Extreme dynamics
Posted: 28 Feb 2016, 20:45
This has been covered a little before on this forum, but looking at the score of Ligeti's violin concerto, for which OCTO provided this link http://www.schott-music.com/shop/resour ... 153622.pdf in another thread, I was struck by the extreme dynamic markings. eg ffffff occurs several times (it's even difficult to count just how many fs there are). This extreme occurs in both the solo violin part and in other instruments.
I hasten to add that I think this is a wonderful piece, and I'm quite sure Ligeti had a good reason to mark it as he did. But … Only two weeks ago I wrote in an e-mail to a student composer who sent me a string quartet: “Whether or not ffff has any real meaning in a solo violin part is perhaps another matter.” He had used this dynamic in the first violin.
Verdi had ppppppp in some scores, usually reduced to pppp when printed. As one experienced opera conductor said recently: “There is not likely to be any practical difference between pppppp and pppp.” Also, some of Verdi's more extreme dynamics were perhaps no more than an attempt to make performers actually notice: “Yes, I know you're a tenor; but please do try to sing quietly for once.”
I'm aware of the opposite approach to marking dynamics in Prokofiev's 6th Symphony. As a trombonist, one is in many passages of the symphony expected to play very loudly indeed. However in the entire piece the only dynamic above ff is the fff just before the end of the symphony for a great violent blast from the trombones. No other instruments have fff anywhere in the symphony, only the trombones, and only for these few notes near the end.
So back to Ligeti, whom I think is a wonderful composer. What is expected from such extreme dynamics in his violin concerto?
I hasten to add that I think this is a wonderful piece, and I'm quite sure Ligeti had a good reason to mark it as he did. But … Only two weeks ago I wrote in an e-mail to a student composer who sent me a string quartet: “Whether or not ffff has any real meaning in a solo violin part is perhaps another matter.” He had used this dynamic in the first violin.
Verdi had ppppppp in some scores, usually reduced to pppp when printed. As one experienced opera conductor said recently: “There is not likely to be any practical difference between pppppp and pppp.” Also, some of Verdi's more extreme dynamics were perhaps no more than an attempt to make performers actually notice: “Yes, I know you're a tenor; but please do try to sing quietly for once.”
I'm aware of the opposite approach to marking dynamics in Prokofiev's 6th Symphony. As a trombonist, one is in many passages of the symphony expected to play very loudly indeed. However in the entire piece the only dynamic above ff is the fff just before the end of the symphony for a great violent blast from the trombones. No other instruments have fff anywhere in the symphony, only the trombones, and only for these few notes near the end.
So back to Ligeti, whom I think is a wonderful composer. What is expected from such extreme dynamics in his violin concerto?