Musical Timing, Pacing, and Phrasing Part 3

How I Learned to Appreciate Musical Time and Think About it Differently

Nerdy Stuff:

The cherry on top of my doctoral degree is my paper: Form, Temporality, And Embodied Metaphors In Jennifer Higdon’s Sonata For Viola And Piano (1990): A Narrative Analysis

While I’m sure my theory professors from undergrad would be shocked that I wrote a theory paper, I did indeed do it. Under the care of a music theory goddess (Dr. Durrani) I learned to not only understand music theory as a performer, but to enjoy it. 

Up until my DMA, music theory didn’t quite make sense to me…then I took some other review courses and Doctoral Theory Seminar (among other courses…). That’s where I found my theory people and place. I fell in love with narrative theory, post-tonal theory, and looking at musical time in different ways.

Most undergraduate theory programs go over the basics of part writing, harmony, form, and introduce post-tonal theory. All of those things are incredibly important and the foundation of all things music theory. We have to know the rules first…then you can have fun. 

Graduate School Advice for Music Students

Also, here’s some graduate school advice: if you have the opportunity to take the graduate theory review classes in your program…do it! Even if you take all the placement tests and test out of them, take the course any way. If you didn’t attend that school for a previous degree, there’s a good chance there are slight differences in how music theory is taught and what resources they prefer.

Back to Musical Time

Not until I was in the DMA theory classes did I start to think about musical time for myself and for my students in a helpful and creative way. Sure, I knew how to play musically and rhythmically, but I did not think about musical time the way I do now. 

Below is a brief example of how I think about (and teach) musical timing and phrasing (and bow control).

Musical Subdivision + Bow Control:

Yesterday I was reviewing Mazas opus 36 étude no. 1. Last week, I assigned it to a student, so I’ve been revisiting the etude for myself. 

Even though I’ve taught it dozens of times, and played it many more times, yesterday I saw it in a new light.

Now, I completely understand that if you are not a violinist or violist, the name Mazas and the word étude probably mean nothing to you. 

Don’t worry, you don’t have to know Mr. Mazas to follow along and an étude is a short study or piece of music used to work a particular skill. 

This étude is quite slow and intended to work on developing the bow and dynamic contrast. However, I like assigning this one as a timing and musicality exercise.

The étude features slower rhythms with dynamic changes in almost every measure. 

The rhythms at the beginning are great for teaching musical subdivision. 

When first learning this etude and trying to control the bow and dynamics it can be difficult to gauge how much bow to use for changes in each bar. This is where musical subdivision comes in! I have students pulse the bow in smaller rhythms- quarters, eighths, or sixteenths, to feel how long they actually have to get louder and softer. 

This type of musical subdivision also allows us to see how much time we actually have within each beat to play the printed notes. 

Always More

What I love most about being a musician is there's always something new to learn and discover. Even when we revisit music we've played or taught for years, we can find something new in it. It's funny actually, musical time can be felt, heard, and experienced. Experiencing and revisiting music over a span of years gives us the opportunity to realize it anew each time.