Take Action: Keep Elementary Arts in LAUSD

As promised, here is a copy of my letter:

To The Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent and Board:

I recently learned about the news of the proposed funding cuts to the art and music programs in the LA District Elementary Schools and felt compelled to write this brief note.

As a professional musician and co-founder of HeartBeatsForChildren.org Foundation I have seen time and again the importance of the Arts in the personality development of children. The Arts are not entertainment nor are they some fringe luxury; they are essential for personal growth and wellbeing.

Arts are the protein that feeds imagination and creativity. Whoever sees a child without fantasy, dreams, imaginary games, etc. sees an emotionally malnourished and very unhappy child who runs a high risk of developing multiple social and personal problems.

Any parent knows children spend most of their day involved in healthy imagination oriented play and in turn, that play develops into creative critical thinking. Did nature and God make this attractive to children just because it’s fun?

No, no, no!

The Arts are necessary for growing minds and lifelong happiness. I implore those responsible for these decisions to keep art and music in the schools lest we risk dooming our children to lives of emotional despair.

Sincerely,
Lynn Harrell

So when the opportunity comes around to take part in a section, I’m always happy to take advantage. It doesn’t happen as often and under the right circumstances as much as I would like but one recent occasion came around to participate in the LA Opera’s production of the Ring Cycle. I happened to be free and this would offer the chance to play alongside my wife and so many other wonderful colleagues.

What greater joy than to partake in recreating this monumental masterpiece that I have not been able to do in my life! For sure, I played some of the orchestral excerpts with Szell in the Cleveland orchestra in the early 70′s. It is only the second Immolation scene that I have played. That was a few summers ago with Donald Runnicles and Christine Brewer at the Grand Teton Music festival and it was an absolutely unforgettable experience. And I will even say that sometimes as a soloist I am frustrated that I can only do the solo part!

But, I suppose there are people who cannot imagine that someone in my position would not want to be in the spotlight all the time. Well, the answer to that is a resounding “no.” I would prefer, really, if the listener is confronted with the MUSIC! It has enriched my life immeasurably and that I have gotten such credit along the way is only peripherally meaningful. I am free to play only this one of the four.

I told Placido Domingo the Musical Director of the company, that I was so sorry not to play the Walkure! I said, “I’d make that storm at the beginning have basketball-sized rain drops!!” Hopefully, that opportunity will come around sooner than later.

What we’re talking about here is a basic level of respect for the text but what seems to be more and more common these days is just guessing at the meaning of metronome markings and foreign words. The result is an increasing number of would-be performers feeling more and more entitled to change what has been left by the original creator and to feel as though their flimsy, novel approaches are legitimate simply because they are novel.

The idea that a composer doesn’t have de facto the best and most illuminating approach to the work is fundamentally ridiculous. But that doesn’t seem to stop these musicians from thinking that it might be Brahms’ way but they have the right to disregard him and substitute their own view! This is to propose that their way is as good as ,well…Brahms.

I find this more and more distressing because without at least first trying to understand and recreate the text means that our knowledge of a composer’s use of the notational language is diluted and made fuzzy. We have a big enough problem with numerous corrupt editions and while efforts to find more accurate editions continue, the movement to disregard composer’s intentions makes these efforts more and more difficult, or worse, seemingly not important or necessary.

There are problems, to be sure, to interpret a composer’s notes and indications. The effort to do this is large and time consuming and, at times, frustrating but very edifying as the beginning of illumination is to understand a great composer’s journey into his style.

Let me say that again: efforts to do accomplish this task are time consuming and frustrating but very edifying. So it is not enough to translate PF in Brahms as correctly meaning “little forte,” but understanding why Brahms turned to invent this new term for his music to begin with is more informational and revealing. But if the rising generations of performers continue on a path of disregard, we will get performances that, in and of themselves, may be brilliant and beautiful but they are strangely devoid of understanding and not nearly as satisfying.

After all, wasn’t it Beethoven who said “You played very beautifully and interestingly, but you did not play MY piece!”