Silent Discourse: The Key to Successful Chamber Music Performance

Chamber music includes, but is not limited to genres such as: duets, trios, piano trios, string quartets and quintets, wind quintets and octets. The medium therefore is generally thought to be any number and combination of instruments which can be played in an intimate setting without being overbearing; a sonorous mingling of timbres. Some larger chamber groups, like the wind octet most often have conductors, but aside from this, they are self governed. While being the most rewarding music to play, chamber music is often, if not the most difficult to execute perfectly in a performance setting. There are elements that must be taken into consideration with this type of music, elements which are innate to the medium and do not occur in solo music or larger ensembles requiring a conductor. The biggest and most important of these elements is the cueing of entrances. Cueing entrances successfully is the lynch pin to the performance of all chamber works and are in fact the silent discourse of every chamber ensemble.

There tends to be an agreement among classical musicians that chamber music is the most sophisticated due to its intimate and social nature. The instruments in a quartet for example do not play for the duration of the piece, they may have a phrase or two followed by a measure of rest while the other three members continue. Baillot, in his book L'art Du Violin; Nouvelle

Methode, states that "in a quartet, [the performer] sacrifices all the riches of his instrument to the general effect; he enters into the spirit of this other type of composition, whose charming dialogue seems to be a conversation among friends, who convey to each other their feelings, their sentiments, their mutual affections" (Gagne 2). This conversation, however, is not a free for all. Cueing, in a way is like saying, 'yes, but if I may interject" or something to that effect. Unlike conversation, more than one person/instrument is speaking at the same time. If two instruments are to start playing together after a period of silence, they have to begin together; one of them has to cue the other.

There are many ways to cue other performers and, as I have found through research and observation, different instruments require/prefer different cueing styles. For example the woodwinds and brass instruments prefer to cue with their breath. Breaths for wind instruments usually occur in between phrases and if two players are suppose to enter together into a new phrase, what better way to do it than with a slightly exaggerated breath. The same is true for vocalist. Bill Wilits had this to say:

However, no matter the style, the cue or gesture must be big enough for the other members of the ensemble to see. Even with a breath you can see the lungs expand slightly. The breath itself can be heard on stage. If it is heard by the audience it is normally accepted, especially if it begins a phrase; breaths in these spots sound natural and even if they are audible the audience seldom acknowledges them as unmusical. Saul Meyerson-Knox had this to say when I interview him on the subject:

Tricky indeed, for although the cue must be big enough for all to recognize, it must also be rather small so that it does not distract the audience away from the music. Violinists and violists like to use their whole body to cue and sometimes the headstock of the instrument becomes the cueing pinpoint. Performers of these two instruments cannot move their chin off of the instrument very freely while playing. Since they cannot use a head nod, the headstock becomes the cueing agent. Guitarists and pianists, as well as, cellists and bassists on the other hand have their heads free and generally like to cue with the head nod, as James Meade points out to us:

The "ictus" is the point at which a moving object reverses direction, for instance a conductor's baton has an "ictus" this is the accentuated pulse of the music or the beat so to speak. This is very important, as Ross Harbaugh points out in, Ensembles: An Owner's Manual, "every cue must indicate the tempo and mood of the music following the cue...[it must] invite each other to play" (Harbaugh 1). This means that the time in between raising the head and bringing the head down must be on the beat and in tempo with the section. This sounds easy, espeacially for a musician but it is not as easy as one would expect, especially on stage in a performance setting. In fact, "cueing is a nonverbal language [;] to speak and understand it requires study and practice" (Harbaugh 1). This practice is not only acquired through performance. It also takes place in the rehearsals.

Although, the onstage performances are silent there is a fair amount of talking involved during run-throughs. One has to know who to look to for the cue. This is decided during rehearsal. The performers will play through a couple of times and conclude who should give the signal. When deciding who should give the cue, the ensemble collectively answers a number of different questions, such as: Who has the most important part at the time? Who has the loudest dynamic marking in the score at the time? What is the nature of these two parts together, without the others? Is any one imitating a previously stated melody? How is the bass voice functioning? What is the desired texture? Once these questions are answered then each performer writes in the music in the given spot what to do and who to look towards for the signal. Thus, we need to know the hierarchy of the parts.

The CCM Classical Guitar Masters Ensemble is photographed below. The group consists of four guitarist (from left to right): Bill Wilits (principle, 1st guitar), James Meade (2nd guitar), Saul Myerson-Knox (3rd guitar) and Alex Morgan (4th guitar).

The cue can be seen in these two photographs. The picture to the left show James(2) and Alex(4) with a raised head, while the one below clearly shows the down beat and the "ictus" in the measure. Furthermore, it illustrates that "1st guitar" doesn't always cue, as we can see, sometimes it is the 2nd guitar or the 4th guitar

who signals. These cues were predetermined and agreed upon in rehearsal, but that does not mean the are simple. Being able to do this requires that you not be so involved in your own part of the piece; each player must know not only his own part but everyone elses as well.

Listening is part of any conversation and it is no different in a musical dialogue. All three of the graduate students I interviewed said that listening is the biggest aid to determining who should signal a particular phrase. Harbaugh confirms that listening is key and that it is one of the most difficult things to do in chamber music (listening to the rest of the ensemble) while playing your own intricate passage.

Whether the cue is a breath, glance, head nod, or body gesture, the result has to be the same; to clearly mark the ictus and invite the other performers to play. The gesture needs to be in the same character as the piece and clearly visual to the group. The communication of the music to the audience depends on this silent dialogue amongst the players and the composer's intended message will not be transmitted to the listener if this interplay between performers is not solid and steady. The next time you go to hear a music group, ask yourself these same questions and try to look for these interactions. Although more subtle in classical music it is not just in this style that we find it. This silent dialogue is innate to all ensemble music. It is a conversation that must happen no matter the genre.

Work Cited

Gagne, David. "A Dialogue Among Equals: Structural style in Mozart's 'Haydn' String Quartets." Studi Musicali 37.2 (2008): 503-527. Print.

Harbaugh, Ross. "Ensembles: An Owner's Manual." American String Teacher 59.3 (2009): 61-63. print.