Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • James Jordan

    Uploaded by

    thevaillants1
    32 views5 pages
    article

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document
    article

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    32 views5 pages

    James Jordan

    Uploaded by

    thevaillants1
    article

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 5
    Musician's Spiritsirigz s‘anioieuM love thyself—first One cannot know thee until you know thee. J St Augustine P= Ie takes three things to attain a sense of significant £=*) being: God, A Soul, and a Moment. And the three are always here. (p. 65) [25 A human being has not only a body but also a face. > ‘message, a face speaks, often unbeknown to the person. Is not A face cannot be grafted or interchanged. A face is a the human face ativing mixture of mystery and meaning? We are all able to see it, and are all able to describe it 1s it not a strange marvel that among so many hundreds of millions of faces, no two faces are alike? And that no face remains quite the same for more than. an instant? The most exposed part of the body, it isthe least describable, a synonym for an incarnation of uniqueness. Can we look ata face as ift were commonplace? (p. 48) Looking upon myself from the perspective of society, I am an average person. Facing myself intimately, I regard myself as James Jordan aebrol ramet unique, as exceedingly precious, not to be exchanged for any- thing else. ‘No one will live my life for me; no one will think my thoughts for me or dream my dreams. In the eyes of the world, Iam an average man, But to my heart Tam not an average man. To my heart I am of great moment. The challenge I face is how to actualize the quiet eminence of ‘my being. (p. 47) ‘Abraham Joshua Heschel I Asked for Wonder In the summer of 2000, I had a startling revelation that came about quite by accident. While I had thought about the subject many times, had never realy verbalized it, until this ay in July 1 was rehearsing the Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms with the Westminster High School Vocal Institute. This insti- tute had been in place for some fifty years. This summer, decided I would tackle the Symphony of Psalms. I felt certain, that between myself and a very talented conducting staff, we could teach the piece. But I was very worried about how I ‘ould get these very young students to travel to the spiritual places necessary in order to do Stravinsky's voice justice. ‘Things were actually going very well. After the notes of the first movement were learned, we discussed in detail how Musician's Spiritsiziq2 s°asisieum the concept of entrapment was the theme ofthe first move- ment. I was amazed at how quickly these young students latched onto the concept! Instead of examining why this, “entrapment” was 50 easy for them to access, I just proceeded with the piece, ‘We then set out to learn the second movement. The difficult double fugue proved to be a challenge indeed. In ‘order to give some shape to that movement, we sang the entire movement the best we could in order to reach the incredible transition into the third movement, with the text of “Alleluia” ‘When we arrived there, the choir sang all the right notes and had the proper rhythm concepts in, place. The music at this point should have sung, but it didn't. To my eats, the pitches and rhythm were all correct, but the sound was, hollow, almost vapid. I stopped the choir and wanted to share some type of story. Out of my mouth came the following statement; “If you want to sing something beautifully, you ‘must frst believe that you are beautiful” All of a sudden, there was a deafening silence in the room. I knew I had hit some kind of communal nerve. All, eyes were on me. I repeated the phrase. The room remained deafeningly quiet. As I looked around the room, I saw these students as T had never seen them before—incredibly vulnerable, Many flashing thoughts went through my mind. | talked with them about the importance of selfJove not only for a musician, but its role in lifé in general. After that, we sang the Alleluia passage again; it was unbelievably beautiful ‘The rehearsal ended. I was turried away from the rehearsal room packing my briefease when I turned around to respond to someone's question. About 60 students were waiting to talk to me! Before I left to eat dinner, I spoke with each student. Tears were the order of the hour. All thanked 13 a4, James fordannsbrol ssmet ‘me for what 1 said. Many had a remark that frightened me: “I never thought of myself as a beautiful person.’ The tears ‘around me validated my suspicions. These students were ‘growing up in a world that was making incredible demands ‘upon them. The fashion conscious, body conscious eras we are living through have contributed to ths terzibleselFimage syndrome, Many students confided in me that they had or were considering taking their lives. Depression and worth- lessness pervadéd their eves, lay awake most of that night. I thought of all of those who talked to me, and worried about the many who did not speak to me. I knew that many of them were as restless that night as I was. ‘The next day in rehearsal, I storied. I talked of how we all must look inside and search for what is beautiful in each ‘one of us talked about how the world encourages us not to know and love ourselves in so many ways. We talked of the simplistic relationship between beauty of inner self and how music reflects how we love ourselves. We talked about how ‘we must love ourselves in order for there to be love in the sound, What is the sound of love in a choral sound? ‘They then sang. It was incredible. Impeccably in tune; brilliant in color; musical line that moved forward with a

    You might also like