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A
way of living: Reflection on Learning to Teach and Appreciate Music
Kathleen Lamb’04
On June 16 2003, in-service music teachers from all over the country gathered
together to attend Villanova’s Summer Music Institute, a graduate
program devoted to helping high school and elementary music teachers pursue
higher education. The Summer Music Institute in association with The University
of the Arts in Philadelphia (accredited by the National Association of Schools
of Music) offers a variety of practical graduate courses ranging from Comprehensive
Jazz Choir Techniques to Introduction to Playing the Drum Set. Ranked the
2nd largest provider of graduate music training courses for educators (successive
only to VanderCook College of Music) the Summer Music Institute gives Villanova
national exposure in an area that Villanova has not yet developed in undergraduate
studies.
Over the past 14 years, many prestigious instructors have come to Villanova
to teach at the Summer Music Institute. This year: Larry Edwards, conductor
of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra taught Choral Conducting Techniques; Jerry
Nowak, the most well noted composer in band music taught Instrumental Conducting;
Mike Myers, a world class guitar player who has previously played with Bela
Fleck and Pete Seger, founder of Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago,
taught Guitar for the Non-Guitarist; and Louis Fiftal, music education consultant
taught Music Theatre in the Elementary School. Although these classes stress
practicality, a deeper reason why in-service music teachers and their instructors
assembled at Villanova relates to the genuine love of music that they share.
On June 23, a perfect summer day welcomed these music instructors and students
who gathered together in St. Mary’s grotto beneath the shaded grove
for a picnic. After a long day of classes, students and instructors chatted
away about the classes that they taught, or the instruments that they played;
asking others about their musical interests and enjoying the sunshine and
soft breezes, unique for this June. These picnics outside of the classroom
on many Mondays of the session allowed students and instructors to get to
know each other on another level fostering community.
Organized through the Office of Music Activities at Villanova and under
the supervision of director John Dunphy, the Summer Music Institute has
grown as a program from less than 100 students in its first year to over
800 music aficionados today. Such events elevate music at Villanova to the
foreground. Dunphy asserted that, “part of [his] mission is to train
audiences,” that music is not simply for choirs, bands, ensembles
or the average Julliard student, that in reality music is an important part
of everyone’s life, especially to students of an Augustinian University.
An Augustinian community is about sharing ideas, ideas that change people,
promoting growth and as Dunphy stressed, “not just verbal ideas.”
In The Confessions, Augustine makes a curious connection between the creation
of the universe and the singing of a song: “Each sound just as it
is made, passes away; and you can find nothing that you can call back again
and shape by art, and thus the tune has its own being in the sound and the
sound of the tune is the matter of the tune.” Augustine uses the analogy
of singing a song to illustrate the way human beings pass through time;
just as one note gives way to another, so too does one moment, one instant,
one second lead to the next, composing the melodies of our lives, a song
of transformation. Music aided in the transformation of Augustine’s
heart as well. In Augustine The Bishop, F. Van Der Meer records a mystical
experience of St. Augustine that occurred in April of 387 A.D. in the presence
of a congregation filled with song. Augustine later recalled this experience
proclaiming: “How I wept on that occasion at your hymns and your songs
of praise, being so deeply moved by the voices of your sweet sounding Church.
These voices penetrated into my ears and your truth drop by drop entered
my heart and from that same heart a warm piety rose up so that my tears
flowed, and as they flowed I was happy.” Akin to Augustine’s
transformative view on music Dunphy believes, “If you sit in the presence
of great music your life is changed forever.” Similarly, when someone
joins a community, his or her life is not the same after leaving that community;
they are changed. Dunphy said, “It’s like when people come to
Villanova they never go home again, not the way they came. They go home,
they visit. Community changes people; art changes people, change for the
better.”
It is important to be involved in change. This past academic year a junior
at Villanova, John Reinhardt published a literary journal, Change: A Celebration
of Creative works from Villanova Students, Staff, Faculty and Alumni. Changes
through the medium of music and all art involve not only the Villanova community,
but a much larger community. Community, Augustine asserts in his City of
God, is eternal. Community is in a sense a cycle of growth and a truly educated
person continues to grow.
So, if you think that Chopin, Armstrong or Pavarotti is not for you, think
again. Attending a concert, waving a lighter from side to side, mouthing
the words of your favorite song, and dancing to the beat of base drums in
the background is a much different experience than actually listening and
understanding great works of music, which according to Dunphy are, “more
cerebral; there’s not a lot of physicality involved, it’s between
your ears, temporal…because there is a difference between Beethoven
and Bach. We want students to be capable of discriminating music.”
Appreciating the metaphysical elements of life affects the way we live.
As Dunphy stressed, “Music is about hearing…study philosophy
and you will find out that music is beyond what you think. Because it is
another language, it does not require words. It is what it is, that’s
music…it takes you to another place, and if you’ve never been
there, I can’t tell you what it is.” In retrospective, take
the risk, divulge in some Liszt or Vivaldi, their music may take you some
where unexpected. |
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