If you could start your life anew, would you like to become a musician? If yes, what kind? Composer? Performer?
My answer is a resounding yes. If I could start my life anew, I'd certainly choose music as my career. Although my favorite instrument is the piano, I'd study violin instead, because as a violinist one has more professional options and opportunities than as a pianist. I'd compose as well but confine myself to solo piano, violin & piano and Lieder, ie genres that can be played much easier than the big ones and are well within the reach of gifted amateurs too. My aim in both playing the violin and composing would be to please and charm the audience(s). My repertoire would be mostly Classical-Romantic and rather than performing for the umpteenth time the usual warhorses, which countless great violinists had done better than me anyway, I'd concentrate on reviving lesser known composers and works, especially from that much maligned and little understood genre of "salon music". If I could find a bunch of like-minded fellow musicians I'd even start an ensemble, The Bucharest Salon, devoted to recreating such musical soirees, involving solos, chamber music and Lieder, possibly even poetry recitation.
How about you? Do you have such daydreams?
A good one!
As it is, I am a singer, a pretty good baritone (I can still do oratorios, classical songs, show songs, some operatic arias), but a musician, not so much. My twin brother, a tenor, became a music major, and my older brother, another tenor, used to play trumpet. Life is soooo unfair. I would rather have been a tenor, or even a real bass. Baritones are, comparatively, a dime a dozen. Both brothers could sight read music. I never liked music teachers all that much as a kid, so picky and demanding.
As to what I would like to have been, well, I don't really think I would want to be a professional performer. As a friend pointed out, I am a bit of a concert singer. But it would be nice to be a tenor, to grow up having compatible music teachers, learn theory, probably learn an instrument like the piano. I doubt if I would have been much of a composer.
I began playing violin as a child, but switched to double-bass in high school. That proved to be a fortuitous move because it enabled me to experience a wider variety of musical performance. In college, I played in the string, full, and wind orchestras (wind orchestra includes double-bass). During that time, I also filled in with a couple of polka bands on bass guitar. I subsequently played in rock bands, top 40 bands, and general business bands that performed standards, swing, ethnic, and various other genres. While I was able to play some Jazz, it's the one area I wish I had more performance background with. At any rate, while I was far from becoming a virtuoso in any one style, I enjoyed the ability to experience the different genres first-hand. I would do the same if I was starting over again.
I play piano, but not at a professional level. If I could start over I'd change that, but it might not be possible; I have the time and inclination, at the moment, to study piano intensively, and potentially the means to do so starting in a few months, but I've never had the required level of discipline, and that's not something that can be taught. You're born disciplined or you aren't.
I can write music at a professional level but haven't done so in a long time, and most of what I've written lately is cast in deeply reactionary early-to-late-19th-century styles, and therefore won't ever find an audience. I guess one potential wish is to be able to return to writing music that's more "original" but none of the projects I've contemplated lately have been compositionally productive, and that's before even getting to the point of considering performers or listeners. Again, lack of discipline is the problem.
A composer/conductor, but more like Furtwangler than Mahler.
Hmm... Well, I am a musician, a singer-songwriter, but if I could do it all over again... Pianist-composer in the tradition of Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, and Kapustin.
Quote from: amw on February 04, 2022, 07:51:55 AM
I can write music at a professional level but haven't done so in a long time, and most of what I've written lately is cast in deeply reactionary early-to-late-19th-century styles, and therefore won't ever find an audience.
If I were that imaginary violinist, I'd commission you a sonata for violin and piano right now. ;)
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 05, 2022, 04:47:45 AM
Hmm... Well, I am a musician, a singer-songwriter, but if I could do it all over again... Pianist-composer in the tradition of Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, and Kapustin.
Very good! --- but an extinct tradition, I'm afraid...
Thank you all for your very interesting replies.
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 05, 2022, 04:47:45 AM
I am a musician, a singer-songwriter,
How about shamelessly promoting yourself by letting us hear some of your songs? I have a hunch we'd enjoy them a lot. ;)
Quote from: Florestan on February 05, 2022, 08:38:24 AM
If I were that imaginary violinist, I'd commission you a sonata for violin and piano right now. ;)
One of the few pieces I did complete in this style (in ~2013) is actually a sonata for viola and piano, lasting about 30' in three movements. It was partially the result of a personal challenge: write a "serious" big piece from fin-de-siècle Germany/Austria (i.e., 1900-1914), since that was a style I was not interested in/out of sympathy with at the time. It's never been performed and will never see the light of day, obviously, but I did wind up channelling a lot of personal heartbreak into it.
Quote from: amw on February 05, 2022, 10:43:33 AM
One of the few pieces I did complete in this style (in ~2013) is actually a sonata for viola and piano, lasting about 30' in three movements. It was partially the result of a personal challenge: write a "serious" big piece from fin-de-siècle Germany/Austria (i.e., 1900-1914), since that was a style I was not interested in/out of sympathy with at the time. It's never been performed and will never see the light of day, obviously, but I did wind up channelling a lot of personal heartbreak into it.
Nothing else matters.
Quote from: Florestan on February 05, 2022, 10:52:45 AM
Nothing else matters.
At this point I'd agree with that, but at the time it was embarrassing; when you're 21 you like to think you've outgrown such base sentimentality.
Quote from: amw on February 05, 2022, 11:19:34 AM
At this point I'd agree with that, but at the time it was embarrassing; when you're 21 you like to think you've outgrown such base sentimentality.
