PHRASING
‘In music, stillness is often as important as sound. Slight breaks, short silences or longer
pauses help to shape musical phrases and ideas, to communicate the composer’s
intentions and to assist the listener in his [or her] understanding and enjoyment. These
silences may sometimes be obvious; on other occasions a performer may place them so
unobtrusively and deliberately that the listener may hardly be aware of them, though their
effect may unconsciously shape his appreciation and response.
Perhaps it is only when silences are clumsily handled that their importance is fully
noticed: too long a pause between musical ideas may destroy the connection they are
supposed to have; too short a pause may destroy a sense of separation the composer
wanted, and create a jarring feeling of rush because the listener is not given enough time
to assimilate one idea before being hurried on to the next.’ Source: B. A. Phythian
‘Teach Yourself Correct English’ (Hodder & Stoughton 1988) page 33.
Music, like speech, is made up of phrases. Phrasing in music for the piano, or any other
instrument, is the art of conveying the sense of the musical phrases to the listener.
Phrasing in piano music involves every aspect of piano expression. These include touch,
rubato, voicing, tonal nuance, tonal matching, crescendo, diminuendo, swell effect,
lengthening of the final note, detachment of the final note, and addition of an air pause.
Some of these aspects of phrasing are marked by the composer although, generally
speaking, less often in earlier piano music.
In piano music, phrasing is indicated by a segment of a circle called a ‘slur’. The slur
originated in violin music to indicate bowing. In piano music the slur also indicates a
legato touch.
PIANISTIC
Music is physiologically pianistic if the relationship between the keys of the piano and
the human anatomy is complementary. Clementi, Chopin, Liszt, Scriabin, Moszkowsky
and Rachmaninoff tend to be pianistic composers. Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann,
Brahms and Tchaikovsky tend not to be pianistic composers. A Schubert piece when
transposed to another key is usually no more difficult or easy to play because it was not
necessarily composed with any point of view in mind. Mozart tends to be pianistic
physiologically as the notes tend to flow easily under the fingers creating a pleasant
sensation. Much of Rachmaninoff’s music would be technically impossible if transposed
to another key because that would change the point of view of the hands with respect to
the keys.
There is a disitinction between ‘physiologically pianistic’ and ‘acoustically pianistic’.
Beethoven often requires strong accents with the fifth finger, which is the weakest finger,
and parts of his piano sonatas do not always lie easily under the hand. The third
movement of his ‘Moonlight’ Sonata, while pianistic acoustically, is on occasion not