Sunday, June 12, 2005

Musical enjoyment

"...In a musician's life, there is never a thing called "work". What he does - practice and playing his instrument, singing, or composing - is an enjoyment too pristine to be sullied by the term "work". It could be said that a musician plays through his whole life..."

I wish I could agree with this but I just couldn't.

With the many modern and abstract pieces around today, can you really declare that you love to play all of them?

It's just a romantic view of the music world. You can't choose what you want to play all the time. Oh, how I wish I could be playing Mahler 5 this weekend, Beethoven 7 next week, Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto the week after next. Yeah, I wish.

Playing professionally is a job.

You are expected to behave professionally and bring out the best of whatever is thrown onto the stand in front of you, even if you hate Mozart to Timbuktu.

There can be times where you are so tired out from practicing and yet have to sit down to perform for 2 hours.

I had this view when I was still reading Architecture in polytechnic.

"Wow! I can be an architect someday to design buildings!"

Then I looked at the real world. How many new houses are there for me to design in Singapore? Most projects around are just Alteration and Addition (major renovation without tearing down the building).

I looked at the working hours. 16 hours workday. No, I can't live with that.

Do you think that architects enjoy themselves all the time?

No, not all the time. They crack their head thinking of how to distribute the spaces within the building in the best way possibly. They think of what material is best and what is within the budget of their clients. They are stressed because time is money and they have their clients' deadline to meet.

Do you think that composers enjoy themselves all the time?

They have deadlines to meet too. Don't tell me that composers like Beethoven just composed to express their feelings. No, they don't.

Go listen to the second movement of his Eighth Symphony. It starts happily with the woodwinds chirping away while the strings introduce a happy theme. Do you know he was having a lot of problems with his life when he was writing that?

Mozart was commissioned to write 2 flute concertos for a flautist. He couldn't meet the deadline in time and what did he do?

He took an earlier completed oboe concerto and transposed it a tone higher and viola! You have his Flute Concerto No. 2 in D, K314.

Yeah, I still enjoy playing my oboe but I'm really sick of playing in bands already. It's not everyday where I can play in performances like the recent James Barnes concert.

I need a break!
fjozn at 11:28 AM