Can Talent be Explained?
In this groundbreaking look into the world of "classical" music, David Jacobson interweaves his educative experiences at the Curtis Institute of Music with his quest to understand how performers such as Jascha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein, Vladimir Horowitz, and Glenn Gould achieved such unsurpassed levels of musical expression and technical skill. What were their "secret" techniques and musical insights?
Jacobson has spent many years analyzing the approach of these and other master players uncovering their "secrets" (including how note grouping and "laws of phrasing" affect the technique and musical expression of playing) which he reveals in clear, precise, non-technical language, supplemented by color diagrams, photographs and annotated musical examples. His conclusion: the methods, paradigmatic shifts and musical approach of these masters are fundamentally the same, yet diametrically opposed to what is taught by contemporary music teaching systems (such as those of Ivan Galamian and Shinichi Suzuki) for string playing, orchestral instruments, piano and voice. Talent and mastery are inseparable from perception--from how you perceive and understand the music itself. Jacobson's exploration of the "secret" techniques and musical insights of great performers aims to revitalize the art of classical music in general. The rediscovery of these techniques and concepts will:
- Make playing easier and more expressive
- Improve the effeciveness of teaching; the principles of expert playing are clear
- Develop talent naturally, without impediment
- Create many more outstanding performers and composers
- End the need for a conductor's presence in orchestral performance
- Change our ideas about the nature of genius, talent and our own potential
Paradigmatic Shifts in "Classical" Music--Education, Composition, and Performance
"In the absence of a paradigm...all of the facts that could possibly pertain to the development of a given science...seem equally relevant...In the absence of a reason for seeking some particular form of more recondite information early fact-gathering is usually restricted to the wealth of data that lie ready at hand."--
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Interest in classical music is declining. Everyone in the field desperately tries to understand why, attempting to solve this chasmic generational shift.
Music administrators make programs more "pop" oriented. Musicians dress differently. The audience dresses differently. Orchestras play movie music. Musicians demonstrate classical music to school children, hoping if they catch them young enough interest will stick.
But it doesn't seem to.
The one possibility musicians never consider is that it may be the musicians themselves who are generating disinterest.
Upon examination, not only does the training--the educative side of the field--confuse or often permanently impair a student's innate talent and enjoyment of music (parents and students beware), but the way professional musicians understand the music is, to put it simply, boring.
The field is an interesting example of functional incoherence. The system functions, but in a way that destroys itself.
"Classical" music is suffering from an institutionalized constriction, a myopic understanding of what music actually is. This is fueled by a desperate search for order within the field. We, classical musicians, are attempting to create order within a genre--the so-called disciplined art of music--that is unable to agree on much of anything regarding underlying principles.
