ZenArtPiano Excerpts 3-7-09 PDF

ZEN
and the
ART
of
P
I A N O
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A Pianists Guide to Orchestrating at the Keyboard and Mastering the Flow of Musical Energy
David Michael Wolff
ZEN
and the
ART
of
A Pianists Guide to Orchestrating at the Keyboard and Mastering the Flow of Musical Energy
PIANO
zen and the art of piano
BY DAVID MICHAEL WOLFF
Zen and the Art of Piano
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Zen and the Art of Music (in preparation)
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David Michael Wolff
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David Michael Wolff
The myriad differences are resolved by sitting, all doors opened. In this still place I follow my nature, be what it may. From the one hundred flowers I wander freely, the soaring cliff my hall of meditation (with the moon emerged, my mind is motionless). Sitting on this frosty seat, no further dream of fame. The forest, the mountain follow their ancient ways, and through the long spring day, not even the shadow of a bird.
Reizan (d. 1411)
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Twenty
Preface
years old and a new-comer to Manhattans daunting sky-scraped landscape and dizzying frenetic pace, I happened upon Zen in the Art of Archery. Broadway was arrested by Japanese Peach Blossoms. Twelve years later, I set out to write Zen and the Art of Piano and a companion work, Zen and the Art of Music. I think of Piano as a modern Zen Art-form, and from long before Id ever even heard the word Zen, my approach to Piano was imbued with its principles. The present volume is not a philosophical Buddhist tract, but rather essentially a simple treatise on Piano technique viewed as an art of orchestrating at the keyboard with all the possible colors of the Piano and a guide to learning how to phrase according to a system of musical analysis based on balancing positive and negative energy. Its a system not unlike Heinrich Schenkers in that while seeking to understand the energy at play, it simplifies the musical page to its most essential notes and gestures, allowing the rest to fall naturally into place. Different from Schenkerian Analysis however, it is based on both the underlying large poles of energy AND the surface energy, which is often negated in Schenkers reductions. Mine is a type of musical analysis for performers, not theorists, and is relatively easy to learn. And while the Orchestration concepts presented as a whole are quite complex, broken down to their basic components of touch, they are not difficult to grasp and obtain. The goals are lofty, the applications very much of this earth.
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zen and the art of piano This performance manual does not claim to be a metaphysical guide to the universe or to parallel realities, nor is it a String-theory of musical energy in its countless dimensions (!). However, the musicians power lies in his ability to transcend time and space by evoking and balancing many dimensions of time, space and color at every moment. Theres a mystical moment at the beginning of each work, movement or phrase where the performer imagines the music to come and somehow conjures into being an entire field of energy that immediately becomes reality, entering the actual world and leading the performer forward. I call it the Point of Invocation. Most musicians have felt this sensation but it would be difficult to define or prove. This I leave to musical physicists and metaphysicians. One of the main goals in these pages is to give the reader hundreds of real tools to acquire greater sensitivity to the movement of musical energy and to gain a command over it so that he can then release command and flow with Zen-like ease. To me, the energy of Music is part of Creation and is a natural link between the physical and non-physical worlds. Some would call it Tao, and whether or not you believe in Tao as a spiritual energy force, most of its descriptions accurately describe the practical experiences of great musicians, artists, athletes and all sensitive human beings.
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Its essential for the interpreter to imagine Music in limitless dimensions of time, space and color. When I play a phrase, I search out ways to open up parallel dimensions and am constantly aware of balancing multiple dimensions at the same time, as if juggling. Every phrase contains countless portals, but they are not always immediately apparent, even to the keenest eyes and ears. Left unexplored, the interpreter and listener are trapped within two- or threedimensional perceptions. Incredulous, you may find yourself now wanting to ask, Excuse me, wheres the portal to the fourth dimension? Where can I find the 19th dimension?
While I obviously cant answer these questions directly, its a bit like an unsolved riddle until you know the answer, it seems forever elusive, but once you figure it out, its self-evident. I hope the practical tools that I present here will have the same effect on the reader.
David Michael Wolff
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Because it is so very clear, It takes longer to come to the realization. If you know at once candlelight is fire, the meal has long been cooked. Mumon
Table of Contents
Preface vi Introduction xv
Part I 1
{ Zen Prelude and Allegro moderato }
Zen Prelude 1
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The Path to Zen 1 Self and the Eternity of Gestures 3
Allegro Moderato The Filters 5

The Vertical 7
Defining the Color Levels The Techniques behind the Colors Creating an Orchestral Sonority Applying Vertical Hierarchy Grouping Levels and Packaging Chords
The Horizontal
Establishing Horizontal Hierarchy
Combined Vertical and Horizontal Effects

Dynamic Differentiation Applying and Removing Gloss Defining the Pedaling
David Michael Wolff
Linking and Separating Defining Rubato Differentiating the Texture of Touches The Dry Pedal Finger-pedaling From the Key Surface or from the Air? Applying Height Vertically Applying Height Horizontally To the Key-bottom or Beyond? Applying Depth Vertically Applying Depth Horizontally Combining and Contrasting Height and Depth On Conducting and Studying the Score Away from the Piano Imagining Real Orchestration Zen, Circular Energy, and the Four Time Dimensions The Four Principle Mallets The Four Physical Levels Mimicking Masters ~ The Imitation Filters The Hand of Karajan The Hand of God Using Hammers and Chisels After-Touch Is Percussion Beautiful, Zenful? Horowitz Voicing Speed, Weight and Compression Super-melody Playing Blind
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Part II
{ Andante con mosso }
Encircling Reflections
The Myth of Evenness Energy = Emotion + Form + Color { e = E+F+C } Technique Canvas of Silence Enjoyment The Kernel of Talent and Persuasive Performing
The Metronome Preparing for Performance On Accompanying Willpower and Vision On Teaching On Practicing Slow Practice ~ Fast Practice Posture Integrity and Persona
Part III
{ Scherzo }
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On Great Pianists
Sergei Rachmaninoff Vladimir Horowitz Arthur Rubinstein Ivo Pogorelich Martha Argerich Claudio Arrau Arturo Benedetto Michelangeli Glenn Gould Walter Gieseking Alfred Cortot Sviatoslav Richter Emil Gilels
David Michael Wolff
Part IV
{ Fuga con Variazioni }
Fuga: The Music Theory behind Energy Pillars

Harmonic Dissonance Meter Note-value Note-height
Variazioni: Practicing Zen Orchestration

