One of the most important things about being a music student is learning HOW to be a music student. What does it mean to be a 21st Century musician, or even a musician in a school that just so happens to be trying (very hard) to integrate entrepreneurship into the pursuit of being a musician? Does the 21st Century initiative act as a safety net for students who might not be able to pursue careers in music by loosely promising happiness through an initiative that guarantees that "somewhere there's a place for you"? There is a multitude of reasons as to why the phrase "#21CM" has become an inside joke to the music students at DePauw and one of the most prominent reasons is everybody's mutual lack of knowledge as to what the program wishes to accomplish (In the exact words of Dean McCoy, "I don't even know what we're trying to do here!"). Instead of focusing all the time of how to brave the troubled futures for classical musicians, we should focus on the root of why many individuals feel the intense desire to pursue music to begin with. Why do people like being musicians? If they could be doing something much more practical, wouldn't they be doing that? Is the idea of investing your life (whether that's teaching others about how to experience the joy of music, or experiencing that joy through intellectual pursuits, or performing pursuits) really worth all of the uncertainty? And for the most part, the answer is a shaky, but brave, yes. There are people who graduate high school with how well they performed at their solo ensemble competitions, or the one time they heard one of their friends say "that wAS LIKE SO good!!1!1!" after a solo at your high school Christmas concert still fresh in their minds. Your pursuit of music can blossom into something truly awesome, something that reflects the remarkable feat of every other starving artist in their pursuit of art and knowledge. It could also serve as a placeholder or a thrilling extracurricular until a more striking passion passes your way. But alas, there's the rub. The immense focus on the success of a musician seems to serve more as an obstacle, as it contradicts it's our very function- to enjoy and present that joy to others.
Of course it's important to translate your passion of music into sufficient work. Remember to practice, correlate your understandings of music theory into your practice, don't do drugs, brush your teeth, and please (PLEASE) read a book once in a while. Work should hopefully flow from passion, and passion should fuel work. But as a musician, it's essential to reiterate where the joys come from once in a while. We play music because people like it. Birds like it. Even cows like it. But most importantly, we like it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXKDu6cdXLI
I completely agree with all of this. Sometimes after long days and putting all these hours and hard work into school, we forget why we love our instrument so much. All it takes is just a little nudge or concert to remember why we have such a passion for what we do. Before I came to DePauw, everyone would always ask me why I chose it and what my major would be. "Ideally," I'd say, "I want to be a vocal performance major." And I'd get all of these crazy replies like "Oh.. Okay, so what do you do with that?" or something like "What do you want to be then? Like what would your career be?" And most people expect something along the lines of a teacher or whatever, and my response would always be "I want to be an opera singer." Sometimes people would think it was fascinating, but other times people would give me looks that this idea was very outlandish and far-fetched, almost as if I'd never reach this goal.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the response I received the most was probably "...so what's your backup plan?" You never hear this question when people say they're an Economics or Psychology major, so why music? Things like this are the reasons why musicians begin to question if they made the right choice to become a music major. I personally do have doubts sometimes, just because I've always had my goal set on one opportunity to be an opera singer, but I've slowly been learning that this goal is somewhat far-fetched, and to be a successful musician in the 21st century I would have to be more versatile. But even with all of this information, I will (hopefully) never lose the passion that I have for singing.
Beautifully said. I think the 21CM initiative at times is very vague because I believe it will be our task as the next generation of professional musician to invent other ways of being musicians. Whether it reinventing the traditional concert going experience or reinventing the way musical instruments are manufactured so they are more affordable, it is our job to forge our path. At the same time I fully agree that with our time at DePauw yes we should be focusing on pushing to find the best career path, but at the sometime we need to just play music for just the reason that we love it. I wanted to come to school for music because I love creating music, i love teaching it, I love sharing it with the community. on the track I am going right now in three an a half year I will graduate from DePauw with a BME. Although my path seems clear I am open to what ever journey I do end up taking. I believe that is an important part of being a 21st century musician.
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