SKU: GI.G-9533
The Power of Metaphor
in Artistry. Composed
by James Jordan. Evoking
Sound. Music Education.
224 pages. GIA
Publications #9533.
Published by GIA
Publications (GI.G-9533).
ISBN
9781622772407.
All
our truth, or all but a
few fragments, is won by
metaphor. We don’t
grasp the meaning of a
word or concept until we
have a clear image to
connect it with. —
C.S. Lewis Â
Understanding artistry
and those
“things†that
contribute to honest and
direct musical expression
are concepts that are
both difficult to teach
and difficult for us to
understand as conductors
and teachers. Born out of
his teaching at The
Choral Institute at
Oxford each summer, James
Jordan has realized the
power of metaphor for
teaching the highest
artistic concepts
involving human
connection and deeper
listening. The home of
The Choral Institute at
Oxford is St.
Stephen’s House,
the very place that C. S.
Lewis worshipped. In this
book, Jordan adapts
Lewis’s love of
powerful and effective
metaphors. Jordan uses
metaphors as a guide to
help conductors engage
the most profound the
concepts of artistry in
music, concepts that are
often elusive to teach or
learn. These metaphors
can be effective doorways
to understand our role as
artist teacher/conductors
in new and vibrant ways.
In this book, Jordan
explores: The metaphor of
conductor as a refractive
prism connecting
musicians to conductors
within constant
communicative connection
The light-generating
source for conductors The
power of abiding
Polishing one’s
metaphorical prism for
the most powerful
refraction to others
Rethinking the
“sublime†in
music making
Understanding and
avoiding musical
“kitsch†The
power of predictive
audiation as ultimate
trust The artist’s
necessary journey into
loneliness Â
GRAMMY-nominated
conductor James Jordan is
Professor and Senior
Conductor at Westminster
Choir College in
Princeton, New Jersey. He
is conductor of the
internationally acclaimed
Westminster Williamson
Voices and the
Westminster Schola
Cantorum, and is Artistic
Director and Conductor of
The Same Stream
(thesamestreamchoir.com).
He is Director of The
Westminster Conducting
Institute and is
Co-Director along with
James Whitbourn of The
Choral Institute at
Oxford. James Jordan
talks about his new work,
Conductor As Prism:.