composition & improvisation
Practicing the Language of Transcendence Leila Ramagopal Pertl, WMEA State Chair, Composition & Improvisation
Last night I had the pleasure of watch- ing jazz bassist Ike Sturm and his band, Heart, play at a prominent jazz ven- ue in NYC. Joining him were vocalists Melissa Stylianou and Michael Mayo,
saxophonists Godwin Lewis and Donny McCaslin, guitarist Jesse Lewis and drum- mer Jared Schonig. I have to say, it was incredible being immersed in the holism of a live music event; the music itself, the individual and collective reactions of the venue patrons, the atmospheric sounds of glasses clinking, chairs scooching in and out from tables, conversation welling up in between pieces and fading into a quite an- ticipation at the start of a new tune. I don’t think it was lost on anyone how meaning- ful this event was. Surely it was one of the first live music events most of the people in the room had attended since the world opened back up. This performance was certainly a display of brilliant jazz chops. Every performer had a command of their instrument and of this particular musical language. But what made this evening transcendent was something else entirely.
Like most of us teachers, when I am in front of high-level performers, I spend quite a bit of time thinking about the path musicians take from school lessons and ensemble experiences to the professional level performances like this one. The thing is, the path from beginner to transcendent performer is not linear, but rather wind- ing, and sometimes spiral, dotted with the sublime and soulful, throughout our musi- cal journeys. In being lifted into another plane of existence by these performers, I recognized that I have had these feelings over and over… inside my classrooms of young developing musicians.
So, if it’s not necessarily professional, technical chops that make a performance transcendent, what is it? Last night the performers were listening deeply and en- gaging one another playfully. They used their eyes, ears and body movement to cue, encourage and respond to each other and to the sonic conversation taking place in the transformed, multi-dimensional space we all occupied. They smiled at one an- other, listened to each other’s solos with their eyes closed and gave space, literal and musical, for personal expression and new ideas to flow. They supported one another in individual and group contribu- tion, riffing off the other, and allowing for combinations and layers of tone, texture and groove. They were so deeply engaged that it allowed for soulful music to dance its way out of their bodies and into ours, and all of us, together, were held in a magnificent, other-worldly place outside the space-time continuum.
What made this evening transcendent? Connection.
What makes our classroom music- making transcendent? Connection.
What is the lifeblood of connection? Creativity.
When we talk about students at the center, it necessarily means students, in all their uniqueness, connected to one another in ways that allow for each to be valued, heard, seen, and for their creative ideas to be embraced, consid- ered and recreated within the whole classroom community. Given the above, taking the time in our year-long curricula for the transcendent to flourish is para- mount. Composing is not a unit. Compos- ing, in all its different forms and settings, is fundamental to building musicianship and musical community, and should be done daily, like brushing teeth and eating breakfast. Most of us grew up playing our instruments but have never composed or improvised a note in our lives. Why is
“… the path
from beginner to transcendent performer is not linear, but rather winding, and sometimes spiral, dotted with the sublime and soulful, throughout our musical journeys.”
that? That’s like teaching kids to read, but never providing space for them to have a conversation or author a story.
We know that, from the moment we are born, our creative selves long to be released and woven into intimate relation- ships with others’ creative selves. We know that musical creativity is as neces- sary to our human development as writing stories or improvising daily conversations. We know that collaborative creativity breeds joyful and confident people who are unafraid to share their creations because they say something about themselves. It’s as if our students are saying, “Look! We made this together, and this is what we think it means, and we want to share it with you! What do you think? I see you moving to our music! Our music is making you get up and dance! This is fun!”
Students who are allowed to create daily, alone and together, are bold and generous in sharing their musical expressions of their life experience. They have become so connected in their daily, classroom co-creation that sharing on stage to an audience of a thousand, to a few of their
32 September 2021
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