"what is unique about HKC's approach to teaching?" "Well, HKC has an overall different process... where to start.... during lessons, you bring a piece. you play it with him. he's very understanding. and accommodating. within the framework of what you're doing he tries to work with you. you play the piece, and then he figures out you're doing. he has a large reservoir ideas and tricks... different ways to interpret and approach pieces. with every iteration the student works out connections. it's confusing sometimes because he entertains. opposite ideas. he quotes old teachers. "you know, whatever you do know. could be true... but the opposite could also be true too." there really is no singular truth. he gives pointers, touches on philosophy.... but avoids spoon-feeding students. he doesn't want to prevent them from discovering things for themselves... as you mature, your senses are sharpened. he only says things once. he's very talkative. philosphical. tries to express himself in general terms... by talking in broad strokes and not directly, he tries to express complex ideas with a lot of anecdotes. he points you to details you can explore more. he urges us not to be so limited to one idea. the problem with students is we don't know much. HKC emphasizes a variety of approaches to enrich our repertoire."
"so what was
the main idea of his performance of opus 106?" the student didn't
comprehend what i was asking. to him, maybe i just asked him a question like
"what is the meaning of life?" then i gave an analogy of how to judge
performances in other fields as examples. "I've seen red sox pitcher pedro
martinez give pitching expositions on tv. he says when he pitches, he always
has an intention. for example, to make a hitter uncomfortable, he pitches
inside. he developed a skill to hit small targets from 60 feet away. and when
he misses his target, he makes sure his pitches don't go over the middle of the
plate and become hittable. an errant inside pitch will land closer inside to
the batter. you can see his strategy and execution unfold during a game by his
mastery of the strike zone... in architecture school, we followed a similar
process. you make a thesis, then all your drawings and explanations hammer home
the main idea of the thesis. you were evaluated by how effective your drawings
were in supporting the thesis' arguments."
"hmm... piano
playing is not like that. we don't have a theory nor do we play a piece to
prove the theory. instead, the process
is exploratory. we work on gathering clues and interpreting the music to
generate something new.... hkc often cites giddu krishnamurti's teaching about
being on the receiving side of things, being consciously aware. there is an
almost talmud-like study of the music. just as rabbies have created centuries
of conversations based on holy texts, and generate refreshing ways of looking
at the texts, HKC exhausts possibilities, searches for new combinations, and
new connections. he delves inward into the music.." the student spoke of
his piano playing guru hkc with such reverent tone, he sounded like some sort
of disciple. the performance to him was akin to a religious experience. the
concert hall the church, hkc the messiah and the music the holy message.
i was still puzzled
why the student couldn't verbalize insights to the performance we just heard.
"what did you think of his opus 106 performance?" "well late
beethoven quartets were performed twice typically. the first performance
introduced the audience to the music. the second performance allowed the audience
to observe it."
i persisted.
"can you explain opus 106?" "words aren't complex enough to
explain music..." finally he relented.
"ok. ok. i'll try. the 3rd movement at the center of opus 106 is a
slow movement. in general we change keys to modulate between harmonies.
essentially, beethoven tries to incoporate what is tragic and suffering in B minor. He then switches to the happy and
bright in B flat major. by making 2 tonal centers and modulating between the
two, we are introduced to the greek idea of 'daemon', or socrates' explanation
of the inner voice... the conscience... the metaphysical entity we call
intuition... as pianists, we sort out the tonal transistions and highlight the
narrative of daemon."
towards 1 AM, the
ideas started drifting into a metaphysical sea where i could feel myself
floating away. "two notes create relationship in their interval. there is
meaning in their proportion, value, and tempo. all the elements have a specific
meaning. in piecing together an entire structure we come upon mysterious
moments. if you follow things honestly with curiosity and aesthetic judgement
at a constant high level focus. you will find things work so perfectly
together. each element relates to landscape of where it exists. every link
refers to a background. as pianists, we get lost in it. definition comes
afterwards. pianists are like detectives, they crystallize phenomenon."
flashback-- i
remember riding a moving truck with HKC transporting a piano to my apartment in
1999 from western massachusetts. we talked about painting. he told me he
stopped painting when he realized he didn't have a reason for using certain
colors. he was scared of the infinite choices and variations in color
selection. within the confines of music, however, HKC was comforted by the underlying
structure and order, balance, proportion, and harmony. he understood the
rationale between note selection. P. fed me more and more information that my
brain could no longer process."expressions of specific musical pattern and
specific phrases. when you keep playing them, they sustain a form. this form
has its own message. its legitimacy is guided by the daemon." "very
interesting" i said giving the appearance of comprehension.
to conclude the
conversation, the student made the following recommendation to better
understand HKC's thought process. "you should read '10 letters by
rilke"
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