Even if you never heard his name, if you heard a trumpet play since about 1965, you heard the huge influence of French trumpeter Maurice Andre.
Born into a miner's family in the French Pyrenees, he took up trumpet at age 12, after having been taught solfege (the sophisticated French ear-training system based upon do-re-mi) for two years.
The link above details his career, contains recorded samples, and excerpts of interviews.
Andre showed us with his life what might be possible for those who follow their calling, however improbable. Who raises a child with the idea that he (or she) will travel the world playing a tiny piccolo trumpet to bring joy to millions? Moms and Dads, your kid's rather improbable dream may well be worth nurturing. Read about his life, and keep him in mind as you parent.
He was a dedicated teacher and mentor. His recordings defined the sound and technique of the trumpet for his generation and well beyond.
He didn't win one election, stage one coup, crash a bank or brokerage, start or end a war. He played the trumpet, taught the trumpet, and moved the world in the right direction.
What would happen if we produced more people like Maurice Andre and fewer people like, say, Vladimir Putin, or Assad, or EuroCrats, or banksters like Corzine? What if?
R.I.P. Maurice Andre. May your tribe increase.
Showing posts with label Music Teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music Teaching. Show all posts
Monday, February 27, 2012
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
New York City's Last Print Music Outlet
OS, from his headline banner, and his tiny little pulpit, continues to insist that we won't have an economy worth working in unless we have a culture worth the sacrifice of time, energy and wealth.
This poignant short film about Manhattan's final classical print music outlet tells a real tale. Remember, Manhattan used to be the center of the musical world in the 20th century.
Yes, one could say all sorts of things like, 'Bricks and mortar are dead, she should sell the business and retire, she should move to the burbs, etc. etc.' But, on Manhattan, has the culture caved to the extent that it won't support one walk-in music store?
OS remembers some phrase about the canary in the coal mine...
This poignant short film about Manhattan's final classical print music outlet tells a real tale. Remember, Manhattan used to be the center of the musical world in the 20th century.
Al Niente: New York's last sheet music store from lea khayata on Vimeo.
Yes, one could say all sorts of things like, 'Bricks and mortar are dead, she should sell the business and retire, she should move to the burbs, etc. etc.' But, on Manhattan, has the culture caved to the extent that it won't support one walk-in music store?
OS remembers some phrase about the canary in the coal mine...
Sunday, December 26, 2010
New York String Orchestra: Green Shoots Nominee
Music teaching in much of the United States consists of the following:
Mom-n-Dad, with a child eager to learn music(sometimes, sometimes not), engage a teacher with a good local reputation. Teacher teaches Junior some technique, and begins putting him/her through his Rota of favored pieces. That Rota ensures that both Teacher and Junior look good for Mom-n-Dad, who happily write checks. That Rota tends to omit any and all material that might expose weaknesses in Junior's technique and Teacher's grasp of musical styles.
Usually, Junior graduates from high school, heads to University and other interests, and can call up bits of pieces from the rota in the future. Junior marries, has children, and the process begins again.
Sometimes, Junior thinks that music will be a great profession. Junior enters a good conservatory/university music school, and is confronted by a Professor who sez: 'Let's hear a D harmonic minor scale, two octaves, please', and Junior sez: 'What's that?'. The Theory Graduate Assistant sez, 'Please write an A-major scale in both treble and bass clefs, and Junior sez: 'What's that?'. The Orchestra Professor places a middle Haydn symphony on Junior's stand, and Junior sez: 'Who's that?'.
Two years of pain and torment follow, and Junior either survives the Trial By Fire (because Teacher's rota turns out to have been a house of cards), or heads off to pre-med or business, or worse, the Music Education major. On that track, Junior may well end up as a Teacher with a Rota...
If Junior joins the local Youth Orchestra, he/she is run through a standard Rota of about a dozen nineteenth-century Russian pieces, which sound impressive, and neglect such inconveniences as learning how to perform Bach, Mozart, or even get familiar with Beethoven and Bartok. That comes later, in the Trial By Fire, the reasoning goes. The immediate idea is to keep Mom-n-Dad writing checks, and everyone feeling good about themselves.
One effort, quietly underway since the late 1960's, runs counter to that grim march over the cultural cliff, The New York String Orchestra.
The New York Times reviewed its Christmas Eve concert, and the news is heartening. They were performing Mozart and Mendellssohn, not Rimsky-Korsakov and Shostakovich 5.
Green Shoots nominee. A donation link is found at the first link above.
If only we had about twenty such efforts in a nation of 380,000,000 people...
Mom-n-Dad, with a child eager to learn music(sometimes, sometimes not), engage a teacher with a good local reputation. Teacher teaches Junior some technique, and begins putting him/her through his Rota of favored pieces. That Rota ensures that both Teacher and Junior look good for Mom-n-Dad, who happily write checks. That Rota tends to omit any and all material that might expose weaknesses in Junior's technique and Teacher's grasp of musical styles.
Usually, Junior graduates from high school, heads to University and other interests, and can call up bits of pieces from the rota in the future. Junior marries, has children, and the process begins again.
Sometimes, Junior thinks that music will be a great profession. Junior enters a good conservatory/university music school, and is confronted by a Professor who sez: 'Let's hear a D harmonic minor scale, two octaves, please', and Junior sez: 'What's that?'. The Theory Graduate Assistant sez, 'Please write an A-major scale in both treble and bass clefs, and Junior sez: 'What's that?'. The Orchestra Professor places a middle Haydn symphony on Junior's stand, and Junior sez: 'Who's that?'.
