Comments on: “What Shall I Do?”: Paid Employment for Mormon Girls, 1927 — part 4: The Musician

By: David B

David B — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 23:04:52 +0000

Yeah, now that i think about it, you’re probably closer to right than i am. I’ve just had some experiences the past couple weeks that have made me a bit twitchy around “Those durn kids are ruining the world”-type discussions. Sorry.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 20:41:56 +0000

You may be right, David; my hunch is only a hunch. But I also suspect that if we (Mormons or wider US) were still a culture of participating in the creation and performance of music, the piano would still be just as cool — if kids in the dorms or after youth activities were in the habit of gathering around the piano to sing, who’s cooler than the pianist? And while many homes don’t have the floor space to devote to a piano that is rarely used, a piano that was the focal point of a living room because it was used daily for lessons and practice and for family sings would take the place of the space now used for electronic entertainments of all kinds. (The average home hasn’t been getting any smaller in the past two generations, I don’t think!) Does a piano take more room than a Wii and the space to play it?

I agree with your suspicion that fewer homes have pianos today — I just suspect that the reasons for that are different from the reasons you suspect.

By: David B

David B — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 20:29:30 +0000

I don’t know if i’m on board with the active vs. passive entertainment thing. I think the difficulty in finding pianists is simply because the piano isn’t the default instrument anymore—if a kid’s gonna learn an instrument, a guitar is a lot cooler, not to mention more portable.

I strongly suspect that fewer homes have pianos now than 50–60 years ago, and that factors into it—i mean, even families who’d like to have a piano around (like mine) often don’t simply because of the amount of floor space they take up.

By: kevinf

kevinf — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:28:42 +0000

There will always be a market for rodeo singing…..

(Stuffs Simon Cowell back into the bottle he came from)

Ardis, I think you are right about the shift from music as recreation to passive entertainment. American Idol, especially in the audition episodes, has helped to turn sarcasm and ridicule into an art form. We watch those episodes for the train wrecks, not in hopes of seeing the next Susan Boyle. And the Chinese Tiger Mom apparently has totally devalued any musical art forms other than piano or violin. We have little tolerance for the modest talent, or someone who plays or sings just for the fun of it. Almost all of my opportunities to play guitar in from church settings, but as you might guess, those only happen once or twice a year, and sometimes only if I promote myself. Reminds me of the old MIA speech contests from my youth days.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:57:52 +0000

As far as the decline in church level (contrasted with professional level) musicianship, I really think it has to do with the shift from participatory recreation to passive entertainment. There’s little “market” (quotation marks used because I’m not referring to economic remuneration) for music unless you’re so good at it that you can be paid to do it. We’ve lost the “market” for community singing and talent competitions on a less than national network scale.

By: kevinf

kevinf — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:21:11 +0000

I’m reminded of a comment a friend made (he was a band teacher at a junior high), about the phrase that every professional musician needs to know while waiting for his or her next gig:

“Would you like fries with that?”

Interesting segment on NPR last evening, talking about the decline of CD sales, and the rise in file sharing and downloads. Record companies (is that even an accurate description anymore?) are in disarray, and independent and emerging musical artists are not so much looking for the lucrative recording contract. NPR gave several examples of independent musicians, with a few free downloads, youtube videos, and some downloads for just a few dollars, along with some live gigs, can actually make an acceptable living, pay a manager, and a web lackey to keep their site current.

The takeaway was that it is probably easier right now to be a professional musician, and make an actual living, than ever before. You probably won’t be making millions, but you can get by.

By: Clark

Clark — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:05:25 +0000

Also, I wonder where the strong LDS tradition of music comes from. On one hand, BYU has so many talented musicians that requirements for a degree there are notoriously difficult. On the other hand, it has become so difficult to find decent ward pianists and organists that the new CHI allows meetinghouse equipment to be used for private music lessons.

I blame the rise in popularity of Karaeoke machines.(just kidding, kind of) Teenage parties no longer involve standing around the piano and singing, as they did in Spencer W. Kimball’s youth.

By: Clark

Clark — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:00:49 +0000

It would be splendid if we could follow the inclination of our talent without having to worry where the bread and butter were to come from, wouldn’t it?

Yes, it would!

A few things about this post stuck out to me:
1) There’s no mention of the evils of jazz, round dancing, working late hours in unwholesome environments, etc.
2) It cracks me up how “Utah” and ‘Mormonism” are used synonomously (see 3rd from last paragraph, for instance).

I agree with the comment that radio and recording music had a huge effect on the viability of music as a career.

By: Researcher

Researcher — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 16:58:04 +0000

Emma Lucy Gates Bowen. Now that is a name I recognize. She was studying music in Germany at the same time as my great-grandmother. Here is a post that mentions the names of some of the Utah musicians studying in pre-war Berlin including Alfred Best and Willard Andelin and Rita Jackman, who was an influential piano teacher in Salt Lake City for many decades.

By: ESO

ESO — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 16:28:43 +0000

Since my city has many young LDS families who come here for graduate school, we have quite a few wives who supplement their income by teaching music (6 I can think of off the top of my head, at least as many in the ward that shares our building). I suppose there are some peculiar aspects of this area that could either make that a more or less successful endeavor than in other mid-size cities: it is a VERY musical area, with a significant musical conservatory and lots of musical lay people, meaning that more children than average take music lessons; there are also LOTS of qualified musical teachers around. More than you could shake a stick at, really. (And yet, we can never find anyone to play the piano in RS).

Title IX has, from my perspective, negatively affected the number of children involved in music. There are just so many more options for recreation for girls, who, I am quite certain, made up a significant number of musical students of years past. Not that I am against title IX!