FOCUSED MUSIC WORKSHOP 2 “if trees could dream” - Day 1 at Portland State University
July 18, 2026, Room LH 225, 9 a.m. - 12:00 pm
Instructor Liz Myers opens the session.
Why are we doing this? Here we are today on July 18th at Portland State University. Focused Music Workshop number two today to talk about a musical reaction to the things that we see around us at all times but outside our windows. TREES.
This was a prompt that I invented when Bonnie Miksch, the composing teacher here - one of the composing teachers at Portland State, who has been a great friend and allowed us to use the space. So I’m very grateful to Bonnie. I came back and said I think we need a prompt this year because last year we were basically trying to investigate what your music is saying. What your music is communicating to the audience and how you feel about it. And how you can let it go and let your audience have other meanings to it. So now we’re stepping it up a little bit this year we’re trying to add to it the component of writing for an imaginary film in your brain. (And that is about trees.)
And it’s also a response (that) I left it open. I left it kind of abstract. I gave you three ideas of how to start. One is to pick a particular tree that you’ve had some sort of interaction with. I chose the ginkgo tree under which I took a nap in the Arboretum at UCLA. It’s been there for over 100 years and I found it very peaceful. And the funny thing is that when I told Bonnie Miksch that I wanted to use trees as a prompt I said, “Is that too goofy?” She said “I think with everything that’s going on this is a really peaceful idea. It would make a pleasant summertime workshop.” A camp —if you will like a little mini camp.
So the point is that I wanted to turn you on about trees.
I suggested picking one tree, picking a species (or) picking a situation (and) responding to it musically. Now a couple of you have brought to my attention how other composers have approached this. I believe there is a Sibelius series. There is also a John Williams “Sacred Five Myth Trees” I was not really aware of but I went back and listened to those pieces. And they’re fabulous! (If we remind ourselves that the question is, “ What does our Music communicate?” and specifically “How do we address this?”
I’m just throwing it out there because I’m caught between what I call practical music and abstract music. Now this is a conversation that’s been going on for hundreds of years. You may or may not know that Clara Schumann and her husband Robert Schumann and their protegé Johannes Brahms had a big fuss with Chopin and Wagner because they didn’t want to put titles to their music that were programmatic. They didn’t want people to know that it was the “Apassionata Sonata”, like Beethoven. Beethoven was furious when his publishers added that title to his Piano Sonata. But we here (in the 21st Century) are now accepting of Programmatic Music. I’m not talking about “Peter and the Wolf” here specifically. You know — “Peter and the Wolf”is to say “This is a clarinet and it sounds like a duck.” Or maybe more accurately, “This is a bassoon and It sounds like a duck”. You know that onomatopoeia — the giving of certain musical (descriptive) terms to certain sounds, etc. (For this project) that’s not really what I’m talking about.
But —0 if that is what you’ve chosen (to write), that’s fine. I’m allowing each student to approach this (project) in their own own way —abstract or programmatic—if you will —and I think I’ve kind of stacked the deck FOR programmatic (music) because I chose in lowercase font “if trees could dream” (Using lower case and italics is considered “artsy” in some circles.
How do we get started? Part of the problem of being a Composer that you have to find the pebble it’s in your pocket so when you go down to the lake, you can take the pebble out and you throw it you hope you get a good throw that first time and then you want to see “boop, boop, boop.” (Imitating skimming a pebble on a lake) Right? If you’ve ever thrown a pebble into a lake, you want to see how it develops. That is in some ways what we’re doing. So I’m looking for the pebble —the prompt. And that was the idea of trees that I had.