Applying and expanding techniques from Part I using examples from the full gamut of the Piano Repertoire
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Variation I: Beethovens Sonata in F minor, Op. 2 no. 1 (first movement) Variation II: Chopins Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 9, No. 2 Variation III: Bachs Goldberg Variations (Variation XXX) Variation IV: Debussys Pagodes from Estampes Variation V: Prokofievs Sonata No. 6, Op. 82 (first movement)
David Michael Wolff
I am not concerned at not being known; I seek to be worthy to be known. -K'ung Fu-Tzu
Introduction
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The
following pages describe my search to attain a complete pianism encompassing all the possible colors and color combinations of which the piano is capable. I write of my understanding of musical phrasing and my approach to transmitting musical energy physical, emotional and psychological with a Zen-like ease and purity. Along the way, I discuss my personal approach to various works in the repertoire to teach you practical applications of my techniques. You will quickly gain practical tools to transform the Piano into an Orchestra of infinite sonic and expressive possibilities. And finally, I speak of my personal relationship to the great pianists of the past and present, of what each has taught me and represents to me. I must say upfront that Im generally not a fan of books of this nature, although there have been a few along the way that have been meaningful and important to my own development. I write this book partly for myself. As I chronicle a lifetime struggle to understand the nature and potential of the Piano, I teach myself what Ive learned and forgotten over the years, and somehow try to string it all together in my mind on a more conscious level, to form my own Theory of Everything Pianistic, if you will. If I find a few readers in students, colleagues or pianophiles who find something thought-provoking or are able to use some of these ideas as points of departure for debate or further study and growth, I will
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zen and the art of piano be happy to have inspired passions and moved peoples minds, hearts and fingers to action.
By the water, deep within the forest, you find traces. Leaving fragrant grasses behind, you study the signs. Following the tracks, you enter endless mountains. Distant sky how can the tip of its nose be hidden elsewhere? The Ox-Herding Pictures, circa 800AD
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A little over a year ago, I started keeping a log on my laptop of my daily Piano practice sessions that I lovingly call Confessions and Contradictions of a Practicing Pianist. The following book has been developed through this process of self-analysis and continual search for the ever-elusive Piano Grail. I often find that as I push each pianistic and interpretational approach to its logical conclusion, I contradict what Ive just discovered a day earlier, and the following day often brings new contradictions this is one of the great frustrations and beauties of the complex art of Piano playing. And I have to confess that I often fall victim to short-sightedness as I lunge after new realizations and revelations.
David Michael Wolff
How many times have I discovered the Great Secret, only to tear it apart the next day as a mirage or half-truth! But gradually, you wind round and round the mountain and slowly find yourself a little closer to the summit. And thats the joy of this never-ending pursuit of a Parnassus that may not even exist but never ceases to beckon. As Zen philosophers would say, the mountain is yourself.
The book is divided into four large sections, echoing the form of a Symphony I: A Zen Prelude and Allegro moderato, II: Andante con mosso, III: Scherzo, and IV: Fuga con Variazioni. The body of Part I, Filters, is an introduction to the concepts and techniques of orchestration and energy. Each Essay teaches a new filter or set of filters for processing musical information, the essence of practice. I limit myself to a single musical example, the first page (A-section) of Rachmaninoffs well-known Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3 No. 2. This is a page of music easily learned by an intermediate pianist and was carefully chosen to help make this work accessible not only to University Piano Performance Majors and Concert Pianists, but also to young aspiring pianists and amateurs.
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Part II expands on the ideas in Part I in a less dense, more readable way. It includes Essays about all matters pertaining to the preparing and performing of a work. Part III consists of a collection of Essays about great pianists and what Ive learned from them. Part IV, like a second-year foreign language text book, reviews all of the concepts presented in Part I, expanding and developing them. It opens with Fuga, an exploration of the Music Theory behind Energy Pillars. This is followed by Variazioni, in which five examples from stylistically diverse works are explored one at a time, following the path laid in Part I. Examples from the entire gamut of the Piano repertoire are included along the way.
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Before I had studied Zen I saw mountains as mountains, waters as waters.
When I learned something of Zen, the mountains were no longer mountains, waters no longer waters, But now that I understand Zen, I am at peace with myself, seeing mountains once again as mountains, waters as waters. Ching-yuan (660-740)
Part I
Zen Prelude
The Path to Zen
I first began thinking consciously about the flow of musical energy separated from its emotional wrappings and entrapments when I was eighteen. Struggling with the dense, complex counterpoint of Bachs passionate C-minor Partita, it occurred to me that an interpretation is not a manmade structure that can be built up its a pre-existent eternal form, a sculpture longing to be freed from the marble. It was a small epiphany for my young self. I was the one keeping the music from escaping its encasement. My own energy was working against the energy of the music, blocking it and negating it. I realized that if I freed myself of my own will
zen and the art of piano and tried to follow the energy of the music, as if accompanying, it would speak and dance and sing of its own accord. If I could disappear, it would take over I would be a mere vessel of eternal gestures. I became sensitive to blocks of energy like walls in my mind killing the line, separating one gesture from the next, and I began a process of eliminating excess thought, like clearing cobwebs. The fields of energy beneath the emotions of musical expression began to be visible as arching lines of energy. Slowly, Bachs lines began to sing out uninhibited. ~ Zen flowed ~ My road to Zen started however much earlier. I remember once at around the age of nine or ten spending a solid four hours after school on the couch in the living room staring at my hand, trying to figure out the paths of physical energy into my fingertips. My brothers and parents walked by in disbelief, afraid to ask what I was doing! I would spend my teenage years often hunched over the keyboard, looking at my fingers from inches away as I played, dissecting their minutest movements; I would stare into mirrors strategically placed around the Piano, trying to rid my technique of excess movement and energy. Natural, direct musical expression was inseparable from the perfect physical expression of technique.
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Later I would discover that the quickest way to rid the mind and body of excess energy and movement is to practice with your eyes shut. Blindness heightens the senses; the fingertips develop eyes and the whole body feels the sound. Recently watching a documentary about a deaf percussionist, I was struck by one of her comments: The deaf musician has a distinct advantage he can feel the music with his body, even after the sound has stopped being audible. The physical sensation of sound and energy is often more pure than the audible perception; the body teaches if youll listen.
David Michael Wolff
Self and the Eternity of Gestures

Not long after reading Zen in the Art of Archery, for my twenty-first birthday, a friend gave me a copy of Milan Kunderas Immortality. In its first pages, the narrator describes his shock at seeing a sixty-year-old woman wave with the gesture that belonged in his memory to a 20-year-old girl from his youth. And it occurs to him that gestures are not the definition of ones personality but rather eternal entities of their own right that manifest themselves through unsuspecting human beings. And it occurred to me that the interpreters goal should be to acquire as large a vocabulary of gestures as possible so as to transcend self. Theres such a strong feeling in the world of Art of having to express ones individuality. If you sound or look like somebody else, you must be imitating, and imitation is a form of stealing. But the greatest artists and thinkers of the past viewed imitation as the best way to honor ones colleagues and teachers, acquire command of their language and attain greater completeness. Isaac Newton said, I reach for the stars by standing on the shoulders of the giants that preceded me.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. - Lao Tzu
Gestures are immortal. They cant be owned, but they can be collected. Search them out, one by one, and learn to be used by them. Only then will you truly possess them and they you. Along my road to self-realization, to understanding interpretation and the art of orchestration on the Piano, I have stolen and pillaged from every conceivable source, and I intend to continue stealing and pillaging. But in the meantime, Id like to offer up a share of the bounty to the reader.
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David Michael Wolff
Allegro Moderato
The Filters
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Techniques are only abstract ideas until theyre put into actual use with your own two hands. Its a bit like driving you often dont really know the way until youve driven there yourself. This is not a quick, passive read; its meant to inspire you to discover each paragraph with your own two hands so that you can possess the concepts fully. I hope that you will work through it slowly and come back to it often over the years as a practical reference. In Part I, I will keep referring to a single page of music the first page (Asection) of Rachmaninoffs Prelude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 3 No. 2. You may have already studied the piece or likely at least have a strong familiarity with it. We will apply all of the techniques of energy and orchestration to this single page of music, so if you are unfamiliar with it, I invite you to spend some time putting it under your fingers as you read on {see p. 7}. It is within reach of the Intermediate Pianist. If you can put even the first system under your fingers, the following pages will be much more meaningful and instructive.
zen and the art of piano I approach learning a new work as a process of filtering, over the years Ive developed hundreds of techniques to filter music through my system, each showing it in a different light. I always return to freedom, asking myself to follow my own intuition to the nth degree. But intuition is a curious animal it is the sum of experience, prejudices and preferences, and is altered by your present physical/mental/emotional state as well as a host of other often arbitrary influences. It needs to be listened to, but also trained and guided. Gradually your relationship to your own intuition becomes more direct and your intuition itself wiser and purer. The following filters are essential to developing a rich, multilayered, multidimensional interpretation. I recommend starting by using them in the order presented, however its later possible to reorder them at will.
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t h e V E R
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T I C A L
Every situation, every moment is of infinite worth for it is representative of a whole eternity.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
David Michael Wolff
Defining the Color Levels

