Somedays, work is just a little too much fun. We are just back from Spring Break, and over the next two weeks, we will turn our attention to "big-body gesture" and "expressive range." I have now spent close to 60 hours with these first-year students, and lots of the basics are now in the body. We spent much of the first semester learning to listen and how to turn our attention to our own feeling body. We have earned our classmates' trust and survived some good artistic risks in front of each other.
We have covered basic lessons in time-space-energy, tempo, dynamics, articulation, beat/pulse (binary, ternary beat-units), divisions and multiples of beat-units (regular and irregular), rhythmic patterns based on binary and ternary beat-units, binary and ternary meters, complementary rhythm, augmentation, diminution, anacrusic and crusic phrases, canon, ties, syncopation, form, accents (metric, dynamic, agogic, tonic, timbre, harmonic). This semester, we will cover meters that combine binary and ternary beat units, hemiola, cross-rhythms (3:2, 3:5, 5:2), two-part rhythmic sight reading and dictation, and improvisation (singing and gesture) will continue to hold a major role in the training.
Of particular interest to Eurhythmics II is a turn away from the "building blocks" of music (beat, meter, rhythm, pitch, harmony, etc), and a turn toward interpretation. At Carnegie Mellon, we are working with main-stage performers and composers, and our allegiance is to MUSICIANSHIP above all else. We are training ARTISTS, which means we have to discover the music that exists between the notes on the page, more so than merely recognizing the printed notes on the page. It takes some patient work to get to this place, but the act of interpretation is synonymous with risk-taking, exploration, and improvisation. You can't both play it safe and share your deep beliefs at the same time. So today, we spent the whole class exploring "expressive range," the space where we look for interpretative options. We experimented with simple and safe motions, then pushed on those boundaries to awaken less-rehearsed, less comfortable, less common options, all in the service of greater expressive range.
It is such a privilege to work with these young artists. They are deeply invested, courageous, and kind. They are willing to be playful, which is the root of all creativity. I wish all of you a day of curiosity, exploration, and joy. May all of our days be full of such life.
