Lived Long Enough To See

My forty-ninth birthday arrives in a few weeks. There’s a lot more happening besides my birthday this month; I’m rehearsing three newly formed vocal ensembles for a performance on June 1st. The age range of the singers is twelve to fifty-three (unless someone is lying to me). I’ll actually be rehearsing one group as the Sun crosses through the constellation Taurus and lighting my inner birthday candles. That’s certainly a good solid bunch of candles and I’m feeling that there are enough of them now to let me see (and hear) a little better.

Today there was a  “candle moment.” I’m not sure if anyone else in the room saw or heard it, but the stream and power of music passed through us all while wending its way into future moments.  My youth ensemble is preparing a simple three-part version of a Shaker melody, “I Will Bow And Be Simple.” I asked one of our singers to open the piece and sing the melody as a solo before the other voices enter. Our soloist, born when I was thirty-seven years old, our soloist, a slight and slender boy with bright eyes, stood straight and delivered the song, pushed and shaped the airwaves with his clear child’s voice and a tune twenty times his age. It struck me how his eyes seemed to be lit by an inner place of  vitality, wonder, and joy. We had to rehearse the piece a number of times, and each time he gave this pure and energetic performance. There was no world weariness, exasperation, or sense of tediousness. He delivered each time with sincere delight, his arms held loosely at his side, and body balancing a silver surge of sound. 

I’ve lived long enough now to see that music and singing stirs some bright & inner place within us, that it has, so I’ve heard, many years before my birth, and, after hearing and seeing our soloist today, probably will when I have long left the planet.

Skaker melody…200+ years old. Little boy…12 years old. Awed observer, waving arms to welcome in  ever rolling stream of music…almost 49 years old.

 

 

 

A Few Comments to “Are The Arts Important?”

Here are a few comments from parents sent in response to the previous post, “Are The Arts Important?”

From Aaron Murray, father of Ben and Arianna:

I’m doing my best to get our kids to sing.  I don’t have to try at all with Arianna, but Ben, who has a nice voice, is selfconscious about it.  In earlier times it would be more a part of everday life, as you say.  Still, funny that I hear him singing Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer as I type this.  There’s hope.  They’ve been singing themselves to sleep at night . . . and can go on too long sometimes!

Although they get far too little music in school, I’m glad to hear them come home singing a few old chestnuts learned both in music class or in their regular classroom, and enjoying it.  Music in the school should really be about singing together first, I think, and singing as enjoyment rather than performance.

Funny that the ancient Greeks had the same problems as we do, as their civilization declined.

I really agree with all you’re saying here, and it’s well said.  Will look to do our part in this new year!

From Lea Parnas, mother of Madalyn & Cicely:

Hey Sheri,

Thought lots about the question “Are the arts important?”, and because I am, I guess, who I am (a person who can’t breathe without music), I am bored by this question and want to dive headlong into the solution phase.  (But I am deeply thankful for you who ask and respond to the question that MUST be asked and MUST be discussed!)

So, I think one of many important questions is “Why do we have to ask ourselves such ridiculous questions?”  Simply, we ask because we have taken the heart and soul out of music so that it is no longer presented as music, and therefore no one recognizes its absolute essential presence in the life of a human being, that is many do not even know they couldn’t breathe without music.  How can children love and be transformed by music when they never hear music; today what they call “music” and listen to as “music”, is not music, but really just digitized, synthesized, computerized noise.  Music is created by hand and heart, mind and soul, and must emanate from the only true source ~ man as a spiritual, creative creature of the universe.  In the best possible case, this music must be heard “live” to avoid the listener from facing/hearing more digitization as it gets transformed into a “playable” format.  Analog is second best; once mechanization (digitization) is involved all art is lost from the music, leaving the corpse of a musical possibility.

I forgot to mention…  the solution is teaching children to sing …  children’s choral singing…  exactly what you do!  Force them in public school to sing, sing, sing…  repertoire of value!

From Eden Hart, mother of Merimon, a video from Ken Robinson whose insight may offer a way to begin to build a case for increasing funding for the arts in school

Response to “Are The Arts Important?”

