I’m listening to the Mana-Zucca Violin Concerto played by my violin teacher, Eddy Brown. At first as I listen I simply marvel at the mastery of the performance. Then I give over to the music and allow it to move through me, take over my consciousness and body. I follow the melodic lines, pulse with the rhythms, take the dynamic turns. The concerto has become what I am knowing/feeling/doing right now. It has become the inner music of my being.
Just like that - connect to a performance through a recording on Youtube, and be moved. The advantage of listening is letting the performer do it for you. As a violinist, I struggled to reach that place where I was one with the music I played. The technical difficulties and my inexperience seemed to prevent this complete freedom of soul. I yearned to find the music in me even as I expressed it.
When I became an actor I translated this desire to a different form. The actor’s art has a different set of demands than the violinist’s and the more I became aware of them, the more I realized I had set off on another journey.
Tonight as I listen and compare the two art forms, I realize with fresh insight new goals for the art of the actor - to find the life within the character like this concerto; to own the knowing/feeling/doing of the character as a flow of inner music; to sing on the inside through every moment of playing.
Listen to the music with me:
