[TPIN] ANALYSIS/MASTERY/GREAT ART

[Ellis Workman]

The words "art", "artist", have indeed become watered down to
become pretty meaningless. This is all part of the popular culture's
way of glorifying the mundane, (playing golf is an art?, give me
a break!).

http://www.trumpetguild.org/pdf/2002journal/0206orchestra.pdf

In the June 2002 ITG journal interview with Roger Voisin
where Voisin quotes his father; "You're not an artist.
You're a worker, You're the best worker you can be, but you're not the
artist. The conductor is the artist. The composer of course is the
artist."

Having said that, Thomas Cahill's "Hinges of History" volume,
"Sailing the Wine Dark Sea; Why The Greeks Matter" does
make a case for the athlete as artist in Greek culture.




-Ellis
  -not an artist, but a Workman

On Thu, August 16, 2007 10:24 am, Michael Anderson said:
>
>> Complex movements and Experienced Accomplished Athletes and musicians,
>> have
>> MASTERY over many many many movements required.  Playing the trumpet is
>> an
>> art,  ski jumping is an art, playing golf is an art, crafting violins is
>> an
>> art, painting is an art, making music is an art, infinity.
>>
>
> I can't agree.. Some of these things are all skills and there is a big
> difference. We often misuse the word "art." I'm a fly fisherman and people
> talk about the "art of flyfishing." Its no more art than a worm under a
> bobber. It does require considerably more skill though and it can
> sometimes
> appear to be visually artistic, but it is all skill and knowledge.
>
> Composing, improvising and interpreting music is art. Playing the trumpet
> is
> not. Craft is skill. Creating something original is art. I even think that
> the large majority of music interpretation is a skill not an art. Its a
> fine
> line and I'm not always sure where it crosses from skill to art. For some
> it
> never, ever crosses. They play a passage like they have heard it done or
> have been taught to play it by rote. Even in jazz... Until the improviser
> is
> improvising music that isn't parroting some other player they are learning
> a
> skill and engaging in a craft.
>
> Good teaching is an art. In fact, I feel that I am engaged more as an
> artist
> when I am teaching than when I am playing and I play over 200 gigs a year.
> I'm rarely creative in my orchestra gig. I'm rarely creative on any gig
> other than solo recitals and even then the interpretation is a combination
> of skill and art.
>
> I have found that this is really hard for people to understand because we
> have used the word "art" so generically. Just because we are engaged in an
> activity classified as "The Arts" doesn't mean we are engaged in true
> creation. Most of the time we are simply using our skill to display
> someone
> else's art. This is like a quilter following a pattern, a chef following a
> recipe a mason following a blueprint a fly tyer following a pattern
> recipe,
> an accountant reconciling the books, a farmer planting a field. Skills.
>
> Mastery is about developing skill. "telling your story" and "expressing
> yourself" through what you are playing is where the art comes in and it
> doesn't happen that often.
>
> My 2 cents. ;-)
>
> MA
>
>
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-- 
=====
Ellis Workman, ARS KØELW
Grid EN33sx Olmsted County
Rochester, MN US