Boy, dilemma . . . pick one!!!!
Well, this post was inspired by the film version of Phantom of the Opera which I re-watched this past weekend.
In my upbringing in a devout Christian community, I was left with the impression that one tribe of the Old Testament Jews – the Levites – were in charge of keeping the temple of worship and the religious traditions. One of their specialties was music. They were trained for years and not permitted to play publicly until well into their adult lives. The other tribes took care of them providing food, water, protection, etc. The idea that this existed makes me feel like I was born in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Currently our society seems to hold a low regard for the arts as a legitimate adult vocation. There isn’t really a system in place or “career track”. For teachers, absolutely. Performers, not so much.
To me, The Phantom of the Opera is a wonderful portrayal of the internal struggle the artist has between music and day-to-day life. The main character, Christine, is pulled between the Phantom (Gerard Butler from 300 singing!!!) who represents art, and the other dude, Raul I think, representing domestic life. It’s quite pronounced as Christine is faced with an ultimatum: she must choose one or the other. No hobbyist or weekend warrior here.
I have personally felt this struggle ever since it was time to decide what to study in college. I don’t think I’ve ever felt completely at ease with choosing music as my job. One of the reasons I love being in Los Angeles is it seems ok to be an artist there – there’s a lot of work and a lot of people doing it. There’s more space in that community to be an artist. I get why people move to music cities.
But where does that leave all the rest of the communities throughout the country and the musicians in them?
Music is an amazing medium of communication. It can be like having a heart-to-heart conversation with a bunch of people all at once. What if our culture had more of this? What if there were more opportunities for people to become excellent musicians and live music was a part of our local, day-to-day lives? I wish my kids and students could experience that.
Perhaps electronic music can help change this? That’s a whole ‘nother topic, though!!