Chamber music for the precollege student: "you say tomato, I say tomaahto—let's call the whole thing off!" - Forum focus: collaborative arts

American Music Teacher, Oct-Nov, 2003 by Jody Graves

* Notice when there are chamber music concerts being broadcast on public television. Have a studio project where your students watch these programs and write a one-page review they can bring to the next group or studio class.

* Invite a professional chamber music group from your area to visit your studio one Saturday morning. They can present a "working rehearsal," where they talk to the students about what they are doing and how they arrive at musical conclusions together.

* Plan one of your local MTA chapter meetings to feature chamber music and invite a chamber group to participate. This can help the piano teachers start connecting their students with the instrumental students according to age and ability.

* Have one of your studio recitals focus on collaborative piano. Each student would perform with a partner on a chamber piece or movement. This can work well if you team up with a local violin or flute teacher.

* If you are part of a chamber group, include your group in one of your studio recitals. Invite the students to sit closely and be "inside" the group as you perform so they can be near the experience of the chamber ensemble.

* Open the scores of the Brahms or Beethoven violin or cello sonatas. Show your piano students this repertoire and how it demands a facile technique and good ears. (It's not just an accompaniment, which many of them initially think!)

If Students Can't Hear It, They Can't Play It!

Chamber music really can be the vehicle for featuring your best students! It requires that the musicians involved become aurally aware on levels not always as obvious when playing solo repertoire. By high school age, piano students should be able to handle a fair amount of the chamber music repertoire, and what a wonderful way to get students of similar age and ability together in small music groups. This also can lead to collaboration on senior recitals, school events, music festivals and collegiate auditions. Chamber music also is a wonderful way to help young musicians on all instruments realize that in most repertoire, the piano is not just "accompaniment," but an integral part of the music and conceived so by the composer. If you play a Beethoven violin or cello sonata, they are equal and, yes, even conversational parts. The relationship that develops while playing chamber music becomes very intimate--and involves trust and accountability. As Maurice Hinson says in his preface to The Piano in Chamber Ensemble about the spirit of chamber music, it is "the music of friends." (1)

NOTES

(1.) Hinson, Maurice, The Piano in Chamber Ensemble. Bloomington, IN; Indiana University Press, (1978): ix.

Jody Graves holds a D.M.A. degree from the Eastman School of Music and is professor of piano at Eastern Washington University. She is an active performer, teacher and adjudicator, interested in promoting concert art music and fostering collaborative experiences between artist and listener.