This is a New York Times article about memorization. Not even about the benefits or the negative aspects surrounding it, but merely the main history to performing solo works only by memory, what places have gone lack on the social requirement and others that haven't. Interestingly to note, it seems that the general public could care less about memorization as long as the performance is meaningful, and yet it is the schools which train young musicians that are holding steadfastly to the memorization rule.
Now to be fair, at least on a University level, I've seen that this rule tends to be held more strictly for pianists and strings. Memorization is like, the one little break most wind players get. Now, if we do a concerto competition or something, we usually still have to, but for recitals or juries using scores is no big deal.
Personally, I have memorized pieces, and I actually find it easier on piano and violin to an extent. Piano tends to be easier because it usually requires more work and time to perfect a piece due to the complexity of everything being in your hands (literally) whereas on a woodwind, while I may use all or most of none of my fingers to create a note and have to deal with embouchure and breathing etc, I still only have that one note to worry about. On piano, by the time I've fine-tuned a piece, it's pretty close to being memorized. As far as violin playing goes, the easiness is either due to the two years I spent learning fiddle tunes in the Blue Ridge Mountains (fiddle tunes are rarely written down, they are merely played by the teacher over and over until the student has memorized the pattern and begun to manipulate it themselves - aka improvisation) or the fact that most string players start their craft at such a young age that they begin learning by ear, where everything is memorized. Once you've started in that manner, it's not hard to keep memorizing as you go no matter how advanced you get.
But then again, I wonder if the reason I find it so hard to memorize on bassoon is that I rarely have. When we are not challenged to do something, we rarely do it.
This is not to say that I am for or against memorization. I think it is a skill that all musicians should have in their ready arsenal. Something they can always do if need be, which would require practice. But should it be required? It seems to me that requiring memorization is much like requiring a musician to learn Italian, when really they'd be just fine learning the 20-40 odd Italian words typically found inside scores.
Thoughts? I'd really love to debate on this further.
Hobey-ho!
