Third Stream and the Importance of the Ear: A Position Paper in Narrative Form

Author(s): Ran Blake

Source: College Music Symposium, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Fall, 1981), pp. 139-146
Published by: College Music Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40374112
Accessed: 20-11-2016 20:34 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms

College Music Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to College Music
Symposium

This content downloaded from 192.188.53.214 on Sun, 20 Nov 2016 20:34:55 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Campus Focus

Third Stream and the

Importance of the Ear
A Position Paper in Narrative Form
Ran Blake

New England Conservatory

/^ UNTHER SCHULLER HAS DEFINED THIRD STREAM MUSIC as "the res

V^J two tributaries - one from the stream of classical music
from the stream of black music - that have recently flowed out
each other in the space between the two, leaving the main stream
turbed, or mostly."1 For Schuller Third Stream music fused "the i
sational spontaneity and rhythmic vitality of jazz with the compo
procedures and techniques acquired in Western music during 700
of musical development."2
When Gunther Schuller and I founded the Third Stream d
ment at New England Conservatory, I broadened Schuller's o
definition very slightly. Why must the two tributaries represent only
cal and jazz?3 Why not substitute one of the many styles and trad
ethnic music? What would one label the vital percussive tribal mus
geria blended with the cries of the Ainu from northern Japan? Ab
years later my colleagues and I went a step further towards a
definition by describing Third Stream music as a label for an ant
music. At the time this seemed the most relaxed and least doctrinaire
meaning. But this still defines a finished product, an entity. During the
last few months I have begun to use the term Third Stream as a verb. Now
I am convinced that it is a process, an action, and if the final product must

Quoted in Whitney Balliett, