At 10:13 AM -0400 6/24/02, Andrew Stiller wrote: >> >>I get that from my students a lot - "But it's what I WANT!" to >>which my response usually is, "Then DON'T want it, because it's >>bad! Want something GOOD instead." That usually gets a laugh out of >>them, because I'm not as tough as that answer makes me sound. But >>it gets them thinking along other lines... >> >>Christopher > >Throughout this thread I can't help but be constantly reminded of >another stubborn corporate CEO who wrote what he wanted instead of >what was practical, in a form almost impossible to read and >considered impossible to play by the standards of his day. He >occasionally hired small orchestras to try stuff out for him; they >always made a mess of it, of course, and professional musicians told >him he was nuts. The editing and performance of his music remain >problematic to this day. > >The only difference--and I admit it's a big one--is that Charles >Ives had an undergraduate music degree from Yale. But I confess this >whole project of forcing a square peg into a round hole makes me >more than a little uncomfortable. > >-- >Andrew Stiller
OK, I've had a bunch of feedback on this item, which I thought was simply a humourous way of pointing out that students don't ALWAYS want what they THINK they want. If someone REALLY wants a passage to sound a certain way, more power to him, and I can help him with that. In fact, one of my popular comments is "may as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb" which is to say, if you are going for a certain unusual sound, do it big rather than timidly. But often the student is waving his arms frantically trying to dance without any clue or inspiration, and invokes the "But I WANT it that way" just to deflect criticism. That's when I call him on it. And on the subject of unusual demands on players, I counsel, "Pick your battles." If the end result is musical and worth it, almost any amount of challenge can be dealt with by the players. If the result is lost, or masked, or not musically worthwhile, then the players resent it, and you will be pulling teeth trying to get it to sound. That's not to say that a certain amount of teeth-pulling doesn't occur anyway, but there's no use making things more difficult for everyone than they have to be. I'm sorry my comment gave the impression that I was one of those teachers who wants all his students to sound like him. In fact, I am as far from that philosophy as I can possibly position myself, as were most of my favourite teachers. Christopher _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
