Why performing from memory? by Antonio Losciale Teacher at WKMT

[wkmt]

Antonio Losciale - MI / Piano teacher at WKMT
Why performing from memory? Advantages and disadvantages.
 

Irina Kurilova, professional training student at WKMT, rehearsing Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 -from memory - at our studio
https://youtu.be/1oajxwYNZOM
 
In the European concert tradition, the practice of playing from memory, appears to be a relatively recent development. It began in the second half of the nineteenth century, when Franz Liszt and Clara Schumann created a novel sensation in the salons and concert halls of Europe by playing without a score. Today, the ability to play from memory is a central feature of the concert soloist’s professional competence (Chaffin & Imreh, 1997) and has inevitably become regarded as a measure of excellence (Williamon, 2002).
When playing the piano, in particular, the demands placed on memory are remarkable, sometimes requiring the production of over 1000 notes a minute for periods of up to 50 minutes (Chaffin & Imreh, 1997). This is why memory lapses are not uncommon. As musicians, we must deal with varied aspects of music (i.e. learning, memorising and playing in public) on a regular, perhaps daily basis and what we do is very intertwined with performance. It could be argued that the better a musician functions under performance conditions, the more likely they are able to achieve their goals -i.e. a convincing and effective rendition (Gordon, 2010). The requirement of playing from memory is a source of tremendous anxiety for pianists. More than one concert artist has argued that playing from memory should be abolished (Williamon, in press). No pianist today could have a successful career without extremely well-developed memorisation skills. Amongst the multitude of books about piano technique and piano pedagogy, few have much to say about memorisation in general (Chaffin, Imreh & Crawford, 2002) and memory failures in particular. For instance, many manuals on the subject seem to explain memory slips simply blaming the amateurs and their lack of expertise, as opposed to world-class artists who would have such highly developed memorisation skills that they are beyond thinking or worrying about how they do it. I would rather agree with John Browning, who states that memorising is an issue for every pianist. Thus, it would be enlightening to investigate further the hidden reasons behind the preference of using or not the score on the stage.
Ascertained that in the mid-19th century performing long pieces of the piano literature from memory represented a pinnacle of human achievement, as well as a remarkable accomplishment, this sensational innovation soon became a norm. The new feeling of performing without a score added yet another source of stress to the performer’s life, as to use a score implied that you didn’t know the piece properly and began to suggest a lack of professionalism. Today memorized performance is a standard endeavour (Chaffin, Imreh & Crawford, 2002). Indeed, most musicians are unable to make a living as performers; furthermore the stresses associated with becoming a professional musician are immense (Salmon & Meyer, 1992). In light of the above, as a pianist, a simple and naive question seems almost inevitable to me: why should a pianist perform from memory? The well-known British pianist and composer Stephen Hough, tried to list the pros and cons related to the practice of playing from memory:
1) As performing on stage is not just about hearing, but also seeing, using the score could spoil the theatrical event like a script in an actor’s hand.
2) There are many practical disadvantages involved, i.e., insufficient light to see the pages, the need for a page turner, the actual inability to look at the score during a virtuos passage when the eyes are required to guide the fingers on the keys, the visual distraction for the audience, the sound-blockage of the music desk.
3) When we perform something for an audience, we have to learn it in detail; if we can sight-read well and the notes are not complicated there is always the danger of presenting something which is not properly prepared.
Nevertheless, there are possible advantages:
1) Taking away the fear of forgetting, liberating the mind to concentrate on the music itself.
2) Enabling the musician to play what is really there, constantly uncovering anew the message left in code by the composer.
3) Allowing for greater variety of repertoire.
(S. Hough, 2011).
The reasons behind using or not using the score seem to be both psychological and practical. Personally, I have always been sceptical about the possibility of using the score while performing. In fact, this doesn’t seem to offer me a great freedom of expression and, as Hough puts it, it could also represent a limitation when it comes to facing virtuos and tricky passages. At this stage, regardless of my own personal experience, I do not think it would be appropriate to state that all pianists should not use the score during a public solo performance.
 
References
 
Aiello R & Williamon A (2002), “Memory”, in R Parncutt & GE McPherson (eds.) The Science and Psychology of Music Performance: Creative Strategies for Teaching and Learning (pp. 167-181), Oxford University Press.
Chaffin, R., Imreh, G., & Crawford, M. (2002). Practicing perfection: Memory and piano performance. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.
Chaffin, R. & Imreh, G. (1997) “Pulling Teeth and Torture”: Musical Memory and Problem Solving. Thinking and Reasoning, 3 (4), 315-336
Hough, S., (2011) ‘Liszt: The man who invented the stage fright’, The Telegraph.
https://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/stephenhough/100053906/liszt-the-man-who-invented-stage-fright/
Gordon, S., (2010) Mastering the Art of Performance: A Primer for Musicians. Oxford University Press.


