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Here are some words from Yehudi Menuhin on child prodigies after he heard violinist Sara Chang when Chang was 11 or 12 (I'm guessing on the age) posted on a video below. I'm just curious to see what you guys have to say. Here are questions of my own that I'm curious to see what you guys answer to: Can children play with emotion? Do children have the emotion of adults? Can children perform with just as much (or maybe even more) maturity and wiseness as adult musicians? Is true musicality just innate? Are the emotions of music the same as the emotions of every day life?
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Can children play with emotion? Definitely YES. I think children have just as much capability for emotion as adults. The only thing is usually they have less experience, so they haven't usually experienced all the emotions an adult has.
I agree, in fact there's a saying: "the first step to wisdom is to become a child again" so they must be doing something right!!
In fact a lack of experience could possibly prevent any over-dramatic playing brought on by subjectivity of the matured mind...or maybe i'm just talking nonsense, i'm rather tired.
All theory, dear friend, is grey, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.
I agree, in fact there's a saying: "the first step to wisdom is to become a child again" so they must be doing something right!!
In fact a lack of experience could possibly prevent any over-dramatic playing brought on by subjectivity of the matured mind...or maybe i'm just talking nonsense, i'm rather tired.
Wasn't that one of the things that Jean-Jacques Rousseau and other romantic writers liked to emphasize?
I agree, in fact there's a saying: "the first step to wisdom is to become a child again" so they must be doing something right!!
In fact a lack of experience could possibly prevent any over-dramatic playing brought on by subjectivity of the matured mind...or maybe i'm just talking nonsense, i'm rather tired.
Well, I think there is a connection a child must make to the music to play it "musically", just like anyone else. I don't think that is easier or harder...but actually, even if the child doesn't have as much emotional experience, he or she can gain it through the music. I have done that, so I know it must happen on some level.
I agree, in fact there's a saying: "the first step to wisdom is to become a child again" so they must be doing something right!!
In fact a lack of experience could possibly prevent any over-dramatic playing brought on by subjectivity of the matured mind...or maybe i'm just talking nonsense, i'm rather tired.
Wasn't that one of the things that Jean-Jacques Rousseau and other romantic writers liked to emphasize?
I have not heard of Jean-Jacques Rousseau before. I shall look into it!
All theory, dear friend, is grey, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.
Well, I think there is a connection a child must make to the music to play it "musically", just like anyone else. I don't think that is easier or harder...but actually, even if the child doesn't have as much emotional experience, he or she can gain it through the music. I have done that, so I know it must happen on some level.
I agree! Again!
I believe the ability to appreciate music is innate. Just look at the annecdotes of child Mozart!!
All theory, dear friend, is grey, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.
Never mind Jean-Jacque, I suggest you read Piaget. Anybody who works with children on a regular basis knows that the world of subtle emotions is way beyond them. The Michael Jacksons of this world are very few and far between.
(sure going to get kicked in the head for that one)
Here are some words from Yehudi Menuhin on child prodigies after he heard violinist Sara Chang when Chang was 11 or 12 (I'm guessing on the age) posted on a video below. I'm just curious to see what you guys have to say. Here are questions of my own that I'm curious to see what you guys answer to: Can children play with emotion?
Well, sure. I mean, we were all kids once and probably remember having emotions.
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Do children have the emotion of adults?
Well, that's a bit oversimplified as a question. I didn't have the entire range of emotion of that adults have, when I was a child, not to mention having long familiarity with them. But that's not to say that many of the basic emotions are there in a child and can be VERY intensely experienced. Still, there are things expressed in some music that I think children simply cannot understand (although they might learn to mimic it).
I'd also point out that since people go through rapid changes while growing, talking about "children" as if that means one kind of person is quite misleading.
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Can children perform with just as much (or maybe even more) maturity and wiseness as adult musicians?
Not generally. On the other hand, it depends a lot on the music. There are plenty of pieces that don't require an "adult" interpretation in order to sound emotionally authentic - as Menuhin would have it, the emotions are "universal". But I have never heard any kids doing really great performances of the most emotionally adult and daunting pieces.
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Is true musicality just innate?
Who knows? We've had a lot of threads about that, and it doesn't seem to get resolved. I tend to think there is something innate about it, but to what extent or what causes it, I don't know.
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Are the emotions of music the same as the emotions of every day life?
That is an interesting question. First off, we have to realize that not all classical music is "emotional" in its motivation. Once you get past that, it seems to me that composers have many different ideas about what they are doing, and there isn't much point in generalizing about their emotional intent (assuming that is even their concern). But back to your actual question - let's just say that if you are the sort of person whose everyday life is depicted in Liszt's Dante Sonata, I think I would just as soon keep my distance.
Just watched the film - that kid can play! Don't know about what Menuhin has to say though. Life's a journey - only we change more than our surroundings do.
Yes, my 9 daughter had audition in an international music school 2 months ago. During preliminary auditions Head of voice had tears in his eyes, when she sung the passage of Toy story
"So the years went by, I stayed the same And she began to drift away, I was left alone"
She managed to get into the waiting list after the 3rd round of audition.
Several times she made audience cry whilst her performance.
I don't know how to measure emotions but I can hear speeding up and slowing down of the tempo, crescendos, decrescendos ... you know, terms and concepts that musicians use to discuss music.
I've found that the emotional response that the listener has may have absolutely nothing to do with what was going through the performer's mind.
