Song Interpretation Layers: Part 2
When I introduce people to the Song Interpretation Layers I often do it in a few stages. The first is simply getting the basics of what the Layers are and how they are best used. That was covered in this post. This post will cover some of those next steps in the process – some of the bigger concepts to consider while working through each of the layers.
Let’s first simply review what the layers are:
Learn: the actual piece and a bit of the background.
Listen: Find different performances and interpretations.
Lip Sync: Start to get a feel for how the piece feels to perform.
Speak: use the text to delve into the meaning and form a connection.
Acapella: sing the piece and apply all the ideas from the previous layers to see what works.
Accompaniment: add and prepare for the different types of performance you might find yourself in
After that review let’s begin with something I mentioned briefly in the first post: the idea of changing the written music. You absolutely don’t have to. When I discuss the layers I often talk about things like inserting pauses, taking more time on certain notes, or even following a different melody. These are all things that I think are fair game when it comes to interpretation, but not necessary at all. A perfectly acceptable interpretation is to do the music exactly as it is written (and this is what I do 99% of the time in the context of classical music). After all the composer wrote it that way for a reason. The idea of still going through the layers is to get yourself more familiar with the meaning behind the song. It is almost impossible for a performance not to have more nuance than it would without working through the layers regardless of changes that may or may not be made to the written score.
Another thing to consider are the rules and conventions around performance practice of the piece that you are working. There are certain conventions, some might even say rules, about how to perform pieces based on the genre, style, time period, venue, and so on. This is why I am more likely to make modifications to a piece of contemporary musical theater or pop music than I am something from the Baroque or Classical eras (though there is a history of ornamentation from the Baroque era that follows its own rules). That doesn’t mean that you can’t break the rules or go against some of the conventions; but you should learn them first. You can absolutely apply the rules/conventions of one style/time period/genre to another. You should keep in mind that this can be very subjective and whether the changes made are good or bad will often depend on who you ask. There are some musicians for example, who don’t think Baroque music should even be played on modern instruments. Just imagine what one of those people would think of Bach sung in a jazz style. Whatever choices are made, make them for a good reason.
The context of your piece and your performance is also a big consideration. If you perform a song from a larger work like a musical or an opera, there is an established storyline that the piece fits into. This arc should be followed in that context. Say you have a very shy, meek character at the start of the show who becomes very confident at the end of the show. For the storyline to make sense you have to perform their first song with that shyness. Then their last song can be full of the confidence they get from the growth of that journey. But if you do their first song on its own, say as a piece in a cabaret act, away from the context of the show’s full storyline you could do that song with the confidence of the character at the end. You can fashion your own storyline interpretively when the context is different.
Time can also provide a completely different context. I mentioned in the first description of Layer 2 that listening to the same person do the same song years apart can be as different as two people doing the same song. When you return to a piece you’ve done before you come to it with more information and life experience. I recently started relearning some pieces I did on my senior recital when I was twenty-one. The decade plus in between allows me to approach each song differently. I can put more into some of the songs than I could then, because I simply have more knowledge of what life is like. It is striking the ways this can work when you experience it, and it brings a completely new sort of joy to performing the familiar pieces.
Now comes what I consider to be the most important part of this particular post. When talking through Layer 4 in the first post we established that some pieces are deeper than others. The deepest songs tend to come with an emotional connection to the performer. That requires us to talk about what I call “The Line.” The Line is the point at which your emotional connection begins to take away from the performance, rather than enhance it. The easiest example would be a song making a performer cry as they sing and being unable to continue; though crying doesn’t automatically mean you’ve crossed the line. There’s a great interview where Ben Platt talks about how he thought the crying actually helped his technique for some things he had to sing in Dear Evan Hansen. The Line is incredibly subjective and can move depending on the performer, the piece, even the day. In order to figure out where The Line is, one has to find it first. That is what a lot of the work in Layers 4 and 5 is good for. The best performers are those that walk right up to The Line, maybe even put a toe across it, but retain enough control to not let it negatively impact the performance.
Sometimes when I talk about the layers I will demonstrate Layers 4 and 5 using a deeper song, often getting very close to The Line, and sometimes become quite emotional. The fact that I am able to come back and continue the talk after such moments makes some people think that I am faking it. The truth is that approaching and coming back from the Line is like anything else; easier with practice. The songs I use for this are ones that might be quite deep and meaningful to me, but I have worked coming back so much that it’s much easier to do than with other songs. It doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m not getting as close to The Line as I might in another performance, it just means I know the way back.
Now this does bring us to an important place we have to talk about, and that is the self-care aspect. Not every performance of every song has to go to The Line. There are times when you will be unable to go there for any number of reasons. You have to be aware of your own limits. There might be pieces, depending on your history, that will be dangerous for you to do this sort of work with. These deep pieces might ignite or aggravate past traumas. You should never sacrifice yourself in any way for a performance. Contrary to many popular tropes you do not have to suffer for your art. Also know that you will make mistakes. There will be times when you think you can handle taking that step across The Line, only to find it impossible. This is okay. It’s the only way you learn what your limits are. It’s also why working these concepts in rehearsal is so important. If you are unable to continue a rehearsal because you crossed The Line it isn’t a huge deal, but doing the same in performance can be problematic.
Doing this work with the layers has been immensely helpful for my own performance, and I’ve seen great success with it amongst my students. My hope is that any singer can take these concepts and use them to help connect with their audiences, which is fundamentally the whole point of what we do as musicians.