Please feel free to comment and share your thoughts.

www.wkmt.co.uk

[dogperson]

You want us to share our thoughts about memorizing for performance so that you can use them on your commercial website, while at the same time, you don't feel obligated to answer any questions posed to you?   

[wkmt]

Please feel free to do as it pleases you.
Kind Regards,
Juan Rezzuto

[keypeg]

What I wrote in the thread on adult students still remains without response.  It is a thing that matters immensely to me, having been in situations, and having seen others in situations, and having helped some of them.  Doing "whatever one wants" in a forum assumes a two-way street.  If one ones dialogue and exploration, and it is one-way, then one can't, really.

[sitbon09]

If you find it easier to play with music then do that.  If by memory then do that.

[outin]

If you find it easier to play with music then do that.  If by memory then do that.

What of they are equally hard?

[wkmt]

I strongly believe that there are two different stages in piano performance. One in which we are controlling every single thing we do when we play and another one in which we are just "letting go". The constant monitoring of what we are doing is what exhausts our mental resources. For that reason, I strongly recommend to learn the pieces by heart when preparing recitals. It's the only way we can allow us to play with some leeway. If are dealing with extra stress, then we have some wealth of focusing to allocate to handle it.

www.i-am-a-spammer.com

[keypeg]

...The constant monitoring of what we are doing is what exhausts our mental resources. For that reason, I strongly recommend to learn the pieces by heart when preparing recitals. It's the only way we can allow us to play with some leeway. If are dealing with extra stress, then we have some wealth of focusing to allocate to handle it.

I am receiving excellent instruction, including in true reading skills.  Having the score there does not add any additional stress, and it does not exhaust my mental resources in any way.  There is an overall picture which varies from student to student, performer to performer, and instructor to instructor.

[j_tour]

I'm slightly confused.  I'm seeing a lot of "look at this!" and a lot of heads nodding.

My opinion is that there's a hierarchy of musical performance.  From best/most-perfect to OK/will-do-in-a-pinch.

The hierarchy is:  (i) play everything perfectly from memory --> (ii) fake it by hitting the highlights from the piece, to amuse the rubes in the ground floor --> (iii) play from the score.

(ii) and (iii) are at equal levels of the tree hierarchy, it just depends what the performance is.

I think stage (ii) is almost never desirable, but if it's a choice between playing nothing when asked and just doing your best, it's better than nothing.  

Anyway, I can't be the only person who has thought, when playing something like Mozart's Fantasia in D minor or Beethoven's Op. 126, hey, if you have a memory lapse, at least little stuff like that doesn't need a score.

[keypeg]

Why should playing while having the score be a low level performance?  Are you equating that with prima vista sight reading?  I also don't see anything like "head nodding".

[timothy42b]

I strongly believe that there are two different stages in piano performance. One in which we are controlling every single thing we do when we play and another one in which we are just "letting go". The constant monitoring of what we are doing is what exhausts our mental resources. For that reason, I strongly recommend to learn the pieces by heart when preparing recitals.

Why would I ever want to prepare a recital?  Having that as a goal is so narrow, so limiting, so devoid of other usefulness.

Sure, it's required by pedagogical institutions.  Tradition?  no, history.

I work on some difficult solo pieces if they are meaningful to my skill enhancement. 

But my meaningful playing is all reading, at tempo with an ensemble - in real time, including all the markings (dynamics, articulations, tempos) and matching the style of the group.  It's not possible to memorize that quantity of material.  Often I won't even see it before a performance.  I'm not a session player (not good enough) but those who are see music for the first time in a recording session, and have to lay down a track in one take.

[wkmt]

j_tour

I really like your answer and I adhere to it. It is interesting to see that at least I have one colleague who is not openly again playing by heart

[dogperson]

j_tour

I really like your answer and I adhere to it. It is interesting to see that at least I have one colleague who is not openly again playing by heart

The questions of others, which have not been addressed in your response:
- Why does playing by memory reduce stress?   As an adult student, I find it more stressful.  I can have the score basically memorized but with the security blanket of the score being present, and feel much less stress.
- Why is playing this way a 'second rate' performance?   Again, as others have pointed out, you are not doing prima vista sight reading but have the repertoire at performance level.

Not mentioned here, but there is a new trend developing in concert pianists to begin playing with the score again, even iPads, so that there is not the 'crash and burn' that has occurred.  Evidently, the priority with them is preventing the 'crash and burn'.

Not seeing a dialogue in your response, but just a reply to someone else who agreed with you.

[iansinclair]

Permit me to add to the confusion.  Playing from memory has a certain element of mastery associated with it -- from the standpoint of the audience.  However, playing with a score present does not necessarily mean that one is reading every note of that score.  If one has practiced the piece sufficiently to dare performing it in public, it is very likely that one is using it more as an aide-memoire than as a score.