Why are we writing for the Piano Trio? So let’s see I have another three minutes which I will jump through the piano business, but I just wanted to show you some study scores. I think that T.J. may have one of my favorite piano trios. Ah, how does the piano trio come into all this? It’s a bit of a long story, but Bonnie Miksh is hosting a module in October with a Piano Trio ensemble that is coming to play the works of her students. So she said you can use this as a starter (course.) So the ideas that are happening here (for those who are Bonnie’s students) you can come back to or develop them. You’re just going to learn a bit more about the capacity of violins, cellos and piano. I am in charge of (explaining) what the Piano can do. I just wanted to mention one thing that I have learned from writing. (As you may know) I have a cello duo with my partner in LA Paula Hochhalter, who is a session player. A session player is someone who comes in (to the recording studios) and plays film scores by sight. These are people that are extraordinary sight readers. They’re able to turn a John Williams score into something magnificent - the first time. They do world premieres of film scores. Paula is an extraordinary musician, but she’s also a Brahms “freak”, so we started taking Brahms piano works and adding cello to them. I have been studying in depth how it works well and the thing that I’ve discovered is that there is such a difference in attack.
The piano as you know is basically a big fat heavy percussion instrument. If you look at the mechanics of it…(she plays A 440 and gives an explanation of how the physics of the piano’s hammers and sustain damper work.)
Analysis of Antonin Dvorak’s Piano Trio in f minor. Let’s take a close look at Antonin Dvorak’s Piano Trio in f minor. (Share the first page of the score.) Note to composers: If the Composer writes a word on their score, it becomes sacred. So don’t fool around with something that you don’t care about at the beginning of your composition. Antonin Dvořák wrote Allegro Ma non troppo. How’s my Italian? And this is a great thing because for pianists, this means fast, but not faster than you feel comfortable doing it. Don’t sweat it! And if you look at what’s going on here… (You can see that we pianists play 1000 notes to every string player's single note. And no one cares.
And if you look (closely) at what’s going on here, everything is in its place. Allegro Ma non troppo – – OK everyone relaxes. Key signature? Oh you’re thinking it could be A flat (major) or it could be F minor. The violin is in treble clef. The reason we have clefs is to avoid ledger lines. (Diane and Juliana will talk more about clefs later because it impacts the cello more than it does the violin.) The cello is not the open C – not the lowest C – but the octave above it. That’s a whole different world! The thing about today, (is that) if you come out of this class with nothing learned, I hope you will remember the three Ts: TONE, TIMBRE, and TEXTURE. Does your music have a tone to it in other words? Does it sound good? Timbre is an even deeper dive into tone and that it is the physics of the sound —the beating of the strings, etc. And the texture is (the mood and) what people take away from it.
So I guess there’s a fourth T which is TAKEAWAY.
Another gift from Antonin Dvořák to the string players is the dynamic listed underneath. pianissimo. At the very beginning, we see octaves. Octaves are incredibly powerful in strings. There is nothing more glorious than a section of String players playing pianissimo together. And look at what this Composer has given to the pianist already, block chords down low. Block chords are known in the jazz arranging world as close voicing. Anytime you use close voicing you basically get rock ‘n’ roll! (She plays examples of close voicing (triadic) and spread out (or open) voicing.)
Close voicing is really powerful and it’s the closest thing we pianists have to power chords like on the electric guitar. (Question about the voicing of power cords.) A comparable notation would be a G5 cord which means a G cord with no third in it. (I. The composition world) It’s known as an attention-getting device, almost like a fanfare. In other words, if you were late to the concert, you better sit down and be quiet and listen.
Let's listen to Piano Trio in F Minor by Antonin Dvorak.
Double stops in the strings. Are they louder? One thing I’d like to point out is the use of double stops. This is something that Diane and Juliana will talk more about, but this is the closest thing that strings have to power cords. There’s always been a volume war if you will when playing live. Prior to the ability to record or electronically amplify our music, we’ve (been) trying to play louder and louder to get the attention of our audience. So these double stops (for the strings) and these close voiced chords marked forte in the Piano part — (these are) probably two of the best quivers in the arrow bag for the Composer of a piano trio.
Antonin Dvořák is no fool: he gives the strings double stops at fortissimo. And the beautiful thing is how that top note is attacked by the string players. (Maybe this is a good place to segue to what Diane Chaplin wants to say about the cello.) Diane would you like to address how the string players attack that high G with a down bow? (Note in the score that there is no down bow notated because it is not necessary, every string player will know to play that note with a down bow. And it’s physically impossible to play it with an up bow!)
