Lost Secrets of Master Musicians: A Window into Genius - Softcover

Jasobson, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0996957901 ISBN 13: 9780996957908

Publisher: Sfim Books Inc, 2016

Synopsis

Can Talent be Explained? The "Secret" Techniques of Great Musicians

In this groundbreaking look into the world of "classical" music, David Jacobson interweaves his educative experiences at the Curtis Institute of Music with his quest to understand how performers such as Jascha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein, Vladimir Horowitz, and Glenn Gould achieved such unsurpassed levels of musical expression and technical skill. What were their "secret" techniques and musical insights? Can students learn the principles of musical expression the greatest players used?

   Jacobson has spent many years analyzing the approach of these and other master players uncovering their "secrets" (including how note grouping, "laws of phrasing" and alignment with the meta-pattern of music--MPM-- affect the technique and musical expression of playing) which he explains in clear, precise, non-technical language, supplemented by color diagrams, photographs and annotated musical examples. (YouTube videos can now be played at 1/4 and 1/2 speed at pitch. Go to "settings" and select the speed.)

  His conclusion: the methods, paradigmatic shifts and musical approach of these masters are essentially the same, yet, fundamentally different and often opposite to what is taught by contemporary music teachers and accepted methods--such as those of Ivan Galamian and the Suzuki method (which are both critically examined)--for string playing, orchestral instruments, piano and voice. 
    Jacobson's dissatisfaction with contemporary pedagogical methods, which tend to be based on the personal beliefs of particular teachers, led him to search for a more rigorously researched pedagogical platform (by studying the methods of great masters) that could serve as a fundamental paradigmatic model for the teaching of all instruments and voice applicable to any genre of music. The rediscovery of these techniques and concepts will:

• Provide a paradigmatic pedagogical model for the teaching of all instruments and voice
• Make playing easier and more expressive 
• Improve the effectiveness of teaching; the principles of expert playing are clear
• Develop talent naturally, without impediment
• Create many more outstanding performers and composers
• End the need for a conductor's presence in orchestral performance
• Change our ideas about the nature of genius, talent and our own potential

In an unfinished treatise, the great cellist, Emanuel Feuermann, wrote:

"It is surprising how few rules and principles there are and still more surprising how completely they change the entire style of playing..the really outstanding string players, whether Kreisler, Casals, or Heifetz, are similar to each other in the way they use their muscular systems and handle their instruments and bows. The main difference lies in their different personalities, talents and ideas, and only to a very small extent in their techniques..."

Lost Secrets of Master Musicians argues that:
Music has a meta-pattern (MPM).
This pattern is discoverable. 
Great players' technique and musical expression emerge from this meta-pattern (the ones studied in the book). 
This may or may not have been a conscious alignment, but represents a gestalt shift in perception. 
The field, and educational organs of classical music, as a whole, derive their teaching of technique and musical expression from analysis of the printed music. 
Printed music is an abstraction of music. It's patterns are fundamentally opposite and incommensurable with the meta-pattern of music. 
Fundamental mental (conceptual)/physical settings determine potential, both individually and systemically. 
The great players studied in this book learned to play from printed music. 
Yet, the mental/physical settings of these master musicians (the ones studied in this book) were aligned to the meta-pattern of music. Physically, mentally and expressively they were in congruent relationship with their medium. (to continue, go to See All Editorial Reviews)

About this title

About the Author

Violinist, writer and lecturer, David Jacobson is the founder and director of the San Francisco Institute of Music where he created a unique system of teaching, employing what he terms the theory of "bel canto instrumental technique," now known as the SFIM (San Francisco Institute of Music) Method. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Ivan Galamian, and has a Master of Music Performance degree from Boston University. He writes a blog on music at Melonaissance.com

From the Back Cover

Lost Secrets of Master Musicians: A Window Into Genius argues that:

There is a meta-pattern to music.

This pattern is discoverable.

Great players' technique and musical expression emerge from this meta-pattern (the ones studied in the book).

This may or may not have been a conscious alignment, but represents a gestalt shift in perception.

The field, and educational organs of classical music, as a whole, derive their teaching of technique and musical expression from analysis of the printed music.

Printed music is an abstraction of music. It's patterns are fundamentally opposite and incommensurable with the meta-pattern of music.

Fundamental mental (conceptual)/physical settings determine potential, both individually and systemically.

The great players studied in this book learned to play from printed music.

