The real meaning of the word “Expression”.
“More expression! More expression!” Who of us did not hear these words? However it is not so easy to understand the real meaning of these words and to find the adequate, proper reaction on this instruction from your teacher. I never saw the right, productive reaction on these words yet.
Usually, students respond in making faces, lifting up their eyes and elbows, swinging their body in all the directions, howling etc. No wonder, that it does not improve the music at all. However, for the right response students just do not have necessarily knowledge in musical pedagogy.
I was lucky enough to watch a lot of lessons of the best teachers. I can mention only a few of them: H. Neuhaus, M. Rostropovich, L. Oborin, Y. Flier, D. Oistrakh and many others. Why do I say “was” instead of “am”? It is “was” for me because Russia and western countries have different traditions regarding the strangers in the class. Any Russian professor is proud to have the “observers” during his/her routine lesson. I never have seen less than 5-6, sometimes 20-25 people (with tape-recorders, notebooks and sheet-music in their hands) during each my lesson with Prof. V. Nielsen. By the way, V. Nielsen told me that the famous composer A. Glazunov usually fired professors of the Conservatory if nobody was interested to watch their lessons. He, as director of Conservatory, considered this fact as the proof of low qualification of the teacher. The “observers” were coming from Finland, Sweden, France, Germany and other countries, and we, students, could not understand the reasons of such an expensive (long way, visas, hotel etc.) and low-effective (just passive watching) way to learn music they preferred.
I got the answer during the touring with a group of artists in England. No one of four conservatories of London was willing even to hear about any observers in their classes. They told us, that every professor has own professional secrets and there is no reason to share them with anyone who is not his/her student, especially “FREE” (in Russia nobody was even thinking about charging all these observers).
The last 15 years I am watching master classes of the famous musicians, and it is interesting as well, in spite of the fact that some of them are not necessary the best teachers as well. I noticed one interesting common moment in all their lessons: they never mention the word “expression” at the beginning of their work with the student. The first matters to discuss are dynamics, pedal, fingering, phrasing, articulation, etc. However, at the end always the word “expression” comes. And I have eventually understood why it is always like this.
Let us look at completely different kind of arts: “Medical Arts”. What is the base of progress in this art?
The best of doctors and scientist always are fighting with the most dangerous infections, with the most difficult and complicated cases of illnesses and defects. Some of them even sacrifice their own lives for the progress of medicine and new knowledge: how doctors can help the people with these diseases. After the best doctors have treated the most difficult cases successfully they have every reason to teach other doctors to do the same in the same way.
Can you imagine that clinics of the best medical universities and schools reject all the patients with serious problems and do not admit the patients into their clinics without the proof that these patients are able to heal themselves and recover without any doctor and treatment at all? I can not. Otherwise, all the doctors will become degraded rapidly.
Is it right, then, in your opinion that only “specially gifted” are admitted to conservatories and musical departments of universities? The first of all, who are the judges and for which kind of students they are looking for? These judges did not admit and expelled from conservatories plenty of greatest then musicians, singers, composers. Interesting, what do they feel, for example, when they listen to the opera of “ungifted” Verdi or to the voice of “voiceless” Shalyapin (both were “outcasts”)?
Nobody can say today for sure what the society will get from the prospective students X. or Y. in a few decades time. It depends on many and many circumstances. However, only one thing can be detected immediately: can s/he copy somebody else easily or not? Unfortunately, this criterion is the first concern of many musical “educators”.
Why it is so important for them? - Simply, because they can not teach anybody without “parrot – monkey abilities.” They have no other teaching techniques except “play/sing as I do”. There are no more than 2-3% of potential students that are good in musical imitation of the teacher, the rest are just normal. Does it mean that all the rest must be out of music?
On the other hand, how “the best teachers of the best conservatories/universities” will develop and improve their teaching skills without “difficult students”? How can they give instructions to the “non-privileged” teachers if they have turned their privileged institutions into elite-clubs with the membership based on the perfect copying of “celebrities” (by the way, without the right to be different)? The glamour and prosperity of many of them is based rather on picky selection of “easy” students than on real excellence in teaching. There are a lot of examples that such students get 1st Prizes of prestigious competitions in the very first months of being at university, and the teachers admit that these students do not need their teaching in fact.
One my friend – conductor worked as an assistant to famous conductor H. von Karajan with Vienna Philharmonics orchestra. He told that these eight years were very useful for his “Resume”, that he highly appreciated the chance to be close with such a great conductor. However, in these 8 years he learned nothing, because… it is not possible to learn from such a perfect orchestra. “They will play brilliantly under any conductor” – he said. In his opinion no one would notice any difference if some policeman or fireman will “conduct” this orchestra one day instead of professional maestro. However, he learned a lot later from his work with very bad orchestras.
I am very thankful to my difficult students as well. They are great teachers for each of us. We can remember a good joke: “My student is so stupid, so stupid! I explained him this problem for more than 2 hours. Eventually, I have understood everything self, but the student still didn’t.”
In my opinion the real meaning of the words “More expression!” is: “I do not know, what to say to help you, but I still want to be paid for my teaching”. These words are just a substitute for the words: “Play better!”, but nobody obviously will pay for just “Play better!” That is the reason.
And the right reaction on these words is to put a simple question: “What do you mean, saying “More expression”? Maybe your teacher knows another, better meaning of these two words? I would be very interested to hear.
We can discuss more effective ways to teach in the threads: “Look back… and ahead” and “Test: Teaching and Learning from a Distance”.
Vladimir Dounin.
Topic: The real meaning of the word "Expression".