Some months ago, I enrolled in the Classical Guitar Corner Academy and I continue to love it. I am now far enough along in the curriculum that I am now encountering pieces I studied from the early 80s. The pieces pictured above by Luis Milan are renaissance pieces first published in 1536 for the vihuela (a Spanish plucked instrument similar to guitar). Back in 1981, when I was working on these Pavanas, I was not exposed to old music from the renaissance. I didn’t really understand what they were for (dances) or how to play them. I remember when i finished playing Pavana No 1 for my teacher, his question still haunts me. “You played all the right notes but where was the music? “ I said I didn’t know. And thus bean my real education in music.
Around the same time, I befriended an opera singer. One day she sang for me an Aria from the soundtrack “Diva” that we loved. She told me her teacher said she shouldn’t even attempt to sing it until she was at least 35 years old. I thought that was really weird! (She was only 25 at the time) We both wondered what he meant by that.
Years later, I do understand it. We’ve all seen younger people singing the National Anthem or some kind of sacred song that has a religious, historic or spiritual meaning. We see in them their flashy technique and how pretty their voices sound but they are not really connecting to the words or meaning of what they are singing. To them it is a series of notes, a technical exercise. Where the human voice is meant to convey the emotions hidden within those notes. It takes emotional maturity and life experience to be able to know and unlock that emotional expressivity.
And so now I started thinking of that and believe the same is true with instrumental music. An instrument is really only mimicking the human voice. Now I am encountering these old pieces 45 years later, how will that change how I play the music? I am still exploring that!
Stay tuned and thanks for stopping by.
