Weinzweig: Essays on His Life and Music

14. How to Play Weinzweig

349 Chapter 14 How to Play Weinzweig robert aitken “I ntegrity” is a word which continually shows up when discussing John Weinzweig. He seemed to give his all for his beliefs. Until the end of his life he fought for a better world for Canadian music, wrote and telephoned incessantly to those in power who could help, and was tireless in his efforts to increase the presence of our music. To those who knew him, this integrity applied to all he did—the councils he was on, the organizations he helped to found, his teaching, and in particular his own composing . He was outspoken to a fault. So when you are looking at a Weinzweig piece, especially the later works, with relatively obvious forms and what appears to be naive melodic material, do not forget that it is coming from a serious creative personality with deep convictions. Honest, conscientious musicians try to get into the skin of the composers they are performing. Their dream is to play for a composer the first time and have the composer say“Perfect! That is exactly what I had in mind.”Those who knew John Weinzweig really tried to get there. So this chapter may have less to do with what I am writing than with what the other chapters in this book will tell you. You need to have known the man. When I asked my daughter Dianne, for whom Birthday Notes for flute and piano (1987) was composed, how to perform Weinzweig, she said “Well, you’d better have a sense of humour.”And then she added,“If you didn’t know him, it may be pretty hard to figure [out]. Because his humour was pretty dry.” To present a convincing musical performance of a piece of music without knowing the composer or having some knowledge of his life and personality continues to be one of the foremost challenges in performing music. 350 the legacy Ideally a performer should work with the composer, even collaborate. Imagine the experience of playing for Bach or Mozart. Ignoring this process, performers face the huge risk of misinterpreting the music.We may truly admire a work and believe in it to the extent that we make it our own. But with that comes the danger that performers use the music for their own purposes and distort it to the point where there is very little of the composer left, perhaps only the notes. The performer’s interpretation of a work should present a mirror of the composer’s mind and guide the listener along the path of his musical imagination . Each composer’s creative world is distinct and it is our duty to open the door into this space. In our performances, we must attempt to teach the audience all we know that pertains to the piece we are playing. It is only unfortunate that composers require performers to bring their musical thoughts to life. In order to achieve this there is a prerequisite. The performer must be technically proficient and possess the ability to control his voice or instrument to the extent that it expresses his wishes. And he must be inventive enough to find ways to express the composer’s wishes with an interpretation from his own mind.At this point the performer’s personality comes into play, which can aid or hinder his efforts. Today, there are plenty of opportunities to meet composers and play for them.And today, there are so many directions in music that without first-hand knowledge of the composer, or contact with someone who knew him, the performer risks a false interpretation. Most composers prepare their music to go out into the world without this personal contact. When asked to define music at the composers’ symposium in the Iron and Steel Pavilion at Expo 70 in Japan, the pianist-composer Yuji Takahashi said,“I not composer. I mother of composition,” and Toru Takemitsu explained that he prepares his music in the same way a parent brings up his child to go out into the world alone. He tries to cover every conceivable performance detail so that it will be heard as he intended. But even so, those musicians who worked with Takahashi and Takemitsu are more at ease and better understand the challenge before them when performing their music than those who have not enjoyed such opportunities. Of course this is not possible in every case, but a performer can put out some energy in this direction, to...