>
>
>As a teacher I attempt to expose my students, of all ages, to as many
>styles of music possible...While we still have brains to
>think with,intellect to develop, education to have, and a natural
>healthy curiosity for life, then hope springs eternal...In my own quiet and
quite small way I am keeping the flame burning...
>
Very nicely put, Michelle.
It raises a point which has been in my thoughts lately, that we seem
to be in a phase of anti-intellectualism (for lack of a better phrase).
In other words, narrow interests in things which have immediate returns
and great resistance to learning things not yet known or heard.
Most of my voice students are beginners, often sub-teens or young
teens who have a posture, a look, an outfit, a move, an overall
attitude, but very little patience with the reality of actually learning
how to sing! Of course, as a teacher, I attempt to analyze where a
given student is coming from and tailor an approach which will hopefully
reach them. The telling tale of their interests, of course, are young
voices which are plagued with every form of vocal tension and problem
that one poor voice can have--all based, it would seem--on their
imitations of the very limited scope of what they hear--yes, yes, please
don't throw tomatoes, pop music--and no, no, I have never been anti-pop
music!
To me, the question is less whether Classical music is dead, but
that in general, there is less overall exposure to and less tolerance
for a variety of musical stimuli. This seems ironic, in an era where
there is such a vast quantity available to hear. Yet perhaps for the
same reason, they choose the line of least resistance and opt for the
more obvious. Too many choices.
Pop music can be great. But when they see singers who are rich and
famous, they make an assumption that they're hearing good singing. I
hear very little evidence these days of good pop singing or even of
healthy singing. More evident is a conglomerate of packaging and
marketing--the more featured talents these days in pop music rather than
the actual music, itself.
Even music, say, of the Swing era, seems to my ears, innately
musical, innately SINGable, even if it not Classical. To me, any
musical form which features innately musical and artistic elements would
be preferable. Much of pop music today has become highly ornamented,
with curly-cued melismas which sound much like Islamic chant from a
mosque, which peaks my interest. But they often sound tensely, nasally
produced in a way which makes me physcially react when I listen, as if
something vocally dire is about to occur. That aside, much of pop music
today simply sounds very much the same, little musical variety.
I started out singing folk and folk-rock. Not all singing was
beautiful, but there was something innately vocal, musical. My
impression of Classical music was that it was way over my head, for
other people, people who'd been studying privately for years and were
super polished in order to get into a big name school.
When I took voice lessons for the first time in college, the only
options available were training in Classical music. I was skeptical,
but I was willing to try.
That learning experience opened up an entirely wonderful world to
me--musically and vocally. What a greater sense of power vocally,
musically, artistically, than I'd ever experienced before.
Today I heard Ella Fitzgerald singing a Duke Ellington piece the
name eludes me, but it was something like--Don't Do Anything Until You
Hear from Me (?) and it was so musical and so beautiful vocally and so
movingly expressive that I could only hope that our burgeoning voices of
today are having a similar reaction to the limited music they are
hearing--and getting as much enjoyment out of it.
To paraphrase a former political phrase : It's the MUSIC, stupid!
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