Abstract
Music making and the imparting of musical understandings and techniques entail deeply personal experiences that largely remain in the realm of the ineffable, characterized by seemingly irreconcilable dichotomies: introspective yet communal, traditional yet innovative, and disciplined yet liberating. The preceding verse is derived from phenomenological writings produced during my experience of conducting the All-State Band of Connecticut Independent Schools in 2008. It was my attempt to express poetically the sense of heightened awareness, immediacy, and intensity of the awesome challenge of effectively leading a large ensemble toward attainment of a higher level of musical performance. Increasingly, each musical experience such as this one has bolstered my belief that music education should focus on the objective of fostering a critical, flexible, and comprehensive musicianship among students, and that research must seek to more effectively address the phenomena of subjectivity and meaning in musical experience.
The baton slices its linear path
through space and within
a sheer infinity
of passing seconds
the ideal of what should be
the memory of what has been and
the reality of status quo
reverberate in prismic contrast.
Reality edges ever nearer to ideal
yet never quite meets it
in a perennially tragic flirtation.
Merely a single chord strikes
countless possibilities for resolution
unbalanced or unblended
from the discordant to the uncanny
solutions echo their contrasts and call for direction.
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Hebert, D.G. (2009). Musicianship, Musical Identity, and Meaning as Embodied Practice. In: Regelski, T., Gates, J. (eds) Music Education for Changing Times. Landscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2700-9_4
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