Valerie Cisler is an active performer, author, clinician, and adjudicator. Conference performances include the MTNA National Conference, Washington, D.C.; the World Saxophone Congress XIII, Minneapolis; Festival of Women Composers - International, IUP; and the College Music Society International Conference, University of Costa Rica-San Jose; with premieres at state, regional, and national conferences in Illinois, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. She is currently on the roster for the Nebraska Arts Council Touring Artist Program. Dr. Cisler has written numerous journal articles, coauthored the Composition Book series for Alfred's Basic Piano Library, and recently published Technique for the Advancing Pianist, with Maurice Hinson (Alfred). She received the DMA from the University of Oklahoma in Piano Performance and Pedagogy, where she studied with Edward Gates, E.L. Lancaster, and Jane Magrath. Her DMA Document, The Piano Sonatas of Robert Muczynski, was selected for inclusion in the permanent collection of The Center for American Music, University of Texas-Austin. Dr. Cisler is Professor and Chair of the Department of Music and Performing Arts, where she teaches applied and class piano, and directs the piano pedagogy program. She is a member of the Society for American Music, College Music Society, Phi Kappa Phi, Nebraska Music Teachers Association, and holds national certification with MTNA.
Valerie Cisler
Department of Music and Performing Arts
University of Nebraska at Kearney
Kearney, NE 68849
(308) 865-8118
cislerv@unk.edu
As teachers, we continually strive to create meaningful ways to help our students better comprehend and communicate the music they perform. To this end, we set up curricular musicianship goals to develop functional skills, theory, improvisation and technique, and a variety of related activities that we believe will develop a sense of "good taste" in their interpretive decisions. We recognize that some of these activities serve to enhance the subconscious musical mind - such as exposure to high caliber live performances or recordings by reputable master musicians. And in lessons, we may conduct or demonstrate the shape of a musical line, the gradual stretch of a climactic allargando, or the forward movement of a stretto passage and ask our students to imitate and experiment with various possibilities of musical expression.
But we know through experience that the art of making good musical choices in performance and in practice is often a constant shift between what we feel instinctively, on a subconscious level, with a more objective, conscious decision-making side, that has been enhanced through our study of music history and theory. We know that as our understanding of musical concepts grows, we are able to make more accurate, efficient and convincing choices related to style interpretation.
Most of our students have not yet gained this holistic conception of learning music; they often do not comprehend how the knowledge acquired in theory books or period-composer studies relates to performance. If they are not educated to understand the reasons for the expressive nuances we make with articulation, dynamic shape and tempo, we cannot expect them to transfer interpretive concepts from one piece to another and they may be continuously dependent on imitation. Students need to learn from us the "hows" and "whys" of our decision-making process.
Traditional Theory Studies
The growing number of available method and supplementary theory books attests to the increasing awareness of the importance of including the fundamentals of theory into our piano lesson curricula, even for very young children. Unfortunately, the study of music theory is a very long process that is often appreciated only after many years of layering and interrelating fundamental concepts. It is a fascinating journey to observe. When accomplished effectively, it becomes an exemplar model for spiral learning - a continual balance and shift between learning details and conceptualizing the whole at graduating levels of comprehension.
Traditionally, the study of music theory is based on elements of harmony - moving from intervals and scales, to chords, inversions and progressions, to harmonic analysis. Our own experience as piano students likely reflects this typical progression. In scale study at the elementary level, most of us were probably taught to play the C major scale first, then perhaps G and D or F. As difficult as it may have been to grasp as a child, if our teachers took the time to help us understand the larger concept - that all major scales had the same half-whole step pattern, we were then able to apply that knowledge to build major scales beginning on any white or black key. And further, if our teachers demonstrated how to play a scale with expression, we learned a most basic, valuable listening and technical skill - to play with a natural, even crescendo to the top and a diminuendo down.
