Intonation And Music Skills

Musicians have seen intonation as an objective, due to the technical developments in music during the last century. It is a considered to be a challenge separate from the music. I have played with differents chamber music groups two of them are a cello-piano duos, one is a piano trio and the other a string quartet. It is completely different to play with piano or with a string quartet. The intonation changes.

Nowadays we do not want to speak about a good intonation we want to speak about a perfect intonation. As a string player I learnt that perfect intonation is the clear objective. The root of this objective is to have the four open strings tuned to perfect fifths. The differences in the intonation between stringed instruments and the piano (equal temperament) have a long history.

At this point, we should have a look at the theories about intonation. People have written about the difference between the chromatic and diatonic semitone. In spite of that, in the XIX century they finally found the temperament. This universal tuning was transferred to stringed instruments. Although in the XX century the books do not say anything about differents intonations, this silence cannot change the nature of stringed instruments. By listening to some recordings of well-known string players such as Maurice Gendron, Gaspar Cassadó or Jascha Heifetz, who have a perfect intonation, I realized that they used pure intervals. They wanted to find a really pure intonation for the ear and that is an important thing for us to consider.

I discussed this with the famous cello teacher David Strange and we concluded that it is impossible to tune intervals absolutely perfectly. Considering we do not have a mathematical ear - our ear expands the note in a zone where we can listen to it. Actually, there are two types of intonation. Melodic intonation and harmonic intonation. I use melodic intonation when I play a solo melody and it enables me to be more flexible with the notes. This way, I can be more expressive during my performance with a perfect intonation, because I play in the borderline of the human ear.

Playing with piano is a bit more easy than a string quartet. The only thing I have to do is to think about the equal temperament and everything will go right. Playing in a string quartet is a wonderful experience. At that point, the harmonic intonation has an important role, because we are four players and we create chords. The only way to have perfect tuning is to manage as well as we can the harmonic intonation, because equal temperament does not work in a string quartet. In my string quartet we make a fuss about harmonic intonation. The main point of harmonic intonation are the pure intervals with open strings, because then there is no tension. And then, we have only to cover three positions: the intonation of the fifths, the intonation of sharp and flat notes and the intonation of Tartini`s tone.

In theory the plan should work, but in practice there are difficulties, because as I know, playing in a string quartet is not easy. It is said that we live in a equal tempered world and that the human ear accepts this temperament, but I know that I prefer playing with a particular temperament. I vary the pitches to emphasise expression. I think that unequal temperament is fine for baroque music, and tonal music but, what happens with music that is written by composers such as Bartok or Webern? At that point equal temperament is the ideal tuning. In my own opinion I think when I use both systems consciously I achieve a positive result. Apart from the facility I have to manage the intonation in different groups, I have others great skills. My physical and psychological well-being is crucial as well as my technical and musical improvement. To find a good balance, I try to destroy the sacred aura of the performance and I try to focus on music and on the beauty of the music. In this way, artistically, the performance will be always interesting.

Sometimes people forget the essence of the music in order to have a lot of opportunities to perform, and they become a businessman. One of the most important things is thus: being confident and feeling confident in order to create a good atmosphere in the group. I always trust myself and this helps the others.