Talent, Technique, and Timelessness

What do the following quotes have in common?

“Yes, the sonorous image is a preoccupying concern of all musicians. In that phrase we include beauty and roundness of tone; its warmth, its depth, its ‘edge,’ its balanced mixture with other tones, and its acoustical properties in any given environment. The creation of a satisfactory aural image is not merely a matter of musical talent or technical adroitness; imagination plays a large role here. You cannot produce a beautiful sonority or combination of sonorities without first hearing the imagined sound in the inner ear. Once this is imagined sonority is heard in reality, it impresses itself unforgettable on the mind” (Copland, 1952:22)

Copland, A. (1952). Music and imagination. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

“I asked Hunter what she hopes people will say years from now about her influence. Without a pause she replied, ‘If I could have my wish, I would hope my work would help move teaching from a craft to a profession based on research translated into artistic practice, where the professional is a decision maker and where that professional never stops learning’” (Goldberg, 1990: 43).

Goldberg, M. (1990). Portrait of Madeline Hunter. Educational Leadership, 47 (5), 41.

Whether in a concert hall or a classroom, on a score or in a schoolbook, by the wave of a conductor’s baton or the stroke of a teacher’s chalk, the timelessness of a sonorous image is dependent on both technique and talent. Creativity and craft must be combined with care. Sentiment and substance must be summoned ceaselessly. If one is elevated at the expense of the other, the image becomes blurry and the potentially timeless temporal.

I think debates such as those related to whole language versus phonics or direct instruction versus discovery learning illustrates how emphasis on one over the other leaves some parts of the paint by number picture blank.

In order for the image (or instruction) to be timeless, balance needs to be brought in.