The ear player is a natural interpreter. Having heard a piece of music he plays it because he wants to get the effect which he heard originally. Despite this natural advantage he tends to get in a rut and to interpret all types of music in his own easy style. He will profit by con­sidering the various factors which determine interpretation.

Elements of Music

Music is composed of several elements. To the popular listener melody seems to be the most important. The rhythm he takes rather easily and does not attempt to separate from the melody; he hears the melody as a rhythmical melody. The harmony, however, does not come so easily, and both listener and player often fail to sense the implication. Much easier is the response to tempo and dynamic shadings. Here again the ear player tends to adopt certain patterns and use them to the exclusion of all others. The tone color is picked up by some ear players but completely ignored by others. The two difficult elements, both to hear and to present, are polyphony and form. These eight elements—melody, rhythm, harmony, tempo, dynamics, tone color, polyphony, and form—are the very substance of music, and their proper emphasis and execution are the business of interpretation.

Melody

Melody is not always the most important element, but the popular listener demands it and the player must meet this demand or provide some very attractive substitute. Most players do not have difficulty in getting the melody across, but they give too much prominence to the other parts. Everything is played with equal zest; they themselves know where the melody is, but they forget that the listener may not be able to separate it from the total body of sound.

The radio technicians know this only too well; they place the solo melody right next to the microphone and almost obliterate everything else. They know what the public wants and are not going to take any chance that the melody will not be heard. This is the other extreme; the ear player can present the melody in its proper proportion if he realizes the problem. How prominent a melody should be depends upon its importance and the importance of the other elements in the piece. With a popular song it may be the only item of interest; in a polyphonic structure it may be of least importance.

Range

In playing a melody for singing, vocal range is important. Most songs run from tonic to tonic or from dominant to dominant, roughly speaking. For tonic to tonic songs, Eb is a good key. If men are singing it may be lowered as much as a minor third—that is, to C. If the melody runs from domi­nant to dominant, Ab is usually the key preferred by ear players. All songs do not work out the same, groups vary, and you will have your own preferences; but a rule of thumb will help to meet the oftentimes trying situation of playing for group singing.

Harmony

Ear players tend to discount the importance of harmony because they find it difficult to play. They gush forth with the dominant harmony and bring out the modulation to the dominant key but completely neglect other modulations and merely indicate the more unusual harmonies with a suggestive wave of the hand. No rule can be given for deciding which harmonies are more important and which are merely inci­dental ; we can only estimate which the composer considered important—what effect he was trying for.

Polyphony

Harmony and polyphony are inextricably woven together; the most effective way to bring out the harmony is to bring out the polyphony. The strong and important harmonies are those which are arrived at by strong and important voice leading. The difficulty in presenting polyphony is to get each and all of the voices heard. This often demands a very good technique and much practice of the particular piece. However, most players fail to bring out the polyphony, not because they are unable to do so, but because they do not even hear the need. The cure for this is more work like that on the Bach Invention presented in Chapter 8.

There is no danger that the player will overemphasize the polyphony; if polyphony is there, it is intended to be heard. This is the most important suggestion we can make for amateur performance.

Tone Color

Tone color is often confused with harmony. Chords that are used for harmonic effect progress to the next chord; they are going places, and the drive to get there is the power of the harmony. Tone color chords, on the other hand, exist for their own isolated effect.

The orchestra gets tone color by using brass or wood-wind or strings; the piano gets tone color by using a chord which has a certain color to it. The cheaper composers put in one splash chord to get climax; the better composers use the color chords consistantly throughout a passage or section. Any composition for piano by Debussy is a good example. The manner in which such chords are played and the use made of the pedal greatly influence the color which results. A little experimentation will demonstrate this.

	A
	F
Take a dominant ninth chord,	D	, and play it in such a way as to bring out
	B
	G

first one note and then another and then various combinations of the tones; the variety of tone color which can be produced is fascinating. Play a row of these dominant ninths, each one a whole tone lower than the previous; you will immediately note a favorite device by which Debussy produces his rich tone color. Notice that chords played in this fashion are not harmonic chords; they have no tendency to resolve but are employed to give the effect of a richly colored single line, just as a similar line might be given to oboe or French horn in the orchestra.

Tone color is very important today; the audiences demand it; the popular name-bands, and even our finest symphony orchestras, cater to the demand. It is well worth the player's attention and practice; and—don't forget the pedal.

Rhythm, dynamics, and tempo do not require individual consideration; the problem is one of proper proportion. The total interrelationship of these three items, together with the four mentioned above, comprises the form of music. The composer constructs the form; the player interprets it.

