Of course you can study all the things that can be defined about music and that's a good start. When I was in school, other students would complain "I don't know why I have to study all this theory, I'm a performance major". HaHa! Can musicality be taught? Of course. You can teach all the mechanics of phrasing, which notes get emphasis and why and that's a good start, but I'm sure we've all heard playing that was embarassingly "over musical" so that doesn't always work. So can you specifically define exactly what perfectly sublime music would be? Well, I suppose so. You could take a performance by Heifetz and put an exact value on the loudness, duration, timbre etc. of each note and there you'd have it. But what if Perlman comes along and plays it, also sublimely, but differently? Oh dear, now we have to start over. Could Heifetz give you the exact parameters of each note played? I think he would have given you a quizzical look if you had asked. Anybody trying to analyze while playing would not be giving a very interesting performance. You analyze before playing. You could try to teach a student by putting specific values to every parameter... or you could just play. It's a VERY interesting experience to teach a lesson without saying a single word. Shut the hell up and play! You define music by playing it, not by measuring it or talking about it.
- Steve Mumford XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX William wrote: I can't agree at all. Why? Because how do you teach something to another that is somehow a religious or spiritual experience? How can you possibly define it? How can you transfer something that is undefinable? Defining it that way is about as useful as glow in the dark sunglasses. If we were discussing Biology or Physics or a real science (even in terms of pedagogy) this would be simply inexcusable. It would be about the same level of precision as astrology or psychic powers. But, there's no reason why we can't treat Horn playing and Music as a real science. It exists in the real world. It is quantifiable. The better we understand it, the better it will become. Nevertheless, in medicine and psychology, things like emotion are quantified and measureable. They exist in the real world. They aren't supernatural. Our emotions are not some magic pixie dust. They are products of our brains. They can be measured in an MRI. If you are able to define musicality you are able to better understand it's effects on human emotion. You are better able to teach it. Someone who can't even define it and resorts to mysticism is someone to me who either really doesn't know what it is (is living by intuition) or is unable to even figure out what he himself is doing. Saying something is religious or spiritual is saying that it isn't understandable. Why bother learning anything about it at all if you have that attitude that it is unknowable anyway? -William _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
