Music, amateurishness, and not being an expert

It's kind of ironic that I don't post about music more often, especially given the title of this weblog. I initially thought that amongst the academia posts and the day-to-day stuff and the thoughts about poetry, I'd also be writing posts about music. But I always end up feeling like I don't have the language or the expertise to talk about it. It's been years since I played an instrument, and I never really studied music after that; I also still suffer from bouts of Graduate Student Syndrome (shorthand for "If I haven't researched it exhaustively, I can't say anything at all"). I fret about not being knowledgeable enough, and being recognized as such by people who are more knowledgeable than I am. And that's just silly. Lynn at Reflections in d minor, the latest long-overdue addition to the blogroll, describes herself in her musical autobiography as "still listening, still discovering" — as am I, but she does a lot more music-blogging than I do.

But it's all relative, isn't it? During intermission at the Cecilia Bartoli concert I attended this weekend, I ended up talking to the woman two seats over. (She'd overheard me talking about the program with my friend T., who came with me.) Did I play anything, she asked. I said no. "You certainly seem to know a lot about music — I don't know much of anything about it," she replied. I said something about having an inexpert but occasionally obsessive interest. Then the guy on my other side, who'd leaned over to ask if he could borrow my opera-glasses from time to time during the second half of the concert, answered a question of T.'s about horn-playing in far more technical detail than I ever could have produced. I was somewhere in the middle — literally — between "I don't know much about music" and "I can tell you all about crooks." All of which is to say, I should get over my phobia of being seen as an amateur and actually blog about music every so often.

So here are some (inexpert, amateurish) notes about Cecilia Bartoli: 1) I'd only heard her on recordings, never live, and she's funnier than I expected. She sang some more serious arias, especially during the first half of the program, and I liked them very much — but among the standouts of the evening were a couple of Salieri arias that gleefully sent up the conventions of opera seria. Yes, she does ham it up, but she had us all laughing. T. and I both went home happy. 2) I wonder if there's ever been a revival of Salieri's La Fiera di Venezia? I want to hear more of it. 3) My love affair with Christoph Willibald Gluck continues. I think I want CB's Gluck album, if only for "Di questa cetra in seno" from Il Parnaso Confuso. But first I want to find a good recording of Orfeo ed Euridice. 4) I love it when singers revive little-known music instead of giving us the umpteenth "Greatest Hits from the Standard Repertoire" album in a row. 5) There's some kind of theory forming in my head about eighteenth-century music and the aesthetics of lightness, but it's not really there yet. If it ever materializes, I'll let you all know.

Comments

[Michelle]

I've read Lynn, too, like her, and wish I had time to read all the people I like. You sound as knowledgable to me as you did to the woman two seats over; I am an amateur. I played by ear but my family could not keep me in piano. I played clarinet in high school but dropped it when we couldn't step up to wood. My youngest has a natural rhythm that was evident by the time he was two. He's six now and I'm trying to decide what would be a good starting instrument. I think you should post away about music; passions are sometimes hard to come by and even more difficult to sustain.

[Amanda]

Hi Michelle! I was about to suggest drums (or something similar) for your son -- but then again, they're not the most parent-friendly instrument out there. :) Does his school have a music program or anything like that? Could he watch other kids playing different instruments? As I recall, the music teacher in my own elementary school demonstrated all the available instruments and let us choose the one we wanted to play. It seemed to work, for the most part (I chose violin, and I liked it enough to stick with it until high school, at which point I realized that my school had no orchestra and I stopped playing). Anyway, I hope the starter instrument works out, whatever you end up choosing!