On the Use of Time

Françoise Lombard

“[…] all progress must come from the depths of your being, and cannot be pressured or hurried.”        Rainer Maria RILKE Letters to a Young Poet

Life is unpredictable; it escapes our projections and our calculations; it sometimes clearly imposes its rules on us; today it calls perhaps more than ever on our adaptability and our capacity for resilience.

In this period of confinement, time takes on other dimensions. For scientific research and for those working in essential services, time is running out. In online teaching, here are some observations and reflections around time.

Many of our students currently have more time than usual. Some take the opportunity to listen and re-listen to musical material worked on in individual lessons – which we take the time to record at the end of the lesson. They give themselves the chance to assimilate musical concepts in a time that is theirs and that responds to their learning pace. This rhythm is different for each of them.

In the course – individual or group – there is rarely time to lay the foundations of an active, present and serene receptivity. In improvisation, we approach for example a new harmonic sequence with a certain quality of listening, but soon we analyze, memorize, locate it on the keyboard, transpose it and adapt it to a eurhythmic exercise.

The same recorded harmonic sequence will give the students the opportunity to listen to it after the lesson WITHOUT ANYTHING TO DO, as many times as they need, by receiving, welcoming, living this musical event with availability and inner freedom. This time of listening generates incredible progress.

A student recently told me how useful the recording of rhythmic dictations after online teaching was. Listening to them again, she takes the time to assimilate the bodily gestures and the coordination required by stepping a rhythm while conducting.

Repeating the experience as many times as she wishes, she is building a feeling of self-confidence and enjoys the satisfaction of living her movements in full awareness, relaxed, in a real sensation of globality.

Eurhythmics also requires a certain continuity in its practice. Even though the presence of others and the dynamics of the group is very important, it is reassuring to note that we can individually develop certain elements such as mastering a regular tempo, motor coordination, creativity in body movement or others.This time of listening and repetition at home is a great discovery for many confined students.

It is the time that human being give themselves to cultivate their musical instinct which gives them access to their understanding of music and opens doors of their creative impulse.

Precious and essential time for the little baby which leads him progressively to the acquisition of verbal language.
This phenomenon is of the same importance in learning music.

Musical instinct is a fertile soil (ground). In my perception, it brings together and connects spontaneity, freedom, momentum, movement, sensuality, memory, organic intelligence and much more. It sometimes slumbers, by default. Like a seed planted that lacks sun and water. Everything is there, within us. I mean that we all have a wealth of sensitivity that is revealed by a stimulating context, inspiring relationships, the time we give ourselves and self-confidence.

The time of this confinement brings back to me the memory of those who accompanied me in my learning, who gave me confidence in my creativity, stimulating me by bringing me a rich and colorful cultural and musical background, with deep affection. Among them, Lily Merminod, a wonderful musician and pianist who, because she was too nervous to perform on stage, chose to offer concert-conferences to children – and their parents – on the theme of a composer, or a music era. She spoke with elegance and humor, shared all kinds of stories about little Mozart, about Schubert and his friends, or about baroque music. She presented us slides of engravings and paintings illustrating the architecture of the time, scenes from everyday life, portraits. She spoke to us about clothing, customs, dances and made the composers live as if she had known them. While we were dreaming in front of these images, she slipped discreetly towards the piano and interpreted pieces by the composer she was talking about with a rare sensitivity.

My child’s soul was transported by the beauty of music, by the spontaneity of Lily Merminod and her love for children. She had an immense culture which she shared with such a simplicity, and her imagination awakened ours. She was different, original, she had found her soil. The time shared with her left a deep mark on me. Everything that emerged from her told me that she was taking time to live, that she had given herself the time to dig her own groove, to find her language; she was in no hurry.

I spent countless hours sitting at my piano, as a child, to pass the time … which gave me the chance to develop my musical ear. If you have time, I suggest that you listen to melodies you like, sing and sing them until your musical memory is secure, and go play them on your instrument. Decipher all the scores that come to hand : professional student, teacher or amateur, whatever, a music bath does always good.

Article published in the journal Being Music Dalcroze Canada vol 14 No 1 Spring 2020