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>I certainly had to do so in order to graduate summa cum laude, earn two major awards (one university-wide and one from my department) and to receive recognition from the Honors College of my university (population at that time- 25,000), and I had a natural aptitude for analysis and deductive reasoning.
Sorry, Jerusha, I’m not going to get involved in a discussion of the relationship between brain power and university honors.
Hello, Kreig. I didn’t say that anyone could become a music librarian, just that it doesn’t require 9 hours in the practice room in addition to academics.
(BTW, I have an MA in English, and I know all about those graduate language requirements.)
Hi, Louise. Yes, when I got to Eastman, around that same time, during orientation Bob Freeman (the director of the school) got all the new students into Kilbourne Hall and made a lengthy speech, with many numbers, the gist of which was, “Here’s how much money the Chicago Symphony lost last year. What makes you think they’ll give you a job?” Miss Malone also used to urge her students, even in those plummy days of Sunday brunch and restaurant gigs, to have a fallback plan in case they couldn’t make a living as performers.
Thanks, Hugh. Yeah, I knew it must be something the server was doing, but I thought maybe you did your own hosting.
And you know, Alexander (darn, I hate not being able to edit posts), when I was in msuic school (I already had an MA and had been teaching college English), it happened sooooo often that an oboe player or a vilonist would look at me and say, “But���but I don’t understand. You don’t have to do this! You could do something else.”
>Don’t those who want to major in harp, actually major in harp becuase they love it and enjoy playing?!?!?!?
Yes, of course. The whole point is that you have to love it *A LOT*. Certainly, when I was at Eastman, people who wasted time fooling around with frivolities like calculus or astronomy on the side were universally perceived by the rest of the student body as lacking focus. There are only so many hours in the day, and when you spend five to nine of them in the practice room, it kind of limits your time for hobbies.
I’m not saying it can’t be done–I think Gillian Benet had a double major in religion, for instance. But there’s no question that the classical music world as a whole has always believed that time away from the instrument is time wasted, whether that’s valid or not.
>And like I said, you can always go back and get that degree in music later after you have established yourself.
In the real world, this is very nearly impossible, at least for performance, unless perhaps you have a very large trust fund or bought Microsoft at $6 or something. You can’t do the kind of practicing it takes to be a performance major and earn a living at the same time. Possibly you could get a degree in–oh, I don’t know–music librarianship or something, and work at the same time, but I did this and I can tell you you need to have rocks in your head to undertake it, particularly since, as others have pointed out, you don’t really gain anything concrete by it.
And realistically, while you are never too old to learn something new, it’s pretty darn easy to get too old to be considered an acceptable degree candidate at most music schools of any standing, especially in today’s competitive environment.
That’s one point that seems to have gotten skipped over in this otherwise thoughtful and worthwhile thread–majoring in music performance is very, very different from majoring in other subjects. As an English major you can take a little history, some Latin, maybe a couple of geology courses, and it’s no big deal, because your major subject only takes a few hours a week. The time required for woodshedding for music has *no* equivalent in any other field, even in other arts disiciplines. A good friend of mine recently went back to graduate school in theatre after many years as a conservatory-trained harpist, and he had a very hard time getting used to the casual attitude iof the theatre majors and the rest of the university.
I also like the Damase ’10 etudes faciles et progressives’ and the Naderman ‘Douze etudes et un theme varie’, both of which can be used with lever harps as well a pedal harps.
In my experience, my younger students are more open to Pozzoli than Bochsa when they are starting etudes, just because the typesetting/page layout is more attractive and not so forbidding. Once they understand why they are doing etudes, if they are serious, they will do Bochsa without more than the usual grumbling.
Thalnks, Julieanne.
I’ve messed around with the Siciliano, but I can’t come up with anything reasonable for the two measures before the recap, so I don’t go there, at least not without a flute.
There’s no objection to Bach, but I’d be awfully interested to know how you play the Sicilano and the Pescetti Andantino on a lever harp.
Even the use of the word “Grandjany” is a red flag. People who studied with Mr. Grandjany or his students know that he did not have his own method. He played and taught the French method and a real Grandjany student would never ever call it “Grandjany.”
I agree with everyone else. Go elsewhere.
Even the use of the word “Grandjany” is a red flag. People who studied with Mr. Grandjany or his students know that he did not have his own method. He played and taught the French method and a real Grandjany student would never ever call it “Grandjany.”
I agree with everyone else. Go elsewhere.