I am color
Paul Klee
Ive always felt that the most effective performance edition of any work would be color-coded. Can you imagine having a color-coded edition of the Debussy Prludes edited by Debussy himself! Translating tonal colors into visual colors heightens your aural perception and sensitizes your imagination. I hope the following visual exercise will open your mind to the real orchestral choices and demands that confront the interpreter. Here are the first few measures of Rachmaninoffs Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3 No. 2, in color:
Polyphony
Level 6 Light Navy Green Level 7 Light Purple Level 8 Light Grey Level 9 Light Yellow
Youll notice that within the first two measures, no fewer than nine distinct colors are required, each representing a level of sound. (My choices are not by any means definitive, even for myself theyre meant to inspire you to your own choices.) Ill list them here in order of importance. Level 1 Red Level 2 Royal Blue Level 3 Dark Green Level 4 Dark Blue Level 5 Turquoise
Part II
{ Andante con mosso }
Encircling Reflections
Horowitz liked to say, Think orchestrally - play pianistically. But what does that mean? What are the means and techniques of pianistic orchestration? What is the difference between Energy and Emotion? What is the Music Theory behind defining Energy Pillars? These are the lingering questions that are explored further in these pages. In Part I, Ive tried to simplify the concepts without over-simplifying, but in Part II Id like to penetrate more deeply and broadly. Sometimes the most precious jewels lay deeply enshrouded in stone, or a stones throw away. In my own teaching and studies, Ive learned that sometimes approaching a subject from a slightly different angle opens the door to new insights and deepens comprehension. In Schubertian fashion, Part II occasionally meanders
David Michael Wolff into related aspects of pianistic thought and practice, from Practicing, Accompanying, and Using the Metronome to Integrity and Persona. Most of Part II is less dense than Part I, and youre invited to read it comfortably, con mosso.
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The Myth of Evenness

Singers spend their lives learning to sing with a perfect, even legato. Pianists, imitating the ideal of great singing, try to make every note as closely matched to its predecessor as possible. Why is it that few trained musicians arrive at natural phrasing? Why is legato so elusive if its so easily defined? The problem lies in the definition itself. Legato is a paradox because its the antithesis of evenness! Two notes side by side with identical color and volume fight against one another like two positive magnets pushed together they cancel each other out. This truth applies not only to legato but to any two notes side-by-side. Redefine your energy, respecting a phrases real energy properties, and youll discover true legato and natural phrasing. As a rule, every note is either in diminuendo, in crescendo or a pressure point {arrival point, Energy Pillar}. Youll rarely get tired if youre always going somewhere or coming from somewhere. You get tired when youre directionless, like tagging behind your wife on a shopping trip. Static energy tires because of its lack of release and renewal. Oddly, although its generally less tiring to walk over flat terrain, in music its less tiring to walk over hilly terrain.
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The reason for this is that when you give out emotional energy while remaining sensitive to it with listening eyes and open ears, it comes back to you intact, like a boomerang, and refreshing you. On the other hand, when you hold energy and expression inside, it quickly becomes blocked and produces all kinds of tension physical, emotional and mental. And when you release energy expressively but dont remain sensitive to it, you lose it forever and quickly become emotionally drained and physically tired. Why this should be remains a mystery.
David Michael Wolff
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The reverse side also has a reverse side. - Japanese Proverb
You need release from tension whenever possible. Only in this way can the points of tension and expression be fully felt and realized. Its important to be aware of every crescendo and diminuendo, no matter how small, in order to create a successful interpretation. In practice, the continual swells need to be exaggerated. It may seem like an overstatement to say that every single note is either in crescendo, in diminuendo or an arrival point, but its not really. It would be more accurate of course to say that every note is either increasing in energy (tension), decreasing in energy, or a pressure point; after all, there are a lot of different ways to increase or decrease energy besides altering the volume. But in general, an increase in energy results in an increase in volume and vice-versa. {Occasionally the energy either moves forward into a pressure point in diminuendo, or arrives on it with a sudden decrease in volume (negative accent) to stunning effect, but this is the exception.} As a rule its important to keep vision in crescendo and not be overly expressive in diminuendo. In crescendo, begin without an accent { or even with a negative accent } and keep gently feeding in new energy; in diminuendo, ride out the energy that has been released at the top of the phrase or the beginning of a diminuendo. You dont have to deliberately let it deflate, but you neednt push it or feed in new energy.
zen and the art of piano This is particularly difficult for singers and wind players to grasp at first because they need to sustain the breath to the end of the phrase. The concept of releasing energy sometimes seems to conflict with perceptions about proper breath support, but usually within a couple days, if not almost immediately, this is overcome. Tenors tend to be a caricature of expressive sustaining they push every phrase all the way to the end, and as they come off it, slap you in the face with their lionesque masculinity. The peak of every phrase or gesture should have an expressive accent that focuses into a single note { and within that note to a single split-second }. This is why I sometimes prefer the appellation pressure point to arrival point or Energy Pillar. They usually require expressive pressure: when placed at the right points, like acupuncture, they realign the energy to its original, natural state. These notes should be looked forward to save yourself for them emotionally and physically and theyll be emotionally rewarding to play. Otherwise theyre effortful and the whole phrase becomes forced, belabored, or simply wandering. If you dont release enough energy at a pressure point or if you miss it entirely, the following notes will tend to want to crescendo to compensate, or theyll simply fall away in diminuendo and lose their presence.
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Why is this? A good musician instinctively tries to balance negative and positive energy. He struggles to maintain emotional balance but doesnt necessary know how to identify the emotional pressure points and organize them. When an Energy Pillar is miscalculated, the interpreter puts the energy elsewhere, generally over negative, unimportant space. This reverses the energy poles and the result is confusing to both interpreter and listener. The interpreter, at least, feels a certain satisfaction in achieving personal emotional balance between positive and negative energy; the listener either wonders whats missing or accuses himself of not having understood the music. My very first conducting Guru as a teenager loved to chide his students: Its not your job to feel; its your job to make others feel! Technique and interpretation are linked much more intimately than generally realized. From my own studies, and from my experience teaching instrumentalists and coaching singers, clarifying direction in phrasing often solves a whole slew of technical and expressive problems. Mastering the flow of horizontal energy focuses the release of energy into key focal pressure points and sets all the rest of the notes in motion under their pull and influence. It does away with all static energy and defines the architecture of the piece, giving it greater meaning to the listener. Undisciplined, unfocused, or misguided expression is tiresome and meaningless to the listener. You have to choose your moments (or rather become aware of them) and make them count. Then the rest falls into place. Dont buy into the cheap gypsy mentality that improvisational expression is more valuable and true
David Michael Wolff than planned-out expression { see Preparing for Performance below }. As the emotional energy of an interpretation is defined logically, the physical energy follows, and countless technical problems disappear. Singers I coach, many of whom sing in the major Opera Houses of the world, often tell me that their technique improves more under my coaching than under the tutelage of their voice teachers. { In America, voice teachers generally teach technique and defer the music to vocal coaches. } Although Ive studied much of the most-respected literature on vocal technique and have an outsiders understanding of it, Im not a singer and couldnt possibly teach vocal technique beyond a beginner level. I simply teach energy management awareness and understanding of the movement of musical energy. Learn to manage your energy effectively and you may not need to think as much about technique.
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Energy + Form + Color = Emotion
Maybe its not E=MC2 but theres an important truth here. Energy is not Emotion nor is Color. Only combined with Form do they transform into the substance of Emotion. The four are easy to confuse and difficult to separate, but as you gain conscious awareness and control of your art, its essential to be able to differentiate them and develop them individually. As an adolescent, music is pure emotion. Color is a subset of emotion and youre unable to see the skeleton of energy underneath it all. Gradually I became aware of Energy as a separate force and my Theory of Musical Energy was born. Not that its a new discovery its more of a difference in semantics. But from a practical point of view, I know of no other musical theory for performers that nears its usefulness. Imagine Energy as Architecture. My familys business was designing and building houses, so I grew up seeing small wildernesses cleared out, plots of land dug up, and skeletons of houses slowly take shape. At first, every house looked the same. Even as the foundations and principal pillars were laid, it still looked only like cement spread over dirt with wood sticking out. { How I loved helping lay cement at $2.50/hour on free Saturdays! Building foundations appealed to me from early on. } Gradually, magically, the form started to look more like a house and I looked forward to helping paint the hard-to-reach nooks-andcorners in bathrooms and closets. There was a satisfaction in seeing a house finished and sold, then become a home as a family moved in. My not-yet-even10-year-old self took satisfaction and pride in knowing that my own two hands had helped create something important.
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On top of a cleared plot of land springs a skeletal form, which is gradually covered with filled in and colored, and a house is born. The house then becomes living, breathing home. This is the proper relationship between Energy, Form, Color and Emotion { and also nears the process of composing and interpreting }. When I first started studying conducting, my teacher said, David, you possess everything except a skeleton. By this, he meant of course that my conducting was completely ineffectual because I had no technique and was simply waving my arms in front of people. Energy + Color = formless, meaningless Emotion. Energy + Form = colorless, lifeless, non-descript Emotion Color + Form = motionless Emotion, an anomaly.
David Michael Wolff
The first formula represents the most common form of musical expression among unformed interpreters. The second is less common among adolescents, but quite common among mature interpreters. Remember, even boredom is an emotional state. The third formula is an important analytical state, but is of course impossible to realize. Defining the underlying energy may seem dry or analytical at first to the young interpreter, but dont try to construct castles of emotions without first laying the foundation. First, study the overall design, the plans. Lay down the foundation and then the pillars. Dont build the second floor before the first. Colors can and must be learned separate from their emotional entrappings and architectural uses. Next, learn to paint architecture with minimal emotional involvement. This is the beginning of mastery. But when you begin to paint, be sure that you have a wall to paint on. These are basic truths And once your house is properly constructed, release it to the world and let it be lived in. Zen begins when you free your creation and the house becomes a home.
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David Michael Wolff
Willpower and Vision

