In a feat of musical memory, the Aurora Orchestra will perform Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony without printed scores at the BBC Proms 2015. Neuroscientist Jessica Grahn explores how musicians manage to remember highly complex arrangements.
The extraordinary ability of musicians to recall millions of musical notes over a lifetime is undoubtedly one of the most impressive feats of human memory.
For scientists, such feats provide an opportunity to understand how human memory works - but, for musicians, having to achieve this on a regular basis can be terrifying.
Most musicians will have to perform from memory at some time in their career. Some, especially singers or soloists, have to perform from memory most of the time.
Feelings about the practice are divided. Some musicians feel that performing without a score allows them to be freer and more expressive. Others feel that memorisation is time-consuming and less reliable than using a written score.
Moreover, the fear of memory "slips" can hamper expressive performance, or worse. Debilitating stage fright may cause a musician to withdraw from the profession entirely.
Most ensembles escape the burden of memorisation - with notable exceptions being the Kolisch Quartet in the 1930s and the Chiara and Zehetmair Quartets today. An entire orchestra playing from memory, as the Aurora Orchestra will do this summer at the Proms, is all but unheard of.
Musicians with a hatred of memorisation may bemoan Clara Schumann and Franz Liszt, who were among the first 19th Century musicians to spark this trend.
The image of a piano virtuoso was beginning to form at this time, with Liszt declaring that "virtuosity is not an outgrowth, but an indispensable element of music".
Before this time, it was considered arrogant to perform without the score.
Beethoven explicitly disapproved of one of his pupils, who could play the composer's entire set of works from memory, as he was concerned that important details in the score could be missed.
Chopin was angered when he heard that one of his pupils wanted to play him a Nocturne from memory. Mendelssohn had an amazing musical memory, but would not let on - before one performance when his score was unavailable, he had a page-turner place a random book in front of him and pretend it was the score.
However, prior to the Renaissance, playing from memory was a necessity, as little or no musical notation was available.
The extraordinary ability of musicians to recall millions of musical notes over a lifetime is undoubtedly one of the most impressive feats of human memory.
For scientists, such feats provide an opportunity to understand how human memory works - but, for musicians, having to achieve this on a regular basis can be terrifying.
Most musicians will have to perform from memory at some time in their career. Some, especially singers or soloists, have to perform from memory most of the time.
Feelings about the practice are divided. Some musicians feel that performing without a score allows them to be freer and more expressive. Others feel that memorisation is time-consuming and less reliable than using a written score.
Moreover, the fear of memory "slips" can hamper expressive performance, or worse. Debilitating stage fright may cause a musician to withdraw from the profession entirely.
Most ensembles escape the burden of memorisation - with notable exceptions being the Kolisch Quartet in the 1930s and the Chiara and Zehetmair Quartets today. An entire orchestra playing from memory, as the Aurora Orchestra will do this summer at the Proms, is all but unheard of.
Musicians with a hatred of memorisation may bemoan Clara Schumann and Franz Liszt, who were among the first 19th Century musicians to spark this trend.
The image of a piano virtuoso was beginning to form at this time, with Liszt declaring that "virtuosity is not an outgrowth, but an indispensable element of music".
Before this time, it was considered arrogant to perform without the score.
Beethoven explicitly disapproved of one of his pupils, who could play the composer's entire set of works from memory, as he was concerned that important details in the score could be missed.
Chopin was angered when he heard that one of his pupils wanted to play him a Nocturne from memory. Mendelssohn had an amazing musical memory, but would not let on - before one performance when his score was unavailable, he had a page-turner place a random book in front of him and pretend it was the score.
However, prior to the Renaissance, playing from memory was a necessity, as little or no musical notation was available.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32428022