The Well-Tempered Musician

What is a well-tempered musician?…I am often asked. Why did you choose this theme for your work?

Alongside my work as a musician, the Alexander Technique has led me to explore those countering forces of dark and light, of up and down, of back and forth. In working with the spine as we do in the Alexander Technique–that is, working with the forces that lengthen and contract the spine–we open the question of what it means to reconcile opposites, first within the self and then in relation to the outer world. The latter cannot take place without the former. There is a constant ebb and flow of reaching and falling and falling and reaching. Through this ongoing process one is tempered, made both strong and gentle. And one learns to let go of what is not needed. Well-tempered.

So it is in the performance of music. Music is nothing if not the constant reconciliation of beat and counterbeat, of give and take, of forward motion and retreat, of sound and silence. The energy contained within a piece of music is renewing itself each time it is played and its meaning is always open to exploration. Never fixed, never set in stone.

A great work of music contains darkness and light, soul and spirit in alternating measure, and it is through our own experience of these opposing forces within ourselves that we can approach and enter this world of embodied musical sound. The deeper we go within the self, the deeper we can reveal what lies within the music. The daily practice of the Alexander Technique is not unlike the daily practice of music…both ask us to leave behind the ideas of yesterday and be willing to venture into the Great Unknown today.