Mangalesh Dabral's Accompanist Poem

In India, the art of the tabla accompanist is every bit as intricate and satisfying as that of the piano collaborator/accompanist in the European tradition. I can also imagine that tabla accompanists (collaborators!) have to deal with the same sidekick/flunky stereotypes that many of us in the European tradition are fighting to make a thing of the past. Accompanist by Hindi poet Mangalesh Dabral looks at the years of apprenticeship and traveling recollected in the act of performance. Here's an excerpt from the English translation:

Accompanying the main singer’s monolith-weighed voice
His own is beautiful delicate and quavering
He is the singer’s younger brother
Or his apprentice
Or a distant relative who travels on foot to learn
Under the main singer’s baritone
He matches his own echo since old times

You can read the whole poem here.

More accompanist poetry from previous posts on the Collaborative Piano Blog:

Dick Allen's The Accompanist
Ken Weisner's The Accompanist
Arni Ibsen's The Accompanist
Pauline Arnold's Dear Soloists
William Matthew's The Accompanist
Darren Morris' Accompanist for Florence Foster Jenkins

Accompanist Needed by Sean Adams

This evening I found yet another accompanist poem, this time from McSweeney's realm of the bizarre and postmodern. An excerpt from Accompanist Needed by Sean Adams:

To build intrigue, the accompanist may be billed as an android, caveman, confirmed serial killer who is shortening his prison sentence through a musical community-service program, or all of the above. Therefore, it is necessary for the accompanist to play from music sheets of binary code, create music by striking the keys with an oversized faux-wooden club, and play with ankles and wrists cuffed.

Some of my singing engagements take place late at night, in the homes of strangers, without audiences or music, and may appear to be elaborate art or jewel heists. For engagements like this, the accompanist may be called on to pick locks, crack safes, break windows silently and jump over large, sometimes barb-wire topped fences with me riding piggy-back at all times.

Dear Soloists: A Poem

I came across this lovely poem the other day on People for the Ethical Treatment of Accompanists. Pauline Arnold is apparently still active as a pianist, even into her 80's. Here is the poem in full:

Dear Soloists

If I showed you a new solo
Fit for champions to play
And said “They’re going to judge it now
So start without delay!”
Would you feel disadvantaged?
Would your knees begin to knock?
Would your dried-up mouth and beating heart
Recover from the shock?
The piano would be PERFECT,
I’d have practised it for weeks,
And I could sit there laughing
At your ineffective squeaks!!
Have any of you ever thought
How pleasant it would be
To send all music in advance
For pianists to see?
Of fixing plain white paper
Over all omitted bars –
Instead of scribbled messages
And multi-coloured stars?
Your solo has been written
With two instruments in mind,
And just like all ensemble work
One cannot lag behind.
So smarten up your attitude
And think this problem through.
The pianist could possibly
Be just as good as you!

--Pauline Arnold, Orange, NSW, Australia

(Thanks, Gabriel!)

More accompanist poetry on the Collaborative Piano Blog:

Dick Allen's Accompanist Poem
Arni Ibsen's Acccompanist Poem
Accompanist for Florence Foster Jenkins, a Poem by Darren Morris
Ken Weisner's Accompanist Poem
The Accompanist: A Poem by William Matthews

The Accompanist: A Poem by William Matthews

The Google Books entry on Billy Collins' Poetry 180 Anthology features William Matthews' The Accompanist, which makes for some interesting reading:



If you're reading this via email or RSS and don't see the embedded Google Books player, click here for the original post.

A question: is there a tendency in poets who write poems about accompanists to stereotype what we do by poetically exploring our (wrongly or not) perceived servitude?

More links to poems about accompanists on the Collaborative Piano Blog:

Arnie Ibsen's Accompanist Poem
Accompanist for Florence Foster Jenkins, a Poem by Darren Morris
Ken Weisner's Accompanist Poem
Dick Allen's Accompanist Poem

Dick Allen's Accompanist Poem

Dick Allen has written a poem entitled "The Accompanist", an ode of sorts to the person at the piano. Here's an excerpt:

I worry about whole lifetimes,
most lifetimes
lived in the shadows of reflected fame;
but then the singer's voice dies
and there are just your last piano notes,
not resentful at all,
carrying us to the end, into those heartfelt cheers
that spring up in little patches from a thrilled audience
like sudden wildflowers bobbing in a rain
of steady clapping. And I'm on my feet, also,
clapping and cheering for the singer, yes,
but, I think, partially likewise for you
half-turned toward us, balanced on your black bench,
modest, utterly well-rehearsed,
still playing the part you've made yours.

You can read the entire poem here.

Well.

In spite of the fact that it is somewhat kind of a poet to condescend to write a poem about that "modest, utterly well-rehearsed" person at the piano, I can't help but think that this poem may be little insulting to those of us who spend our lives working with other musicians playing awesome repertoire and often making good money at it. And what about those lines about living "in the shadows of reflected fame", or "receiving only such applause as the singer allows"?

Do you feel that Allen is using the stereotype of the collaborative pianist/accompanist as the person in the shadows to showcase the poignancy of their art, or is he merely reinforcing the stereotype? Is Allen's view of the accompanist an outdated one or is it still valid?

As always, your comments are welcome.

