A painter hangs his or her finished picture on a wall, and
everyone can see it. A composer writes a work, but no one can hear it until it
is performed. Professional singers and players have great responsibilities, for
the composer is utterly dependent on them. A student of music needs as long and
as arduous a training to become a performer as a medical student needs to
become a doctor. Most training is concerned with technique, for musicians have
to have the muscular proficiency of an athlete or a ballet dancer. Singers
practice breathing every day, as their vocal chords would be inadequate without
controlled muscular support. String players practice moving the fingers of the
left hand up and down, while drawing the bow to and fro with the right arm
--two entirely different movements.
Singers and instrumentalists have to be able to get every note
perfectly in tune. Pianists are spared this particular anxiety, for the notes
are already there, waiting for them, and it is the piano tuner's responsibility
to tune the instrument for them. But they have their own difficulties: the
hammers that hit the strings have to be coaxed not to sound like percussion,
and each overlapping tone has to sound clear.
This problem of getting clear texture is one that confronts
student conductors: they have to learn to know every note of the music and how
it should sound, and they have to aim at controlling these sounds with
fanatical but selfless authority.
Technique is of no use unless it is combined with musical
knowledge and understanding. Great artists are those who are so thoroughly at
home in the language of music that they can enjoy performing works written in
any century.
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