The following short essay was written shortly
before the international competitions in Japan and Korea in 2007. It was
targeted particularly for the Japanese participants of those competitions. RB
With
the upcoming competitions and auditions in Japan, many players are diligently
working to perfect their performance of the required repertoires. Of course, it
must be perfect, but, of course, perfection only will not win the job or the
competition; it may help to get them
to the second round!
I am
not aware of all the competitions and auditions in Japan but I know there are
many; I do know that for tuba there
is an upcoming orchestral audition with 82 contestants and a competition with
120 contestants. With a field of competitors of such high numbers and with many
of these players playing perfectly, it seems very important to ask the question
‘what will the judges be listening for in a winner’? The answer, the simple
answer, is musicianship; it’s the definition
of musicianship that’s complicated.
The
judges of the tuba competition very carefully chose a relatively easy work, but
a very good work, for round 1, a work that almost everyone will play perfectly,
because they want to hear the musicianship
of the contestants. How do we define this “musicianship” the judges will be listening
for? Is it dynamics and rhythmic energy? Maybe, but then what are dynamics and
rhythmic energy? Printed western music doesn’t tell us everything and the very
things it doesn’t tell us, are the
very things that will probably win an audition or a competition.
Singers,
string players and pianists are far more developed in their use of dynamics,
rhythmic energy and rubato in their musicality, in their musical expression,
their espressivo.
Espressivo,
although not very technically demanding, needs to be studied and the best way
to study the aspects of musicality is by listening; listening to singers,
string players, pianists and, in fact, to anyone on any instrument you think is
outstanding, then ask yourself ‘how
can I sound like that’?
There
is a major lesson to be learned when we think of Mayuko Kamio, the Japanese
Violinist who recently won the very prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition in Russia. Certainly, since all the violinists
who played in this competition were perfect or at least nearly perfect, what
were the qualities that made Mayuko Kamio a winner? The time has come when we
wind instrument players must explore
that question. The real musical
community extends far beyond our particular instrument groups.
Tokyo,
July 21, 2007
Revised September 14, 2012
