Music Orchestration and Pedagogy

These are Prof. Yi-Fu Tuan's words on Music Orchestration and Pedagogy.The entire essay can be accessed at the link given at the end.

“The conductor must not only make his orchestra play, he must make them want to play. He must exalt them, lift them, start their adrenaline pouring, either through cajoling or demanding or raging. But however he does it, he must make the orchestra love the music as he loves it. It is not so much imposing his will on them like a dictator; it more like projecting his feelings around him so that they reach the last man in the second violin section. And when this happens--when one hundred men share his feelings, exactly, simultaneously, responding as one to each rise and fall of the music, to each point of arrival and departure, to each litter inner pulse--then there is a human identity of feeling that has no equal elsewhere. It is the closest thing I know to love itself."

“… I think how different conducting is from teaching. Here I am, in front of the classroom as the conductor is in front of his orchestra, waving my arms as the conductor waves his arms. But there the similarity ends. Students just sit there. In sharp contrast to the crazy sawing of the second violins as (the composer) Bernstein nods in their direction, students barely bother to lift their ball-point pens as I gesture frantically to make a point; and, of course, a few students in the back row don't even pretend to listen, being engaged in arranging a date after class or catching up on the news …”.

“…No wonder music conductors never want to retire, whereas professors retire at the earliest opportunity. If this sounds a little bitter, it is because conducting and teaching do have certain commonalities. Consider the fact that I can use Bernstein's view on conducting and change just a few words to make it fit with a plausible view on teaching. "

"The teacher must not only make his class learn, he must make them want to learn. He must exalt them, lift them, start their brain cells humming, either through cajoling or demanding or raging. But however he does it, he must make the class love learning as he loves it. It is not so much imposing his will on them like a dictator; it is more like projecting his thoughts around him so that they reach the student in the back row. And when this happens--when one hundred students share his love of his subject--there is a human marriage of minds that has no equal elsewhere. It is the closest thing I know to love itself."

“A teacher--a true teacher as distinct from a mere purveyor of information or technique--is a lover, Socrates tells us. Hence rejection--or just indifference--is so painful."

Tuan, Yi-Fu. "Dear Colleague: 13 June 2006." Yi-Fu Tuan. .http://www.yifutuan.org/archive/20060613.htm Accessed on March 1, 2008.