... this added
You'll find it more accurate to discuss a performance whether performed by someone six years old, 26 years old or 66 years old, by closing your eyes and just listening to the music. Visual movements from the performer can color your perception of what happened. If the performer is six years old but has been given an excellent road map by their instructor and the student follows that road map to the letter, what have you then heard?
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Franz Liszt refused to teach or listen to child prodigies, for a reason..
Sarah Chang sounds so much better today, playing the same pieces.. Not necessarily because her technique is better.. She still, to my ears, does not sound like a David Oistrakh or Leonid Kagan, and that is again not due to technical prowess. Emotion in music is a complex subject, dependent as mentioned above, upon both the listener and the performer.
Franz Liszt refused to teach or listen to child prodigies, for a reason..
Sarah Chang sounds so much better today, playing the same pieces.. Not necessarily because her technique is better.. She still, to my ears, does not sound like a David Oistrakh or Leonid Kagan, and that is again not due to technical prowess. Emotion in music is a complex subject, dependent as mentioned above, upon both the listener and the performer.
I certainly understand your point, but without the technique the end result is not possible.
"And if we look at the works of J.S. Bach — a benevolent god to which all musicians should offer a prayer to defend themselves against mediocrity... -Debussy
"It's ok if you disagree with me. I can't force you to be right."
I love this question, and I recall Jame Conlon answering it on one of his Cliburn Competition videotaped seminars.
"All musical materials were drawn from footage taped in stunning high definition (HD) during the making of the documentary The Twelfth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition: In the Heart of Music, which premiered on PBS in October 2005."
Conlon says that some children can and do have a profound emotional connection to music comparable to seasoned adult performers. Chang was one--Perahia, the same.. now Aimi Kobayashi
I believe this in my heart--pun intended. Such does not discount the years, decades, etc that are still needed for an artist to grow in so many directions and there can be psychological road blocks along the way. With Menuhin, I recall, he had a crushing career blow at one point due to psychological issues that surrounded his prodigy. I remember reading how he felt he did so much instinctively, without a second thought that one day he found himself without references, trying to re-establish what related to the technical aspect of violin playing. Eventually, of course he embraced the Taoist, meditational, Eastern philosophy, and wrote about Yoga etc. and how this helped him, and by association, others.
I could go on... but I will stop there. If I find the you tube with Conlon on the subject, I will provide the link. Perhaps others on PW have located it.
Interesting that you mention Kogan and Oistrakh, who are my gold standards in violin playing. As a child my parents had a vinyl of Kogan performing the Tschaikovsky D Major concerto and it was out of this world playing. I heard Sarah Chang at Zellerbach a few years and loved her playing, but I just couldn't erase the memory, actually, of Oistrakh's artistry. Oistrakh's son, Igor, in my opinion, never attained the heights of his father. There is a Chang performance, however, that blows me away. It was with Placido Domingo conducting. Meditacion de Thais of Massenet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_nivNSBlLw
Franz Liszt refused to teach or listen to child prodigies, for a reason..
Sarah Chang sounds so much better today, playing the same pieces.. Not necessarily because her technique is better.. She still, to my ears, does not sound like a David Oistrakh or Leonid Kagan, and that is again not due to technical prowess. Emotion in music is a complex subject, dependent as mentioned above, upon both the listener and the performer.
I certainly understand your point, but without the technique the end result is not possible.
Obviously.. My point was that children (of her "calibre") can achieve very advanced technique early on. The intangible component grows (or not) with time.
Conlon says that some children can and do have a profound emotional connection to music comparable to seasoned adult performers. Chang was one--Perahia, the same.. now Aimi Kobayashi
Aimi Kobayashi is truly stunning. At age 15, she is truly one of the most talented junior pianists of this day and age. I also enjoy the 14-year-old piano virtuoso Kanon Matsuda. Below are some videos of them. It's astounding how they can play with so much maturity at such a young age.
Kanon Matsuda portrays a very vivid, passionate Rachmaninov at age 14.
And here are some words from Arthur Jussen (14), the youngest to ever to sign with the Deutsche Gramophone (he released his CD debut this year with his brother Lucas [18]).
He was asked by an interviewer (and here I'm direct quoting) both question and answer: Do you see the fact that you are so young as being a handicap? Arthur Jussen: Sometimes. With Jan Wijn, I started playing op118, six pieces for piano, by Johannes Brahms, for example, because I thought it was so beautiful. Technically, it's not at all difficult to play-but that's not all. It's actually a piece I can't really play yet because it's a piece in which so many emotions come together-feelings you can't really understand until you've experienced a lot more of life. But at our age, we're at the start of it all. I don't feel this when I'm playing-at that time, I'm simply concentrated on playing my best. But afterward, when I hear Maria Joao Pires play it, that's when I hear the difference. That's why you have to understand everything to play a piece like that, out of respect for the music. After all, those emotions are so much a part of that music.
I sort of agree with him and sort of don't. I mean, I played Brahms' op118 when I was 12 and didn't have any problems with it. Now, I know my playing was nowhere close to Pires) but for my age and with my own grasp of it, I (and my teachers) thought I did quite well with it. My teachers always tell me that you play the piece to the best of your ability and with the understanding you have of life for right now and that as you grow older, it will take on new, different meanings. Perhaps they will be more mature and wise as you grow older, but there is also a fearlessness and wiseness to being young that sometimes adults lose...
I am an obsessive Kobayashi follower, If I were still in NYC I would beat down doors to attend her scheduled April 2011 debut in Carnegie Hall if it's still on.
