Sunday Musings (in pursuit of classical singing)
From the Little Soprano archive.
Originally written one Sunday morning, almost ten years ago, the comment it makes is still as pertinent as ever, especially for new or beginner singers, or those who have a penchant to return to classical singing.
August 2014
I read the quote below earlier this morning and paused to think on it a while.
I love to sing - everyone knows that - but I also love to write, and that love goes way, way back to before I ever sang a note. It was, I think my love of words that lit that first little singing flame. A beautiful marriage between verse and music. I was clearly thinking about singing at quite an early age ...
I’m not fearful of my singing path; I’ve pursued my craft tenaciously, very conscious of the journey and the absolute need to improve, spurred on by the excitement of improving ability and the lure of achieving my goal. But writing is something else - ultimately far more private. I’m more fearful of failure when I write.
Yet my love of words continues to grow - it will not be shaken off.
Like any art, the more experience you have with it, the more the horizon of what being really good reveals itself, the more it recedes. Which you could say is an important part of my education as a writer. If I’m not aware of some deficits, I’m not going to be working hard to try to overcome them….
Like any kind of infinitely rich art, or any infinitely rich medium, like language, the possibilities for improvement are infinite and so are the possibilities for screwing up and ceasing to be good in the ways you want to be good.
from David Foster Wallace on Writing, Self-Improvement, and How We Become Who We Are
I see a correlation here between what David Wallace writes and what has driven me to pursue the singing part of my life. His thoughts are echoed in my role as a vocal teacher. When I see students come to me, sometimes expecting magical results with very little work, imagining the journey to be an easy one, without peaks and troughs. Or, that they have already arrived.
The pitfalls, the highs and lows, and the soul searching are all part of the journey of course; but there is no room for ever thinking that you’ve reached The End. Nor would you WANT there to be.
That’s where the magic is, if you choose to seek it. But - how about you?
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