Just in time for Valentine’s Day: What kind of poet are you?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
We often hear, especially in reviews, that a performer is a “poet.” What does that mean, specifically? What makes a performer a poet. How does a performer create poetry?
Maybe you know it when you hear it. It could be the way you hear the music (the poetry) actually speaking, like a monologue, creating a type of symmetry and balance with each of the musical lines.
Maybe it's the pacing.....the natural ebb and flow of the musical phrase, or the intensity or volume of an individual note or successive notes.
Or, it might be the pauses, where they’re placed and for how long they last.
I like what pianist Inon Barnatan recently said: paraphrasing -- "There are players, and then there are communicators, reaching out to the audience to say something."
Musical poetry in action is present when Inon Barnatan plays Schubert, and especially in his recording of the late Schubert Piano Sonatas.
https://bit.ly/3BWuBug
Inon Barnaton