Yet, the mental/physical settings of these master musicians (the ones studied in this book) were aligned to the meta-pattern of music. Therefore, their concepts emerged from this bedrock reality of music. Physically, mentally and expressively they were in congruent relationship with their medium.

This psychological sympathy (and the feedback created by congruence with the meta-pattern of music) funneled--circumscribed--their action, presenting to them the possibility of technical wizardry and naturally expressive, inherently creative performance, evidencing in them what we would call "genius" or describe as "great talent."

The gestalt perceptual shifts made by these performers not only include an unconscious or conscious alignment with the meta-pattern of music, but several other highly counter-intuitive gestalt perceptual shifts regarding awareness of recursive patterns in physical motion and musical recursive patterning with the meta-pattern.

Implicit within these mental/physical structures is the capacity to generate complex musical patterns from a few very simple mental/physical parameters and constraints.

Once known, these gestalt shifts, perceptual, physical, musical can be taught--practically applied to: playing technique in all instruments and voice, to teaching and performing.

Bel canto singing derives from alignment to the meta-pattern, and was the model of musical declamation consciously studied by every great composer and instrumental performer.

Bel canto singers learned from music, but many did not.

How they made the above-mentioned perceptual shifts may constitute what Rossini describes as "the secrets of...traditions... If those who posses the great, true traditions disappear without leaving disciples on their level, the art vanishes, dies." (generational learning)

Speech declamation more closely approximates music's meta-pattern than does printed music.
a. Rhythm is derived from the rhythm of the body and speech pattern.
b. Playing or singing by ear does not necessarily align with music's meta-pattern.

Our current classical music paradigm is incommensurable with the meta-pattern of music and with "the secrets of those traditions."

Its foundational settings--educational paradigms, performance practices--are derived from the study of printed music without the requisite gestalt shifts necessary for alignment with the meta-pattern.

This produces results antagonistic to the actual nature of music--to the meta-pattern.

This "false" alignment produces a fetish for perfectionism, a mechanical understanding and "re-creation" of the music, and a pedagogical structure at odds with the true nature of music. As a result of this, our current educational paradigm confuses and often destroys the efforts of serious students of music.

(Students are not only our future performers. They are our future audience. Their interest is to a great extent, as in any field, not separate from their success in learning.)

There is common agreement that interest in classical music is dwindling; that younger people are not interested in the genre and that the "new" music of contemporary composers is widely rejected by audiences.

Even though there are societal changes that may be negatively affecting the genre, educational factors are the only aspect of this problem over which musicians have any control.

These educative misunderstandings are serious enough to have a profoundly deleterious affect on the art form.

Because foundational settings circumscribe potential, creative energy for teaching, composing and performance in the classical music field would be significantly increased if aligned to the meta-pattern of music.

Teaching music to students would be easier, enjoining creative playing as a natural part of learning and performance. The structure of performance (eventually ending the need for conductors in performance) would be reconfigured, opening possibilities for more creative approaches to public performance and composition.

These changes could stem the tide in a genre currently drifting into oblivion.

From the Inside Flap

Paradigmatic Shifts in "Classical" Music--Education, Composition, and Performance

"In the absence of a paradigm...all of the facts that could possibly pertain to the development of a given science...seem equally relevant...In the absence of a reason for seeking some particular form of more recondite information early fact-gathering is usually restricted to the wealth of data that lie ready at hand."--
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Interest in classical music is declining. Everyone in the field desperately tries to understand why, attempting to solve this chasmic generational shift.

Music administrators make programs more "pop" oriented. Musicians dress differently. The audience dresses differently. Orchestras play movie music. Musicians demonstrate classical music to school children, hoping if they catch them young enough interest will stick.

But it doesn't seem to.

The one possibility musicians never consider is that it may be the musicians themselves who are generating disinterest.

Upon examination, not only does the training--the educative side of the field--confuse or often permanently impair a student's innate talent and enjoyment of music (parents and students beware), but the way professional musicians understand the music is, to put it simply, boring.

The field is an interesting example of functional incoherence. The system functions, but in a way that destroys itself.

"Classical" music is suffering from an institutionalized constriction, a myopic understanding of what music actually is. This is fueled by a desperate search for order within the field. We, classical musicians, are attempting to create order within a genre--the so-called disciplined art of music--that is unable to agree on much of anything regarding underlying principles.

Edition details

• Publisher: Sfim Books Inc
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0996957901
• ISBN 13: 9780996957908
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 449