As you prepare to practice or perform, remember that reality is largely a matter of perception. Once I went to play for a friend of mine outside of Rome. I wanted to run through a recital program for him and get his feed-back. Hes a super-virtuoso pianist and I assumed that hed have a beautiful grand, but when I arrived at his place in the countryside, I found a beat-up, old, awful upright with a couple notes missing, horrifically out of tune, and with keys cracked to the point of inducing blood if struck at the wrong angle. Complementing this, he had an old electronic keyboard with a couple notes sticking, a squeaking pedal, and occasional electronic sound malfunctions such that the octave around middle C had to be avoided as much as possible. He invited me to take my choice.
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My heart sank. Whats the point of playing through a program if the instrument cant come near to giving what you put into it! Bad pianos are the pianists curse. But I had come to play and ran through the first piece. What a disaster! I felt like cursing at the instrument and rolling it out the front door. How can you play on this? - I just play
zen and the art of piano And he sat down and demonstrated a few suggestions. A beautiful grand sang to me. How do you get that sound out of that thing!! - I simply refuse to accept what it gives me It was like talking to Yoda. My eyes were opened. It would have been laughable had he not just proved it. Use the force echoed through my ears I massed my willpower and vision together and went through the rest of my program. Gradually I found my way, and my musical vision started translating into actual sounds. After that, I went back often, whenever preparing to play somewhere, both for my friends warm, intelligent advice, and to prove to myself that I could overcome his piano and make it sing. If I could convince that box of my intentions, I would be strong enough to play any instrument anywhere at any time of day or night.
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Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
- Gandhi
Musicians are spoiled. And singers are the worst! How many times have I had to coax professional and not-so-professional singers out of a lethargic, I-cantpossibly-sing-today self-pity? When you have a performance, running away is not an option. Apologizing to your audience because youre a little under the weather is not an option. Not having slept well in an uncomfortable hotel room is no reason to feel sorry for yourself. Ideally youll be in the best possible form for every performance, but rarely is that the case. Muster your willpower and vision, and simply refuse to let your intentions be ruined by anything or anyone. Rise above your situation. And more importantly, rise above yourself and prove yourself worthy of the stage. Realize that although it may be your concert, its not about you.
Part III
{ Scherzo }
On Great Pianists
My whole life Ive been influenced and taught by the great pianists of mine and preceding generations. As the years pass, certain pianists come back to me over and over again with something new to offer. For the most part, its about these pianists I choose to write. Like any exercise of this nature, these short portraits and commentaries will likely reveal more about myself than about the actual subjects. Im in no way trying to make a complete list of the great pianists there are many obvious omissions and some curious inclusions.
From the pine tree learn of the pine tree. And from the bamboo of the bamboo. - Basho
David Michael Wolff This Scherzo is the lightest of the four movements and is at times comical, at times pensive, at others irreverent or provocative, but always full of love and respect for the subjects. Each sheds a special indirect light on the concepts presented in the other three sections.
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Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff was perhaps the most complete musician of the 20th century. He towered as composer, conductor and pianist, and in him, all three disciplines were intimately intertwined. One of the many paradoxes of Rachmaninoffs genius is that he is most beloved for his lyric inspirations timeless, neverending melodies that linger in the ears and heart. Paradoxical because he was one of the greatest contrapuntal masters of the 20th century. He writes layers upon layers of melody and each layer is a world unto itself.
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There have been many great melodists, from Mozart to Chopin, Verdi to Gershwin, but in all of these composers works, there is basically a melody with a simple accompaniment. Rachmaninoffs genius lay in his ability to combine layer upon layer of melody while giving the listener a sense of a single principle line with a complex inner life. This applies to his orchestral works, piano works, vocal works, chamber works everything. But it also applies to his piano playing. The inner melodies, from the bass-line all the way on up, teem with life. The emotional and intellectual integrity of the inner part compares perhaps only with the genius of Glenn Gould or Vladimir Horowitz. Yet whats striking is that all of this comes off as subliminal, peripheral. In the moment of performing and this applies to all the great pianists you feel his mind and soul centered in the melody. The richness of inner complexities does not come at the cost of sacrificing the principle melody the most important line and the place where most of the audiences attention is centered. The next thing you notice is the absolute command of architecture. He has very strong points of view and its often easy to disagree with them, but the strength and inner logic of the design overwhelms.
David Michael Wolff Another striking element of Rachmaninoffs playing is the grand scope of the dynamic range. His piano begins where most pianists forte stops. Yet it SOUNDS piano and IS piano! And this brings us back to an important point about dynamics and energy dynamics are only indirectly related to decibels of sound; theyre related to relative decibels of sound, but more importantly, theyre defined to the listeners ear by the relative level of the performers energy and the quality of that energy. A piano can sound forte, for instance, if its forced. Simply stated, dynamics represent mood, color and relative energy levels. Ones energy level changes from day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute, and the performer must be sensitive to this and counterbalance it when necessary, without forcing. Rachmaninoff plays piano with a big sound but a calm mind and relatively relaxed joints, so the effect is piano. Yet underneath the melody, there are seemingly infinite layers of dynamics, which lends his accompaniments a rich, orchestral effect. Technically speaking, Rachmaninoff plays the melody from his forearm or upper arm. This immediately gives him effortless access to an enormous amount of strength unattainable from the fingers alone. In general, he plays ppp melodies as well as fff chordal masses all from the arm with its peculiar, sustained, penetrating quality. The inner voices he assigns to the forearm, hand or fingers, according to the color desired.
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This general approach to technique is typical of most of the great pianists of the golden age it is one of many reasons they were able to achieve such differentiation of sound and emotion. Modern techniques are based either solely on finger-strength or on a finger-hand combination that leaves the upper arm and forearm floating effortlessly in the air. Great economy of motion but lack of strength and monotony of color result. How can the fingers and hands alone create all the colors of the orchestra! Thats a recipe either for tendonitis, resulting from over-working the smaller muscles (to little sonic effect), or a blackand-white contained approach to piano requiring only a small palette of colors produced with a petite dynamic range. A word on Rachmaninoffs forte chordal passages. Rachmaninoff has a way of packaging chordal passages like few pianists in history; he phrases and shapes them so compactly and richly! They resonate strength. He seems to prefer a somewhat edged sound in forte and fortissimo passages, which he achieves by slightly holding the elbow. Its what I call a wooden underpinning. Its quite similar to the tonal ideal that Artur Rubinstein employs in forte chordal passages. (Interestingly, while Rubinstein claimed not to be a fan of Rachmaninoffs sentimental music, he adored Rachmaninoff the pianist and held his golden tone as his ideal.)
zen and the art of piano Rachmaninoffs singing wooden sound in forte is the closest he comes to using percussion in his playing. This is perhaps part of the nobility of his approach and general character. The sound sometimes has an edge but is never forced, always rounded. The irony here is that Rachmaninoff the orchestrator uses the percussion section to maximum effect. In such an orchestrally-minded musician, why did he deny the piano of some of its most striking, innate NATURAL tone colors? Who is the real Rachmaninoff? When I listen to Rachmaninoff, I occasionally long for timpani here, a snair-drum undercurrent there, bells and chimes . . . This negation of percussive effect at the piano strikes me as odd and somehow unfulfilling. My way of understanding this paradox is through my own experience as a composer and conductor, but also through my experience with languages. When I first learned to speak Spanish as a teenager, I discovered that a new personality was streaming out of me through my newly acquired language. Language and culture are so powerfully intertwined that they often dictate thought and personality. Gradually this is overcome, but never completely. I went through the same experiences as I acquired fluency in French, Italian and Korean. What baffles the mind is having a conversation with another bi- or multilingual speaker, switching between languages youll notice how your feelings and thoughts about the subject subtly shift.
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In the practice room, Rachmaninoff speaks to me in three languages.
So it is with Rachmaninoff Rachmaninoff the composer is different from Rachmaninoff the conductor is different from Rachmaninoff the pianist. Together they give a more accurate account of the completeness of Rachmaninoff the musician. As a conductor, he was less developed, more inhibited and conservative. As a pianist, he reached the highest heights, but as a composer, he came closest to meeting his true self and achieving his artistic potential.
David Michael Wolff
Vladimir Horowitz
