Third-Stream Music Education

Timbre vs. Style - Is there a tradeoff?

January 29th, 2009

Tenet One: Our very first learning objective in Beginning Band is for students to make a characteristic sound. In fact, tone quality remains the first criterion on most judging rubrics right through high school. Really, what kind of classical musician would you be without the ability to make a beautiful sound? The need for good tone quality even affects other elements of music: “only play the fortissimo as loud as you can control the tone”, “don’t play the staccato so short that we miss the tone”, “your high range is not how high you can squeak out a sound, but how high you can control, sustain and repeat”, and “play that _____ a little slower, Billy, quality is more important than quantity” are always good advice.

Tenet Two: As interpreters of music, it is our job as professional musicians to bring each work to the audience in such a way as the composer intended for it to sound. That is, we strive for authentic interpretation. As educators, part of our task is to teach young musicians how to interpret each piece authentically. But we cannot simply teach each piece–we must give our students a wide range of tools to do so in a wide range of musical literature. Another way to say this is that we must give students the vocabulary to make all the sounds required in different works and syntax to combine them in meaningful ways in new situations. We must not train our students (like circus monkeys) to play this piece or that piece, but rather educate them to apply musical wisdom to new situations without prompting.

Query: Are there any situations in which authentic performance could be in opposition to tone quality? Are there any situations in which you would actually give your students permission to sacrifice timbre? Jazz music is a good example…while jazz players have a different concept of tone from symphonic players (even different mouthpieces and reeds!), there is still an enormous disparity between jazz musicians in what constitutes acceptable tone. Many jazz musicians of renown have been musically illiterate, and some have produced tones that would peel paint of walls. Should we teach students to make those sounds in the pursuit of authenticity? What if I program a Rebirth Brass Band chart for my Jazz Ensemble? The characteristic second-line sound is gritty and in-your-face. What about a Rolling Stones or Hendrix rock chart for my Concert Band? Do I simulate a little bit of distortion by tacitly allowing the trombones to play a bit blatty? Even back “at home” in traditional “classical” wind band repertoire, surely experienced conductor and performer Percy Grainger knew what would happen to timbre when he marked multiple “f”’s in Lincolnshire Posy. How do you teach tone quality? How do you teach articulation and dynamics? Are there any situations in which you would sacrifice a little tone quality?

Entry Filed under: Wind Pedagogy, Genres and Stylistic Elements