Two years of pain and torment follow, and Junior either survives the Trial By Fire (because Teacher's rota turns out to have been a house of cards), or heads off to pre-med or business, or worse, the Music Education major. On that track, Junior may well end up as a Teacher with a Rota...
If Junior joins the local Youth Orchestra, he/she is run through a standard Rota of about a dozen nineteenth-century Russian pieces, which sound impressive, and neglect such inconveniences as learning how to perform Bach, Mozart, or even get familiar with Beethoven and Bartok. That comes later, in the Trial By Fire, the reasoning goes. The immediate idea is to keep Mom-n-Dad writing checks, and everyone feeling good about themselves.
One effort, quietly underway since the late 1960's, runs counter to that grim march over the cultural cliff, The New York String Orchestra.
The New York Times reviewed its Christmas Eve concert, and the news is heartening. They were performing Mozart and Mendellssohn, not Rimsky-Korsakov and Shostakovich 5.
Green Shoots nominee. A donation link is found at the first link above.
If only we had about twenty such efforts in a nation of 380,000,000 people...
Monday, February 1, 2010
In Contrast To Cleveland, A Peek at Memphis
The Memphis Symphony Orchestra, in contrast with the Cleveland Orchestra, seems to be grappling with the realities of a changing culture.
This is a good thing, to borrow a phrase from Martha Stewart. Management and musicians alike decided that the way to survive and thrive in the 21st century is to actually be of real service to the community, to actually become part of the warp and weave of local life. Again. Like they used to do, before they decided that were minor gods who needed only practice and perform, always and only under a union contract.
The first need is to play fewer concerts. In countless communities, large and small, the concert supply outstrips demand. Orchestras are burdened with contractual obligations that compel them to produce - laboriously and expensively - concerts without a ready audience. Fundraising and marketing resources are overstretched and stretched again.
The second need is for orchestras to define themselves less narrowly as concert producers and more broadly as education providers, engaged with schools, universities, museums, with the community at large.
Music blogger Joe Horowitz offers some good words on behalf of this approach, and has more good words from an earlier post as well.
Why does this matter?
Well, let's assume we find our way through the economic maze, and five years from now, we emerge with a stable society that employs its people producing real goods and services, with healthy compensation, low taxes, civil liberties intact, etc.
We'll also want it to be a society that knows how to make music, write books, teach its children about Shakespeare and Bach, and remember that it stewards the cultural and spiritual riches of The West.
OldSouth's darkest fear is that we're failing at both big tasks, and wonders if we struggle with the first task in part because we failed so badly for so long at the second.
This is a good thing, to borrow a phrase from Martha Stewart. Management and musicians alike decided that the way to survive and thrive in the 21st century is to actually be of real service to the community, to actually become part of the warp and weave of local life. Again. Like they used to do, before they decided that were minor gods who needed only practice and perform, always and only under a union contract.
The first need is to play fewer concerts. In countless communities, large and small, the concert supply outstrips demand. Orchestras are burdened with contractual obligations that compel them to produce - laboriously and expensively - concerts without a ready audience. Fundraising and marketing resources are overstretched and stretched again.
The second need is for orchestras to define themselves less narrowly as concert producers and more broadly as education providers, engaged with schools, universities, museums, with the community at large.
Music blogger Joe Horowitz offers some good words on behalf of this approach, and has more good words from an earlier post as well.
Why does this matter?
Well, let's assume we find our way through the economic maze, and five years from now, we emerge with a stable society that employs its people producing real goods and services, with healthy compensation, low taxes, civil liberties intact, etc.
We'll also want it to be a society that knows how to make music, write books, teach its children about Shakespeare and Bach, and remember that it stewards the cultural and spiritual riches of The West.
OldSouth's darkest fear is that we're failing at both big tasks, and wonders if we struggle with the first task in part because we failed so badly for so long at the second.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Green Shoots Award Nominee--El Sistema
Surfing through the trash on Sunday afternoon TV, I tripped across Ovation TV's broadcast of the documentary El Sistema: Music for a Brighter Future. My bride and I are shed tears of joy watching the teaching, learning, and joy on the faces of the students as they learn. At about 1:40 into the two-hour documentary, the film shows a choir singing John Rutter's Candlelight Carol (translated to Spanish), with another choir of deaf children signing the piece with equal beauty. Utterly breathtaking, in a film filled with extraordinary moments.
The LA Philharmonic's hot new music director, Gustavo Dudamel, is a product of El Sistema. In watching the documentary, it becomes clear that he may be the most public face of the thirty-something year effort, but he is far from the most important accomplishment.
This must be seen to be appreciated. The DVD is scheduled for release this month. We'll be buying multiples for friends, students, and several un-named dolts we know in academia.
What if we could capture that joyful, hopeful, anything-is-possible spirit here? Again.
Moral values shape culture.
The culture shapes the economy.
The LA Philharmonic's hot new music director, Gustavo Dudamel, is a product of El Sistema. In watching the documentary, it becomes clear that he may be the most public face of the thirty-something year effort, but he is far from the most important accomplishment.
This must be seen to be appreciated. The DVD is scheduled for release this month. We'll be buying multiples for friends, students, and several un-named dolts we know in academia.
What if we could capture that joyful, hopeful, anything-is-possible spirit here? Again.
Moral values shape culture.
The culture shapes the economy.
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