tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10680113.post2345724131769384712..comments2024-03-23T11:40:13.092-05:00Comments on Musical Assumptions: Rambling on about the Future of Music, AgainElaine Finehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14248422399226824168noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10680113.post-85687330085827194932014-07-26T13:48:07.817-05:002014-07-26T13:48:07.817-05:00“Keep on composing, practicing, playing and writin...“Keep on composing, practicing, playing and writing. Against all seeming odds, it's a fabulous strategy. And certainly better than wringing hands which should be holding bow and fiddle.” <br /><br />Rousing words…and sensible advice as well. <br /><br />A similar strategy has been used successfully by a long-time friend of mine. I used to think of him merely as a musical dilettante, but over the years, have come to realize that his dilettantism may very well be, to use your words, a “fabulous strategy.” <br /><br />Let us call him Cyrus. <br /><br />Cyrus was (and, St. Cecilia be praised) still is, an unrepentant musical "jack-of-all-trades” He carries around with enthusiasm all the wonderful “baggage” that comes with music. No matter how scattered, he usually manages, by hook or by clef, to get that musical suitcase from one room to another. <br /><br />What is this “baggage”? <br /><br />He teaches music in a school, (that is his financial anchor…he always says that if you are going to be a dilettante, it helps not to be poor) he plays free-lance gigs, he can’t settle down to specialize in one musical genre because he says he loves them all. He has a rich musical social chamber music life. He dabbles in musical journalism, he listens obsessively to Monteverdi and Captain Beefheart (and everything in-between.) A good portion of his library is given over to books about music. <br /><br />He would be the first to admit that he has paid a steep price for such a musical life-style. The main cost is that he certainly is no virtuoso. He is instead a competent player. I could, for example call on Cyrus to sub for me next Tuesday night and he would get through the Brahms Sextet just fine. <br /><br />He always laments his lack of virtuosity; but he also ruminates that if he had pursued only that goal he might have ended up like one of those unfortunate souls being devoured by a musical instrument in H. Bosch’s "Garden of Earthly Delights”. <br /><br />Take a look at the painting …it doesn’t look like much fun. <br /><br />One of his favorite lines: <br /><br />"Who wants to end up like that? I’d rather sit in the back of the viola section."<br /><br />After many years I have come to believe that Cyrus's path is worth emulating. Every day, I feel I am getting closer to the summit, not of Mount Parnassus, but perhaps to a place perhaps not as dramatic, but in some ways, just as pleasant:<br /><br />Mount Cyrus.<br /><br />There are worse places.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10680113.post-48543788917053150972014-07-26T11:00:24.011-05:002014-07-26T11:00:24.011-05:00Oh how I love these wonderful additions to the dis...Oh how I love these wonderful additions to the discussion! I share your consort and Brahms sentiments intimately (and I am deeply envious of your--probably current--Brahms Sextet feast), Jonathan. I "hear" your positive feelings about writing music that is played for small audiences, David, and I treasure all of your contributions, Anonymous. Elaine Finehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14248422399226824168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10680113.post-71375163641667293442014-07-26T10:41:35.086-05:002014-07-26T10:41:35.086-05:00You write, "When I was growing up I thought o...You write, "When I was growing up I thought of paying money to study with someone as an investment in gaining enough technique and musical insight to do well in the profession of music."<br /><br />An anecdote: While adjudicating a competition, I wanted to suggest to a few in the first round to take up another field rather than pursue music as a profession for the most obvious reasons, and the academics on the panel were outraged, upset that I should suggest such a heresy. The simple fact is that professional slots for musicians are more today than in decades past, in spite of ecnomic downturns, but the competition is ever greater and skill levels ever higher. Thus, to suggest the constituency of some music faculty is made up of never-to-be working musicians is simply a threat to them and their positions. But what of the all-too-many students who will never earn a living wage in the field their teachers encouraged them to follow? To that particular panel and competition, I was not invited back, as you might imagine. Out od curiosity, I looked over the last couple of seasons of contest winners to find most seeking employment as teachers, not performers.