Music of the Ages

A year ago I completed a small ethnographic study of local amateur music in eastern Iowa. My research and involvement in the project led me to ask the question, “What inspires amateur musicians to love their music so much?” My status as an amateur folk musician and professionally trained Euro-classical musician placed me in a situation where I was able to study and pay careful attention to what made amateur music different from professionally performed music, and to what role it plays in society and in the life of the individual. At the end of my project, I concluded that the motivation of professional musicians and amateur musicians was different. Amateur musicians create music for the pure love and enjoyment of the experience. This realization was in stark contrast to my own experience as a musician professionally trained in the Euro-classical tradition, where music is made to be performed and in cases to earn money, status, and/or recognition.

Today I ask, what is the role of local amateur music in a society that champions professionalism?

Almost one year after the completion of my project I found myself again involved with the community orchestra that I had participated with in the study. At the start of the first rehearsal, without realizing it, I found myself a bit frustrated--the music sounded terrible and the musicians were bad. I quickly recognized the pessimistic attitude building up inside me and started looking into the faces of the people playing the music. They weren’t faces of people concentrating on playing perfectly who were afraid of making mistakes. They showed something entirely different. I saw the faces of children playing together and having fun. They weren’t worried about anything. They were enjoying themselves--something that I was never fully able to do, especially not in a more professional orchestral setting. I was reminded of the story told by Charles Ives, about a young man whose musical sense had been “limited” by intensive study at the Boston Conservatory. The young man commented on the bad singing of one of his father’s friends. To this his father replied, “Look into his face and hear the music of the ages. Don’t pay too much attention to the sounds—for if you do, you may miss the music.” It wasn’t until that moment when I understood the meaning of this quote. The music doesn’t come from notes played beautifully and in tune; it is rooted in something much deeper.

Throughout the past year I have participated in other settings of amateur music making. In September I was put in contact with a small group of woodwind players at the Iowa City Senior Center who were looking for a bassoonist to play in their woodwind quartet. I agreed to “help them out”. I attended the first rehearsal expecting to provide practice and performance suggestions along with the addition of my bassoon playing. My actual experience (which continues to this day) has been quite the contrary. As I meekly add my contribution to the music I sit, listen, and watch these seniors as they enjoy chatting with one another about their lives and their families in between songs. I hear exclamations like “that’s such a fun piece to play!” and “I’m going to need a rest after that chop-buster.” I have yet to hear complaining (or even recognition of) their missed and out-of-tune notes. they are not expecting me to give them any councel or advice for improvement. They only want me to enjoy playing music with them.

This spring I completed a three-year assistantship with the University of Iowa Arts Share program. A couple of years ago I started Service Learning, a program that allows faculty and students from the School of Music perform at underserved facilities in Iowa City such as hospitals, retirement communities, and other assisted living centers. These performances are completely volunteer. I have advertised the program to students and faculty as being an opportunity to do a practice-performance of one’s recital before the actual recital. But my real motivation behind creating the program was to bring musical enrichment to people who are unable to leave their residences to experience it. It has been interesting for me to witness professionally trained musicians (including myself) have the experience of performing for no monetary or scholastic reward. In almost every case, the musicians have thanked me whole-heartedly for the opportunity to perform for such “wonderful” “kind” and “loving” people and everyone who has participated in the program has expressed interest in continuing their involvement. While these professionally trained musicians are not quite receiving an amateur experience, I believe the fact that they are performing for no monetary or scholastic reward requires them reach out of themselves and draw their motivation from something they may not have experienced since they first started learning their instrument.

In my experience most amateur musicians salute the ensembles and individuals who are their professional equivalents. They pay money and make considerable efforts to see and hear these musicians perform. I have rarely encountered amateur musicians who feel their music is demeaned by the Euro-classical tradition of professionalism. In some cases there do arise feelings of inferiority, but usually the amateurs are quite content with their status as being non-professional, even though some may be quite as skilled as those who perform for money. These musicians know that they are doing it for fun and they would like to keep it that way. It is not much different from someone who does math for a living and someone who does it for fun. This is usually the case unless and until a musician of amateur stature decides that he or she would like to make the transition to becoming a professional musician. In this respect the worlds of professional and amateur musicians in the Euro-classical tradition are separate and distinct.

My friends in the community orchestra gathered together to play music with one another and even though some were quite skilled and others were only beginners, these and other small communities of amateur musicians are usually warm and inviting to their members (with out respect to ability level) and enjoy coming together to build relationships and share with one another. The community orchestra musicians challenge themselves intellectually and artistically and enjoy having a break from their daily struggles. They enjoy socializing and sharing musical experiences with one another, and in doing this, build and strengthen their micro-community and relationships with one another. The musicians at the Iowa City Senior Center enjoy these same joys and challenges but on a much more intimate level. They have in a sense created a small familial unit—each person having his or her individual place and contributing to the group in a unique way. The musicians who participate in my Service Learning program share their beautiful music with good-hearted audience members and learn that even they can participate in music purely for the love and experience of making it.

A year ago my argument was that the amateur musicians I learned from participated in music for the love of doing it. I reemphasize that statement and add to it that these musicians and ensembles are essential to the upholding of social and family-like constructs in a society. By enjoying the experience of music rather than the end product, they succeed in building and strengthening family and community relationships in an intense, subjective, human practice.

My study and experience with amateur Euro-classical music has helped me come closer to a realization and understanding of the true essence of music. I have found immense pleasure in experiencing music with amateur musicians and hope to someday be able attain the love of an amateur in my own professional setting.