The point of this essay is to provide an overview of how phrasing in music may be employed in playing music for a ballet class. These suggestions originate from a system called The Motosonus Method, which was devised by Don Caron and Elizabeth Carlssohn, the composer and producer, respectively, for a collection of music for ballet class, The First Class Albums.
What is Phrasing?
Phrasing is used in music in much the same way the human voice is used in poetry. It includes, along with quite a few other things, where breathing happens, where the climaxes and low points are, anticipating what is coming next or finalizing what just happened, as well as shape, tension, relaxation and several other elements that are characteristic of good story-telling, which is what phrasing is mostly about.
How is Phrasing Used?
When music is used to drive dance, as it is in a ballet class, the phrasing tells the dancers about the way to move. This is done, to give one example, by prolonging the culmination of the musical phrase, which will help the dancer to increase a stretch a bit longer and wait a little longer before releasing the working muscles.
It's All in the Details
Musical phrasing can also be optimized at the lowest level, using individual notes and small groups of notes to make micro-phrases. This is handy in ballet exercises that use the smaller muscle-groups and are require movements that are quite fast (i.e. frappes or degages). As an example, the ballet accompanist can create four or perhaps eight mini-phrases inside the primary phrase. Each one of these mini-phrases corresponds with a single frappe, or degage whichever the case might be.
The pianist accomplishes this through the utilization of staccato and tenuto. The extended notes are used when the working leg is moving away from the body and the short, accented notes go with the snap of the foot, or the moment when the foot arrives its destination. These systems make the ballet class music far more impactful, both for the students and for the person teaching the class.
Conclusion
Any person wanting to play piano for a ballet class must be aware of ways to use phrasing, following the examples above. This is also handy for ballet instructors who can select a higher quality of music for their classes when they know the relationship between music and movement, such as is detailed in The Motosonus Method.
What is Phrasing?
Phrasing is used in music in much the same way the human voice is used in poetry. It includes, along with quite a few other things, where breathing happens, where the climaxes and low points are, anticipating what is coming next or finalizing what just happened, as well as shape, tension, relaxation and several other elements that are characteristic of good story-telling, which is what phrasing is mostly about.
How is Phrasing Used?
When music is used to drive dance, as it is in a ballet class, the phrasing tells the dancers about the way to move. This is done, to give one example, by prolonging the culmination of the musical phrase, which will help the dancer to increase a stretch a bit longer and wait a little longer before releasing the working muscles.
It's All in the Details
Musical phrasing can also be optimized at the lowest level, using individual notes and small groups of notes to make micro-phrases. This is handy in ballet exercises that use the smaller muscle-groups and are require movements that are quite fast (i.e. frappes or degages). As an example, the ballet accompanist can create four or perhaps eight mini-phrases inside the primary phrase. Each one of these mini-phrases corresponds with a single frappe, or degage whichever the case might be.
The pianist accomplishes this through the utilization of staccato and tenuto. The extended notes are used when the working leg is moving away from the body and the short, accented notes go with the snap of the foot, or the moment when the foot arrives its destination. These systems make the ballet class music far more impactful, both for the students and for the person teaching the class.
Conclusion
Any person wanting to play piano for a ballet class must be aware of ways to use phrasing, following the examples above. This is also handy for ballet instructors who can select a higher quality of music for their classes when they know the relationship between music and movement, such as is detailed in The Motosonus Method.
About the Author:
This article is brought to you compliments of Gaylord Pannitron. The Motosonus Method is used in The First Class Albums, a collection of ballet class music CDs by composer/choreographer/pianist, Don Caron. You can check them out in Amazon's Ballet Class Music library.
