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I was wondering what the function is of an imagination in piano playing, and how important it is to have one, just wondering what anyone here thought?

The prime function is to imagine the music before you play it, that includes both substance and meaning.

Imagination is a thread that runs through all of your preparation time with a piece, and it still there in your performance. I think it's a combination of having built the piece from within, and the process of playing for an audience where you are alert to what is being heard.

It's like a reactive process and you are directing the movie.

I work vigorously with imagination with my students, we use color, aroma, feeling, acting, comparisons and stretch our minds and bodies to have lots of creative experiences. A young student who doesn't express himself in words or music is like a bump on a log - it just sits there. If he isn't challenged to do so, he will get by in this state of being for the rest of his life. He needs awakening to his senses.

It's your creation.

You cannot be a musician if you have no imagination.

This is one of those questions that has a pretty wide theory/practice disconnect.

In theory, imagination is extremely important - music is, after all, a creative art that is all about communicating something of value to an audience.

In practice, it depends on the gig. If you're teaching, then knowing something about technical development and repertoire choice is more important. If you're accompanying, then you need to be able to learn the repertoire quickly and listen carefully to the soloist so you can support them. If you accompany choirs, you need to be able to play open score, do warm-ups, and help the singers with their parts.

And yes...I'm a case in point. I think I have a pretty good imagination, but I have a $800 accompanying gig coming up in two weeks, and I didn't get the gig because of my imagination, I got the gig because I'm available and because I can learn the repertoire on 4 days' notice.

Is imagination as important for the amateur pianist as it is for the pianist who pursues a professional performing career?

Frankly, I don't think I have a very good imagination when playing piano. But in terms of *amateurs* who play the piano I would rate myself easily at the 95th percentile but probably much higher. Isn't playing classical piano much more of a *recreative* art than say painting or jazz piano?

Two questions for anyone who wishes to answer:

Exactly what do you mean when you refer to imagination when playing classical music?
Which professional pianists do you think have a very good imagination and why?

Probably the most imaginative I can think of off the top of my head is Jon Kimura Parker. Jeremy Denk is also very interesting, as are Awadagin Pratt and Frederic Chiu.

I also like seeing some unusual acts here and there, like the Anderson/Roe duo and Igudesman/Joo.

And just to throw a name out there of someone who I think is not very imaginative but still very, very good is Angela Hewitt. Her playing seems very traditional and she doesn't do much that's unexpected, but it's still wonderfully beautiful.

So for you, does "imaginative" mostly mean playing something differently(but effectively) from most perfromers?

I tried to think about what "imaginative" might mean to me altough I have not really given it much thought before. I think that for whatever reason the Chopin Mazurkas seem to have an incredible number of different ways they can be performed(maybe more than many other Chopin works). Sometimes I hear a performance of a Mazurka that in terms of its rubato, rhythm or other things seems particularly beautiful. I also think to myself "how did the performer come up with such a beautiful use of rubato?" Maybe that's part of pianistic imagination.

Does this make any sense?

Speaking of Frederic Chiu here's his beautiful transcription of Erbarme Dich from the St' Matthew Passion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfkHYQ41gpI

Doing the unexpected is a red herring. Imagination is about putting yourself in someones else's shoes. Angela Hewitt is a one dimensional Romantic pianist.

When we read a book, imagination converts words into mind pictures ... perhaps we are saying that we do the same with note patterns in the reading or quality playing of a musical score.

Most of us battle to such an extent with sight-reading (still building a musical vocabulary) that an awareness of musical content (imagination) comes much later.

It is bogus for piano teachers to presume to teach imagination if the student can’t play the piano ... dreams are fleeting when the student is stumbling.

Or...students stumble when they're dreaming.

Might I test your theory old fruit?

"The prime function is to imagine the music before you play it, that includes both substance and meaning."

Knowing that the Hellenic pigeon-watcher is a Bachophile
(but also because I’ve got Prelude III (Book I) presently under my fingers at the piano ... with 7 sharps) ... might I test your finding on a JSB classic?

Please tell us what your imagination tells you before you play it, of the substance and meaning of page 1 of Bach’s Prelude III.

I'm afraid it doesn't come in words, old bean.

So it's all hot air!!

It's true that it doesn't come in words. It comes in pictures that can be described in words. I looked at the score, sounded it out in my mind, recognized the piece, (although I've never studied it), and immediately imagined barn swallows swooping and darting around a birdhouse my neighbors had when I was a child. Works for me.

Tomasino

There ya go Sir b, you've hooked one customer. Speaking for myself, I don't have any conscious visual response to music.

And then I noticed that the barn swallows were going after the fruit flies that were buzzing around a decaying muskmelon carcass in the garbage.

Tomasino

All those sharps must have sent you over the edge.

A touch of the old Horace maxim "carpe diem" in the biblical maxim of the photographer ... interesting to note that he could find something to read in the score of the Bach Prelude III ... even if it was flies on a "decaying muskmelon carcass in the garbage"... Bach (no doubt entertaining the Pearly Gates motley)
must be rolling over with delight to know that his WTC score continues to stir the imagination ... even if it’s just over garbage.