Journal Week Seven

So much to talk about in this week’s readings! First, This is your brain on music. Second page into chapter 6, Levitin begins talking about something that resonates very deeply with me: the performance chasm prevalent in Western culture. This is something I abhor. I am sure that many of my classmates (and probably my professor) have come across this as musicians. Many people who have little to no formal training in music but play or listen avidly seem to imbue musicians who perform as professionals or amateurs with a certain magic. Yes, being able to get in front of a room of people and sing, play or otherwise perform is a big deal. It is nerve-wracking and scary. It does not make the performer magical, or even necessarily more talented than those who don’t. It just means they face that scariness. I get very frustrated with people I know who play who shy away from performing, especially in informal situations. Music is not a museum piece, or even a radio piece! It is living, and I want to share it with others and want others to share it with me.

I wish that Levitin had chosen slightly different wording on page 206. He says, “Some people have a biological predisposition toward particular instruments, or toward singing.” I understand what he means, but I think a more accurate statement would be to say that, “Certain biological predispositions may give people advantages with particular instruments, or toward singing.”
The discussion of emotion and performance was very interesting. I think this aspect of musicianship is very related to that of acting. I would not be at all surprised to find that the same parts of the brain used to relay emotion in music is the same as in acting. I feel all performing arts are very interrelated.

Two of the websites Professor Simon had us look at really struck me. The first was http://www.musicbizacademy.com/. A tenet of being information literate is the ability to evaluate sources. Looking at this website, I am skeptical of the information offered. First, though billing itself as an academy, it is neither a dot-org or dot-edu. It’s a dot-com. That tells me it is most likely a for profit organization. This does not discount it, of course, it just means that at least part of the motivation is to make a profit. I guess what makes me most skeptical is why would a student choose to go to a for-profit academic institution as opposed to a non-profit one? The only reason I would choose to go to a for-profit would be if the program was well respected and had better programs than the non-profits. The faculty appears to have very legitimate credentials. So, is my bias justified? I don’t know, to be honest. I guess I would need to take some of the classes and compare them to my other experiences to know.

I was struck by a section in The manual for performance library where Girsberger speaks about sign out sheets. He refers again to communicating with the conductor of the library. Girsberger refers to the communication between the conductor and librarian repeatedly. I think this is very important, and I’m glad that Girsberger emphasizes it. I think one of the most important responsibilities for a performance librarian is communicating with other orchestra personnel to accomplish a common goal.