If I could go back in time, there are two red-letter dates in the history of 20th century pianism that I wouldnt miss, both involving Rachmaninoff and his Third Piano Concerto. The first is around the beginning of the century when Rachmaninoff debuted his new Concerto in NYC with none other than Gustav Mahler at the podium conducting what a concert that must have been! The greatest conductor perhaps in the history of conducting accompanying the greatest pianist of the first half of the 20th century!
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The second was a much more private affair. The young Horowitz had just landed off the boat in NYC and with all the sights the New World had to offer, his first stop was Rachmaninoffs Manhattan apartment. The next day they met at the now famed basement of Steinway Hall so that Rachmaninoff could hear what the young artist could do with his colossal Third Concerto. They played through the entire work at two pianos. Can you imagine what that must have sounded like - these twin giants of 20th century pianism - their languages blending and playing off each other!
Horowitz is a complex beast. He always forces you to love him or hate him, often simultaneously. I remember the day my allegiance switched from Rubinstein to Horowitz it happened in all of a couple minutes. I was sixteen, living with my uncle not far from the University. One afternoon I came home from school and raided his LP collection. I found Horowitz recording of Rachmaninoffs Third Concerto and Second Sonata. I knew of Horowitz from before I ever began lessons but my first teacher was a big Rubinstein fan and it naturally rubbed off on me. When I was eleven or twelve, I went to a lecture about competitions for aspiring pianists. One comment struck me If Horowitz were to ever enter a modern competition, he wouldnt make it past the first round.
zen and the art of piano Im sure that the lecturer was making some important point about the futility of competitions, how individuality rarely wins out and how you dont compete to win, but rather not to be eliminated. What remained with me instead was simply, Whats wrong with Horowitz if he cant even pass the first round of a competition? Horowitz died when I was thirteen and I didnt even notice I didnt buy his LPs or go out of my way to listen to them. And then I put on the Sonata. No single event in my musical life has impacted me as much as that moment. From the first crashing, cascading arpeggio followed by electric, deeply penetrating chords full of passion and sheer color, I knew that I was hearing absolute mastery and artistry. Others have said it before The first time I heard Horowitz, its as if I were hearing the piano for the first time, as if my ears never had never known what the piano was capable of Such was his impact on me that afternoon.
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I devoured all of his recordings and took up Rachmaninoffs Third Concerto, imitating every nuance of Horowitz legendary interpretations of it. After a few months, I reached my first Horowitz saturation point I simply couldnt take any more. Everything I loved about it started getting on my nerves. Then I would come back, over and over again, the cycle always repeating itself.
I simply couldnt figure out Horowitz, and that bothered me and captivated me. All artists can be defined and categorized, but Horowitz is an Enigma: as soon as you have him briefly pinned down, he morphs into another entity and contradicts you. His strengths are as many as his weaknesses. But he never ceases to fascinate. No other pianist has been written about and analyzed so extensively, so Ill leave you to their commentaries, but there are two extremely important aspects about Horowitz language that are usually glossed over or misunderstood: his willfulness and his acceptance of Brass and Percussion as an integral part of orchestration.
David Michael Wolff The most common argument about Horowitz approach is He would be great if only he didnt do such-and-such, if only he didnt do such-and-such. I used to approach him like that, trying to imitate only Horowitz proper qualities, excising what shouldnt be there. But what I was left with was often meaningless babble. And this is so often true take away what you dont like about something, and you may be removing the very reason why you like it so much. Horowitz will sometimes willfully mangle part of a phrase, making you sit on edge and gnaw your teeth, close your ears and cringe. You want to scream out, Why do you have to do that! And then the next moment, hell play the most beautiful, dissolving, nostalgic phrase, and youll swear that youve never heard such a beautiful passage. Youll love him again and know him for the poet and seducer he is. Yet take away the first part, and whats left? Dribbling nonsense. Horowitz never gives you anything important without somehow making you want it first. This is part of his genius. He knows how to balance love and hate, creating the most romantic, extreme contrasts. And it becomes addictive. You want him to bend the phrases against your own design so that he can then apologize and set everything right again.
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Horowitz least successful, least personal playing, are his recordings with Toscanini. Yes, theyre fantastic recordings nonetheless, but these two giants of interpretation were simply not meant to make music together. Its as if theyre speaking to each other in Chinese, one in Mandarin, the other in Cantonese. Horowitz is the weaker Artist in the meeting. He was intimidated by his Fatherin-law and wanted to please him and be accepted by him. He plays the Emperor and Tchaikovskys First in a quite normal, proper way. You still hear Horowitz underneath but hes in a straitjacket, smothered. Listening, you long for him to break free, but he doesnt. Its disingenuous playing, masterful but false. Later in his life, Horowitz could often become a caricature of himself, taking things a step too far. But even this was at least Horowitz. His sin was loving opium. Take his late recording of the Liszt Sonata. Its like a series of character pieces, broken up and torn down at every opportunity. But what colors! What poetic hallucinations! Contrary to common opinion, this is for me far superior to his earlier recording, which is full of momentum and verve and holds together architecturally much better, but lacks the tonal imagination and attention to detail. When he plays Liszt, the devil and angel in him meet in the most perfect balance. He is Liszt incarnate.
zen and the art of piano He has a similar chemistry with several composers, Rachmaninoff for example. The composer admitted that Horowitz played many of his works the Third Concerto, for instance better than himself. And Scriabin! And Scarlatti! The list goes on and on. But lets move on to the second important feature of Horowitz style, indirectly related to the first and usually overlooked or misunderstood his percussiveness. Horowitz imitators are the noisiest pianists around. Its not nearly as common as it was thirty or forty years ago when every Conservatory pianist was trying to play as fast and loud as Horowitz. Students pick up on his power without understanding its source or being able to define its substance and think they can capture it by simply flailing away at the keyboard. I myself admit to having occasionally fallen victim to this trap. Inspired by a Horowitz recording, I go to the piano and try to recapture its magic; after a couple days I think Ive managed somehow. Then I listen again. Its not nearly as percussive or loud or heavy as it seemed in my memory. It simply rings with a golden shimmer. The weight doesnt stay in the sound; it passes through it like electricity. The effects often seem much greater than they actually are because of the way he places them in time and constrasts them against opposite colors, or against silence. In his phrasing and in his voicings, he pinpoints the exact notes to point up for maximum effect. He searches out the dissonant intervals, melodically and harmonically, and heightens them. He doesnt smear colors or effects over groups of notes he crafts each note individually.
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Unlike most pianists, Horowitz isnt afraid of Percussion and Brass he embraces them as friends. He uses them sparingly but always at just the right moment for maximum effect. Only in Horowitz do you think hes reached a triple forte only to be suddenly hit with a chord twice as loud and powerful! Yet he rarely actually offends the ear as many of his imitators do. He punches you in the gut and sends you reeling. And you stand up smiling and come back for more! Gilels is another pianist that embraces Percussion and Brass, but he does so in a much more muscular, bulky way. Horowitz slaps much more often than he punches; he plays with you and provokes you, but he saves real punches for maximum effect. Magic is not a heavy entity it floats and can never quite be pinned down, and Horowitz is the ultimate Magician. Horowitz Percussion is very rarely percussive; he embraces Percussion as a light, singing force. He uses it as a great orchestrator does - to highlight phrases, to create contrast, to clarify structure. And among the Greats, he is absolutely unique in his acceptance of Percussion. None of the Golden Age pianists understood Percussion like Horowitz they all shied away from it, searching for the ever-elusive golden tone. Oddly, that ideal generally possessed little gold or
David Michael Wolff polish; it has more of a matte finish. Listen to the entire Leschetizky School, for example all possess an almost identical sound, singing, round and translucent. Horowitz sound, at least in the melody, is rarely as beautiful or pure he leaves a certain edge in it that gently attracts the ear to it. Horowitz does possess the Leschetizky sound, but he usually hides it from view. Why conceal beauty? This is a mystifying feature of his language Horowitz often veils his most beautiful sounds underneath the surface, lending the overall effect a complexity and beauty that often surpasses the greatest of the Golden Age pianists. The conundrum for a pianist wishing to experiment with percussive effects is where do you use them? If you put them in the melody, the tone-color of the melody becomes less beautiful. If you put them underneath the melody, they distract the listeners ear from the melody and generally destroy the effect. Horowitz deliberately uses brighter, less beautiful colors in the melody, against common logic. And this is revolutionary! The proof of its effectiveness lies in his recordings. An added bonus of this approach is that the melody naturally has more carrying power in a large hall. Brighter sounds ring more and often carry better.
