Our Higher Calling
As we go about our daily business of hopefully practicing, building repertoire, preparing students for recitals, NYSSMA, GUILD, competitions, developing sight reading, technique, interpretation, etc, just to name a few, one cannot help to sometimes wish to stop and reflect -
Is there a higher calling? Unequivocal answer: ABSOLUTELY!
If yes, is there, perhaps, some divine evidence of such a calling? Ditto!
Since childhood many of us have been inundated with reported signs of divine evidence, some perhaps fabricated, many clearly authentic: perfection of the universe, rising and falling sunsets, life itself, etc. And wouldn’t the divine creations of the Bachs, Beethovens, and Chopins during recent centuries and currently continuing also rate as nothing less than spectacular? Especially those whose time on earth never reached forty years?
The multi chaptered “Music and Its Secretive Influence,” by Cyril Scott, re-published in 2013, delves into such matters, even convincingly inferring that the music of the masters, the very music we teach, can be and often is construed as the voice of the Almighty. Certainly recommended reading for music educators. Published by “Inner Traditions”
During this current and widespread malady of our era - inert “spectating” as never before - TV, the web, entertainment, sports, celebrity worship, etc. - what sets our SPTF apart is that our clientele are “doers and participants: our students.” As the great violinist, Isaac Stern, once mentioned in a chance encounter and chat again “hopefully some cultural achievement of note will somehow emerge in some pocket and hopefully escalate”
We are clearly on track and progressing in that direction.
Fred Barnett
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