<br /><br />You wirte, "Wouldn't it be nice if wealthy people could consider giving money to musical organizations that continue to promote community music and if there could be music-related jobs created so that musicians could subsidize their musical "habits" by getting paid to work for the cause of community music?" <br /><br />Most assuredly. The question is where are these wealthy people, and why should so many give to promote music when they are under attack anyway for their wealth, even when largely philanthropic. It seems that populist politics mixes well with the notion of "community music," but rich patrons generally do not. Given the hundreds of thousands of dollars going to stage hands at Carnegie Hall and the Met, as one example, why donate to the sustenance of other rich folks? When a stage carpenter can be "rich," who will "give" to Carnegie Hall except to place a name in a prominent place? And Carengie is no "community music" outlet, but a privileged and definitely upper crust operation. I'd say the modern poltical struggle against "the rich" bodes poorly for "the rich" being significantly concerned with "community music." Given the draw and demands for social justice of various flavors and sales pitches today, how does community music stack up? Perhaps a temporary loser?<br /><br />But the crux of the matter is that classical music will survive, because it has, and those wonderful musical assumptions, freed from today's temporary worries, seem to skip like a flat stone across the ripples of time. Or so it seems to me. <br /><br />Keep on composing, practicing, playing and writing. Against all seeming odds, it's a fabulous strategy. And certainly better than wringing hands which should be holding bow and fiddle.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10680113.post-90545948508862660892014-07-25T08:52:53.301-05:002014-07-25T08:52:53.301-05:00It may simply be that the era of the professional ...It may simply be that the era of the professional musician is coming to a close. But there was music long before there were professional musicians, and there will be music as long as there are human beings. As you say, being involved in music-making at a fairly high level is easier than ever before, and for more people. I'm not sure I hold out as much hope for community music-making as you do, since communities of various sorts are as much endangered species as orchestras; but music itself can be a raison d'etre for a community.<br /><br />One other thought: while the percentage of the population that is interested in "classical" music has decreased, I bet the total numbers are up, simply because the population has increased so much. Next time a piece of mine is played on a concert with an audience of twenty or fewer, I'll think to myself,"I bet this is more people than first heard such-and-such a Haydn quartet."David Wolfsonhttp://www.davidwolfsonmusic.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10680113.post-59235983812261580142014-07-24T17:48:04.804-05:002014-07-24T17:48:04.804-05:00Thank you for writing such a thought-provoking es...Thank you for writing such a thought-provoking essay. Not only was it provocative, but it was astute and rang true. <br /><br />This especially caught my eye:<br /><br /> "But because of these technologies there is a great deal of room for amateur music making (and amateur music making at its highest level) to grow and continue to enhance our lives.”<br /><br />True ....and thus cause to be optimistic about the future of western “art music” or "classical music” (interesting that after living with it, day in, day out for a good part of my life, I’m now less and less sure of what to call it.)<br /><br />I’m optimistic because I think that the amateur part of music making is the best part. In my own experience, many memorable moments have come from the professional …but the life-changing and sublime memories have come from the amateur times: the collegiums, the gamba consorts, the evenings of 18th and 19th century recreational chamber music. <br /><br />In a few days it will be one of the Brahms sextets…I can’t wait! Would I feel this way about a a professional job? I doubt it.<br /><br />To my students, I am starting to communicate more and more the idea that being a competent and cultivated amateur musician is a worthy goal. They too have changed over the years. My first students treated the weekly lesson much like I did when i was a kid and went to Mr. Bodendorfer.. It was the centerpiece of the week. I never missed and I had the time to be prepared. How things have changed! The music lesson is now only one of many pedagogical and sport occasions of the week. <br /><br />I save my frustration now only for when the busy schedules prevent a young person from taking lessons. But as long they do make time for a viola lesson (somehow squeezed in-between soccer, swim team, chess club, lacross, Cross Country) I see reason for optimism.<br /><br />in short: Where there’s viola lessons…there’s hope!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com