Colin Eatock, composer
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About professionalism

5/2/2018

2 Comments

 
PictureProofessionalism: it's all about the shirt and tie.
If you’re a composer and you tell a non-musician friend that you’ve been asked to write a new composition by a performing ensemble, the friend may ask, “When and where will this new piece be performed?” Tell another composer the same news, and the composer may ask, “How did you get the commission?”
 
And if you show a non-musician friend the new CD of your music that’s just been released, the friend may ask you, “What does this music sound like?” Show it to a performing musician, and the performer will immediately flip it over to check the credits, to see which musicians recorded the disc.


Or maybe you're a musicologist, and you tell a non-musician friend that you’re about to have a scholarly book published. Your non-musical friend may ask, “What’s the book about?” Tell another musicologist about your new book, and your colleague will first ask, “Who’s the publisher?”
 
These are all true stories, culled from my own real-life experiences. And, to my mind, these examples show how “professionalism” can sometimes overwhelm artistic considerations in the professional classical music world. Whenever people professionally involved in music accomplish something, it seems that many others are less interested in what they have done than in how they have done it. And often, this information is then used to finely re-calibrate the accomplisher’s position in the vast musical pecking-order. If you’re published by the University of Iowa Press, that’s one thing; if you’re published by Oxford University Press, that is quite something else.


All this reminds me of a little anecdote I once heard that is sometimes attributed to Jean Sibelius. (I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I like it.) Apparently, the celebrated Finnish composer once remarked, “I prefer the company of bankers to musicians, because musicians only want to talk about money.” I get what he is talking about: I too have sat through dinners and after-concert pub meetups with musicians where the conversation around the table was all about getting gigs and grants, and other ways to chase dollars.
 
I almost called this little essay “Against Professionalism.” But I decided that would be stating my position a little too strongly. The elaborate edifice of professionalism makes it possible for some musicians – a small number, and (ideally) only the very best – to commit themselves wholly to music.
 
Yet to those who would argue that professionalism is necessary to artistic quality, I would reply that yes, it can help, but no, it’s not necessary. And I would cite Franz Schubert, Modest Mussorgsky and Charles Ives as three examples of brilliant composers for whom musical professionalism was not exactly a strong suit.
 
Sadly, musicians can get carried away with the trappings of professionalism: maintaining “appearances,” collecting titles and awards, and, of course, acquiring money. Sometimes professionalism can eclipse art, obscuring the reasons for which musicians make (or should make) music central to their lives. This, I believe, is a self-inflicted wound: a commodification of art that is spiritually impoverishing and damaging to musicians, and to music itself.
 
© Colin Eatock 2018

2 Comments
Alison McTavish link
5/11/2018 01:09:21 pm

Hi Colin:
As always I enjoy reading your blog. I have two, somewhat related, comments about your entry “Against Professionalism”. I completely agree with you about the difference between reactions from other artists/musicians to statements about work produced to reactions from non-artists. I think part of it has to do with the constant preoccupation artists have with how they are going to get that type of funding or opportunity for themselves, because of the economic realities of being an artist of any kind. It’s always an uphill struggle, and can turn into an obsession. If you have to wait tables or dig ditches to finance your next album, it’s easy to see why there would be a wild-eyed reaction to a colleague’s good fortune.

Related to that, in more ways than one, is our natural inclination to be self-absorbed. Our first reaction to a friend’s news is rarely: “how nice for you”, or “how does that feel to you?”, but “how does this affect me?” and “why didn’t this good thing happened to me?”. In a younger person you would hope their upbringing would keep them from baldly displaying the latter sentiment, in an older one, you would hope their life experience would do the same.

Then of course the idea of discretion—avoiding talking about money in general---is something hardly anyone thinks about. But that’s part of what I mentioned about, I think.

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    Eatock Daily

    I'm a composer based in Toronto – and this is my classical music blog, Eatock Daily.

    When I first started blogging, Eatock Daily was a place to re-post the articles I wrote for Toronto’s Globe and Mail and National Post newspapers, the Houston Chronicle, the Kansas City Star and other publications.

    But now I have stepped back from professional music journalism, and I'm spending more time composing.

    These days, my blog posts are infrequent, and are mostly concerned with my own music. However, I do still occasionally post comments on musical topics, including works I've discovered, enjoyed, and wish to share with others.


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