A painter hangs his or her finished pictures on a wall, and everyone
can see it. A composer writes a work, but no one can hear it until it
is performed. Professional singers and player have great responsibilities,
for the composer is utterly dependent on them. A student of music
needs ad long as arduous a training to become a performer as a medical
student needs to become a doctor. Most training is concerned with
technique, for musicians have the muscular proficiency of an athlete or
a ballet dancer. Singers practice breathing every day, as their vocal chords
would be inadequate without controlled muscular support. String players
practice moving the fingers of the left hand up and down, while drawing the
bow to and fro with the right arm-two entirely different movements.
Singers and instruments have to be able to get every note perfectly in tune.
Pianists are spared this particular anxiety, for the notes are already there,
waiting for them, and it is the piano tuner's responsibility to tune the
instrument for them. But they have their own difficulties; the hammers that
hit the string have to be coaxed not to sound like percussion, and each
overlapping tone has to sound clear.
This problem of getting clear texture is one that confronts student conductors:
they have to learn to know every note of the music and how it should sound,
and they have to aim at controlling these sound with fanatical but selfless authority.
Technique is of no use unless it is combined with musical knowledge and
understanding. Great artists are those who are so thoroughly at home in the
language of music that they can enjoy performing works written in any century.