Devices

Since the piano is limited in tone color, we also employ other devices to gain it. Play one passage in legato touch and the next in staccato. Hold the pedal down while playing the staccato. Accent every note in one passage, every other note in the next passage, and every fourth note in the third passage. Roll the octave in the bass back and forth like the timpani. Repeat the chords in the accompaniment rapidly and softly and gain a color somewhat similar to the tremolo of the string instruments. Jump the chords up and down an octave, holding the pedal as much as possible, to get huge resonance. Emphasize the little fingers in both hands to outline top and bottom as the orchestra does by addition of piccolo and trombone. These are not all strictly tone-color devices, but they are closely related. Tone color is not a well-defined term, but all effects of this nature are highly prized today.

The Listener

In deciding the interpretation to be used, two considerations seem often to be in conflict—the composer and the audience. In reading Alice in Wonderland aloud to a group of three-year-old children, we would probably emphasize the pictorial and descriptive aspects. In reading it to a group of eight-year-old children, we would emphasize the action and the plot. In reading it to adults, we would stress the political and philo­sophical implications. Carroll included all of these in his story, and we do not find it difficult to determine which is most important for a certain audience.

The same versatility should apply in music; but an un­fortunate tradition dictates that the original idea of the com­poser must not be varied. This might be justified if the composition were only played at the time and place and for the same audience for which it was originally conceived; but times and conditions change. Modern audiences hear things differently. Dissonance and tone color do not have the same significance that they did fifty years ago. Consequently, we suit our interpretation to our audience.

Historic Influence

Music was not always the complex art it is today. Early music was concerned only with melody and rhythm. How simple problems of interpretation must have been in those days! But when two melodies were first sung together, there was immediately a struggle to decide whose part was the more important. That occurred about a.d. iooo.

Louds and softs must certainly have always been present in the rendition of music; but the composers did not make formal use of these contrasts until about the fifteenth century, when the singing of antiphonal choirs in the big churches suggested the effectiveness of contrasting volume. Even then it took another two centuries to discover that a gradual crescendo or decrescendo was a legitimate effect in music. Changes in tempo followed much the same pattern.

Like many of our modern fads in music, harmony began in the popular field and was not added to serious music until about the eighteenth century. It almost crowded polyphony from the field of music; but the power of polyphony was too essential and continued to be of great importance in the ears of serious musicians.

Tone color was the last of all the elements to be utilized. Musicians have always had some concern for the type of instrument used; but it was not until the middle of the last century that composers gave instrumentation the same attention they gave the other elements of music. Since then, tone color has rapidly gained importance, until today many audiences and performers make it their chief concern.

Form

Throughout this evolution of interest, form has always been indispensable. Only tone color has any meaning without form. The form is the arrangement of the material. Good interpretation brings out this form and helps the listener to hear and to feel the relative values of the material presented. Obviously good interpretation requires study in all except the most shallow compositions. Even the composition which has almost nothing to say may profit by interpreta­tion; the interpreter is justified in reading something into such a composition, if it will increase the effectiveness. Thus the orchestration of a simple piano tune often becomes interesting.

But the interpretation of a masterwork is not so easily acquired. When the various elements have been evaluated and the interpretation decided upon, it is well to write them down. Frequently this suggests further refinement. A definite, ideal plan does not prevent the player from chang­ing it to suit the occasion, but does help to present a good interpretation, even if he does not feel in the mood at the moment.

Interpretation is sometimes considered to be an artificial addition to a piece of music. The ear player is accused of being a bluffer; and he is, if he attempts anything he cannot render perfectly. But who can render a composition of even moderate difficulty perfectly?

Bluffing

Bluffing is merely substituting an interpretation which one can execute for one which he cannot.The performance of the note player would often be more acceptable if he would bluff; but he can't—he has never learned how. The ear player, on the other hand, has been bluffing ever since he first started to play; he becomes expert at bluffing. All that is necessary is that he be able to bluff well enough so that no one in the audience can detect it. 

This facility in bluffing, however, is also the ear player's limitation. He becomes satisfied with his own bluffing. Since he does not read notes, he is never confronted with the score which might reveal to him how much he is missing. Con­sequently, this study of interpretation is all-important to him. Here he will learn to put first things first and to discard his personal idiosyncrasies. The greatest reward the ear player, or any player, can get from music is the feeling of the entire composition in its complete form. This is the objective of interpretation.

WHAT TO DO Take the compositions which you analyzed in Chapter XT and decide upon the best interpretation to bring out that analysis. Where you have a repetition of a passage, plan two interpretations and contrast them. If there is a cre­ scendo one time, make a decrescendo the other, etc. Analyze the interpretations of different performers, when you can get recordings of the same number by different performers. Try to explain why they differ. Are they sincerely trying to bring out what the composer intended, are they suiting their interpre­ tation to the present-day audience, or are they dis­ playing their own eccentricities?

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