The Atlantic Flute Society
Masterclass with
Mihoko Burton
May 3, 2003
Hosted by
Musicstop
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Mihoko Watanabe Burton, a native
of Japan, is a flutist, an adjudicator, a lecturer, and professor.
Ms. Burton has served as flute instructor at Memorial University of
Newfoundland and the University of Windsor. She received her
Doctorate in Flute Performance from the University of Michigan and her
B.Mus. from the Musashino Academia Musicae in Tokyo. At the Eastman School of Music she obtained both her M.Mus. and her Performer's Certificate.
Her teachers have included Takao Saeki, Bonita Boyd, Leone Buyse, Fenwick
Smith, and Ervin Monroe. She
was Principal Flutist of the Pontiac-Oakland Symphony Orchestra and
has played in various other orchestras in the Windsor-Detroit area. She
performs regularly in the Burton Duo with her husband, Christopher Burton. In addition, she is devoted to the study of ethnomusicology,
especially Japanese traditional music. As such, she studied
Ethnomusicology at the University of Michigan, and has taught World
Musics at the University of Windsor.
Mihoko is also a representative and clinician
for Muramatsu, which brought her to Halifax to help Musicstop launch
the brand name at their annual Show and Sale. The
idea of having her also hold a masterclass was thought of at the last
minute, but even on short notice there were five performers ready to
play for her, from students to professionals, and a small but appreciative
audience. Ms. Burton also treated us after the class to an enjoyable
performance of the first movement of the Sonata in a minor by C.P.E.
Bach. Her friendliness, generosity and enthusiasm put everyone at
ease throughout the class, and she used her impressively controlled sound
to demonstrate every idea that she brought forward.
Her performers were Terri, Kerri, Courtney, Sandra, and Dan -- we
were all on a first name basis in this class! -- playing respectively:
Øisten Sommerfeldt, Spring Tunes for Flute Solo op.44,
1st mvt.; Enesco, Cantabile and Presto; Telemann, Sonata
in F major, 1st mvt.; Mozart, Concerto in G major, 1st mvt.;
and Borne, Carmen Fantasy. The following is a summary
of the main points that she raised during the class.
Some great techniques to maximize breathing and air usage were a
recurring theme. To that end, Mihoko first began with posture,
avoiding the rounded shoulders that can cause back problems, and keeping
the head and body weight centred. To keep grounded while standing,
one should "grab the earth" (or floor), placing the left foot forward
and turning the head to the left, so that the body is at a slight angle
while the head faces the audience/conductor/ edge of stage straight on.
The left shoulder should be down.
Next, to get the feeling of lots of air entering efficiently, one
inhales while saying the word "how". Then, when exhaling, every
note in a phrase should be supported without flagging. To simulate
how continuous this support should be, inhale on "how" and exhale on
a long hiss -- "ssssssssssssss". This creates feedback as to how
we are using our air, feedback that players of instruments such as the
oboe and trumpet automatically have through back pressure. This
feeling of blowing continuously is then transferred to blowing through
the entire phrase. Support should come from deep and low in the
body, or else one risks going flat and running out of air.
Once every note has been linked together with this continuous support,
the player then can vary the intensity of it to shape the phrase,
leading to the peaks and easing from the valleys. In the case
of the first movement of Spring Tunes, this meant leading to
and from the downbeat A's. As this participant played the opening
phrases, Mihoko helped her to feel the variations in intensity by hissing
over the music.
To taper the end of a note, such as the E in the middle of this
movement of Spring Tunes, one should angle the air stream upwards
with the diminuendo to keep the pitch in tune and to hang on to the focus.
This is done by bringing out the lower lip in relation to the upper
lip. To develop a feel for changing the angle of the air as it exits
the lips, Mihoko had this participant blow a long note through her flute,
aiming her air at the palm of Mihoko's hand, which she held open directly
in front of her lip plate. Then, with another long tone, Mihoko gradually
moved her hand slightly up and down while the player changed the angle of
her air to maintain her aim at it. The two women then exchanged places
and roles, and it was quite an effective illustration.
Flutists often try to project in the low register by making the aperture (the hole between the lips) too large and by rolling inwards, which can make low notes flat and brittle. Instead, Mihoko recommended opening the throat -- "play with a grapefruit in your throat!" -- and keeping the chin from drooping down. Singing the low passage on an "aahh" syllable first before playing it produces the right feeling, and inhaling on "how" automatically sets up. In fact, breathing through a few rounds of "how" and "hissss...", with progressively longer hisses each time, also helps to relax the body and calm the nerves before playing. In those soft, low passages where a player's very heartbeat can sometimes be heard in the sound (and we've all been in that situation), tapping into that "how/hiss" feeling helps that person to blow through the phrase.