More poems about accompanists:

Arni Ibsen's Accompanist Poem
Accompanist for Florence Foster Jenkins, a Poem by Darren Morris
Ken Weisner's Accompanist Poem

Accompanist for Florence Foster Jenkins, a Poem by Darren Morris

In the March/April 2007 American Poetry Review, a poem by Darren Morris appeared entitled Accompanist for Florence Foster Jenkins, a meditation on the subjectivity of art.  Here's a short excerpt:

They said you did not know-you knew. And I did too.
It was simply in your rusted pursuit of that elusive sparrow
who calls across the rafters of the meadow;
a sound at once so joyous and alone. Your glory
lay beneath the hearing, in the absence of sound.

You can read the entire poem here.

Below is an audio-only YouTube video of FFJ's, er, unique performace the Queen of the Night's second aria from Mozart's Magic Flute.

Ken Weisner's Accompanist Poem

Santa Cruz-based American poet Ken Weisner has written a poem entitled "The Accompanist", which first appeared in the Porter Gulch Review.

Here is an excerpt:

"And always--
like soft foliage beneath the bloom
or the birds that fly in, fly out before
the storm, or the ticking and creaking

of the house where you were born,
or the rain that settles in and soothes you
with its sound, or the sweet hands that work
your tired back--a place that surrounds you loves you today,

and is determined to grace
the swell of your song..."

Full text of Ken Weisner's poem

Another accompanist poem

Some Essential Books for the Collaborative Pianist

Note: This page will be updated fairly regularly as more books are added.

Diction

Colorni, Evelina, Singers' Italian. New York: Schirmer Books, 1970.

Grubb, Thomas, Singing in French: A Manual of French Diction and French Vocal Repertoire. New York: Schirmer Books, 1979.

Marshall, Madeleine, The Singer's Manual of English Diction. New York: Schirmer Books, 1953.

Odom, William, German for Singers: A Textbook of Diction and Phonetics. New York: Schirmer Books, 1981.

Opera and Art Song Translations and Guides

Bernac, Pierre, The Interpretation of French Song. Translation of Song Texts by Winifred Radford. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1970.

Bird, George, and Richard Stokes, trans. The Fischer-Dieskau Book of Lieder. New York: Limelight Editions, 1984.

Castel, Nico. The Complete Puccini Libretti, Vol. I, II. Geneseo, Leyerle Publications.
_____. The Complete Verdi Libretti, Vol. I-III. Geneseo, Leyerle Publications.
_____. The Libretti of Mozart's Completed Operas, Vol. I, II. Geneseo: Leyerle Publications.
_____. French opera Libretti, Vol. I, II. Geneseo: Leyerle Publications.
_____. Italian Bel Canto Opera Libretti, Vol. I, II. Geneseo: Leyerle Publications.
_____. Italian Verismo Opera Libretti. Geneseo: Leyerle Publications.

(more information on the Nico Castel series)

Miller, Philip L., sel. and trans., The Ring of Words: An Anthology of Song Texts. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1963.

Shoep, Arthur, and Harris, Daniel, Word-by-Word Translations of Songs and Arias, Vol. I-IV. Metuchen: The Scarecrow Press, Inc, 1972.

Piano Playing

Bruser, Madeline, The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart. New York: Bell Tower, 1999.

Chase, Mildred Portney, Just Being at the Piano. Berkeley: Creative Arts Book Company, 1985.

Poetry

Fussell, Paul, Poetic Meter & Poetic Form, revised edition. New York, Random House, 1979.

Hirsch, Edward, How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry. Fort Washington: Harvest Books, 1999.

Kinzie, Mary, A Poet's Guide to Poetry. Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Professional Writing

Turabian, Kate L., A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Another take on how to learn a song or aria

Here is another approach on the process of learning a song, by Daniel Yurgaitis, Director of Theatre at Northern State University.

To paraphrase:

1. Select a song
2. Complete a music, lyric, and character analysis
3. Learn the melody
4. Make the song your own
5. Begin memorization
6. Take the song into your body
7. Refine the song

What I like about this method is the emphasis on physicalization as an element of learning, the early emphasis on memorization and understanding the song at the identity level.

Contrast this process with the Gwendolyn Koldofsky method:

1. Read the poetry or a translation of the poetry
2. Learn the pronounciation of the poem in the original language
3. In the original language, read the poem aloud
4. Read the poem in the rhythm of the vocal line
5. At the piano, play the vocal line in the RH and the bass line of the piano in the LH
6. Learn the song

The Koldofsky method emphasizes a text-centered approach to the first stages of learning that pays big dividends once you follow the steps and learn the song. The Yurgaitis method seems to emphasize the latter steps of learning, specifically learning how get the song both under your skin and into your body as preparation for an eventual performance.

These two approaches complement each other well and are useful to both singers and pianists learning music, whether in opera, art song, or musical theater idioms.

Arni Ibsen's Accompanist Poem

Arni Ibsen, Icelandic poet and playwright, has written a poem entitled the accompanist, encapsulating a moment from a voice recital, from the Winter 2000 Scandinavian Review, translated from the Icelandic by Petur Knutsson.

Here is an excerpt:

Not even
the studied ease
of the English butler.
His fingers
touch - they
flicker over the black and white bricks
of the keyboard
while the spread-eagled songstress
stands open-mouthed
in the pool
of light.