Mimicry, part 2

In the previous post I recounted the story of how my first voice teacher built her technique and career by imitating a recording. Indeed, imitation is one of the tools in the voice teacher’s toolbox, relying on our innate ability to initiate rather complicated coordinations. As previously mentioned, mimicry is a double-edged sword, particularly when we go to the vast trove of recorded music.

While live performances are by their nature, temporal, recordings immortalize a moment in time. Further, through the wonders of software and digital technology, sound and recording engineers are able to enhance and alter that immortalized performance moment in unforeseen ways; herein lies the danger. As consumers of music we are drawn to those recordings that resonate strongly with us, riding the emotional wave that comes with it, imprinting the sound we hear and trying to recreate it, whether or not we are equipped for it.

There is a ubiquity of our communal imprint of some songs and standards. For example, if you imagine the opening phrase of “New York, New York,” I can all but guarantee that it is Frank Sinatra that is playing in your head. To attempt to perform that song today brings with it a requirement to pay homage to that icon’s version as it is synonymous with the identity of that song. In so doing, we limit ourselves to our mind’s attempt to imitate the phrasing, color, and emotional trajectory of that immortalized few moments; it can become an unattainable standard by which we define success.

The danger of this path of imitation is at least twofold. The first is the physical attempts to recreate a sound for which we may not ultimately be equipped. By directing the various parts of our instrument to recreate the sonic standard we create coordinations that may not be healthy, but are nonetheless mentally and emotional equated with that successful sound memory. It becomes difficult to undo that coordination, rooted as it is in other aspects of memory. The second is the limitation to our artistic expression. Through the act of imitation, essentially we are recreating a moment, not creating a moment.

Make the interpretation your own so that the coordinations are your own, bound up in your own emotional trajectory, not limited by another’s.

More tomorrow…