Three key features of musical performance:
PULSATION, TONE PRODUCTION, ARTICULATION.
PULSATION:
Continuous Musical Flow (Pulsation) is an energy-generating factor that, together with sound, articulation, phrasing, artistic and tempo agogics, meter, rhythm, timing and other components, creates a special musical field of the piece. The important aspects of pulse are continuity, connectivity, flow and presence. Artistic and tempo agogics and Pulsation are inseparable from each other and from articulation.
We don't create the pulse, the pulse already exists, and the musician-performer is merely a conduit and messenger of the Absolute within the energy field of a given piece. Pulsation requires total concentration on the continuous musical flow. The whole fabric of the piece is based on the pulse, but the pulse is not metronomic. The metronome is a destroyer of Pulsation, unlike the conductor, who is the visible embodiment of the pulsating flow.
The Metronome is the Mind; the Pulsation is the Naturalness and the gateway to Samadhi. The Mind is always dual and incomplete. When Pulsation is present, there is no reasoning about right or wrong, there is only the musical flow and presence. This requires total concentration, but not as tension, but as being in a continuous musical flow; this is a special concentration – absolutely spiritual in its nature.
There are gaps between the sounds. These gaps do not divide but connect the musical flow into a single pulsating Continuum. Thus, pulsating, pauses and gaps sound, they become Meanings and Portals connecting two worlds – the visible and the invisible, the acoustic and the non-acoustic, Nature and Spirit. This connection is the union of Shakti and Shiva – and this is Yoga. A true musician is a yogi who manifests the message of the Absolute.
TONE PRODUCTION:
The process of Tone Production is defined by the attack with anticipation of sound—an integral and inseparable process with Pulsation.
ARTICULATION:
Articulation, micro-articulation, and technique (developed interpretation) are within our competence and have an infinite number of variations. Micro-articulation is rather a mental process. A feature of the music performance is the pre-bar (anacrustic) articulation of the micro-motif — the music (mostly) is iambic (e.g., not 1-2-3, 1-2-3, but 1-2-3-1-2-3-1...).
