Inhalt
1. Improvisation und Interpretation
2. Der Beginn ist die Keimzelle
3. Fähigkeiten entwickeln sich durch Interpretation
4. Feuerlaufen als Improvisationstraining
Einleitung
Datum: 15.03.2013
Persönlicher Kontakt zur Gesprächspartnerin
Ich kenne Sera Smolen (S. S.) seit 2008. Während drei Besuchen des New direction cello-festival in Ithaca (New York) habe ich in ihrem Unterricht hospitiert und beobachten dürfen, wie grundlegend sie Improvisation in ihren Cellounterricht integriert. Im März 2013 habe ich sie länger besucht, um auch mit ihren Schülern Experimente durchzuführen.
Theoretical sampling
Obwohl ich schon ausreichend Datenmaterial von improvisierenden Musikern hatte, habe ich die Gelegenheit genutzt, mit SS ein Gespräch zu führen. Das Gespräch fand am Anfang meines Besuches statt, so dass sie noch nicht von meinen Ideen während der Experimente beeinflusst war.
Allgemeines zum Gespräch
Das Gespräch fand während einer Autofahrt statt. Dadurch gab es mehrere Unterbrechungen. Vor allem die Ausführungen von S. S. zu ihren Erfahrungen mit dem Feuerlaufen sind für mich interessant, da dadurch einige Aspekte der Handlung in der Gegenwart geschärft werden. Nach drei Tagen intensiver gemeinsamer Experimente mit den Schülern von S. S. legte sie ihre Gedanken und Erfahrungen in einem Aufsatz nieder, der diesem Forschungsgespräch angehängt wurde.
Auszüge aus dem Gespräch
1. Improvisation und Interpretation
C. E.:
In the morning, we were talking a little bit. Maybe you can tell me a little bit more, what ist he diffrence between improvising and playing a peace. How you feel the body different if you imagine, that you play a Beethoven Sonata or the Dvorak-Konzert.
S. S.:
We talked about two things. On is, that, when I am improvising, I get to touch the cello the way I would touch the cello. My hands have their own way of selecting the notes, and moving through the notes. When I play a piece that is composed by someone, I am doing motions that they gave me. I have their motions to do. Each composer has their own way of expression, of phrasing, and rhythm. Each composer has their own style, and my body must move as if I too have that way of expression, phrasing and style.
These things just do not feel totally natural to me. So when I do the pieaces of other people, it allows me to develop very good skills that strengthen my abilities. Doing the “non-habitual” phrasing, expression and rhythm of other composers gives me more musical vocabulary to play my own music.
2. Der Beginn ist die Keimzelle
C. E.:
And then, we talked about the relationship to time. And how you life in the past and the present and the future when you play.
S. S.:
When I am playing a Bach Suite, I really think about the idea of inevitability. How the way I play something at the beginning oft he movement sets up the way that I must be consistent with that idea throughout the whole movement. Therefore, after the beginning of the movement when the music is set into motion, a musician is living in the past, the present and the future. So I must remember what I did, musically. I must decide what I am doing now…..and now….and now….and think about,what I will do with that same idea later in the movement. And, when I am improvising, I live in the present and the past and the future in the same way. I try to remember the beginning of an improvised piece in ensembles, and also by the decisions that I make about the shape of a solo. How it has a beginning, a middle and an end, with musical “DNA” that governs everything about that composition being improvised.
3. Fähigkeiten entwickeln sich durch Interpretation
C. E.:
That is interesting. You said, that you touch the cello different. But you use the same fingerings and the same way to hold the bow. Why do you not touch the cello your own way, when you play Beethoven?
S. S.:
I want to play his temperament and not my temperament.
C. E.:
The question is, how we can put our own nature and temperament also in the Beethoven.
S. S.:
Well, we really do put our own nature and temperament into the Beethoven, even when we are trying to become Beethoven as we play his music. It is inevitable. But deciding to really get inside Beethoven and his intentions of the music does inspire me to touch the cello, and to use the bow in very different ways. I always feel that this gives me more musical experiences than I would have had if I only improvised my own music.
4. Feuerlaufen als Improvisationstraining
C. E.:
You can not choose the notes, if you play a peace. In the morning we talked also about your experience to walk on fire and you said, that that gave you the same experience then to go on stage. Maybe we can talk about this also a little bit more. It was for very interesting for me. You said that you can not walk on fire only by remembering that you did it before.