These ideas can be applied to the low register exercises
in Marcel Moyse's landmark De la Sonorité which, along
with Taffanel and Gaubert's Grands Exercises Journaliers de Mécanisme,
constitute some of the most important literature for the flute, according
to Mihoko. These exercises involve playing four long slow notes,
starting at pp and making a crescendo up to ff by
the third note, then softening back to pp by the end of the fourth.
They are to be played smoothly without pulsing on the beats, and
can be done with or without vibrato. The high register exercises
can be approached in the same manner as well.
Mihoko gave another illustration of the importance
of air and sound while coaching the Telemann sonata. She played
the Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream first with plenty of
fingers and double tonguing, but a weak sound. She then repeated
the same Scherzo with a well-focussed sound, which of course made a huge
difference. More suggestions to aid in developing sound were to
keep one's chin level with the floor and to not bury the head in the stand.
One can also lie down on the floor to get in touch with breathing
from the gut rather than from the shoulders. While lying there, one
can do five minutes of "how/hiss", feeling the abdominal muscles with the
hands, and then try blowing on the headjoint while still keeping one hand
on the abdomen. Then, the player tries the same procedure standing
upright flat against a wall, and then also adds the flute, keeping the
head turned slightly to the left to accommodate holding the flute. The
final step is to stand away from the wall and play.
For high notes, Mihoko says you must imagine that
you love them, so that you do not cringe from them. She recommended
experimenting with vowels while playing high notes, to find the vowel
(and thus shape of the inside of the mouth) that yields the nicest tone
colour. "Eee" tends to produce a rather squeaky sound and should
be avoided, but other more open vowels are good -- in the case of this
participant, it happened to be a long "o". Overblowing (cracking
a note upwards) can be fixed by pointing the air stream downwards with
help from the upper lip. Opening the throat and mouth boosts the
sound so that one doesn't have to blow so hard, for blowing too hard can
contribute to overblowing as well.
The Mozart Concerto in G major should be played with
lots of maestoso feeling, particularly since the dotted rhythm of the
opening phrase is a march rhythm. Notes should be connected and
full and phrases expressively shaped. Phrases can be ended neatly
with a short diminuendo, a tasteful characteristic of the Classical style
period. One should not close the embouchure in the low register
before the two-octave jump; nor move around too much, because it may disturb
the embouchure. The pitch of the quarter note C in the middle of
the first phrase group (half-note G on staff slurred up to the C above
the staff) should be brought up. The jumping G arpeggio should build
so that it leads to the low D near the end of the first phrase group; other
arpeggios are connected similarly. Connect all big jumps. In
passages in which the first note on every beat follows a stepwise pattern,
even when there are other notes in between off the beat, make the steps
lead to the end target note. Mihoko pointed out other phrases as
well which took on the architecture of leading up to a climax and backing
down from it: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>climax<<<.
Point the head up for low notes and down for high notes, which
is the opposite of what flutists tend to do.
In the Habanera section of Borne's Carmen Fantasy,
one can play around with the rhythm and add some crescendos and decrescendos
to make it sound sexy and mysterious. Exaggerating degrees of
volume to and from climactic notes contributes to the atmosphere, as
well as keeping staccato notes light and leading them forward to their
end goal.
In the high register, relaxation will help keep the
pitch down, and shoulder and neck movement should be kept to a minimum,
loosening and lowering the left shoulder. To improve the tone
quality of the climactic high B, try playing it on a long "o". Slightly
puffing one cheek or the other (not both) can help to warm the sound and
lower pitch.
For people with glasses, Mihoko recommended stepping
back to see the music on the stand rather than raising the stand or
lowering the head. The chin should not drop.
To the pleasure of everyone in attendance, Mihoko
finished the class by playing for us the the first movement of C.P.E.
Bach's Sonata in a minor on her Muramatsu flute. This was a powerful
performance, rather different than what one might expect from an historical
rendition on a period instrument, but in its own right it was expressive
and moving. Her phrases soared through very clearly, with superb
dynamic and tonal control. We were very happy to have such an accomplished
artist come and share her music and her thoughts with us.