What I'd do if I had the money ...

This might seem rather grouchy, but I would make music fallow for about five years. I would be part of this fallow field, waiting to be reseeded and hopefully made a little younger. I would pay musicians and directors not to work and, in so doing, they might well be able to discover other gifts within themselves.

I believe that all artists who are good at one thing are possibly good at many things. And instead of playing yet another Traviata or whingey Mahler symphony, they might be discovering a different latent talent. This would also give the audiences time to really want to hear music again. Having been starved of it for five years, they would demand it.

And the musicians themselves would not only rediscover their instruments, but their inherent love of the job.

During these five years I would be busy writing, drawing and painting, but also thinking about what we are really here for. When we are performers, time - and the question of what we do with it - is hijacked. So I would have the space to really think about the future and what life is actually about - as we kill time, it kills us.

I would also like to convince the politicians that the work we do is of huge emotional benefit to the country, and that, instead of spending money on Sidewinder missiles, they might devote a little more to the cossetting of the souls of their voters.

Robert Tear, tenor in today's Guardian

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Image credit - Askonas Holt
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If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to Musicians against nuclear weapons

Comments

Hucbald said…
I intentionally took on a non-musical career for seven years - the classic sabatical - and it was the best thing I ever did for my love of music. Now, if only I could make those same high fife-figures doing this. ;^)
12:01 am
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