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Remember also, brightness in a small space never sounds as bright in a larger space. The larger the space, the duller the effect, and the greater the need to increase the scope of everything. Finally, Horowitz embracing of Percussion and Brass is one of the features that sets him off as Modern against the previous generation of pianists. In Horowitz, fire sings through metal, glass, water and ice.
Martha Argerich
I was sixteen and about to perform Tchaikovskys 1st Concerto. I was out of town and had picked up a CD by an unknown pianist. From the opening chords, I was enthralled - what sounds! And what free-flowing lyricism! Then came the famous octave passage in the Development a stampede of octaves out of Hell. I couldnt believe my ears! I stopped the CD and opened the player to see who it was Martha Argerich. { How I reached the age of sixteen without knowing anything about her still surprises me }. Fast-forward two years. My Piano Professor was having her annual end-ofthe-year party for her students and late in the evening she invited us to watch a new video that shed just acquired Argerich playing Strausss Burlesque, live with Abbado on New Years Eve. Id never seen her play before and imagined flailing arms and a bit of jumping up-and-down off the seat.
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I see a petite, fragile, feline creature walk on stage with a shy, girlish smile and gesture to the conductor to begin. A few moments later, she enters with those same, massive octaves and humbling virtuosity. But she remains perfectly still and calm, as if she were sipping tea. My jaw dropped. My whole concept of technique was thrown on its head. I left immediately, muttering apologies, and went straight to the University. It was nearly midnight and the School of Music was locked up, but I searched out a cracked window and crawled through it like a thief in the night. I found a classroom unlocked and felt my way to the piano without turning on the lights for fear of attracting security guards from afar. I had recently performed Rachmaninoffs Third Piano Concerto for the first time, so I began reworking it, trying to keep my movements even in the most passionate forte and fortissimo moments calm and contained. I played until dawn, elated. Argerich would be my idol for the next few years as I tried to come to terms with her technique and artistry.
David Michael Wolff In terms of color and orchestration, shes a rather black-and-white pianist; she seems to have learned little in that regard from her studies with Michelangeli. Nor is she a great architect; she simply doesnt seem to have a genius for form. But she dances and sings in a way that more than makes up for her deficiencies. Shes also at least as great an accompanist as soloist. Shes malleable and mirror-like, such that when she works with a good conductor, her interpretations take on a more logical and wellorganized form. On her own, especially in her younger years, her fiery energy would often get the better of her. A Liszt Sonata, for example, might end several minutes sooner than it ought to have, details gobbled up in a flood of pedal and passion.
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She has a race-car drivers lust for speed and is one of the few who can often get away with it. Her performances have a visceral excitement, which she doesnt apologize for. Speed sometimes becomes an art in itself. At her best, she makes you believe that every one else is simply playing several notches too slow! Onstage she embodies passion, grace, absolute freedom, forward momentum and joy. She makes you get excited about Classical Music and live concerts because her concerts are live, not replicas of a studio recording. I was always the kind of person to leave concerts at intermission, but with Argerich, I would hang out at the scene long after the concert was over, savoring the occasion. I was at her Carnegie Hall comeback solo recital. Only at an Argerich concert do fans rush the stage repeatedly and beg for encore after encore, clapping wildly even after shes waved definitively goodbye for the tenth time and been offstage for more than five minutes! My generation can only say thank you to that kind of inspiration coming from a pianist not 50 years dead but still quite alive. Shes truly a Spirit from another Age.
Part IV
{ Fuga con Variazioni }
The fourth and final movement of this Zen Symphony is a recapitulation of the Orchestration and Energy principals from Part I. As the subtitle suggests, it takes the themes from the Zen Prelude and envelops them in a dense, penetrating Fugue ensued by a set of five variations. In Part I, we applied all of the principles to a single page of Rachmaninoffs Csharp minor Prelude. As every style demands special orchestration, Ive chosen five stylistically contrasting works from the standard repertoire to examine and prepare, step-by-step. Each will be taken through the 29 filters of Part I. There will naturally be a certain amount of repetition and reinforcement, like a Secondyear Foreign Language textbook. If any of you have harbored concerns about whether these concepts apply as much to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Prokofiev as they do to Rachmaninoff, Part IV will alleviate them. I will use examples from the gamut of the piano repertoire to show the universality of the concepts. There are of course
David Michael Wolff stylistic differences that affect the application of certain techniques, and these will be explored in detail. Ive chosen works that you may already have played, or with which you at least likely may have a strong familiarity. As with Part I, read slowly and try to put each of the examples into your fingers. Techniques are only abstract ideas until theyre put into actual use with your own two hands. To understand and absorb the techniques, they have to enter your body and filter through you. It may be helpful as you work through Part IV to re-read corresponding Essays from Part I.
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Fuga: The Music Theory behind Energy Pillars
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Mastering the flow of energy is the Zen aspect of music-making, and involves an understanding of positive and negative energy. This energy is made up of several different energy fields that overlap. Getting beneath the surface of energy movement, which can be reduced to quite simple pathways guided by Energy Pillars, requires delving into each individual energy field and seeing how the notes are affected by them. Each field must be separated and explored with as much depth as possible. Although this seems impossible at first, its quite plausible and practicable. In order to master the flow of energy, you need not only understand the movement of energy on a local level, but also the larger architecture how the tectonic plates of form revolve around one another, creating a multi-layered monarchic form. Beyond the inner movement of pure energy, as its fleshed out and clothed in color and emotion, a psychological depth not unlike a human being, or even a group of human beings, reveals itself. A psychologist amateur musician friend of mine, during a discussion about emotional counterpoint how each voice has its own inner life separate from all the others but at the same time inter-connected by a common bind of time, space and fate exclaimed excitedly, Its just like family therapy! Each individual inhabits his own reality but the family unit has its own dynamic that influences and is influenced by the individuals that make it up.
David Michael Wolff Music theory and analysis are not simply about understanding the harmony and basic musical form. This is simply scratching the surface, and in an abstract sense does little for the performer.
My approach to analysis of harmony and energy is not dissimilar to the Italian notion of appoggio, centering ones energy and support in the points of greater emotional tension and expression. Relative dissonance is generally the essence of harmonic expression and each harmonic pattern creates its own energy field with positive and negative pulls. Rhythms and meters also each have their own energy fields, and as they play off each other, juxtaposed against the ebb and flow of the many levels of harmonic and melodic movement, a complex web of energy emerges, which when properly understood however, can be simplified with Mozartian precision. The important points of each musical gesture can be easily identified like pressure points and brought out, aligning the energy fields, clarifying the surrounding architecture, and heightening the meaning and effect. The prerequisite for the following argument is a basic understanding of Music Theory. Whether you possess this or not, remember that understanding how to choose the Energy Pillars is less important than believing in their existence and taking your best guess. More often than not, your intuition will give you the correct answer. And even when it does not, choosing a Pillar and organizing your energy around it will focus your interpretation and give it clearer meaning while giving you all the other physical and emotional benefits of balanced, nonstatic energy. Skim over this and come back later if its too difficult.
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This subject in and of itself is the subject for life-time study and deserves a book of its own Music Theory for Performers (perhaps someone will get around to writing it one day). I took many Theory courses as an Undergrad and Graduate student, required and elective, and all left me unfulfilled by their simplistic and dry nature. No course frustrates the Performance Major more most perceive it as the antithesis of performing and either try NOT to learn it for fear of being corrupted by academia, or learn it enough simply to pass the course, and then quickly forget it because they never use it. Few theory teachers are performers themselves; many of them are composers who are forced to teach it and suffer through it as much as their pupils. Others are Theorists who love the beauty of abstract, useless ideas. And even they find no pleasure in teaching the rudiments of their craft to unenthusiastic, half-asleep students. If only theory could be viewed as a tool to perform better. If only the two could be seen as two sides to the same coin! Then performers would flock to it and lap it up! If they could be actively linked and constantly applied to the performers craft, students would develop quite a different attitude toward theory. Theory as a discipline would be reborn in a sense. What could at first be an elective Theory Course for Music majors with a pre-requisite of First-Year Theory could later
