Coiitribution of the professional to music educatioiitranslated to me! I should like to have Bach read to me, read aloud,
on the violin, the piano or the flute; but not interpreted!’
This is no mere quibbling over words. Let us think of the little
ceremonies incidental to a concert: the performer’s tail coat and wing
collar, his repeated bows to the public at the end of his performance
(as though he were the composer of what he has just played), the
applause of the audience, intended for him personally far more than
for the music. Clearly, an exaggerated importance is attached to the
role of the ‘interpreter’.
This habit is not only absurd. It is symptomatic of a thorough lack
of balance in our present-day musical life. It is unfortunate that, in our
civilization, making music should mean playing other people’s music
and that musical creation properly so called should be left to a mere
handful of privileged persons. It is still more unfortunate that the
number of performers is dwindling and that the majority of people
are content to be mere listeners. They should at least bring a more
lively appreciation to bear on the music presented to them. But the
very opposite happens, and the cult of the star performer in fact coin-
cides with a decline in the art of listening. Pampered as they are by the
radio and records, present-day audiences will hardly bestir themselves
to listen to any but flawless performances. This may seemingly be a
refinement of taste, but I think it is more likely to be laziness. To listen
to an amateur perfoormance, one does in fact have to make an effort to
enter into the spirit of the music and, in a way, to make up oneself for
any shortcomings in the performance; one has to go half-way to meet
the performer. This is what listeners these days refuse to do. They do
not wish to spend the time or make the effort required for learning to
play any instrument; as they are logical with themselves, they do not
wish to give themselves any more trouble than is strictly necessary for
listening. They therefore demand music that can be assimilated with
a minimum of effort, music played by a first-rate performer in such a
way that it is really translated for the lazy listener.
Here we can draw an exact parallel between sport and music. In
sport, too, the more stars there are, the more passive do spectators be-
come. The more records the star sportsman beats, the more ready the
sports spectator is to stay seated on the tiers of the stadium.
For these reasons, it seems to me very important, when introducing
young people to music, to warn them against any hero worship and
to accustom them to listening to music for its own sake rather than for
its manner of performance.