The most important thing is to make the meaning of a gesture clear. Musical gestures are similar, they have character and meaning – even if you can’t express that meaning in words. This indicates that you are signaling hello and good will. For example, let’s say you see someone across the street and wave to them with a smile on your face. A gesture indicates some kind of meaning. This is helpful because not all works of music have ultra clear phasing. Musical gestures indicate a feeling, idea, or direction in the music. Nevertheless, composers often want to be clear about their ideas so it’s all about understanding the gesture. Since phrases can have smaller ideas embedding into them it can sometimes be difficult to understand the phrase as a whole as well. However, without lyrics it can sometime be difficult to determine a phrase. Periods, commas, and semi-colons usually correspond with the phasing. The natural punctuation of the sentence structure (of the words) will often determine the phrase. The lyrics in vocal music can really help you understand phrasing. You can study art songs, operas, or even pop songs like the Beatles. A great way to understand phrasing is to study vocal music. However, singing the phase is often the best way to determine the phasing. This is a very general suggestion so you need to think logically about the music. This is not always true but can nevertheless be helpful. If there is a singable melody (something you might hum to yourself after hearing it) the place where you take a breath is often the end of a phrase. Where does the phrase begin and end? Which note or notes are to be stressed as the high points of that phrase? Where is the point of arrival? Does the phrase contain any interior smaller phrases, as embedded phrases or clauses in a sentence? Are there secondary ideas which should be delineated clearly? Is the phrase a declarative one, receding dynamically as it completes? (“Today is a lovely day.”) Or is it a question, requiring an increasing dynamic at the end, just as the human voice goes up in a questioning manner (“Is today a lovely day?”).”- Pamela Goldsmith Playing Musically, (Strings Magazine, Nov. Just as a fine actor projects the meaning of the sentences of the playwright with various pitch contours, so does the string player project the meaning of the musical phrases of the composer. Phrasing can certainly be taught, especially when the student is shown the parallels to the spoken phrase, and declamatory delivery. Most teachers are referring to some degree of phrasing with or without rubato when they admonish a student to be ‘more musical’. Furthermore, the violinist is characteristically so dependant on the mood of the moment, the accidental influence of temper and disposition, that the same musician seldom plays the same phrase twice in exactly the same manner.” - Leopold Auer (1845 – 1930) Violin Playing as I Teach It (1921) It can be demonstrated, violin in hand, but not described. “No two artists phrase the same passage in exactly the same manner Phrasing, like other more aesthetic branches, is one of those things for which a detailed scheme of instruction cannot well be laid down. Regardless, you need to gain enough experience so you can understand, as well as feel, the phrasing. Studying theory, history, and musicianship in a class or with a teacher can certainly help. You need to absorb the lessons of performance. Also, go to concerts and see how the pros pull off phrasing. “is often instinctive” – Listen to lots of music in the genre or era you are studying.Ideas change and are interpreted in different ways. Just remember, you are dealing with the expression of ideas. You might get different teachers telling you to phrase differently. “it is an inexact term” – music can be abstract and there is often more than one correct answer to a phasing question.Vocal music follows many physiological requirements such as phrase length not exceeding what the lungs can handle. “the music seems naturally to fall” – music and the human body are very connected.I like the following about the above definition: The art of phrasing by a performer is often instinctive and is one of the features by which a supreme artist may be distinguished from one of lesser inspiration, whether singer or instrumentalist. In notation, phrase-marks are the slurs placed over or under the notes as a hint of their proper puntutation in performance. It is an inexact term: sometimes a phrase may be contained within one breath, and sometimes sub-divisions may be marked. Sometimes this is 4 measures, but shorter and longer phrases occur. Short section of music of a musical composition into which the music, whether vocal or instrumental, seems naturally to fall. Let’s start with a definition from the Oxford’s Music Dictionary: Three four-bar phrases in Mozart’s Piano Sonata in F, K.
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