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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Garamond" size="3">Dear List,</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Garamond" size="3">Without intending to add undue complication to the issue of teachers/artists, let me propose the following:</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Garamond" size="3">While I agree (as do a number of recent respondents to this conversation)that successful composers (who may have little pedagogic skill) can serve as effective teachers, I cannot do so without qualification.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Two factors must be considered in this particular dynamic. </font></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><font face="Garamond" size="3">1.</font><span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Garamond" size="3">On the one hand, the composer must be themselves capable of articulating the myriad issues that configure the pre-compositional, compositional and editing stages of crafting a work. This by no means implies that this composer must be extraordinarily gifted at verbalizing the technical details of her/his own processes, but s/he must be capable of addressing (in a manner specific to the educational level of each student) the issues relevant to the work of that student.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In the best of scenarios, this teacher-composer would be able to align their commentary to the specific language/style within which a given student works. In other words, the success of this dynamic is dependent on the mental flexibility of the teacher and demands much of this individual in terms of their dedication to stepping beyond the fabric of those systems/styles that determine the quality of their own work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In short, it requires an extensive self effacement (at least with regard to personal taste, aesthetic inclination etc).</font></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><font face="Garamond" size="3">2.</font><span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Garamond" size="3">On the other hand (but by no means less important), this dynamic requires that the students be not only familiar with a broad range of music(s), but that they possess the capacity to confront that with which they are unfamiliar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In essence, this requires a student who is capable of (not “training” themselves) but learning! This is all too often a problem: one can lay out all the rules, quiz, confirm proficiency in various techniques; but one cannot teach a student to learn. Here (perhaps I’m old fashioned) is where I draw a distinction between “musical training” and education. While the pedagogic provides all manner of approaches as to how we go about training the student, no method can instill that fundamental curiosity that is a necessary condition of allowing the “composer-as-teaching-model” approach to succeed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is as true of composition as it is of all arts (and perhaps all creative fields in general including mathematics). </font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Garamond" size="3"> </font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Garamond" size="3">Cheers!</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Garamond" size="3">Albin Lohr-Jones</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Garamond" size="3">Composer </font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Garamond" size="3">Staten Island, New York</font></p><br><em>-- <br>Losgelassenes kreist; und sind wir auch selten die Mitte<br>einem der Kreise: sie ziehn um uns die heile Figur.<br>
<br>-R. M. Rilke, “Für Hans Carossa” (1924)<br><br></em>