S. S.:
That’s right! You can not walk on fire by memory! The fire is a great teacher. People have been walking on fire for thousands and thousands of years on every continent. It is an ancient practice. It used to be that only the monks, or the shamans or the priests were walking on fire. And now everybody can walk on the fire. When I taught firewalking, it was very clear to me that the fire was really the teacher. I was helping everybody to relate to this teacher. And I found for myself that the fire is such a great teacher, the fire would not allow me to walk on it by memory. I have to be totally present in the moment. And I can not tell you, how the fire knew that. There is a law involved. It is fascinating.
C. E.:
I think, that I would be afraid to walk on fire.
S. S.:
Everybody is afraid. And so, one of the lessons that the fire has to teach us is about fear. Actually there are three big lessons, the fire teaches us: one is about fear, one is about the creative imagination and one is about surrender.
Most of the time when we feel fear, we think that that is the reason not to do something. And we spend so much time and effort trying to be safe. Sometimes fear really does mean not to do something. But sometimes fear is when you think you really must do something. You must do something like running from a theif……or like performing a concert that you always wanted to perform. And the fear comes up and tells you: Do not perform this concert. It is not safe for you. However, fire walking taught me to hear this message in another way: The feeling of fear is also saying: This is the energy that you need in order to do this special special thing. So, firewalking allows us to interpret which is it. Is the fire now telling me that I should not walk? Or is the fire telling me that now I am really excited about walking, and I should walk? And those are two different responses that you allow the fire to teach you. And then in real life, there are times, like: should I be brave enough to move to Europe, or should I do the safe thing and not move. I need to tell the difference from the message I am getting inside myself. The fire is a great teacher.
The fire teaches us the power of the Creative Imagination: In our country, Martin Luther King said: “I have a dream!”. We all have our dreams. Everyone is supposed to have a dream. One of the magical things about being a human being is that you can make your dream can come true. Martin Luther King helped us all to have a vision for eliminating racsism in the world, NOW. He had a dream. We are all born with the same ability that Martin Luther King had to “bend” the world. We are born with the ability to change things. The fire really teaches us that we can do that. I have the dream that right now the fire does not burn. And then you walk on the fire. So you can make that the fire does not burn. What else can you do? It is pretty great!
C. E.:
Did you know, what Feldenkrais said about health? A healthy person is able to recognise their dreams.
S. S.:
Oh, that is such a wonderful quote!! I have to white that down later.
C. E.:
So, I am thinking, what that has to do with improvising. So when you improvise, and you go on stage, you have always the possibility, that the improvisation works or does not work in that moment.
S. S.:
Improvising means to be really in the present moment with my body, my emotions, my mind and my intuition. And the fire taught me how to be really in the present moment. The fire somehow knows if we are truly authentic, honest, and present. And when ever I got burned, and it is a piece of teaching of the fire. Right in that moment, when you got burned, you you were not paying attention to something. You were not following the teaching of the fire. Ether you believed that you could simply do it in memory of how you did it last time. Or when you think “ I really can NOT do this” . Then the fire burnes you too. The fire told me a lot about many things like that.
C. E.:
How do you come in that mood, that you know: Now it is possible to walk, or that you know: Now it is possible to play an improvisation? I mean, when I tell myself: So, Corinna, now it is time to walk throgh the fire, or now it is time to play, that does not work.
S. S.:
We prepare the body for walking on the fire. We prepare our minds, our emotions, and also I work to prepare the whole group for the firewall. Then when we are at the final stage, with a bed of red-hot coals, it is more like a ritual. Then you must feel for yourself if, and when you can do it. In improvisation, these pieces that we play, we are asking our body, our mind, our emotions and our intuition: „which note do I play next?“. They start out to be choices and then we use our hand. And later you really hear sombodys own voice. They have culitivated their own voice. And I think, that is one thing, we are aming for, that we cultivate our own voice.
(…)
Anmerkung
Nach einer Weile kommen wir zu der Frage, in wie weit die Teilnehmer in einem Improvisationsworkshop am Vormittag in den verschiedenen Positionen anders gedacht oder gehört haben.
5. Erlebnisse aus Laborraum 2
S. S.: I felled, that they where really thinking differently.
C. E.:
I am not sure, if they where thinking so much. I think, theys where just hearing an dplaying.
