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8 - Memorising music

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Aaron Williamon
Affiliation:
A research fellow and Head of the Centre for the Study of Music Performance, Royal College of Music
John Rink
Affiliation:
Royal Holloway, University of London
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Summary

Performing music from memory can be extremely demanding. Not only is there the initial challenge of retaining thousands of notes and complex musical structures, but also the equally formidable task of remembering and executing them in stressful performance situations. All too often, such demands have caused performers to accrue hours of mere repetitive practice, trying to develop multiple ways of recalling music so that their performance will continue come what may. Such strategies, however, can be inefficient and can fail to guarantee perfect recall. As a result, musicians, teachers and researchers have sought to answer two questions: why should performers memorise music, and how can this be done most efficiently and effectively? Answers to these questions have traditionally been drawn from a large corpus of inconsistent, anecdotal evidence. This chapter will re-address these two questions in the light of recent studies which have examined musical memory more systematically.

Exploring why musicians perform from memory

In 1828, Clara Schumann set a precedent for musical performers by playing in public without a score. Shortly afterwards, Franz Liszt, with his ‘predilection for showmanship, seized the opportunity to turn this new development into a dramatic ritual’. He caused a veritable uproar at one performance by flinging not only his white gloves into the first few rows of the audience – a gesture for which he was renowned – but also his score. Such theatrics were not well received by critics.

Type
Chapter
Information
Musical Performance
A Guide to Understanding
, pp. 113 - 126
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

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References

Bernstein, Seymour, With Your Own Two Hands: Self-Discovery through Music (New York: Schirmer, 1981)
Chaffin, Roger, Gabriela Imreh and Mary Crawford, Practicing Perfection: Memory and Piano Performance (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2002)
Matthay, Tobias, On Memorizing and Playing from Memory and On the Laws of Practice Generally (London: Oxford University Press, 1926)
Williamon, Aaron, ‘The value of performing from memory’, Psychology of Music, 27 (1999), 84–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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  • Memorising music
    • By Aaron Williamon, A research fellow and Head of the Centre for the Study of Music Performance, Royal College of Music
  • Edited by John Rink, Royal Holloway, University of London
  • Book: Musical Performance
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511811739.009
Available formats
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  • Memorising music
    • By Aaron Williamon, A research fellow and Head of the Centre for the Study of Music Performance, Royal College of Music
  • Edited by John Rink, Royal Holloway, University of London
  • Book: Musical Performance
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511811739.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Memorising music
    • By Aaron Williamon, A research fellow and Head of the Centre for the Study of Music Performance, Royal College of Music
  • Edited by John Rink, Royal Holloway, University of London
  • Book: Musical Performance
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511811739.009
Available formats
×