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“I don’t worry about it. There is too much truth here [gesturing to the wall covered in recordings] to be diminished by anything or anyone”.
I don’t know the name of the man who said that to me years ago at Tower Records. He was an ancient being who happened to strike up a conversation with me. We were discussing the perceived demise of classical music. He wasn’t worried about it.
I’ve kept his comment with me ever since but every now and then I need to be reminded.
I got a reminder during the interview I had with Greer Grimsely at San Diego Opera. He was talking about his approach to performing opera or concert music like Beethoven’s 9th.
“I try to approach it with the Greek ideal. The Greeks had an ideal regarding theater. Their ideal was that through theater we can experience a kind of group catharsis.”
Of course, catharsis means a cleansing or purging. Regarding classical music it can be experienced at any level of competence. It doesn’t matter if the performance is good, bad, or so-so. So long as the performer is serving the music, we can experience the truth that is revealed by catharsis.
When singers are impressed with their own tone or conductors are in love with their batons and use the music to glorify their own person, truth is obscured. Even if the wheels fall off and the concert comes to a grinding halt there can be still truth and catharsis.
Greer also talked about Beethoven.
“With Beethoven you have a composer who wanted to create social change who wanted to change people’s hearts with his music. [He is] so fervent you can feel it--you can sense it in his compositions especially in the 9th and the choruses in Fidelio. You have to respect what that is. Response to music—and there are studies on it—goes directly to the emotional centers. We react emotionally first. However, you must be open. You must be willing to reconsider a piece of music from a different perspective.”
Reconsidering a piece from a different perspective also includes reconsidering a performance from a different perspective. We have been taught that a singer who cracks is a failure or a trumpeter who cracks has fallen short. It isn’t always the case.
There are stories about Jon Vickers cracking a note in Parsifal and patrons saying it added to the emotion of the moment.
Our experience of music is what we want it to be. The truth could be filling the room but if we don’t want to see it, we won’t.
Pictured: Greer Grimesly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H47MH-PhzEM
“I don’t worry about it. There is too much truth here [gesturing to the wall covered in recordings] to be diminished by anything or anyone”.
I don’t know the name of the man who said that to me years ago at Tower Records. He was an ancient being who happened to strike up a conversation with me. We were discussing the perceived demise of classical music. He wasn’t worried about it.
I’ve kept his comment with me ever since but every now and then I need to be reminded.
I got a reminder during the interview I had with Greer Grimsely at San Diego Opera. He was talking about his approach to performing opera or concert music like Beethoven’s 9th.
“I try to approach it with the Greek ideal. The Greeks had an ideal regarding theater. Their ideal was that through theater we can experience a kind of group catharsis.”
Of course, catharsis means a cleansing or purging. Regarding classical music it can be experienced at any level of competence. It doesn’t matter if the performance is good, bad, or so-so. So long as the performer is serving the music, we can experience the truth that is revealed by catharsis.
When singers are impressed with their own tone or conductors are in love with their batons and use the music to glorify their own person, truth is obscured. Even if the wheels fall off and the concert comes to a grinding halt there can be still truth and catharsis.
Greer also talked about Beethoven.
“With Beethoven you have a composer who wanted to create social change who wanted to change people’s hearts with his music. [He is] so fervent you can feel it--you can sense it in his compositions especially in the 9th and the choruses in Fidelio. You have to respect what that is. Response to music—and there are studies on it—goes directly to the emotional centers. We react emotionally first. However, you must be open. You must be willing to reconsider a piece of music from a different perspective.”
Reconsidering a piece from a different perspective also includes reconsidering a performance from a different perspective. We have been taught that a singer who cracks is a failure or a trumpeter who cracks has fallen short. It isn’t always the case.
There are stories about Jon Vickers cracking a note in Parsifal and patrons saying it added to the emotion of the moment.
Our experience of music is what we want it to be. The truth could be filling the room but if we don’t want to see it, we won’t.
Pictured: Greer Grimesly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H47MH-PhzEM