ZenandtheArtofPiano 

A Pianist’s Guide to
Orchestrating at the Keyboard
and Mastering the Flow of Musical Energy

 DavidMichaelWolff

    The myriad differences are resolved by sitting, all doors opened.
    In this still place I follow my nature, be what it may.
    From the one hundred flowers I wander freely, 
    the soaring cliff – my hall of meditation
    (with the moon emerged, my mind is motionless).
    Sitting on this frosty seat, no further dream of fame.
    The forest, the mountain follow their ancient ways
    and through the long spring day,
    not even the shadow of a bird.

Reizan (d. 1411)


Preface

Twenty years old and a new-comer to Manhattan’s daunting sky-scraped landscape and dizzying frenetic pace, I happened upon Zen in the Art of Archery.  Broadway was suddenly lined with Japanese Peach Blossoms!  Twelve years later, I set out to write Zen and the Art of Piano and a companion work, Zen and the Art of Music.

I think of Piano as a modern Zen art-form, and from long before I’d ever even heard the word Zen, my approach to the piano was imbued with its principles.  The present volume is not a philosophical Buddhist tract, but rather essentially a simple treatise on piano technique viewed as an art of orchestrating at the keyboard with all the possible colors of the piano, and a guide to learning how to phrase according to a system of musical analysis based on balancing positive and negative energy.  It’s a system not unlike Schenker’s in that while seeking to understand the energy at play, it simplifies the musical page to its most essential notes and gestures, allowing the rest to fall naturally into place.  Different from Schenkerian Analysis however, it is based on both the underlying large poles of energy AND the surface energy, which is often negated in Schenker’s reductions.  Mine is a type of musical analysis for performers, not theorists, and is relatively easy to learn.  And while the orchestration concepts presented as a whole are quite complex, broken down to their basic components of touch, they are not difficult to grasp and obtain.  The goals are lofty but the applications very much of this earth.

This performance manual does not claim to be a metaphysical guide to the universe or to parallel realities, nor is it a string-theory of musical energy in its countless dimensions (!).  However, the musician’s power lies in his ability to transcend time and space by evoking and balancing many dimensions of time, space and color at every moment.  There’s a mystical moment at the beginning of each work, movement or phrase where the performer imagines the music to come and somehow conjures into being an entire field of energy that immediately becomes a reality, entering the actual world and leading the performer forward.  I call it the Point of Invocation.  Most musicians have felt this sensation but it would be difficult to define or prove, and I leave that to musical physicists and metaphysicists.  One of the goals in these pages is to give the reader hundreds of real tools to gain greater sensitivity to the movement of musical energy and to gain a command over it so that he can then release command and flow with Zen-like ease. 

To me, the energy of music is part of Creation and is a natural link between the physical and non-physical worlds.  Whether or not this is so, for the purposes of this argument, is immaterial.   Some would call this energy the Tao, and although I don’t personally believe in the Tao as a spiritual energy force, most of its descriptions accurately describe the practical experiences of great musicians, artists, athletes and all sensitive human beings. 

It’s essential for the interpreter to imagine music in limitless dimensions of time, space and color.   When I play a phrase, I search out ways to open up parallel dimensions and am constantly aware of balancing many dimensions at the same time, as if juggling.  Every phrase contains countless portals, but they are often ignored and left shut, leaving the interpreter to his two- or three-dimensional perceptions.  And as music hides nothing, the listener receives exactly what he’s offered.   You may find yourself now wanting to ask,

Excuse me, where’s the portal to the fourth  dimension?

Where can I find the 19^th dimension? 

While I obviously can’t answer these questions directly, it’s a bit like an unsolved riddle – until you know the answer, it seems forever elusive, but once you figure it out, it’s suddenly self-evident.  I hope the practical tools that I present here will have the same effect on the reader.

Because it is so very clear,

It takes longer to come to the realization.

If you know at once candlelight is fire,

the meal has long been cooked.  

