Monday, February 15, 2010

It takes courage to be generous


"It takes courage to be generous"...this from Tharp's book (yes, we are back to THE CREATIVE HABIT again after a brief hiatus due to family health concerns). Look with me on page 136. She says "...to be a great [teacher], you have to invest everything you have in your [singers]. You have to be so devoted to them and to the finished creation that your [singers]become your heroes. It takes courage to be generous like that, to believe that the better the [singers sing], the more satisfying the work itself will be. Without that generosity, you'll always hold something back. The finished work shows it and your audience knows it".
Today's rehearsal and that painting to the left have something in common. "Le Fenetres Simultanees, 1912", by Robert Delaunay, represents one of my favorite periods in Art History...it was a brief movement in the 1920's called Synchromism. The pieces from this movement all are vibrant colored abstracts that seem like gigantic jigsaw puzzles of rhythmic colors. Every color is important; every shape interdependent.
MASS OF THE CHILDREN is a lot like that painting. Wasn't rehearsing the finale fun today? Different timbres, superimposed on each other, aurally "painted" by you, the singers. I demanded a lot of you. 50 short minutes to believe that you can put your vocal mark on the "canvas"; to superimpose your sound on your neighbors sound to create a wonderful aural experience. I invest my all in you during every rehearsal and what happens when you invest back? You DO become my heroes in a way. Every time you take a vocal "risk" and it pays off? PRICELESS. You are creating art, my friends.