Playing Schumann Again for the First Time

Bobby Mitchell

How can one learn to improvise convincingly within the context of the nineteenth-century piano repertoire? And why is it important to improvise on this repertoire in the twenty-first century? Taking the music of Robert Schumann (1810−56) as a departure point, Playing Schumann Again for the First Time proposes an answer to these questions through methods towards a pianistic practice that is driven by experimentation and strives to continually find more layers where improvisation can take place, both in sounding musical practice and in notation. These practice-based methods are contextualized by a discussion of the presence of improvisation in Western classical musical practice in the nineteenth century. They are then substantiated by an argument to use improvisation as a tool for rethinking the current performance practice of nineteenth-century music. Improvisation itself and the concepts driving this term will also be addressed: improvisation in musical performance will be described as a process guided by a feedback loop between mimesis and morphosis with which the practitioner engages using his or her individual cognitive and embodied approach to listening, forgetting, and conceptualizing; the results of which bear his or her own sonic signature. The knowledge gained in this project lies within the realm of what will be described as improvisation as practice, a category of improvisational behavior that circumvents the need to be presented as art and is rather intended for the development of one’s own music-making.

APPLES AND PEARS exhibits Phase B activity

“I know the look of green apples and peaches and pears on the trees, and I know how entertaining they are when they are inside of a person.” – Mark Twain (Twain 2010, 217)

The recording below, made on October 15th, 2014, captures a performance of a character piece inspired by this Mark Twain quote. The music was prepared beforehand but with no written component.

[0:05–0:06] These parallel fourths without a third-voice accompaniment landing on a minor ninth (G versus the more preferable F#) sound unacceptable in context.

[0:31] This bass note suddenly interrupts the treble voices and almost brings them to a complete stop, as if they don't know how to respond to it.

[0:38] This mistake is similar to the one described at [00:31].

[1:15] One hand reaches for a fourth relationship within the key, while the other reaches for a secondary dominant that would lead to a different key, hence the unwanted dissonance here.

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