Re: Re: Re: solo philosophy


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Posted by Rick Denney on March 13, 2000 at 10:00:02:

In Reply to: Re: Re: solo philosophy posted by Matt on March 12, 2000 at 19:02:36:

This hurts my brain. At the tender age of 41, I can't play most of the items on that list such that I'm not embarassed if someone else hears it. The closing lick of the Hindemith second movement defeats me every time--I just can't think that fast. Any reading of Effie puts me into a depression (but I still pull it out from time to time). I wonder if many of the complaints we hear about school kids playing this stuff have an element of envy.

I've rarely heard musicians of that age who could really make music. But if they learn their technical lessons well, the music will come. Or not. But the music finds no outlet without the technical ability. Youth is the time to learn technique. I wish I had. I once told my teacher (as an adult) that I valued musical expression more than technique, and his response was, "If you want to be a pro, you have to have *both*."

Fortunately, I didn't want to be a pro, heh, heh.

One aspect often missed, and mentioned in passing here, is that the kids themselves drive towards this harder literature. Why? Some want to show off, and these are the kids who make us wince when we hear them. Others, though, (and more rarely) are driven because they have a talent that seeks to emerge above all else. I'm thinking of, say, Sumner Erickson, as a teenage winning auditioner for Pittsburg. Many of the greats were among the youngest ever to get an orchestral gig in their day. This is the life of the prodigy--their own parents and teachers can guide them, but usually they have to just stay out of the way. The best we can hope for is to help get their non-musical heads screwed on straight so that their non-musical life doesn't fall apart and ruin their musical aspirations.

I can see how a college, wanting only the best of the best, would want those prodigies driven to brilliant performance at an early age. If every school demanded it, they would soon run out of students.



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