zen and the art of piano become a unified approach to Theory and be taught from the beginning as Theory 101. After all, music neednt be separated from its performance; all musicians are performers. This is what my approach is about. Start from the performers perception of energy, color, emotion, and form. What truth does he instinctively possess? How does Theory apply to his actual experiences playing music? How can he learn to analyze his own energy and the energy hidden in a page of music and somehow unite them logically? Shouldnt this be the goal of Theory?
Lets start with a basic example from the 2nd movement of Beethovens final Piano Sonata, Op. 111. If we analyze the harmony of the first couple measures with Roman numerals, it looks like this:
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Its in C major and the chords are all primary. Granted that a IV-chord or a Vchord generally possesses more energy/tension than a I-chord, you would assume that those chords in the first two bars might be accented, like so:
David Michael Wolff However, the performance major will tell you, No! Thats not so . . . whats the point of analyzing harmony if it doesnt tell you anything about the music? If you take the normal performers view of the energy in these bars, it will look like so:
But how can you justify it theoretically?
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The four basic types of energy that define Energy Pillars, listed in order of importance, are as follows: 1) Harmonic Dissonance (both appoggiaturas within a chord, and relative dissonances between chords); 2) Meter, 3) Note-value (the relative length of the notes), and 4) Note-height (how high or low the pitches are relative to one another).
Harmonic Dissonance
In Western Music, Harmonic Dissonance is the single most important factor in determining relative energy value between notes and between chords. Meter is a close second because its difficult to determine whether dissonance is passing or accented without knowing where its placed rhythmically. However, even before there was meter, such as in Gregorian Chant, music balanced itself between positive and negative poles. Look at the movement of energy in the following Chant in Dorian Mode { in modern notation }:
Ascending stepwise from the tonic D, we land at our first Pillar on the 6th degree of the scale, which is more dissonant than its 5 lower neighbors and is accented expressively. The following F and A then act as passing notes into an accented G,
zen and the art of piano the dissonant 4th degree of the scale, which then descends stepwise through F, E and D until the C, our second main Pillar. This dissonant 7th degree of the scale is accented as a brief appoggiatura, resolving through the E and C and finagling settling back into the consonant, Tonic D.
I cant allow myself here to drawn into a several-hundred-page-long dissertation about the relative value of harmonies, but suffice it to say for the present that every chord in a composition has a relative energy value to all the other chords in the work. No two chords, even when appearing identical, can possibly share the same energy value because they are influenced by their placement in time. Its important at first to gain a conscious command of feeling the relative dissonance between any two chords side-by-side. Analyze them in terms of traditional notation and the perceived movement of energy, and try to decide which one has more dissonance. Usually, the answer presents itself readily once asked. Seek and you shall find provided you know the right questions.
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Move through a phrase step by step until youve established the relative harmonic dissonances, then step back and compare the more harmonically charged chords to one another to see which one is more dissonant. As you move away from the work and see its larger harmonic movement, youll see how its generally motored by relative dissonance between harmonies. Melodic dissonance is a close second in determining the movement of harmonic energy. An incredible amount of energy can be released by simply introducing melodic dissonance into an otherwise relatively consonant chord. A poignant moment of dissonant consonance is expressed in the final appoggiatura from the Aria of Bachs Goldberg Variations (played on the beat as a long eighth-note):
These harmonic principles will be explored as we move through examples in this essay, and again in several examples throughout Part IV.
David Michael Wolff
Meter Meter is another enormous subject beyond the confines of this book, but certain basic ideas need to be understood. Meter alone produces its own energy spheres. Each meter has a basic energy pattern that cycles bar after bar. Each individual beat makes up a meter in itself, and inside the beat, the possibility for infinite inner meters is theoretically possible. Lets look at a few basic meters. In 2/4, beat one is strong and beat two weak; beat one is positive and beat two negative. 3/4 is a little more complex. Beat one is the strong beat, beat two the weakest, and beat 3 slightly stronger. Beat one is positive and beats two and three are negative, however beat 3 is positive in relationship to beat two.
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4/4 is even more complex. Beat one, as always, is the strongest. Beat three is the second strongest, beat four the third and beat two the weakest, such that beat three is negative to beat one, but positive to beats two and four, which always remain negative. Beat four is usually stronger than beat two, as its drawn into the energy of the downbeat. Compound meters combine two simple meters. 6/8, for example, is basically 2/4, each beat divided by three. The parameters change slightly though because beat six cant be so weak that its not able to lead into beat one. Therefore, beat six is only slightly weaker than beat 4. Any individual beat can be defined as a meter or combination of meters well look at examples of that later on. The mystery of meter is that its power is constantly in flux depending on the strength and dominance of other energy fields. It is often negated to the point of being unrecognizable on the surface. Only occasionally is it experienced in its purest, absolute rhythmic form, often in accompanimental figures. Yet it constantly exists below the surface. Lets look for a moment at Mozarts Aria, Voi che sapete, from Nozze di Figaro.
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Both the melody and the accompaniment bubble with rhythmic and metric vitality. Lets look first at the accompaniment. The constant, regular sixteenth notes (string pizzicato in orchestration) arpeggiating slow-moving primary harmonies, cleanly respect the metric energy fields - positive always balanced by negative:
{Level I represents the metric field at the sixteenth-note level, Level II at the eighth-note level, and Level III at the quarter note level.} This is true also of the melody:
David Michael Wolff
{Here Level I represents the Metric Field at the eighth-note level and Level II at the quarter-note level.} Interestingly though, if we look at the complete first phrase of the vocal line (the first four bars), the energy and expression of the Italian text sometimes overrides the underlying metric and harmonic energy. Voi che sapete che cosa amor {You who knows what love is, or word-for-word, you (Voi) che (that) sapete (knows) che (what) cosa (thing) (is) amor (love).} In Italian, this phrase can be interpreted and accented in several different ways, depending on the desired inflection. Mozarts setting of the words seems to imply that he deems the che on the downbeat of m. 3 as the primary accent. After all, he places it on the highest tone, on a downbeat, and exactly in the middle of the phrase, which lends it symmetric beauty. If you recite the Italian this way though, it sounds awkward. It would be more natural to emphasize VOI or CO(sa) or (a)MOR, or all three, in relative values, than CHE. So the sensitive singer needs to find a way of respecting Mozarts musical setting while also observing the rhythmic and metric values of the original text.
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This is the world of the Singer and the Vocal Accompanist, if you venture into the vocal repertoire, you must take into account this other dimension of energy, character and style, often even during the instrumental interludes. Sometimes I wonder if purely instrumental works as well are not sometimes influenced by the energy and even diction of the silent, unformed words that accompany them. Endless volumes have been written about programmatic undercurrents of pure music, but what of the hidden languages behind the programs? Although we wont be able to enter such discussions here, we will briefly return to a discussion of the rhythm and energy of speech in a later essay. Now lets look for a moment at a couple examples of inner meter in the above example. Here is the treble accompaniment of bar 6:
The triplet on the second sixteenth of the first beat reveals an inner 3/32 meter. That is, in the time of a single sixteenth note, the metric laws of triple meter are observed. Any beat or fraction of a beat can subdivide into Micro-meters, each revolving around, or inside of, the larger meter. At the other end, bars often
David Michael Wolff
Variazioni: Practicing Zen Orchestration
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The following five works have been chosen carefully to span the gamut of the piano repertoire and demonstrate the universality of the concepts presented thus far. Each will apply the filters from Part I, one by one, in the same order. Occasionally Ill gloss over filters that require no additional commentary or link two together, but they all should be applied one by one. Whenever you need to refresh your memory about what a particular filter is or how it works, turn back to the corresponding Essay in Part I and review. They say a trees roots descend as deeply as it is tall. Learning is a process of constantly growing deeper and taller, as well as broader. Although theres a certain amount of repetition in this section, as you apply the techniques more broadly, the roots of your understanding will pierce more deeply and youll grow taller simultaneously.
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At once inspiring, revelatory, stimulating and transformational, Zen and the Art of Piano speaks to amateurs as well as aspiring concert artists. David Michael Wolff offers illuminating insights into every aspect of the art of piano and the life of a concert pianist. A rare book on Music that will challenge your preconceptions and lead you in new directions.

