Miserere mei, Deus - Gregorio Allegri composed this sacred work in the 1630s, during the papacy of Pope Urban VIII.  The piece was written for use in the Tenebrae service on Holy Wednesday and Good Friday of Holy Week.  Pope Urban VIII loved the piece so much, that he forbid it to be performed elsewhere outside of the Sistine Chapel.  For over 100 years, Allegri’s ‘Miserere mei, Deus’ was performed exclusively in the church.

Anyone caught with a transcription of the piece outside of the chapel could be immediately excommunicated from the church. (In 1770, a 14 year old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was present at one of the performances while touring Italy with his father.  After hearing the piece, Mozart transcribed the work entirely from memory and even made corrections. He attended one more performance to make his final adjustments. The following year, after meeting with music historian and biographer, Dr. Charles Burney, Mozart gave him the sheet music. Burney took the score to London and published it, which resulted in the papacy lifting its ban.)

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy. According unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies remove my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquities, and cleanse me from my sin…”

I’ve seen a lot of posts about practicing. In fact, I’d say that it’s one of the main topics in musicblr. It’s all very well to take aesthetic looking pictures of that concerto you’re working on, but you have other pieces that also require your attention. There’s a sonata, and a solo piece, and don’t forget your studies/etudes. And then, of course, there are tone exercises and scales and arpeggios and other exercises.

Three years in university has taught me that time is valuable. Practice is sacred. If you have class at 10, immediately followed by another at 11:30, and your lesson at 2, and ensemble at 7, there’s not a lot of time in the day to practice.

You might get an hour in the morning, but you have to be leaving your house at 830 to get to your first class on time. You have an hour to warm up and go over things before your lesson, but that’s not so much practicing as preparation. You have four hours between your lesson and ensemble, but you have to eat dinner and go to sectional, where what you need to work on isn’t necessarily what the rest of your section needs to work on. Of course, every day isn’t quite as busy as this, but it’s fairly similar. So when on earth do you have the time to practice?

The most obvious answer is that you don’t. Outside of class, you have at least one paper to work on, a sonata to analyse, and three pages on dictation, and a weekly test in aural.

The right answer is that you practice, even if it’s only twenty minutes here, half an hour there. Pick out the most challenging parts that you’re playing from all your classes and work on those in the practice room. Of course you don’t want to neglect your other pieces, but when you only have 20 minutes, you only have time to really work part of one piece. In fact, I’ve found that I am more productive when I work on something for 20 minutes/half an hour/45 minutes and then take a break before moving on to the next piece.

It’s completely normal for there to be pieces everywhere in a practice room as you search for the one you need. Those notes you hastily scrawled in the margins of your music? Quicker to find and faster to write than the flowy handwritten journal. Not that neat writing isn’t important - what’s the point of writing something down if it’s not legible - but it’s far from the most important part of your practice session.

The point of this post isn’t to drag people who don’t practice enough (I’m one of those people!), but to validate you. School’s tough. There’s no doubt of that, and passing your academic courses is Important. As someone who struggles with practicing on a daily basis (even in the summer), if you even practice a little bit, then you’re doing okay. Developing your aural skills or understanding theoretical concepts is just as important as being able to play difficult pieces. Without any theory knowledge, it’s harder to fully follow a composition. Without any history, you may miss details regarding the composers style or performance practice of the time. Academics are important in a music degree, that’s why they’re required.

Don’t sacrifice your academics for extra practice time, but don’t sacrifice your practice time for your academics. There is a line between these, and though it is a difficult walk, it is doable. And if you are practicing and the notes aren’t coming out right or you’re messing up something simple, take a break. Do something else. Work on developing another part of your musicianship. Everything you learn builds on everything else.

-by a music major going into her fifth year of university

Georges Marty Fanatsie… part 1 in a mini video series!

Robert Muczynski (1929 - 2010) - Time Pieces Op.43 (1983)