WMV Music Web Log

Another reflection on the role of teachers, good, bad, and otherwise. The foolishness of teachers can be as much of a guide in the end as the wisdom, I guess. I have thought a great deal about something one of my teachers said long ago - it was the expression of an idea which I regard as an aphorism of the devil. It was words to this effect: that it does not matter what you, the performer, feel about what you are doing - the only thing that matters is the effect you produce on the listener. What is diabolical about this idea? It is that it is a recipe for loss of soul. Now, I sit down with a Chopin Nocturne and think to myself, the only thing that matters here is the delight that I experience with each note that I play, the same delight that Chopin must have experienced with these chords, sonorities, resonances. This is the delight that you are invited to share. Nothing, nothing else matters.

As long as I am in a philosophical frame of mind (Chopin does that to me), a thought about youth and age. To youth, the sentiments of age may seem incomprehensible or overwhelming (as I seem to recall). To age, the concerns of youth, which were once our own, may no longer be of interest to us. I would like to have enthusiasm for both, not thinking one better than the other. Art allows us community with both the young and mature Beethoven, for instance. I have thought the early works of Beethoven frivolous compared with later ones, but I might like to reconsider that view.