If I may share something with you...
This post comes from my friend Noah, in Banff, a fellow musician (as is Bonnie his now-wife) and really all-around smart guy. He posted this in his blog after receiving it as a forward in his email and I swear it couldn't have come at a better time for me.
You have to scroll down past his news about the piano and giving a recital, but you will come to an address given to the parents of an incoming freshman class at Boston Conservatory about the importance of music and art in our crazy world. This is totally something my parents need to read!
Bonjour, c'est moi.
- Danielle
- Your average Canadian soprano sallies forth into the big bad world of classical music in search of integrated, meaningful experiences as a performer and spectator. Currently in Baltimore, MD, pursuing a Masters degree in voice performance under the tutelage of Phyllis Bryn-Julson. Special interest in contemporary and experimental classical music, as well as interdisciplinary projects.
6 comments:
I must be one of the only people who thought this, but I rather disliked Paulnack's commencement address. I found it a bit smarmy in tone and philosophically problematic. My (admittedly skeletal and Scholastically-inclined) response is here.
Aaron -- you're partly right, of course. In terms of the purpose and target audience of his speech, however, he was bang on. I didn't come from a musical family; my parents fear for my well-being on, I'm sure, a daily basis. They are the ones who need to hear this type of thing. People who are not musicians, who do not have a well-developed understanding of the place of art music in our society, let alone a music-making credo, need to have perspective, preferably from an impartial and educated source, someone who can say, "It's OK guys. She knows what she's doing, and what she's doing is worthwhile and she won't live in a box, and it's just as important as going to med school and DON'T YOU FORGET THAT."
He's right about the Greeks, though. Catharsis never goes out of style.
Well, sure. Admittedly, a coherent-but-flawed defence of the arts is better than nothing. I just don't think that we should let him off the hook just because his speech served its purpose. Particularly when the basic message ("music is important!") could have been communicated in a more credible manner.
Thanks much for the link, by the way!
OK, that's fair, I guess. Except that I more got "Your kids are not wasting their lives and their ample brains by being musicians, and this is why", as the main message, and I think that's just my particular perspective.
No problem! It's an interesting blog to say the least.
I should probably not weigh in on this conversation because both of you have a musical background and I don't. I read his blog and from a logical point of view he makes excellent points and from my limited exposure to music, it is well thought out and makes sense. But I think he neglects the deeper value of music in our society. And that is students invoved with music at a young age score much better in the subjects they take in school than those who are not involved with music. The studies are widespread. Music opens their minds in a way that other scholastic things can't. In my previous life I was involved with some of the studies done in the US and Canada. Music brings out the soul. It deepens our perspective on many things. It clarifies the mind. In short, it is a very powerful tool in our lives.
So, I have weighed in and I am sure both of you think I am complete idiot. Fair enough, but I feel better.
Tim
The last blog was me not anonymous..........I pushed the wrong button. It was from Tim!
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