What is tactus?
tactus, n.
[tahk-toos]
pulse, beat
a unit that is inherent in the music, rather than imposed on it from the outside
Tactus is the underlying inner pulse, the animating force in music. It provides forward momentum, allowing us to weave music through time. Tactus is the lifeblood coursing through the veins of music, which can also be experienced in nature. Every human’s gestation period is accompanied by a constant tactus - that of our mother’s heart beat. A thread which connects us all.
Musicians perceive tactus as an internal metronome or weighty pendulum that governs every piece we play. The tactus is the organizing principle that unites an entire ensemble in music and movement. It relies on each artist to remember how it felt, to recall the quality of time.
Test your tactus:
Can you replicate the rhythm of a ticking clock?
According to your memory, how fast does it tick?
How closely can you estimate a one-second pulse?
Can you tap the tempo of a piece of music you’ve listened to recently?
“As you begin to realize that every different type of music, everybody’s individual music has its own rhythm, life, language and heritage, you realize how life changes, and you learn how to be more open and adaptive to what is around us.”
How did you fair? The point of this little exercise was to give you an understanding of how challenging it can be to recreate the same inner pulse accurately. This is what chamber musicians work to master and ultimately what allows them to entrain with each other - along with the audience - in performances.
One might liken this internal keeper of time to that of a pendulum movement, pausing momentarily at the end of each swing, affording musicians a certain margin for subtle choice of where to ‘place’ the beat. In this sense a pendulum feels more human, less mechanical. However, the pendulum does not allow these liberties to pile up cumulatively; it checks any general tendency to rush or drag. Borrowing from the vocabulary of jazz, you can play ‘ahead of the beat’ or ‘behind the beat’. From the Baroque and Classical music eras, this is referred to as notes inégales. Tactus ultimately provides a particular time-scale, a calibration that synchronizes musical notation with real-world time through physical movement in the body. Note: there must be movement for sound to be created. No movement, no sound.
Mastering playing on the front side or back side of the beat requires a strong internal sense of time and precise control over rhythmic placement. It involves understanding the ‘center of the beat’ and being able to subtly deviate from it while maintaining a solid rhythmic foundation - the tactus. Experienced musicians learn to navigate this nuanced rhythmic landscape, using these time bending techniques to shape the gestures in music. This is where we cultivate a fluency in our musical language, where the true magic begins...
What is chamber music?
Chamber music is characterized by its smaller ensemble size and intimate performance settings. It emphasizes voices, creating a conversational and collaborative atmosphere between instruments. Each instrument's unique tonal scheme and contribution are prominently featured, allowing players to develop musical arsenal. Musicians rely on cues, mutual understanding and intuition to guide their performances. At the core is the tactus.
In essence, chamber music offers a nuanced experience highlighting individual artistry and gesture-based dialogue. It is the ultimate preparation, the foundation for collective music making, especially at the professional level.
Questions
For more information about TĀCTUS, fill out the form and submit.