I will, with your kind permission, use myself as an example.  I am an organist by training and profession, now retired.  I always had the score present on the instrument when I was playing.  Did I read every note?  No.  In fact some pieces which I had played to death I looked at before starting, mostly to make sure that the registrations were all set correctly, and then paid it almost no attention.  Other pieces -- longer, or more complex (think a Widor organ symphony, for instance, or a Bach triple fugue) I did look at it from time to time.

I do the same thing with piano music.  And I never conducted a choir without a score, although I could have (and more than once did, when the score fell off the stand...).

The advantage to playing mostly from memory is that some passages require some attention to where the hands or feet are going, and if one looks at what one is doing one can be a little more reliable.

I would never fault a musician for using a score -- or for not using one! -- provided their musicianship were up to par.

[j_tour]

I'll try to keep the conversation going, but first I must give a plug to my new toy, Hal Leonard's Classical Fake Book -- no, I don't work for them or anything.

Eh, I don't know, I just think "playing by heart" (does someone know who started that phrase?  because I'm definitely not saying they should be killed gangland-style, not at all) is sort of the gold standard.  To me, it means you can (maybe in a perfect universe) (i) transpose by ear into any key (ii) do expert-level polyphonic stunts like "leave out the contralto part, and swap soprano and alto parts in such-and-such fugue" (iii) play while hammered on Ripple wine (iv) and, when the need arises, play for another ten minutes after your "concert" is over.

It's more a practical thing, for me.  Is it lazy?  You bet!  But sometimes perfect is the enemy of good.  I'd be ashamed if someone asked me to play and I had to drag some crumpled lead sheets out of my pocket or the like.

I do, however, have issues with the Hal Leonard book -- mainly because I haven't verified how good it is.  But it saves some work, since one of the first things I do to help memorize a piece is jot down the "changes" on a Post-It or a 3x5 notecard.  To some extent I think that's pretty apropos for romantic or classical-era music -- I mean, if the LH is just beating time with some chords, you just need to remember the melody.

[timothy42b]

And then on the other hand.

I've seen singers hide behind the music, and harm their connection with the audience. 

I do feel like there is a more direct connection with the listener when the music doesn't get in the way.  If I'm playing trombone on something less than a classical solo I really want no music or stand in the way. 

[wkmt]

I strongly believe that playing by memory requires a bigger effort than doing so using the score. The confidence frame offered by the score itself it is lost when we leave it behind.

What do we gain instead?
Freedom...

Freedom of movement and expression. Our eyes can look around our body can use a complete different language and our rubati can stretch their legs. We are now reading the abstract representation of the score we have in our minds. It is like reading a file from a CD or directly from an SD card. The access to the later is certainly faster and more reliable...

That's my very humble opinion.

[timothy42b]

I strongly believe that playing by memory requires a bigger effort than doing so using the score. The confidence frame offered by the score itself it is lost when we leave it behind.

Very occasionally I will play trombone in church or another soloistic environment.

(This is different from performing with an ensemble, where I will be reading music, and possibly sightreading music.)

I do not bring sheet music nor do I memorize.  This type of performance is best done by thoroughly knowing the music, and then playing by ear.  Playing by ear is many times more secure than memorization, and makes a more direct connection.

It's not a skill I have on keyboard at this point.  But it would seem a reasonable goal. 

[pianoplunker]

Permit me to add to the confusion.  Playing from memory has a certain element of mastery associated with it -- from the standpoint of the audience.  However, playing with a score present does not necessarily mean that one is reading every note of that score.  If one has practiced the piece sufficiently to dare performing it in public, it is very likely that one is using it more as an aide-memoire than as a score.

I will, with your kind permission, use myself as an example.  I am an organist by training and profession, now retired.  I always had the score present on the instrument when I was playing.  Did I read every note?  No.  In fact some pieces which I had played to death I looked at before starting, mostly to make sure that the registrations were all set correctly, and then paid it almost no attention.  Other pieces -- longer, or more complex (think a Widor organ symphony, for instance, or a Bach triple fugue) I did look at it from time to time.

I do the same thing with piano music.  And I never conducted a choir without a score, although I could have (and more than once did, when the score fell off the stand...).

The advantage to playing mostly from memory is that some passages require some attention to where the hands or feet are going, and if one looks at what one is doing one can be a little more reliable.

I would never fault a musician for using a score -- or for not using one! -- provided their musicianship were up to par.

I once heard/saw a pianist who played very well. He used a blank piece of paper for a score and was looking at it as if he was reading from it. I cant help but think it was some kind of security blanket as if he needed to look at something while he was playing. A bit strange but he was playing with professional purpose with all the musicality. 

[wkmt]

That sounds truly impressive. there is a memory which is mainly in charge of picturing the score. Maybe he was trying to use mainly that one....