:laugh:
Not talented enough to be a professional musician, I'm afraid. My choice would be a top administrative position at a major musical institution, e.g. an important opera house (in Europe, i.e. with vasts amounts of public funding ;D). I'd then impose my impeccable taste on the audiences...they'd be in for quite a ride! And I'd have all you musicians asking me to engage you... :D
Quote from: ritter on February 05, 2022, 12:41:57 PM
My choice would be a top administrative position at a major musical institution
Barbaja!
Your choices would be much more limited, though.
Quote from: Florestan on February 05, 2022, 12:55:19 PM
Barbaja!
Your choices would be much more limited, though.
Barbaja, Ghiringhelli, Heinrich Strobel...yep, that kind of figure. :)
Quote from: ritter on February 05, 2022, 12:57:55 PM
Barbaja, Ghiringhelli, Heinrich Strobel...yep, that kind of figure. :)
Were they musicians?
No, they were impresarios or managers...
Quote from: ritter on February 05, 2022, 01:14:45 PM
No, they were impresarios or managers...
Yes. Not what I asked for.
But that's all that I can give you... ;)
Quote from: ritter on February 05, 2022, 01:30:09 PM
But that's all that I can give you... ;)
It will do just fine actually. :)
Quote from: springrite on February 04, 2022, 08:09:12 AM
A composer/conductor, but more like Furtwangler than Mahler.
Moi: a composer/conductor, but more like Mahler than Furtwangler.
Better. ;)
If I could have a choice over again, I should definitely like to be a better musician. I am fond of early music and I think I should like to play the viol or some other early stringed instrument, in a HIP ensemble. I would have enjoyed teaching as well as performing. I don't think it would have been a very rewarding life financially, but it would have been magical, because, as my signature says, music is magic.
Lord, what a question! I don't play anything, I can't read sheet music.
:(But in another life I would have liked to be a composer, oh no avant-garde music, but a romantic or a classic...
I think I might enjoy being a percussionist. Does that count as a musician? :-\
Quote from: steve ridgway on April 18, 2022, 08:42:20 AM
I think I might enjoy being a percussionist. Does that count as a musician? :-\
Of course! As one of many examples, the opening of Gershwin's Piano Concerto shows the musical qualities of percussion.
A very interesting question.....I can play the piano, but not at a high professional level; if I could be a musician, I would definitely like to be a pianist/conductor like Vladimir Ashkenazy (or Herbert von Karajan if he hadn't dropped the piano studies). As a pianist, I would space from Bach to 20th century composers; while as a conductor, maybe I would concentrate more on Romantic/Late-Romantic music, but in particular I would like to conduct Wagner's operas with proper stagings and promote the works of Schönberg, Zemlinsky, Holst, Elgar and Vaughan Williams, because in Italy they're too rarely performed.
Pianist-composer, who reluctantly turns conductor-composer when it turns out that no one else knows how to conduct my music, only to discover immense fame, fortune and success as a conductor-interpreter of a diverse repertoire of music, without ever sacrificing time for composing. Humble dreams ;D
I'd like to be a better version of the musician I've been since 1973...
Quote from: steve ridgway on April 18, 2022, 08:42:20 AM
I think I might enjoy being a percussionist. Does that count as a musician? :-\
But of course...
https://www.youtube.com/v/mPwTLg_Oz_4
or
Pedro Estévan...
https://www.youtube.com/v/9VD5uRAmF8A
or
https://www.youtube.com/v/cPIZ-fRdkv8
Quote from: joachim on April 18, 2022, 07:53:52 AM
Lord, what a question! I don't play anything, I can't read sheet music.
Same here, unfortunately...
But if I found a lamp with a genie inside, then I'd wish to be a violin virtuoso, one who's both performing and composing.
Quote from: steve ridgway on April 18, 2022, 08:42:20 AM
I think I might enjoy being a percussionist. Does that count as a musician? :-\
Most assuredly. From around 1966 until 1978 l was a percussionist, it was my first serious musical interest. And while l spent a much longer stretch playing the oboe and singing, l can still appreciate subtle timpani playing, which was my specialty.
Quote from: LKB on October 09, 2022, 07:29:26 AM
Most assuredly. From around 1966 until 1978 l was a percussionist, it was my first serious musical interest. And while l spent a much longer stretch playing the oboe and singing, l can still appreciate subtle timpani playing, which was my specialty.
I can understand. My brother was a percussionist and made a blanket rejection of all Karajan Decca opera recordings based on the type of timpani mallets that were used.
2 pages in and time to lower the tone: a rock star with millions of women lusting after me, obviously.
I'd like to play the trombone.
Quote from: Florestan on February 03, 2022, 05:39:24 AM
If you could start your life anew, would you like to become a musician? If yes, what kind? Composer? Performer?
How about you? Do you have such daydreams?
JS Bach's cantatas (particularly the sacred) are among my most listened to works. I've never heard any other than Webern's that match them. Some very fine Russian cantatas from the romantic era but still don't reach the same highs as JS Bach and Webern for me. So with that in mind if I were a composer I'd want to write cantatas in a serial style (not strictly 12 tone), sung in Italian, metaphysical texts, maybe religious (I wouldn't write them).
I'd never actually do it, I'm pretty happy with what I do, I imagine it's in the top 10% or possibly 5% of all jobs in terms of job satisfaction, and pays alright. Composing great music also requires a level of creativity I know I don't possess.
I've finally thought of the answer to this. I'd like to be the sort of musician who does the hammerschlag in Mahler 6. I could do this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DEdq2WdFnU&ab_channel=sftimpani