I've been thinking about speaking about music. Whenever I can I like to talk to the audience during performances, to give them a path into the works I'm performing. I'm working on the script for my Musicians for Michiana show next weekend, and am always looking for connections that I can make to really make the music resonate. I find it very frustrating to be in the orchestra and observe missed opportunities for that type of connection. Communication is important.
I had a great haircut a few months back.
When I raved about it, my stylist told me that she thought of her job as being more about communication than craft, and explained that many people - like me - didn't really have words to express exactly what they wanted their hair to be.
I gave her vague images and emotional language about my hair, and she crystallized those into a concrete hair proposal and executed it. When I said, inarticulately, that I liked what she'd done and wanted more, she understood that to mean that I wanted, specifically, more texture in the back layers of my hair, and did just that. Although I have HAD hair my whole life, I don't specialize in hairstyling, and did not have the language to describe the change I wanted. This lady translated me back to me and gave me a great haircut.
Similarly, I believe that many people love classical music, especially contemporary music, but most don't know that they do. They don't know how to hear what I hear, or how to listen for the small details that make one piece different from another and special. This is something that I AM good at translating, and sharing in a friendly way. I'm proud of that.
Perhaps this is the case in many careers. Certainly verbal communication is unexpectedly crucial in mine. In school I studied the oboe, and how to play it. That was my education. But being able to connect to people outside your own area of expertise - talking not only to musicians but to the general public ABOUT music - is what our industry needs. It's an important way forward for the arts.
Of course it's easy and enjoyable to practice and to bury yourself in scholarship and scales and try to be the best performer around. It must be fun to experiment on real and fake heads and hone your scissor skills. It's not enough to be great at what you do. Really, you have to be able to clarify for everyone WHY it's great, and why they should care.
I had a great haircut a few months back.
When I raved about it, my stylist told me that she thought of her job as being more about communication than craft, and explained that many people - like me - didn't really have words to express exactly what they wanted their hair to be.
I gave her vague images and emotional language about my hair, and she crystallized those into a concrete hair proposal and executed it. When I said, inarticulately, that I liked what she'd done and wanted more, she understood that to mean that I wanted, specifically, more texture in the back layers of my hair, and did just that. Although I have HAD hair my whole life, I don't specialize in hairstyling, and did not have the language to describe the change I wanted. This lady translated me back to me and gave me a great haircut.
Similarly, I believe that many people love classical music, especially contemporary music, but most don't know that they do. They don't know how to hear what I hear, or how to listen for the small details that make one piece different from another and special. This is something that I AM good at translating, and sharing in a friendly way. I'm proud of that.
Perhaps this is the case in many careers. Certainly verbal communication is unexpectedly crucial in mine. In school I studied the oboe, and how to play it. That was my education. But being able to connect to people outside your own area of expertise - talking not only to musicians but to the general public ABOUT music - is what our industry needs. It's an important way forward for the arts.
Of course it's easy and enjoyable to practice and to bury yourself in scholarship and scales and try to be the best performer around. It must be fun to experiment on real and fake heads and hone your scissor skills. It's not enough to be great at what you do. Really, you have to be able to clarify for everyone WHY it's great, and why they should care.
Thank you again, Jennet for touching on a subject dear to my heart,(and my ears). The value of every artistic manifestation is augmented immeasurably by the act of sharing. Sharing the experience of listening with someone is multiplied by at least two. There is a certain degree of pleasure in knowing-sensing that another soul near you is feeling the same thing, although slightly differently. This experience of sharing is further assisted and enriched further by the explanations given before the performance either by the performer, or a person assigned the task. Since I ‘ve been attending SBS I remember well one time you appeared and very articulately explained the piece , and in words and terms that non musicians were likely to understand and internalize. I was truly delighted a few days ago, when the News Hour, for celebrating Mozart’s birthday (the 27th) invited Rob Kapilow, a musician and composer to explain the genius of Mozart.(As if this could be done in one or two soundbites)! And by happy coincidence he chose the 40th in G Minor, and began by the playing on the piano the first 3 notes of the first movement. He was so clear and so enthusiastic that I was certain many viewers shared his excitement.( Happy coincidence because I played second violin at 14 at a concert that our conservatory performed, We began with the 40th). I wish that the S. Bend Symphony adopted this practice with some regularity. And since I just remembered it I must mention it. It is a series of lectures given by Leonard Bernstein at Harvard in the ‘70s.The title is “The Unanswered Question.” It’s available on the internet for free. He is really a true(was) teacher of music.
ReplyDeleteThanks again
Dimitri