Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

I have been thinking a great deal lately about how I want to frame the upcoming year in the NCSSM Orchestra. As you can see from my last post, in the 2008-2009 school year, I had a wonderful book and concept to work with and I referred back to it all year. I have been mulling this over a great deal lately and tonight I found my framework for the year. I am getting a bit tired tonight,so I will expand on this more tomorrow but, I will begin to set it up tonight.

Many of you know that I have been working my way through Daniel Barenboim's latest book, Music Quickens Time. It is heady read and I have really been taking my time with it. I have re-read most chapters before moving on to the next and have been trying to take some time to think about the concepts presented before just moving on to the next chapter. Tonight, I found my framework for the year in orchestra in Chapter 4 of this thought-provoking book.

Tonight, I will give you these three concepts: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. We will be looking at these ideas as they relate to the musical endeavors of the orchestra and as they relate to the community of the orchestra. I encourage you to think about these three ideas and their relationships. Can EQUALITY exist without LIBERTY? Can FRATERNITY exist without EQUALITY? How can music demonstrate this? How can an orchestral community find meaning in this? I spend a great deal of time thinking of the orchestra as a community and, really, isn't a community a fraternity. If so, can the community of the orchestra exist without Liberty and Equality? And don't liberty and equality ultimately lead to Fraternity or the community of the orchestra? How does all of this apply to the music... to the literature?

Liberty identifies the condition in which an individual (musical line) has the right to act according to his or her own will. Classical liberal conceptions of liberty relate to the freedom of the individual from outside compulsion or coercion.

Equality is a state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group (or musical lines and ideas) have the same status in a certain respect.

A fraternity (Latin frater : "brother") is a brotherhood, though the term usually connotes a distinct or formal organization. I often refer to the orchestra as a community. Fraternity works just as well.

I believe that there is much for use to explore here. More to come on this later.

These (and other ideas from the book) will become our framework for the year. Should be fun!

Peace.
Scott

Music Quickens Time

Today I am thinking about some ideas that I picked up in the book, Music Quickens Time, by Daniel Barenboim. This is a really thought-provoking book and is not an easy read, by any means. It is a philosophical exercise in many ways and Barenboim challenges the reader to deal with the why and how of their engagement with music.

Here is what I am thinking about today. Barenboim states that "music-making requires, inevitably, a point of view." Not a willful, subjective point of view, but one based on total respect for the information received from the printed page. He goes on to say that "a musician must always ask himself the following permanent questions: why, how, and for what purpose. The inability or unwillingness to ask these questions is symptomatic of a thoughtless faithfulness to the letter and an inevitable unfaithfulness to the spirit."

This is so true. Regardless of the difficulty of the music at hand, the style of music, or the age or playing level of musician, one must always ask each of these questions. Teachers must always encourage their students to ask each of these questions. For each without the other is fairly hollow. As a teacher, it is fairly standard to encourage kids to ask how to play a passage or technique. How is the easy part. But the how without the why and for what purpose is fairly hollow.

Similarly, if we focus on the why and for what purpose without a strong foundation in the how, we miss the beauty of true technique and accomplishment.

I think there is also a distinction between the why and for what purpose. Why can be "why do we use a particular technique," or "why does the composer use this harmony." But, for what purpose goes much farther in to the philosophy behind the music. It asks, "what should the music do to me and to you?"

I love all of these questions. I want my students to be thoughtful musicians. I want them to ask questions. I want them to ask how to make a passage work, both as an individual and as a group. I want them to ask why one bowing is better than another, why a particular sound or instrumentation is utilized in a piece, why a piece is in one key rather than another. And, of course, I want them to ask for what purpose we are playing and experiencing music. For, without this question, the others really don't matter. Do they?

I am really enjoying this book. I am taking it in small portions. It really requires thought and digestion. But, I highly recommend it. Something tells me, there will be more posts that reference this one in the future.

Until then.

Peace.
Scott