Diane Chaplin, cellist: I want to actually talk about those chords, which is a good starting point for my presentation. I don’t want to contradict Liz, but Liz is a pianist, so that’s why we’re here. (She gestures to the violinist.) So when we have two notes we call it a double stop. You’ll notice it has that little squiggly line which means you have a roll. Here’s the thing: string players can’t play three notes at one time. Our bridge is curved, we can only play two notes at the same time. We can play a chord where we roll across. (She demonstrates.) Let’s see, (demonstrates) you’re not going to hear the bottom note for the entire chord. You can hold up on the top note.
When you write chords, you need to understand that there’s going to be a “ka - chung” sound. If there are three or four notes, it’s going to have a roll. There are some exceptions if I play with an attack like this (she demonstrates) it’s really aggressive. It has a place but that’s a circumstance where I can actually hit all at once. When played once it doesn’t make a big sound. When we play two notes together and have some sustain, it does not make a louder sound. The pressure of the bow does not get full pressure on both strings (equally.) It’s distributed so it’s actually a little bit of a fallacy that double stops are louder. They are fuller and they are richer, but the reason that that works in the Dvorak is because of the roll. That’s what makes it loud. (She demonstrates.)
This brings me to another thing on the cello as it relates to the Piano Trio. Juliana Trivers asks, “Would you prefer to see the double stops written as a chord broken into two parts with the first two notes on top of each other. (We see that written a lot.)” Diane continues: She’s asking if we need to write grace notes on chords. I know that sometimes people write it because they hear it and they know it’s gonna go (she demonstrates.) “Ka - Ching.” It’s unnecessary. Liz Myers adds “Dvorak wrote it with the squiggle line.” Diane says, “We don’t need the squiggle line either.” (Barenreiter edition possibly.) Chords are always played on string instruments from the bottom up. (She demonstrates.)
Cello voicings and where it sounds the best. I want to say something about the voicing in this Dvorak piece. Note that the violin jumps up and it turns into a double octave. And the reason the violin jumps up and the cello doesn’t is because it’s easier to play higher on the violin than it is on the cello. It’s not hard (to play high on the cello, but it makes it much more technically difficult for the cello to stay below the violin when it goes up. The cello in its middle range and low range is less projecting than the violin. The piano is very heavy (in this piece) and there’s a lot of it if you listen to the recording, you don’t hear as much as the violin - it’s more of a color. And for the cello, we’re playing that melody by itself against that piano part. You would not hear the melody enough because the cello doesn’t (really)project in that range, it’s a disadvantage.
The note that we land on -- high G is that note. If I play it here that’s an octave below the violin. It’s so much less brilliant (in that range) so when I’m not on the lowest string, the cello is beautiful, and we can play beautiful melodies, here’s my G string and it’s pretty, but it doesn’t project very well. There’s a Mendelsson trio that starts with that middle string even though it’s the beginning of the piece and it’s supposed to be kind of delicate, you have to play it like a trombone! It’s just not in a very good range for the cello, but Mendelsson wrote it like that.
Violin voicings and where it sounds best: Juliana Trivers says it’s the same on the violin, the second to lowest string is the "dull" string. "However these middle strings can be useful if you want a mellow sound," says Liz. "Yes, Lyrical Beautiful, but you have to be careful to not give them the main melodic line with the piano being loud now doubled, it’s OK like Dvořák did. But don’t use the middle strings of the cello if you want a soaring sonorous Melody.Juliana also demonstrates the glorious open G string on the violin, a magical full if a bit raw sound. The Bartok Violin Concerto #2 begins with this wonderful start on the G string.