Mumon

Table of Contents 

Preface 

Introduction

Part I 
{ Allegro moderato }

Self and the Eternity of Gestures


Practical Applications

The Vertical

Defining the Color Levels

The Techniques behind the Colors

Creating an Orchestral Sonority – Applying Vertical Hierarchy
       Grouping Levels and Packaging Chords

The Horizontal

Establishing Horizontal Hierarchy

Combined Vertical and Horizontal Effects

Dynamic Differentiation

Applying and Removing Gloss

Defining the Pedaling

Linking and Separating Gestures

Defining Rubato

Differentiating the Texture of Touches

The Dry Pedal – Finger-pedaling

From the Key Surface or From the Air?
    Applying Height Vertically
    Applying Height Horizontally

To the Key-bottom or Beyond?
    Applying Depth Vertically 
    Applying Depth Horizontally
    Combining and Contrasting Height and Depth

On Conducting and Studying the Score Away from the Piano

Imagining Real Orchestration

Zen, Circular Energy, and the Four Time Dimensions

The Four Principle Mallets

The Four Physical Levels

The Hand of God – Using Hammers and Chisels

After-touch

Is Percussion Beautiful, Zenful?

Horowitz' Voicing
    Drop-voicing
    Slap-and-Caress

Mimicking Masters ~ The Imitation Filters 

Speed, Weight and Compression

Earth, Water, Fire and Air

Super-melody

Memorizing

Playing Blind

Part II
{ Andante con mosso }

Enjoyment – The Kernel of Talent and Persuasive Performing

The Metronome

Preparing for Performance

On Accompanying

Willpower and Vision

On Teaching

On Practicing

Posture

Integrity and Persona

Part III
{ Scherzo }
 

On Great Pianists

Vladimir Horowitz

Artur Rubinstein

Ivo Pogorelich

Marta Argerich

Claudio Arrau

Arturo Benedetto Michelangeli

Glenn Gould

Walter Gieseking

Alfred Cortot

Sviatoslav Richter

Emil Gilels

Part IV
{ Fuga con Variazioni }

Fuga: The Music Theory behind Energy Pillars

Harmonic Dissonance

Meter

Note-value

Note-height

Variazioni: Practicing Zen Orchestration

Applying and expanding techniques from Part I using examples from the full gamut of the Piano Repertoire

Variation I:  Beethoven’s Sonata in F minor, Op. 2 no. 1 { opening of the 1^st movement }

Variation II:  Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat

Variation III:  Bach’s Goldberg Variations { Variation XXX }

Variation IV:  Debussy’s Ondine

Variation V:  Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 6, Op. 82 { opening of first movement }
 

-K'ung fu-tzu

Introduction

I must say upfront that I’m generally not a fan of books of this nature, although there have been a few along the way that have been meaningful and important to my own development.  I write this book essentially for myself.  As I chronicle a lifetime struggle to understand the nature and potential of the piano, I teach myself what I’ve learned and forgotten over the years, and somehow try to string it all together in my mind on a more conscious level, to form my own Theory of Everything Pianistic, if you will.  If I find a few readers in students or colleagues or pianophiles who find something thought-provoking or are able to use some of these ideas as points of departure for debate or further study and growth, I will be happy to have inspired passions and moved people’s minds, hearts and fingers to action.     

                The Ox-Herding Pictures, around 800AD

 
The book is divided into four large sections, echoing the form of a Symphony – I: Allegro moderato, II: Andante con mosso, III: Scherzo, and IV: Fuga con variazioni. 

Part I is an introduction to the concepts of orchestration and energy.  I limit myself to a single musical example, the first page (“A-section”) of Rachmaninoff’s well-known Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3 No. 2.  This is a page of music easily learned by an intermediate pianist and was carefully chosen to help make this work accessible not only to University Piano Performance Majors and Concert Pianists, but also to young aspiring pianists and amateur pianists. 

Part II expands on the ideas in Part I in a less dense, more readable way.  It includes Essays about all matters pertaining to the preparing and performing of a work. 

Part III consists of a collection of Essays about great pianists and what I’ve learned from them.

Part IV, like a second-year foreign language text book, reviews all of the concepts presented in Part I, expanding them and developing them.  It opens with Fuga, an exploration of the Music Theory behind Energy Pillars.  This is followed by Variazioni, in which five examples from stylistically diverse works are explored one at a time, following the path laid in Part I.  Examples from the entire gamut of the piano repertoire are included along the way.
 

Before I had studied Zen I saw mountains as mountains,

waters as waters.  When I learned something of Zen,

the mountains were no longer mountains, 
      waters no longer waters,

But now that I understand Zen, I am at peace with myself,

seeing mountains once again as mountains, waters as waters.

Ch’ing-yuan (660-740)

Read the Introduction to Zen and the Art of Piano’s companion work, Zen and the Art of Music – www.ZENandtheARTofMUSIC.com

Feel free to send questions and comments to david@davidmichaelwolff.com

Thank you for reading!