Marian Seldes observed that one of the great problems of being an actor was accepting, or coming to terms with the inevitable rejection in auditioning for roles each year. Along with artistic capacity -- we can add to the list of necessary attributes for a performer some means for handling disappointment. It's curious balance. We seek persons of delicate sensitivity and perception; they also need to withstand the turbulence of other … [Read more...]
Unhinged
C. P. E. Bach writes in his treatise: "A musician cannot move others unless he too is moved. He must of necessity feel all of the affects that he hopes to arouse in his audience, for the revealing of his own humor will stimulate a like humor in the listener. In languishing, sad passages, the performer must languish and grow sad. Thus will the expression of the piece be more clearly perceived by the listeners...." It's an old and ongoing … [Read more...]
Extempore
In the Classical music world, it is as if most musicians have forgotten how to talk -- or never learned. They can't communicate with easy ordinary extemporaneous speech. Can't express themselves in daily conversation. Instead, only scripts -- the detailed record, the detailed notation, the traces of music. We are always reading, never speaking for ourselves. Never communicating just what's on our minds or in our hearts. We are mute, unless the … [Read more...]