At the intermediate level, one of the first activities we may have been asked to accomplish was to memorize all the major and minor key signatures along with playing a simple I - V7 - I chord progression in each key. The memorizing may have seemed exceedingly difficult until our teachers drew a diagram of the circle of 5ths, showing the progressive order of the keys and their respective key signatures. At this point, we likely discovered the logical order of the keys, signatures, and dominant chords with one picture as they all move by the interval of a Perfect 5th. And beyond the inherent patterns of cadences, if our teachers explained basic voice-leading principles and demonstrated the half-step pull of the dissonant tension of the interval of the tritone to its resolution to the tonic root and third, we may have gained an early, basic understanding of harmonic shaping. From this knowledge, our ears and technique began to respond dynamically to the harmonic color.
It is generally at the collegiate level that most of us first learned to identify non-harmonic tones, secondary dominants, Augmented 6th chords and borrowed chords. The relationship of the chords to the home key became clearer as we worked through a large number of written and aural exercises, with Roman numeral analysis, that represent traditional functions as compared with those that express added color and tension. Our true grasp of functional tonality emerged slowly, as each new concept is seen to contribute to an understanding of the ways and means composers seek to unify, vary, and extend their works.
Unfortunately, for many, the labeling of chords through Roman numeral analysis becomes an objective exercise rather than a means to guide interpretation. Until our students begin to see how harmonic patterns, modulations, and altered chords directly convey the shape and movement of a piece through varied levels of tension and resolution, they may fail to make the transfer to performance.
We see that to ensure a student's genuine understanding at each stage of their development, the teacher has a two-fold responsibility: 1) to present and reinforce concepts, building from the known the unknown in a carefully sequenced manner; and 2) to provide the means for students to place the many conceptual details into a larger picture. The real joy of teaching theory comes as we help our students discover that the concepts they are learning in theory books relate to the fundamental expressive choices they will make in interpreting a new piece of music.
A Move to Style Analysis
Although we recognize the importance of harmonic analysis in theory study, as musical styles move further away from functional harmony it is imperative that we help our students develop additional tools to more fully understand and analyze contemporary and non-western music. One of the textbooks I've found to be most influential in expanding my perception of analysis and later, in my methods of teaching, is Guidelines for Style Analysis, by Jan La Rue (W.W. Norton and Company, NY). More than any other source, I've found La Rue's comprehensive approach to analysis to be an important bridge between theory and interpretation. Most importantly, any type of music, from any era, may be approached through this framework; therefore, important discoveries made through comparing works of various composers and style periods serves to enhance our students' interpretive abilities.
The basic tenet of La Rue's approach is that Style Analysis begins with the "simple central premise that music is a growth process combining two aspects: first, the largely momentary impressions that we feel as movement; and second, the cumulative effects of this movement that we retain as a sense of shape." (La Rue, viii) Toward this end, we must guide our students through an exploration of the relationship and function of four basic elements of musical shape and movement - sound, harmony, melody and rhythm.
GROWTH PROCESS
MOVEMENT and SHAPE
Sources
SOUND - HARMONY - MELODY - RHYTHM
We begin to see that our traditional method of teaching theory - scales, chords, functional harmony - is but one aspect of a much larger picture. I believe we can begin to teach our students to make an examination of all the elements of musical growth at a much younger age. This comprehensive approach to analysis will enable them to make appropriate decisions related to style interpretation.
Practical Application - Intermediate Students
The use of discovery learning has long been advocated by educational psychologists and piano pedagogues alike, as one of the most effective means for acquiring an ownership of concepts. Style Analysis can readily serve as a springboard for this process, particularly if first presented to students with repertoire that is significantly easier than their current performance level. Following is a synopsis of La Rue's recommendation for the process of style analysis divided into three main stages:
I. BACKGROUND
Developing a historical frame of reference for the piece being studied
II. OBSERVATION
Viewing a work in its large, middle, and small dimensions
Exploring the main structural elements:
Sound, Harmony, Melody, Rhythm
III. EVALUATION
Determining the achievement of growth through:
Movement and Shape
Balance of Unity and Variety
Originality and Richness of Imagination - piece as a whole
If possible, the ideal venue for beginning style analysis would be an intermediate level group class that meets once a month, extending over the course of an entire academic year - nine to ten classes. To begin, select four pieces of fairly equal level, representing the four basic style periods, that could easily be covered within this time frame. This schedule would afford students the opportunity to work on the analysis, research historical references, and practice the pieces between class meetings. The process can then be reinforced in subsequent years with a gradual increase in repertoire complexity.