Water or Music?

In a November 7, 2010 blog post, Albany’s Times Union Arts & Entertainment editor, Michael Janairo, asked this question of our community after presenting a potent and distilled view of the NEA’s 2008 “Survey Of Public Participation In The Arts:”

“Do the arts matter to you anymore?”

A musician and friend requested that all area artists respond, essentially asking us, “how could we not.”  I took the challenge, knowing that the essay would take some time to write, but I was not prepared for the depth that the response would require. I did my best to gather my own experiences and all, most from childhood, came immediately to the surface.  I highly recommend giving the question some deep and honest reflection. Write something yourself.  The effort has opened up some wonderful conversations with artists in the area.  Music & books from musical thinkers, lovers, and doers have started appearing in my hands.  Thanks to writing this essay and sharing the issue with others, I now have the same problem that these thinkers-lovers-doers  have:  Given the choice between water and music…ah, it would be a hard choice. Really hard.  -Sheri

Here’s the first paragraph of the essay. The rest is continued via the link below:

“Our age of mechanization leads along a road ending with man himself as a machine; only singing can save us from this fate.”

–composer, Zoltan Kodály (1966)
Have you ever leafed through a school primer from the 19th or early 20th centuries and while marveling at the beauty of the language, clarity, and depth of content, wondered, “What happened between then and now?” I had this experience after receiving a set of used school music books, “The Concord Music Series,” published in 1927 by E.C. Schirmer. The publishers compiled songs from around the world and throughout time: folk songs, work songs, madrigals, hymns, opera choruses, sea songs, songs of the troubadours . The collection is presented sequentially, working from rounds, to songs in unison, then to songs in parts. Opera choruses and classical pieces are presented with a rich piano accompaniment. No dry didactic exercises or songs with wacky lyrics, attempting to sell it to the kids, in this book. An introduction to the series from the editor states that the collection’s aim is to represent, “a history of the human spirit.” When I received the books at my local post office I opened the package right there to share with our postmistress. She was equally in awe over the books from our grandparents’ generation. What thoughts moved the editors to present the story of people in song for every public school child to sing? Obviously, this editor did not perceive music as a class luxury or sheer entertainment, but something everyone should carry around in his or her soul and cranium and actively create.

The Concord books came to mind after reading the summary of the NEA’s 2008 “Survey of Public Participation in the Arts,” which is available to all online. The conclusions based on the NEA’s statistics are hard to accept, especially if one relies on the living arts as a preserver of sanity in an increasingly mechanized, automated, and impersonal world….

Continued:  Response to  “Are The Arts Important?”

Mind On Music: “You want to play the violin? Is that necessary, dear?”

"Is that really necessary, dear?"

There is a story in our household about a family member who grew up in a working class environment in the middle west. Her family was large and resources for anything above and beyond the necessities were scarce. She, being musical, bright, and “on fire” about all of the beauty in the world, asked her mother for violin lessons. Yes, her mother did reply, “Is that necessary, dear?

Was it necessary?

We sort of  laugh, I suppose for crying, when someone tells the story around here.  My husband and I are musicians. My sons are fans of a variety of music.  Records, CDs, scores, monstrous speakers, CD players, turntables, and two concert grands (side by side) consume our entire living/dining room.  Our dining table is round so that we can fit it into the curve of our 7′  Mason & Hamlin (the smaller one).  The potential for music is in the air around the clock, as is the continual yearning to practice (0r guilt for not practicing).

“Is that necessary, dear?”  What a silly question, maybe…

…but maybe not. The 2008 NEA’s  “Survey Of Public Participation In The Arts” reports that a majority of Americans do not find the arts necessary.  Overall, fewer people are creating music or attending concerts.  Headlines report that orchestras are struggling to stay afloat,  freelance musicians in the city are finding work hard to come by, and theaters are desperately trying to find ways to fill seats.

The focus of this blog is music. Is it necessary? Is it important? If it shouldn’t be the first thing to go when budgets are slashed, why not? Let’s build a case for music. More ideas on what to offer on the right: About Mind On Music-Sheri