Musical Practicing: A Hermeneutic Model for Integrating Technique and Aesthetics

Abstract

Successful performances of Western classical music exhibit both technical mastery and aesthetic insight. While legacies of music teachers have distilled schools of technique and stylistic performance practices, the aesthetic components of interpretation have not received systematic treatment. This may be due to inherent difficulties with teaching aesthetics: musical meaning is hard to express in words, and even demonstrating for students does not guarantee their understanding. Some teachers, like Theodor Leschetizky in the above quote, believe aesthetics cannot truly be taught because it reflects a musician’s personal voice. according to this view, teachers can only encourage those who have musical aptitude and should not impose their own aesthetic ideals onto students.2 Yet practical observations about aesthetics are readily available in writings and interviews of renowned performers. Based on their commentary, i propose a model for learning piano that combines technical and aesthetic elements.3 The model reveals how the practicing habits of professionals shape their individual interpretations, and it can serve as an example for students. i begin by defining aesthetics from the pianist’s perspective, and it is typically considered in three overlapping contexts. The most common is the perceived effect on listeners (usually called musical affect), where music is often described in terms denoting character, emotion, or a program. For example, andras Schiff’s observations about Ludwig van Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, Op. 27, No. 2, includes these attributes: The first movement is akin to a dramatic scene in a story, specifically, “the moment following the murder of the Commendatore in Mozart’s Don Giovanni.” The second movement on