Recommended Class Calendar with Sample Repertoire
Class 1 - BAROQUE PERIOD
Repertoire Piece: J.S. Bach, Little Prelude in CM, BWV 939
I. Background
II. Observation
Class 2 III. Evaluation
Performance
Student performances of the piece with discussion of style-appropriate articulation, dynamic levels and shape, overall tempo and possible fluctuations
Classes 3 and 4 - CLASSICAL PERIOD
Repertoire Piece: Muzio Clementi, Sonatina in C Major, Op. 36 #3/i
(same format as above: Background, Observation, Evaluation, Performance)
Classes 5 and 6 - ROMANTIC PERIOD
Repertoire Piece: Robert Schumann, "Traumerei" from Scenes from Childhood
(same format as above: Background, Observation, Evaluation, Performance)
Classes 7 and 8 - 20th CENTURY
Repertoire Piece: Bela Bartok, "Change of Time" from Mikrokosmos, Vol. V
(same format as above: Background, Observation, Evaluation, Performance)
For further study - This compositional time period, including contemporary music, has a large
number of style possibilities for students to explore.
Classes 9 and 10 - COMPARING STYLES
Discussion of features unique to each style period, particularly in range of
dynamics, melodic construction, phrase lengths, use of ornaments, articulation,
formal structures, thematic development, harmonic movement and color,
rhythmic complexity, texture, use of the piano, character delineation, climactic
points, etc. (Comparative graphs may be devised.)
Guidelines for Observation and Evaluation
In an effort to guide teachers and students through the Observation and Evaluation stages of style analysis, I've compiled the following set of questions related to Melody, Rhythm, Harmony, and Sound (moving from easier to more complex elements). You may want to simplify the wording of these questions for students, based on their backgrounds and level of musicianship. For instance, for the question "What is the basic texture of the piece?" - we are familiar with such terms as homophonic and polyphonic, but we could ask the students questions like "Is the texture thick or thin? Is it melody with accompaniment and bass? Is it chordal? Is there more than one line that could be considered melodic?" We can break the questions down to fit the level of the students. Further, you may want to add or delete any of the questions based on the content of the pieces being analyzed.
Melody
Rhythm
Harmony
Sound
Comparing Styles
After all the pieces have been analyzed and performed, students are encouraged to continue the observation and evaluation stages by comparing the stylistic similarities and differences between composers and between the various style periods. Students will likely discover significant differences between the rate of harmonic rhythm, the use of the piano, the construction of thematic ideas, phrase lengths, range of dynamics, among others. In comparing the similarities between the pieces, students will find that the pieces share several basic compositional principles: 1) Various elements are used as unifying features throughout a work such as tempo, rhythms, melodic ideas, repetition or sequence of patterns, and/or texture; 2) Variety and contrast of elements are utilized on some level to create interest such as changes in keys, dynamics, melodic and rhythmic patterns, register, and/or harmony; and 3) Multiple combinations of elements serve to shape the growth and movement of a work through varying degrees of tension and resolution.
Again, the following questions are designed to serve merely as a guide for comparing pieces and may be modified in any way that is useful to teachers and students:
THE ADVANTAGES OF TEACHING STYLE ANALYSIS
Our ultimate goal in incorporating Style Analysis into our musicianship curriculum is to offer our students the opportunity to discover how various composers combine the use of all the elements of music to create shape and movement in their works. With continued use of this three-stage approach to analysis (Background, Observation and Evaluation), students learn to differentiate between "typical" characteristics for each style period. Equipped with this new understanding, they are likely to make interpretive choices that best convey the composer's intentions.
What do they have in common?
Lyrically (vocally)
instrumentally/orchestrally
percussively
registers
pedaling
Phrase lengths, phrase shapes
Compare pieces.
Experience (listening/playing the repertoire) to
Understanding (analysis) to
Retention of concepts to
Transfer of knowledge to learning new works
TABLE OF CONTENTS
© 2005 University of South Carolina School of Music