Reflections on an Old Video

Watching this video, I am most interested in how my concept of musical intensity has changed since this 2005 performance. At the time, keeping in stride with what should be expected from a young man of seventeen, I must have seen musical intensity as measured in volume of energy--more, less, louder, softer, faster, slower. My tempi fluctuate constantly and every entrance of every new musical character is illuminated with a limelight ever more brilliant and dramatic than the last. This upward climb eventually peaks and even though I’m left with few musical options, I keep pushing, and the sound begins to splash wildly like an irritated sea monster. Even so, there is enough of a conviction and enthusiasm for my own ideas that while listening to it now, the performance still works for me. I cannot remember why the beginning is missing, though I seem to remember my mother complaining about how the camera would not start recording.

I have since started to work on musical intensity as a very subtle magic, and it can be created by doing very little. One example is the last movement of Chopin’s 3rd piano sonata, a very volatile rondo that is often played too fast. Following a very symphonic introduction, a constant rumble of eighth notes continues almost without interruption to the very end of the piece. Chopin marks agitato, but this is the sort of agitation that comes from a deep feeling of suspense. The rhythm must be held steady-as-she-goes, or the performance risks capsizing in what can seem like a sea of noise. Excitement is more exciting than near-death, which is only scary; it’s no fun riding on a roller coaster that has been known to kill its passengers. If the rhythm is held, the intensity is not so much in the performance as in the audience’s perception. The best horror films, for example, rely more on the audience’s imagination than on raw gore. Most new horror films rely on an orgy of computer graphics animation to shock their audiences, and so the suspense is not in “what will happen next?” as much as “how much longer do I have to watch this?”. This sort of self-flagellation only makes sense as a religious mandate, but even then...