[Smt-talk] Keyboards for theory classes?

[Daniel Wolf]

As useful as keyboard proficiency can be (and as useful as I've found it  
myself), I'd advise some caution with regard to making it a universal  
prerequisite for musicians, composers in particular.  We have simply been  
the beneficiaries of too many counter-examples, suggesting that a  
diversity of preparations in terms of musicianship may have in fact been a  
substantial component in creating the diversity and liveliness of music.   
Many composers were primarily vocalists: Ockeghem, Telemann and Samuel  
Barber were noted for their voices. There have been fine composers whose  
instrument of virtuosity was not a keyboard instrument:  fretted string  
players like Weiss or Marais, violinists like Paganini or Sibelius.  
Consider Berlioz, whose instruments were guitar, flute, flageolet and  
timpani. Or Conlon Nancarrow, composer of that astonishing body of work  
for player piano, who was a trumpet player, not a pianist.  Rossini was  
emphatic about the modest nature of his keyboard skills, Wagner perhaps  
even more so. Then there are widely-played contemporary composers like  
Nono, John Corigliano, Christopher Rouse, and John Mackey, without  
performance-level instrumental skills. When I orchestrate, I like to know  
how every instrumental sound I write might be physically produced on a  
instrument (I had a Jr. High music teacher who let me take home a  
different instrument every couple weeks and later worked as a repair  
person), but others orchestrate, and do so brilliantly, without any such  
knowledge. And, of course, there is the equally-important argument that  
some composers are so oriented toward the keyboard that it has had a  
detrimental effect on their non-keyboard compositions. So, in many cases  
useful, but not in all cases essential.

The practical question, then, is how do theory or theory & musicianship  
classes control for proficiency and fluency in harmonic practice given  
this diversity of skills or orientations?  Some institutions will likely  
not be flexible enough to handle this diversity, or even find it  
undesirable, but others certain are or could be. I suspect that smaller  
liberal arts institutions will be more successful than conservatories and  
larger university departments or schools of music, but I may well be wrong  
and would be interested in learning more.



Daniel Wolf
Frankfurt





Dr Daniel Wolf
composer
MaterialPress.com
Frankfurt am Main

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