Varities of Musical Experience (conclusions)

When I started this series of posts on the Varieties of Musical Experiences, I was hoping to provide a profound insight or two similar to what I imagine William James did in Varieties of Religious Experience (as you recall, I haven't actually read his work). However, the mere task of cataloging the different experiences I've had as a listener or performer has taken far more blog-space than I had initially thought; thus, the profound insights will just have to be inferred.

I was reminded that musical experiences vary when Lynn and I got our first chance to see the St. Olaf Christmas concert 'live'. (Our friend Steve is a St. Olaf grad and we were Steve and Sally's guest). At most old time and bluegrass performances, I'm very intrigued with 'performance practices' and how I might apply them; however, at St. Olaf, I was struck by the logistics of coordinating a full symphony orchestra and up to 500 voices and spend most of the time just enjoying th music. I was also thinking that every year, over 100 singers are 'released' into (mostly) Minnesota to populate church choirs and choral groups. This article in the paper the next day confirmed this: http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/music/11945421.html.

In addition to searching for 'profound' insights, I also began this series with the hope of finding some common threads within my personal musical experiences. Here's a few:

• I've been involved with music as a listener and performer for as long as I can remember, and it appears to be one of my basic 'needs'.
• Although I listen to music a lot, my best experiences have been with 'live' music, mostly acoustic. (Although, those Carleton Dances with the Night Crawlers are high on the list)
• I tend to gravitate toward 'folk' music although I appreciate and enjoy classical and some 'popular' forms
• For live music, give me a small venue like the Cedar or a coffee shop rather than XCel or the the Target centers.

As a performer, it's been only recently that I consider myself a 'real musician'; however, I've really been a musician-in-training for all my life. Although I have lots of fun playing for dances and enjoy all of my performance opportunities, currently my main focus is on performing with Lynn in a duet setting. We are meeting with Daniel later this week to discuss a 'real' recording of the bob-i-lynn band so I will eventually be able to add 'recording a CD' to my list of musical experiences. Stay tuned.