Amateurs Equal Hope

It turns out that Gregor Kitzis, the thoroughly professional and widely experienced violinist with whom I have been preparing a very special reading of Beethoven's "Spring" Sonata, enjoys playing chamber music with a group of accomplished amateurs.  No wonder we get along!

I based my New York career on the proposition that I would learn more from listening to amateurs than from having to listen to students with professional aspirations.  What is the difference?  As a rule amateurs do not have sufficient technique to conceal their vulnerability to the acoustical events that give music its true meaning.  Even if they do have terrific chops they probably don't spend hours every day going through routines of practice either alone or in professional ensembles.

I always prefer the music of amateurs.  I am myself an amateur a cappella singer.  Yesterday I had, again, the privilege of singing William Byrd's Short Service.  Amateurs are, by definition, given permission to be expressive in a way that happens only occasionally with professionals who are under pressure to produce correct, predictable results.

In a way and even though I ask people to support my work in that department, which I take as seriously as when I performed in more public venues many times in the past, I am affirming amateur status also in that department, the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. 

Tone: A Whole New Meaning

Back in the 60's I read Sound and Symbol by Viktor Zuckerkandl, a work which irrevocably changed my orientation to a musical life.  In it he describes and convincingly demonstrates that a single tone is not music, but rather the dynamic combination, either melodic or harmonic, of as few as two tones.

The dynamic nature of tone relatedness is the essence of my approach to teaching.  If dynamic then not static.  That means that your dynamic may differ in all respects from mine yet it has validity simply by virtue of being dynamic, i.e., alive.  On this principle I can listen to almost anyone play almost anything provided they are doing it with their dynamic self and not in order to replicable either a machine-made product, or themselves as they were last week.

And here is where a new definition of tone is perhaps called for.  Since the day when I read that text our culture's definition of tone has changed to such an extent that it can no longer be presumed that we are talking about the same thing when we use the word.  Some people may be referring to an electronically generated sound rather to an acoustical source.  In Zuckerkandl's day electronically generated sounds existed only in laboratories.

Now children grow up in a confused and confusing sound environment in which timbre seems to have become irrelevant. 

I choose toup-date Zuckerkandl's thought by pointing out that an individual tone, simply by declaring itself acoustically, may evoke an awareness that is inherently dynamic as opposed to the lifeless source of "pitch" so routinely passed off on the unsuspecting young as having anything to do with music.

All the Way to Seoul on bits of String, in fact, on String Improvisations

Fire and Black Ice / Shag Rug 35" x 55" Wool/alpaca

To support my upcoming trip to present Tonal Refraction at the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition in Seoul, Korea, I am having a silent auction to sell seven one-of-a-kind works of fiber art  (called STRing Improvisations because they support Tonal Refraction) that I crochet, one "brick" at a time, on the subways and buses of NYC.  These rugs, throws or wall hangings are crafted of recycled fibers, mostly wool.  Directions on how to bid will be at www.tonalrefraction.com as will more photos.  These will hopefully pique your curiosity.

Fire and Black Ice Detail

What's Wrong with Practicing?

Everyone is in a hurry to achieve the most possible output in the least amount of time.  In terms of music study, this has meant dumbing-down the reading process to a mere set of motor instructions, usually coordinated strictly by counting at most to four.

This may yield a steady superficial reading of a piece, but is it really reading?  and is it really the piece?

Having the privilege of teaching a young man who has been improvising all his life I enjoyed a pretty thorough exploration of this problem in relation to the third movement of the "Moonlight."  The reason I never insisted that he write down his compositions much less show them to me in written form was so as not to impose upon his musical imagination the limitations inevitably associated with bar lines and beats.

Imagine Beethoven's dilemma: How to give clues as to the real fantasy underlying such a piece as the  "Moonlight."  without so antagonizing the musical establishment that they would refuse to print his work?
Now imagine our dilemma: How to recognize that we don't "get it."  (For me the sure sign of that is boredom, i.e., predictability, stasis--indications that some hidden clue has successfully escaped my attention.

More on Improvisation

Last night I went to Barbes, the Brooklyn boite where my daughter, Rachelle, performs monthly.  Her improvisations get increasingly fascinating the more I get immersed in the the improvisatory quality that has to remain a vital element of music performance.

I notice that she has two different kinds of improvisatory impulse:  The verbal improv is most free when the musical elements are kept to a minimum, and the tonal elements when there are no words.  She has always improvised the intros to the songs, as she did again last night, but there was a magical moment in which such an intro launched without interruption into a new song.  Even the bass player didn't realize what was happening until it had already taken place.

I have learned a great deal by putting myself on a regular basis in the presence of someone who works with these forces in order to realize the potential disguised by standard music notation.

Assaulted by Sound

Just in the past three days I have felt assaulted by sound:

On a city bus when the elevator is in use to enable a wheelchair-bound person to board or leave the bus, the beeping alert is so loud, so high-pitched, and so insistent that it must exacerbate the already high tension generated by the population who have to wait for this operation to take place.  Isn't life for the disabled hard enough without this negative reinforcement?

At a funeral at a small country Roman Catholic church when the recorded and then miked music that was supposed to lead the congregation in song just turned everyone off.   (I won't even go into the sickening quality of the songs...that is another topic for another day.)

In a gym locker room when a locked-up cell phone wouldn't stop its idiotic blare.

Then came a message on the Music Theory Society's on-line chat from a theory instructor who, seeking to make his Freshman Music Theory class more "piano-centered," wants advice on whether or not to have the students purchase $100 keyboards.  Really? More assault by pseudo?

Charitable Purposes

Among the words that describe the function of Fractured Atlas are the words "charitable purposes" of the project they sponsor, whatever it be, in my case, Tonal Refraction.

Initially put off by the phrase I realize that it has taken on a new meaning in this age of money calling the shots: Any work undertaken for purposes other than making money can be described as charitable.  It has come up in conversation a few times recently.

I have stopped bristling at the words.  But I will not stop pointing out to you, dear reader, that you have a certain obligation to support this charitable enterprise, for that is what it is.  It is not hard to do; you may use a credit card and declare it as a tax-deduction.  www.tonalrefraction.com

You will attain the blissful state of responsible readership and perhaps even enjoy a sense of possession as you take part in this conversation as an insider.