JAVS Summer 1989

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nearly the same dynamic level. And why would anyone want to play music in private at all without listening to it while playing? These basic points may seem, I am sure, to be too simple and obvious to deserve mention. But I do mention them, repeatedly and emphatically, because it is equally obvious to me, and I think to anyone with a little experience and a little reflection, that they are sadly, even tragically, neglected. Just think of the magnitude of our crime against poor Mozart in those hundreds of thousands of dull mezzo-fortes we could just as easily have played in the hushed pianos and pianissimos he so clearly directed us to enjoy. David Bennett is a professor of philosophy at the University of Utah. and in his own words. "a card-carrying amateur violist.".

professionals know how to extract from such works. Setting all this aside, however, what remains to enjoy and marvel at is more than ample to stagger the imagination and fully reward the enthusiastic Shake spearean amateur (literally, lover). There is a fine lesson here, and high time we musicians study it, learn it, and take it to heart. More important, by a country mile, than what's missing or what's wrong with a musical performance, is what's present and what's right. Many of my acquaintances will go to a symphony concert which has elevated me to the highest heaven and come out with nothing to say or think about but the two (!) wrong notes from the brass. This as though they had not even heard the tens of thousands of right notes, played well in tune, properly articulated, rhythmically accurate, butonly a few inevitable strayings from the path of musical purity and perfection. Sadder still, they seem to have been listening only to the performance, not the music itself. To put the point in the form of a question, would we rather be lovers (amateurs) or critics? For my part, I have finally learned that, for me, positive listening is infinitely more rewarding than negative listening. A Defense This defense of the amateur is not a plea for bad intonation, careless dynamics, or resolute deafness toward the music one is trying to produce with one's colleagues. Entirely to the contrary. Think of the following irony: even the lowliest amateur playing a Haydn quartet will have devoted years to study and practice, struggling in vain to master three-octave scales, arpeg gios, and such, scratching away at a con certo or two never to be performed--god willing--and seeking life after the third position, almost none of which will ever show up in chamber music for the violist. On the other hand, three fundamental things entirely within the reach of every musician are needed, and needed desperately, every moment the bow touches the string. There are: attention to intonation, attention to dynamics, attention to the music being made as a whole. Granted it is not always possible for amateurs (or professionals) to play exactly in tune, but it is possible and necessary to try. It is difficult to find a good excuse for playing everything, year in year out, at

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