Dammit Jim, I'm an ARTIST not a SHOWMAN!

Imagine what it would be like if you were a medical researcher trying to cure cancer, but the people funding you wanted instead for you to work on an improved silicon breast implant. That's what it feels like being a music teacher in the American public school system.

I will tell you now that the reason I am a music educator is because the greatest gifts given to me were musical. They were the product of the sweat, tears and joy of the greatest musical minds who wrote their lives out on parchment and left them behind for the rest of us to benefit from.

But it would seem that such things are not valued like they once were. Music is for entertainment, not for personal enlightenment. And music in a high school program... well, it would seem that the music departments top priority should focus on being PR machines for the school.

So where did we go wrong? One might ask that about education in general. After all, everything in this world seems to have a value that can be expressed as a number: your income, your credit rating, your GPA, your IQ. And as such, why should the arts not have their numbers assigned? In the professional world, it is well known that that music which is the most successful, is that which is the most profitable. In fact, I've heard more than once: "The further you get from real music, the more money there is in it."

Thus does the true artist suffer for their art.

I run a small progam at a small high school. There is currently no marching program, and there hasn't been one for many years (since well before my time.) Now, my administration (under relitevly new leadership) is laying on the heat for me to develop one.

Bleah...

I've spent the last nine years trying to develop a conservatory-like program, that focuses on quality repertoire and a genuine understanding of the music making process. The problem is that no one wants to hear Mozart or Miles Davis at a football game, and no one ever brought home a trophy for being able to identify a German sixth chord. And it would seem that those are the kinds of things my current principle wants to see... cheering crowds at sports events, and trophies (because how else can you judge worth unless someone has given an "official" opinion that you are better than someone else?)

So the principal approaches me about my low enrollment, saying that we have to do something to get kids to sign up for band. To this I agree... however, my definition of band is something different (No uniforms, no drill charts... basically sit-down tuxedo-and-black-dress music with wind instruments). Of course, in the same conversation, the principal notices the low orchestra numbers and says "Have you considered dropping that class?"

....I almost didn't know how to respond. So let me get this straight: The class that is the closest to the principal's vision of the music department must be salvaged at all cost, and the class that involves the medium for which the greatest composers of all time wrote instrumental music is fair game for the chopping block. Is it possible to be more ignorant of the arts? Is it possible to be more shallow? If this principal ever gives up being a school administrator, I think Hollywood should come knocking, because they would find overly competent mover-and-shaker on their hands, perfect for their needs.

From Handelian Anecdotes - http://www.gfhandel.org/anecdotes.htm

When Messiah was first performed in London (1743), when the chorus struck up, 'For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth' ['Hallelujah Chorus'), reportedly the audience and King [George II] stood and remained standing untill the chorus had ended. Some days after the first performance, Handel visited Lord Kinnoul. His lordship paid him compliments on "the noble entertainment". Handel is said to have remarked,

"My Lord, I should be sorry if I only entertained them; I wished to make them better."