S. s.:
Maybe not even hearing. They where just playing.
C. e.:
What would you say, was different in there thinking?
S. S.:
I think, that in normal cello lessons you learn how to manoever, how to do this and that, and how to shift and so on. It is not about feeling, or how to express myself. I am suposed to do all the stuff. And then they come into a stage of playing as in nobodies home. And then you ask them to sit like this and play whatever note ypu want, and comunicate while playing theese games, And suddendly it is dramatic and real. And there is so much potantiality for every moment. I gess, that that was, what I heared.
C. E.:
Form e it was also interesteing, that the quality of there sound of there ton was changing al lot. They have all a very nice ton, very exact, but not so free at it could be.
S. S.:
Or powerful and physicaly.
Autopoesis and Improvisation
Sera Smolens experiences with the research of Corinna Eikmeier
Corinna Eikmeier’s first visited Ithaca NY in 2008 for the New Directions Cello Festival. We took the opportunity to teach improvisation to all my students. Since then, I have been following with great interest her work with “Unusual Positions” and Improvisation. She has come to our festival also in 2009 and 2010. Each time she comes, we co-teach all the students in my studio, cellists who improvse and study classical music. We have taken those opportunities to share ideas. On this visit however, we took the opportunity to try her exercises as part of her doctoral research. Each of my students had their private lesson with Corinna, as well as a class in a small group. Each student then, had well over an hour to make music with her. I attended all the sessions, for seven hours each day, so I was the luckiest one of all. She came at a perfect time for me. According to her research hypothesis, improvising in unusual positions creates an opportunity for autopoesis, the natural tendency for the body to bring itself into balance, into harmony, so the body can heal itself. Left to its own devices, the body naturally is inclined to heal itself. I had already learned how the feldenkrais method aims to do this by allowing the body to learn or to discover fresh ways of doing ordinary movements. My feldenkrais lessons over the intervening years have always offered me fresh ways of being more aware and involved with my own movements. I have come away from lessons with ways to move in a silky smooth way. I often feel relaxed and much more “embodied” in my gestures after a Feldenkrais lesson. I have learned to use my body in more rational, comfortable ways. As is common with Moshe Feldenkrais, Corinna gave us the opportunity to really explore our relationship with gravity. With our cellos, as we improvised, we sat upside down in the chair, with our feet draped on the seat of the chair, and we improvised. We sat with one half of our bottoms on the seat, and improvised. We sat with the other half on the seat. We played with no chair whatsoever, and played in a heroic lunge, with the left knee standing, and the right leg kneeling, poised 1 inch from the floor. Each time we played, we seemed to express ourselves differently. It felt more exotic in these radical positions, but actually, the music always seemed more authentic. The music which came forth, flowing out from us, around the new configurations, was more expressive than before, even when we thought we were playing rather “random” or experimental music in the really odd, compromising positions. Nevertheless, it was all great fun and everyone loved it. Next, we were invited to do some experiments with our breathing. We were invited to do big, loud, expressive exhales, and were asked to improvise only during the exhales. We exhaled, heaving out huge “AHHHGHAA!!” sounds. This required that we set aside all decorum. Now we were in a territory with new horizons altogether. The playing we did after this was truly experimental, “out of the box”. We did big bow circles, dropping the bow on the string with reckless abandon, and a big vocal exhale with each one. The note did not matter, but the big circle, the big drop, and the big voice did matter completely. We improvised during the exhales, like a new, strange ritual. Next, we used our eyes by moving them slowly across the room. Here the edge where the wall meets the ceiling becomes our horizon. Our job is to allow the eyes to trace this line, smoothly, slowly, and to improvise while we are watching an imaginary boat floating along this horizon. It was a little like the “inner game of tennis” exercises, which enable a player to have greater skill and control of the tennis match if they sacrifice their concern for the game in favor of simply watching the seams on the ball. Next, Corinna asked us to connect our nose to the boat going across the horizon on the wall as our main priority, and then to make music. Clearly, the atmosphere set up for this allowed the students to play completely without “worrying” about how their music was going. Initially, the eyes want to “lurch” in great, unplanned spasms across this line, while at other times you may totally forget what you are supposed to be doing. With practice over time, the motion of the eyes becomes smooth. Again, the music which was generated was more authentic than before, more honest and special, closer to the unique and particular character of each student. Now Corinna asked us to play and to