How Can We Keep from Singing: Music and the Passionate Life. - book review

American Music Teacher, June-July, 2003 by Melanie DeMent

by Joan Oliver Goldsmith. W. W. Norton & Co. (500 5th Ave., New lark, NY 10110), 2002. 223 pp., $13.95.

The subtitle to Joan Oliver Goldsmith's book, How Can We Keep from Singing, gives us our first clue that this is not a book about vocal pedagogy. The book is a collection of personal essays on the lessons of life and the extraordinary parallels to be found in music making.

Goldsmith is a freelance writer who reviews classical music for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. She is a well-trained and experienced musician, who, like the majority of us, performs on the sidelines instead of center stage, bringing a perspective to music making to which many musicians can relate.

There are fifteen essays, all of which grow from one of many of Goldsmith's personal musical experiences, not necessarily presented in chronological order. The starting point of the book, "Overture: Playing the Invisible Instrument," is an essay on the importance of finding and pursuing that which drives us, our invisible instrument. As the essays unfold, Goldsmith reminds us how we came to the place where we are. Examples of her early "musical" experiences include the variety of thuds one can create by skipping rocks on a frozen pond, the crashing and banging of the garbage men in the morning and the Sunday church bells in Manhattan--"sound bites" that the public tunes out or ignores, but would fascinate the ear of a musician.

After distinguishing the term amateur from the commonplace and derogatory insinuation of dilettante, Goldsmith cites some astonishing figures, including the fact that 20 million Americans sang in public choral concerts in 1997. She then launches into a discussion of "followership"--where would leaders be without followers? How would we accomplish anything without the shared purpose between strong leadership and courageous followership? Goldsmith follows this reasoning with astute observations about the relationship between the choral singer, the orchestra player and the conductor.

Amid provocative philosophical probes, Goldsmith offers plenty of deeply personal experiences through which music has uplifted, challenged and, on occasion, subdued her. The reader often is drawn into her struggles, waiting for the moment when music brings, if not the solution, at least comfort.

How Can We Keep from Singing is a refreshingly honest look at one musician's journey through life and music making. Some readers might find the stream-of-consciousness writing style distracting, although indicative of the whirlwind life musicians lead. Through it all, Goldsmith has created a fitting tribute to the ordinary musician.

Melanie DeMent, Newark, Delaware.