I sort of
fell into this blog; I knew I wanted to do a blog on music for a while and so a
few weeks ago I just began and posted a short history of Western Classical
Music. I followed that up with a discussion of the Incomplete, Dominant, Minor
9th, Chord. When a friend of mine commented that the latter post
might be over the heads of most readers, I told him that I hadn’t yet defined
my voice or my audience. Maybe that’s a good thing? We shall see…
Musical
thinking is a term I use with my students and colleagues as a replacement for
the more common terms theory and harmony. Theory sounds to me too theoretical
and harmony seems to exclude rhythm and melody. For a while I used the
anachronistic term solfeggio, but that term was just too anachronistic. I like
the term musical thinking, for music is the result of musical thinking.
Music exists
first in the musical sphere and then manifests in the physical sphere. Andre
Segovia was suggesting this when he said, “What
the world does not need is another guitar player; what the world does need are
musicians and artists who happen to play the guitar.” A guitar player’s consciousness is absorbed
in the Physical Sphere; a musician’s consciousness is absorbed in the Musical
Sphere, and the artist’s consciousness is absorbed in the Artistic Sphere.
An artist
may create art through music and music may be created on the guitar. It could
be said that an artist is absorbed in the Artistic Sphere and then communes
with the Musical and Physical spheres. A guitar player is absorbed in the
Physical Sphere and, at best, communes with the Musical and Artistic Spheres. It
is my experience that guitar players can be very impressive, but that after a while
I start to get the feeling that they speak beautifully but really have nothing
to say. I leave the concert impressed, but not changed.
I remember
how it was when leaving Segovia’s concerts; people were smiling, there was a feeling
of tangible joy in the group and I wondered if it had anything to do with how
Segovia had become a master musician—had mastered music by serving music—by making
his life the servant of music?
Indeed,
Segovia was an artist who painted not with pigment and canvas, but with sound
and rhythm. Segovia created art and was a great musician and was also a great
guitar player. Listen to the early recordings; hear how he controlled both
silence and sound and time. It is my opinion that no one who has ever played
the guitar did it better.
