November 2008

V.com weekend vote: Would you want your kid to be a violinist?

November 28, 2008 18:36

I've heard musicians answer this question so many different ways, everything from having a whole family that lives, breathes and loves music, to "I'd never want this life for my kid."

I also remember being in music school with students whose parents were disappointed in their choice of music, and others whose parents were quite happy.

You can answer it whether you have kids or not, and even if your child is grown and has made all his or her decisions, you can still answer it! Tell us your thoughts below.

poll by twiigs.com

16 replies | Archive link

V.com weekend vote: Have you heard your current piece played live, in person?

November 22, 2008 19:34

Aural tradition -- is this something that has any meaning for us in the 21st century?

Or does it just have a really weird meaning, as in, our aural traditions are no longer passed straight from human to human, but now they are passed from human to the television to human, or even human to YouTube to human?

Is it the same? And does it matter?

We still learn to speak by hearing other live humans speak to us and each other. But in music, it's different. Very often, the first music a modern child hears is not a song his mother sings; instead it comes from a CD, a television or even from one of those wretched electronic dolls -- or a cell phone!

Of course, I'm thinking about this in terms of being a violinist. For beginners, I like students to sing versions of the songs they play, to hear them played by friends and certainly to hear them played by me. But let's face it, when they study a Suzuki piece, they hear the recording more than anything.

For more advanced students, what do they hear? Most often, a recording, and then snippets from a teacher. Hopefully they hear another advanced student play their piece in master class.

But is hearing a recording really the same as hearing something live? If you think about it, the sound of a violin can vary in the extreme, between a recording, a hall, a studio, a practice room, etc. When someone plays for you, the vibrations get in your bones, literally. Does this happen with earbuds? And what of the entire three-dimensional aspect of music? It's a three-dimensional art!

So I ask you to think about the piece you are playing right now. Maybe you've heard a recording of it, maybe your teacher has played little bits of it for you.

But have you ever heard it played live, in its entirety, right there in the same room? And what are your thoughts on this topic? Is it important to see live performances, as opposed to the ones that go through a television, computer or other recording devise?

poll by twiigs.com

12 replies | Archive link

V.com weekend vote: Should orchestra musicians smile more?

November 14, 2008 19:34

Back when I was in the Omaha Symphony, the local music critic was just getting rolling on a rather routine review when he burst from the page with the following critique: “Couldn't the musicians SMILE now and then?”

Smile?

Musicians in the orchestra loved this. One musician even xeroxed a drawing of a huge, clownish smiley face and left copies on every music stand for the next rehearsal, with instructions that we should color the faces, glue them to a stick and then hold them in front of our faces during the next concert. This we did not do, but I have amended my memory to include a fictional scene in which we all stand for the applause and withdraw these smileys from beneath our chairs, to the great merriment of us and consternation of the critic.

Really, was he listening at all to the music? Why this irksome, unrelated, unwelcome idea about smiling? “Look, I'm not PAID enough to smile,” I've heard from colleagues.

And yet...maybe we should smile more. I don't mean to get up after Mahler 10 and giggle, exactly, but I do think we could connect with our audience, and many times a smile of acknowledgment would go well with the applause.

When I played in the Disney College Orchestra, we were fairly brow-beaten into smiling, clapping along... puttin' our Mickey Mouse on. Frankly we had a lot of fun.

I find myself dramatizing this for young students. “Do you want to watch a person who walks on stage and plays like this?” I ask. Then I drag myself across the room, scowling, give them a hateful look, put my fiddle to my drooping shoulder, play a few notes, mutter to myself, and take a bow. “Or would you rather see someone who plays like this?” I walk upright, smile confidently, hold my violin up in a perfect position, play a few notes, smile to myself, smile to them, and take a bow.

They get the message.

I find this to be a huge complaint among audience members, that the musicians look unhappy. Sometimes it goes beyond that. Once, I came to see a colleague's concert. He played so very well, and I truly enjoyed it. I came up to him afterwards to gush a little, and he shook his head, “Yeah, well actually I totally blew it, and so did the violist and the ensemble wasn't together and I hated it and it was awful. But thanks.”

Honestly, I felt robbed. He didn't let go and give that performance to me; he didn't let me enjoy it.

Then again, perhaps the music should just stand for itself, why should we have to sell it with a smile? We are artists.

What do you think, and what have your experiences been?

poll by twiigs.com

32 replies | Archive link

V.com weekend vote: Should government fund the arts?

November 7, 2008 19:45

This week the United States voted in a change of administration; and despite a general and global sense of hope, markets continued their plummet.

As the economy fails, arts organizations and institutions are feeling the pain to various degrees. Some very prudent organizations continue to do reasonably well. But if your corporate sponsor goes bankrupt, you may well lose that support overnight. If the market causes your restricted endowment to fall below its principal amount, you can't draw on it. And groups that struggled for donations during good times certainly will struggle more during bad times.

Which brings us to government funding. Are the arts something that should receive government support? And how much? Do we support our arts, even when times get tough? And to what degree?

poll by twiigs.com

31 replies | Archive link

More entries: October 2008