I, music professor (part 1)
In evaluating the music program at my (science and engineering-focus) university and thinking about possible future directions, I have drafted a “re-envisioning” of myself, which I will describe in later entries. Here is a sketch of the constellation of problems I am trying to address:
- There is a paucity of students and community participants who read conventional music notation fluently. This impacts both what material can be covered in music courses and how (and if) ensembles learn their music.
- The university, with no degree offerings in the arts and located in a small, rural, underserved community, is not well-positioned to facilitate conventional instrumental ensembles such as an orchestra or big band jazz ensemble. Conventional instrumental ensembles such as these are harder to sustain than choral ensembles, because 1) beginning adult singers can advance more rapidly than beginning adult instrumentalists, particularly in the absence of private instrumental instruction, and 2) most choral music has only a handful of independent parts, making it easier to perform with limited numbers of performers.
- Community members enjoy performing on stage in large, musical theatre performances, but productions of this type use time, money, and personnel resources without facilitating sustainable growth of music program ensembles in terms of numbers of participants or performance ability.
I am the university’s sole performing arts professor. To justify my salary, the university is most interested in the quantity of people enrolled in music ensembles and courses (the more, the better), but as for my own vitality as an artist, I am sustained by quality (the better, the better). My job is to teach, but I would have more personal resources to bring to the classroom and the rehearsal hall if my work were set up to reliably provide me with some experiences of high quality artistic interaction and creation.
October 24th, 2006 at 5:03 pm
The better, the better. I like that.
Idealism is the fuel that keeps us going, particularly those of us who actually care about quality pedagogy and educational experience.
Ultimately, high quality artistic interaction is probably up to you, but it doesn’t help when the powers that be are working against you. It looks like the inspiration is going to have to come from outside and from the students themselves. I hope you find the microconnections that grab you when you least expect it. Even if it is only three students in a group of 30, I think that’s what we are here for.
October 24th, 2006 at 10:40 pm
Three in thirty can work. I think it partly depends on when the three are in the sequence of the thirty. If we’re getting enough to sustain us when we need it, it might just be selfish to ask for more. But when the possibility of a drink of cool water comes after we’ve expired in the desert, that gets filed under irony in my book…
I think that some idealism and some realism and some humor and some sensitivity can potentially make a good mix. That Lin Yutang book I’m reading now (The Importance of Living) has a fun, mind-and-conscience-soothing chapter on that (from which I stole the previous sentence).