Articulation on the cello. How would you address the articulation of the cello to match the fast attack of the piano when playing lines together question so sometimes in rehearsal we ask the pianist what they’re doing, when they’re going very fast they’re not going to play staccato they’re going to play what would you call it normal? Liz nods her head yes. Regular. And it depends on whether it’s slurred or not so fast movement simply just needs to be doubled and at times you may lose the cello, but it all works out in the end. So separate technique Boeing each note really does stand out and seems to work well. It’s much punchier when it’s short just like the piano when the strings are playing that fast they can’t really do an articulation on the bow. It’s really just digging in. When you’re doing something that fast you can’t specifically do any Boeing. It’s just the articulation that comes out of doing those things fast together. The biggest problem I see with double stops are things that don’t fit in the hand. If I’m on my sea string, the smallest interval that I can make a double stop with is a G the fifth. I can’t play a third because those are on the same string. So a double stop means that I’m playing an open string and moving the next string to it up. She demonstrates.
Interavls on the cello: If you give me a 10th against the C string it works really well. But if you move it to another string and you want a 10th it becomes very difficult. My hands are not big enough to play it. A 10th is a very dangerous interval. Octaves we play all the time -- trying to keep them in tune. Octaves are used all the time. Sixths and thirds also are doable as long as they’re not on the C String. Remember that my C string is two octaves below middle C so when I get to the E fourths are hard to play. These are OK in low positions. Fifths are great but once we get up (the neck), it's very difficult to play fifths in tune because I’ve got the neck of the cello and the shoulder of the cello (blocking me) and I can’t balance my hand. It's miserable.
Playing in tune. Juliana points out that some of the tuning issues between the strings and the piano are because of the equal tempered tuning system that modern music has approved. Whereas strings are more inclined to adjust the tuning system when playing together. Composer is fine. I’ve seen scores where the Composer wants to hold a pitch and then play some moving note against it but unfortunately the pitch they’ve chosen is at such a high hand position that I physically cannot do iit - you cannot hold onto one note and go very far away from it. Be very careful when you write a moving line against a held pitch.
Considering how the cello can sound like “rustling leaves”. Some harmonic lines can sound like rustling leaves. The Shostakovich cello sonata has a section that goes like this (she demonstrates) so this is the harmonic series and I don’t have to stop on those pitches, I just slide my finger. And the harmonic kind of pops out. But in between you get this kind of “whoosh-y” sound. Juliana adds, “The only string on the violin that this works on is the G string.” (She demonstrates.) Diane adds, “And you can just write ‘harmonics up and down the string” ’ above the note, or a squiggle or a glissando and the player will know what to do. Or you can just write out the words because there’s really not a way that that’s written. I’m kind of picky the way I like my harmonics to be written so this is what I suggest. If you write a half-string natural harmonic which sounds the same whether it’s a harmonic or pressed down, that is a normal note with a little circle over it. If you want the harmonic that if I press it down it’s NOT the same pitch, that’s a diamond headed note. So when I see a diamond head note I know it’s not going to be the same note when I press it down. Composers write this wrong all the time and I have to go and color in my note heads. It’s super confusing if you write a lot of harmonics .
Other harmonics. The standard way to do artificial harmonic, you have a 4th above the fundamental and it gives a ghosty effect and that’s a normal note with a little circle above it. Dorico does this automatically and it’s super clear. Stravinsky writes the pitch that he wants to hear and leaves it up to the player to figure out how to play it. At the end of the day, if you’re not sure what harmonic symbol to write, don’t make it up. The bottom note is the one you’re holding, the artificial harmonic is the 4th above.
A list of common cello techniques: Pizzicato we all know. (She demonstrates.) The Bartok pizzicatto (a snap pizz) is loud. Sul tasto means to have your bow so high on the string that it’s covered. Artificial harmonics played Sul tasto are physically impossible. A “bark-like” sound can be played with Sul tasto (“distortion”) as the bow is way up on the fingerboard and I’m playing forte. Sul ponticello, that’s a glassy sound. Most often used with tremelo. Spooky sound. Tremelo is sometimes metered, matching the number of slashes. Sometimes it’s just ad lib, depending on the tempo of the piece. Sometimes the tempo is really fast and the tremolo is 16th notes. Three slashes in the stem normally means tremolo. Tremelo is normally noted with three slashes unless your tempo is Adagio and then you might have 4 slashes.