How can you not succeed if you approach your art as if you have absolutely nothing to lose?

As is the case with everyone, there are times I get a bit down professionally: After all, I work at a daily newspaper, writing about classical music, and I work part-time at a liberal Christian church. Given how many dire prognostications I've heard and read about all three, it should be enough to send me running into the arms of a new career. Except that I can't imagine doing anything else.

So I have to thank Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra music director Jeanne Lamon for coming to my emotional rescue this week, in the Winter 2010 issue of Early Music America.

Lamon is one of several prominent leaders in the period-performance field who was asked by Early Music America to write some thoughts to celebrate the service organization's 25th anniversary. Here is the part of Lamon's submission that made me smile:

When we [Tafelmusik] began some 30 years ago, our not-always-perfectly-polished performances were not universally embraced as the gospel we believed them to be. In fact, they were often ridiculed, and our bona fides as musicians questioned. Traditions in conservatories (whose job it is to 'conserve' traditions, after all) and on concert stages, especially regarding Baroque music, had not been significantly challenged for several generations. Here were a bunch of hippie weirdos telling the establishment they were all wrong!

I would argue that this non-acceptance on the part of the mainstream was a blessing in disguise. It forced us to define out mission, to refine our art (makers and players alike), and basically to get better at what we were doing fast. In the process of exploring and explaining our 'new' musical approach, we were free to take the most radical (in the sense of being true to the root of the matter) position. We were not yet aware of 'marketing' concerns, such as ticket sales or appealing to the broader public. We were looking for 'truth.' And having no respected place in the musical establishment, we had nothing to lose."

What Lamon ends up describing is not just the secret to the success of the period-performance movement, but the secret to success in any of the arts.

I haven't been able to sustain the sheer energy of a 20-year-old into middle age, but, in taking time to reflect, recharge and be open to new perspectives and experiences, I can at least try to keep the fires of conviction, curiosity and commitment burning bright.

Here is one of the finest recent products of Tafelmusik's continued search for engaging ways to present the music of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the Galileo Project, which returns later this season:

Comments

[Jim M]

[ Psalm 41:1 ] For the director of music. A psalm of David. Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the LORD delivers them in times of trouble.