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To understand the context of this post, please read this wonderful article on Washington Post about a pizza delivery boy playing Beethoven.
As a voice teacher, I think it is absolutely critical to meet my new singers where their interests lie. I have many students who are interested in music that is considered non-traditional for voice teachers: pop, rock, country and so forth. It is imperative that I encourage those interests and passions while also giving my students a solid foundation to sing well for the rest of their lives. If I limited myself or my students to just opera, musical theater, and choral music, my lessons would be a lot less interesting and I wouldn't be able to help the many singers who love other genres of music! If there is one area I pride myself on as a teacher, it is this: I find a way for non-traditional students to learn from and integrate their vocal training into their style of singing. I've been blessed with some wonderful country and pop singers who grew immensely as singers and artists due to voice study, and the diversity of my students makes my job much more interesting, rewarding, and challenging. One of the reasons I chose not to pursue teaching at the college level was that I would be shutting myself off from pop genres...and I think I would get bored! DWS When we think of the fine arts, whether it be music, dance or acting, we tend to think of these people as great Creatives, motivated by internal passion who are expressing themselves through their art. Singing, in this view, is less about expertise and more about talent and expression.
This viewpoint, the musician as a great artist, is actually a bit controversial. Here's why: As composing became more professional, composers such as Bach, Handel and others saw themselves not as artists but more as craftsmen, tinkering with the inner mechanics of music to create a harmonious and pleasing sound. Music, in this view, was not an expression of an internal desire but rather the creating of an elaborate clock or device with lots of moving parts, all working in a harmonious whole. This "musician as engineer" viewpoint started to become contested in the mid-1800s with Beethoven. Beethoven was an extraordinary composer even before he became deaf, but some of his greatest works came after he could barely hear. Combine this with the fact that Beethoven was a bit mercurial in temperament and not the easiest to get along with, we saw the invention of a new myth: that musicians were motivated by internal passions and that reducing their musicianship to 'moving parts' was unfair to the artist. How does this relate to singing? Both viewpoints, which appear in conflict with each other, are actually complementary. A great singer has an extraordinary knowledge and physical ability to manipulate their instrument to create a desired effect ('singer as craftsman'). But singers are also great creatives, motivated by emotions that inspire them to shape a musical phrase this way or that. One's creativity is enabled PRECISELY because a singer has such technical knowledge of their own instrument. Voice lessons deal primarily with creating the expertise of a great singer. As a voice teacher, I know A LOT about how the voice works as an instrument, and can help my students achieve what they want to create artistically. DWS Since it is the Fourth of July, I thought it might be fun - at least for me - to talk about Independence Day and our Founding Fathers. While I majored in music and and have made my career as a singing teacher, I also double-majored in political science and have read book after book on American political history. I really love and was obsessed with the Civil War for a good decade, but also enjoy post-Revolutionary War politics. So here's a little about our Founding Fathers on the 4th!
George Washington - He got the job because he was tall, according to John Adams. In all seriousness, THE Founding Father was childless, so our country is quite literally his living legacy. Even though our nation reveres him, he was a flawed man just like all of us. As a military leader, he lost more battles than he won (but won the right ones!), and as a politician, he was very reserved and a bit royal in attitude, which could cause conflicts. But he was truly the man for the moment and one can argue that there would be no USA with Washington. Thomas Jefferson - his 'stock' has taken a bit of a hit as a Founding Father because of his hypocrisy towards slavery, but he still was an extraordinary intellect. Truly a Renaissance man, he was the greatest political writer of the Founding Fathers, a decent scientist, architect, and farmer. His first term as presidency was one of the most successful in our country, and he followed it up with one of the worst second terms (he almost got us into war with France, which probably would have ended our budding nation)! The Declaration of Independence and the State Constitution of Virginia are just a few of his written accomplishments. Alexander Hamilton - The USA is a nation of immigrants, and Hamilton was quite literally THE greatest immigrant of the early Republic. Quite literally a bastard, he immigrated and worked his way up the social circles of New York City to become a prominent lawyer and banker. He became Washington's right hand man and almost single-handedly created the American capitalist system from thin air as our first Treasury Secretary. Oh, and you might have heard of a little musical called Hamilton? Whereas Hamilton was often seen as the forgotten Founding Father, he has gained newfound fame due to the hit musical. John Adams - a man with so many flaws and yet overcame them all. He was pompous, vain, probably suffered from bipolar disorder, and a short fat man, so much so that his political opponents referred to him as "His Rotundity." But he was also a man of extraordinary mental gifts, a great lawyer, and possessed tremendous courage and integrity. My favorite story was that he was a lawyer for the British soldiers at the Boston Massacre because he believed all men deserved a fair trial and a decent lawyer. While many Americans were outraged at his defense, he gained fame and respect as a man of conviction. Benjamin Franklin - a bit older than the rest of our Fathers, he was an elder statesman by the time of the Revolution and was the most famous American abroad. His intellectual abilities as a scientist and writer of newspapers were perhaps only rivaled by Jefferson. He was an early proponent of ending slavery, a great diplomat and a savvy businessman. When John Adams arrived in France as a diplomat (the worst job for Adams' weaknesses!), he thought Franklin was doing nothing and just enjoying the good life. But Franklin's fame and willingness to play along with the French gained American a valuable ally when the USA was weak militarily. Of all our Founding Fathers, he probably would feel most at ease in today's society. He had a great wit, loved science and technology, and was supremely adaptive. James Madison - the most unlikely of politicians, Madison was a very short, thin, and frankly weak figure whose body hid perhaps the greatest political mind of the 18th century. He created a political party, the Democrat-Republican Party with Jefferson as the 'head,' from scratch. He basically wrote our Constitution in 1789 and was the chief architect of the Federalist Papers, which laid out the reasoning behind the Constitution and a stronger federal government. John Jay - the forgotten Founding Father, he was our first Chief Justice on the Supreme Court, as well as a great diplomat and politician. His legal mind is responsible for making the Supreme Court a co-equal branch with the Presidency and Congress (while Madison did give the Court powers in the Constitution, they were a bit vague and seemed of far less importance than the other branches). Without Jay, the power of judicial review - that the Court is the final say of legality on a law, and if it complies with state and the US Constitutions - may not have been created. Happy 4th of July! |
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