find a movement of the tongue which was small and repeatable. The tongue, she explains, has a relationship to the thumbs which corresponds to recent brain evolution. We were to practice a small section of a composition you are practicing, now including the tongue movement. If you can play a piece like this, then you really know it. Next we were asked to improvise with the tongue movement. Improvising in this way again brought new notes and phrases from the instruments. It seemed as though each student was able to play music which was unprecedented for them. My understanding is that Feldenkrais exercises bring us into our bodies and into the realm of our nervous systems so we can move more like we did when we were babies. The exercises are there so one can move in any direction at any speed at any time. During this visit, Corinna shared with me how feldenkrais exercises were developed so we can each enter the epistemological present in a refined, educated, yet a spontaneous way. The musical exercises Corinna has developed over many years are meant to allow each musician to cultivate a way to execute any musical idea they wish, at any time….at any speed, in any character they conceive of. This requires a combination of traditional study of the instrument as well. It requires an integration of the great discipline required to play an instrument well, and the great freedom cultivated by the artists who have given us the masterpieces we love so deeply. Corinna and I agree that we need to offer this to children at all levels of musical study. I have studied and practiced this here in the US for many years. I have been working with Creative Ability Development for almost 30 years. All my students discovered new “territory” musically through their efforts with Corinna. My more advanced students were introduced to some of her rhythmic strategies for improvising. This gave them new places to challenge their thinking and their spontaneous decision-making. They were asked to engage with one another, and to pay attention to the other players with a keen awareness. It was challenging, memorable, and a great pleasure. Personally, after an elbow overuse injury, Corinna offers me ways to approach the instrument which refresh my own daily practice. One of my artistic flaws is that I can tend to be almost too disciplined. In order to meet deadlines, I can actually work and practice even when I am too tired. Now I realize ways I can make sure I am comfortable, not just disciplined. I love Corinna’s idea to “follow a sound….rather than producing the sound”. She shared with me ideas from her research from which reach beyond all my training into new artistic territory. Her many exercises with rhythm offer me musical pathways which are already helping me to create my own, even more authentic music. I discovered Feldenkrais as I was trying “everything” to help me recover from an overuse injury in my left elbow in 1987. It was a day-long recording session in a Hindu temple, where there were no obvious “breaks” in the music. I was 33 had never had an overuse injury before. What I know now is that for a self employed, free lancing musician and teacher, it is common for this to occur. Evidently, many professional orchestral musicians work with overuse injuries year in and year out. In 1987, I decided to try everything to help myself heal. “Everything” at the time was aspirin, ice, chiropractic, acupuncture, yoga, diet, vitamins, meditation, emotional release, rubbing anti-inflammatory creams on my elbow, homeopathy and vibrational healing. Everything contributed something. It was the feldenkrais lessons which re-educated my body so that I was able to proceed as a professional musician without re-injuring myself for all those years since 1987. Feldenkrais has continued to be very useful for me to maintain my health as well over these intervening years. It was a revelation to me in 1987nto realize how many emotions were held between my ribs, in my elbows, and in the movement of my head. I have continued to have feldenkrais lessons in Ithaca NY, on and off, since then. It has become a part of my wellness as a performing musician. Many elements of Corinna’s Feldenkrais and improvisation work has been unforgettable for me, and the many more people in America whose lives she has also touched. I have really learned about the transformative power of this kind of music making. If the traditional Feldenkrais exercises help us to transform the habitual power of acquired habits of motion, the musical exercises help us musically in similar ways. The musical exercises have seemed to trigger more authentic musical expressions from everyone who tried them. The music may have been more “raw”, but it was also more honest. It may have been less “polished” from us, but we could see the end result from Corinna’s matured level of artistry. Corinna has taken these exercises to all the places on her fingerboard, into every time signature, into diverse expressive moods, and over many years. We all need examples like this. It has certainly helped me reprogram myself to be more “in the moment” as a musician, and less “habitual” at the instrument. In the end, as Corinna and I were contemplating the research she shared with us in Ithaca NY. In addition to giving me a very insightful last suggestion for me and my body she said, regarding autopoesis: Our conception of a sound influences the way we move our bodies.