The Mastery of Music: A Review
Copyright © 2009 Karin Norgard
In The Mastery of Music: Ten Pathways to True Artistry, Barry Green links the development of musical sensitivity and skill with the development of character. Each chapter focuses on a human quality that serves the musician in his or her craft as well as in life. The ten pathways are communication, courage, discipline, fun, passion, tolerance, concentration, confidence, ego/humility, and creativity. Each of the pathways is linked with a particular instrument or set of instruments that demonstrates the quality, with quotes from musicians he has interviewed to support the value of these traits in the musician’s career and life.
The ten pathways are explored from a musician’s perspective, but obviously there is a great deal of overlap for the social dancer who uses their body as an instrument. The chapter on communication brilliantly explains the concept of entrainment, which directly applies to connection, partnership, and the sharing of energy in social dance. The chapter on concentration delves into the research and experience of flow and peak experience in music, which could just as easily describe the same phenomenon in dance or any other sport or art. The chapter on passion in particular, which uses the example of “the most passionate of instruments”, the cello, beautifully captures the feeling of being in love that true artists experience with their craft.
While some of the chapters do not integrate the pathway with the musical instrument as well as others – the example of the trumpet was not very well-developed into the chapter on confidence, and the fun through the trombone, tuba, and double bass did not seem to fit with the rest of the book – the connections Green makes and his ability to give character to some of the instruments is fascinating to read even for non-musicians. His finale on inspiration delightfully explains and provides examples of how the motivation of the individual ultimately determines the artistry they will communicate to their audience.
Barry Green very clearly communicates in the prologue his goal for the book: “The mastery of the music doesn’t stop with the mastery of musical technique. The musicians we think of as true masters of their art are the ones whose artistry we admire, and that goes way beyond technique, into a place that even the word ‘excellence’ can barely touch, that almost indescribable realm of human depth which we refer to by such terms as ‘character’ and ‘soul’… It’s not about what you do or how you play but about who you are. It’s about the qualities in the soul of the musicians that contribute to true artistry.”
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