Dynamics: Do or Die

One of the most important parts of any performance, dynamics are the musical aspect that most obviously create excitement, emotion, and interest.  Our goal as performers should always be to produce a work that is pleasing to our audience--and playing the entire thing at mf (mezzoforte) would be just plain, vanilla, unremarkable, BORING.  This does not mean that we should instead play as loud as we can, for as long as we can!  No, doing so is, in fact, a worse performing crime than staying in mezzo-land; we would use all of our energy in the first piece of the concert and leave the ears of our audience aching.  The composer of the tunes we play has been so generous as to include dynamic indications in the music, that it would be quite crass of us to completely ignore them.

In addition to the above considerations, I implore you to recognize our station as the performers of an artistic creation by someone else.  We have a duty to the composer to practice his or her music so that we can perform it at the best of our ability.  We also have a duty to our audience to provide them with a fun, interesting, and over-all satisfying experience.

• Do you agree or disagree with these points?
• What other stylistic elements are the most important for creating an emotionally interesting performance?
• How can we better utilize dynamics and style to create the best performance we are capable of producing?