10/10/06 Hope for the Cross-Listed
Greetings!
I am writing to you today from the strange but powerful world of MIE Cross-Listed courses. I hope by now it is common knowledge that there are many courses, some that may even be required of your degree program, that also count towards your MIE concentration. If there is a more striking interest beyond what the MIE department offers, chances are there is a cross-listed course that will suit your fancy. For me, my course was the Wind Ensemble Conducting course with professor Bill Drury, but what I didn’t realize was just how much (even at this early stage) this course would delve into my entire MIE experience and the model of an artist/teacher/scholar.
Only two classes in, I’m already realizing that this course isn’t only about conducting, but also about performing and reflective study. The way I see it, this is the highest level of performing that there can be because you are essentially the performer for the performers. You have to be on top of your game in such an extreme way in order to even begin to be effective. The amount of confidence is uncanny, and as you can imagine has seeped into my artistry as a trumpeter.
But, much of the time on a podium isn’t about performance it’s about rehearsal. And in this regard knowledge of the score is key. This is where it is necessary to be the best possible scholar one can be. Even at a beginning stage of conducting it is helpful to have studied the phrases and contours of the music, not just as they lay on the page but how they were historically intended. This too has seeped into the other aspects of my life as both a student and a performer.
And in rehearsal a conductor literally becomes a teacher. I realize now that the way someone acts on the podium directly relates to the way things function in any type of classroom, even in a private teaching setting.
As you can see, this conducting class has a lot of implications for the Artist/Teacher/Scholar model, and my MIE concentration as a whole. I’m looking forward to seeing how these notions play out over the course of the semester.
Stay tuned,
-Andy
October 19th, 2006 at 8:03 pm
I remember when I took Wind Ensemble Conducting as an MIE Concentration student. At the time, I had been thinking of it as an entry point to the traditional model of music education training. But the points you raise, about conductors becoming teachers, and also being inherent scholars, reminds me that the course is very much about the Artist-Teacher-Scholar persona as well.