including improvisation in the initial process of assimilating the notes. So this process brought me to the subject of this research.

1.2 Personal trajectory

Theory lessons have always been a part of my musical education. Around the age of nine it all started with solfeggio lessons at a music school in Belgium. At that time you had to take solfeggio for at least one year before even starting an instrument. One year later I could finally start with piano lessons and elementary music theory also became a part of my musical education next to the ever-present solfeggio lessons.

When I was fourteen, I started studying at the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven, a high school program with extra music lessons. Theoretical subjects here included solfeggio, harmony, harmony at the keyboard, analysis and choir. When I was eighteen I went to Utrecht to study piano. Theory lessons were hardly discussed because of my previous education. The transition from high school to Conservatoire level was huge and the large amount of available 'piano time' quickly led to injuries. I therefore decided to start studying musicology in addition to piano.

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