Who is the most essential?

[m1469]

1.   Composer

2.   Student

3.   Teacher

4.   Performer (amateur or master?)

5.   Supporter of



In reality, who gets the most glory?  Why?


m1469

[ted]

Oh m1469, you do so make me think with your wonderful questions ! I've just had an absolutely delicious dinner with my absolutely delicious wife and three stiff brandies, not necessarily in that order, as Ronnie Barker would say. Did Aldous Huxley not praise the mental state engendered by the ingestion of the third cocktail ?  I'll return when I can do your excellent question justice.

[Waldszenen]

Oh m1469, you do so make me think with your wonderful questions ! I've just had an absolutely delicious dinner with my absolutely delicious wife and three stiff brandies, not necessarily in that order, as Ronnie Barker would say. Did Aldous Huxley not praise the mental state engendered by the ingestion of the third cocktail ?  I'll return when I can do your excellent question justice.

what?


Anyway, all of those are as important as each other:

- With no composer you ain't got a damn thing to play

- With no student no one will learn what's been composed

- With no teacher who can learn anything?

- With no performer it'll achieve nothingness

- With no supporter it'll achieve no fame

[m1469]

Anyway, all of those are as important as each other:

- With no composer you ain't got a *** thing to play

- With no student no one will learn what's been composed

- With no teacher who can learn anything?

- With no performer it'll achieve nothingness

- With no supporter it'll achieve no fame

Yes, yes, yes.  This is the way people talk, but not necessarily how we act. 

I am wondering more along the lines of, who expresses the highest musicianship and could therefore be considered the "most essential" in the balance of things?

m1469

[bernhard]

The students are the most important - and the ones that receive the least glory.

There are millions (perhap hundreds of millions) of people sudying piano, most for their own private enjoyment, who have no interest or desire to perform, but who derive great sustenance (emotional, intellectual, physical, spiritual) form being able to create musical sounds by pressing the right keys at the right time. It is these millions (or hundred millions) that support the businnesses of music printing, piano manufacturing, piano teaching, and to a lesser extent the CD/DVD industry.

There are only a handful of professional performers, and not that many teachers, so these guys cannot support a piano manufacturing industry, or a music publishing business.

As for glory, I am afraid it is the circus preformers who gets most of it (Maksim & Co). But then again, glory never lasts long.

Composers are totally ignored unless they are dead and one of the ten most famous (Bach, Beethoven and so on).

Audiences are only important for the CD industry - soon most piano music will be on CD anyway, so going to concerts will be less and less common.

I have no doubt about it: it is the piano students.

You see, it is not the audience that decides if a piece will stay in the repertory: it is the pianist. As long as there is someone prepared to play a piece it will stay in the repertory and it will continue to be published.. The audiences never asked to hear Alkan. It was Hamelin (amongst a handful of others) who decided he wanted to play it.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

P.S. Yes Ted, I know the feeling: it takes only one glass of good wine to get me drunk, but I am never sure if it is the 13th or the 14th. 

[ted]

There's no need for me to comment now because Bernhard has summarised what I would have said, except perhaps that improvisation combines the lot and renders these arbitrary divisions superfluous or, at least, it can do so for specific individuals. The availability of computer assisted composition and music making has not yet progressed to the point where playing the piano is redundant, although for many people such a path must inevitably appeal more than the years of discipline involved in learning to play an instrument.

Professional performance, formal concerts and so on, I suspect will decrease in significance as the ease of making high quality private recordings and compositions increases. This process is already under way, with internet and email able to facilitate the exchange of recordings, scores and ideas around the globe in a matter of minutes. The vested interests of Western musical tradition are doing their best to retain control of academia but there are many signs of change.

So perhaps there may be no need to ask which will be most important because all these functions may be found and taken for granted in increasing numbers of individuals at the private level around the world.  In short, m1469, I think your question is more related to society than to music itself.

P.S. Bernhard: Three drinks is very exceptional for me now and even a second rarely appeals more than once a fortnight.  Getting past it !

[Bob]

There's no need for me to comment now because Bernhard has summarised what I would have said.

Nice one.    Me too.

[Siberian Husky]

Nice one.    Me too.

Bernhard why must you always pwn us?

[m1469]

Thanks for your responses 

m1469

[anda]

a composer who can perform as a master his/her own works and as an amateur other composers' works, who teaches and still studies, and who also supports the industry to the best of his/her abilities.

(i think it was the fourteenth, but i'm not sure i counted right  )