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ZEN

David Michael Wolff

zen and the art of piano

BY DAVID MICHAEL WOLFF

Zen and the Art of Piano

Zen and the Art of Music (in preparation)

David Michael Wolff

David Michael Wolff

Reizan (d. 1411)

David Michael Wolff

zen and the art of piano

The Path to Zen 1 Self and the Eternity of Gestures 3

Allegro Moderato The Filters 5

Combined Vertical and Horizontal Effects

David Michael Wolff

{ Andante con mosso }

zen and the art of piano

David Michael Wolff

Fuga: The Music Theory behind Energy Pillars

Variazioni: Practicing Zen Orchestration

David Michael Wolff

David Michael Wolff

zen and the art of piano

Before I had studied Zen I saw mountains as mountains, waters as waters.

David Michael Wolff

Self and the Eternity of Gestures

zen and the art of piano

David Michael Wolff

zen and the art of piano

David Michael Wolff

Defining the Color Levels

zen and the art of piano

The Myth of Evenness

David Michael Wolff

The reverse side also has a reverse side. - Japanese Proverb

zen and the art of piano

Energy + Form + Color = Emotion

David Michael Wolff

David Michael Wolff

Willpower and Vision

zen and the art of piano

In the practice room, Rachmaninoff speaks to me in three languages.

David Michael Wolff

zen and the art of piano

zen and the art of piano

Fuga: The Music Theory behind Energy Pillars

But how can you justify it theoretically?

David Michael Wolff

zen and the art of piano

David Michael Wolff

David Michael Wolff

Variazioni: Practicing Zen Orchestration

Zen Art Music Press

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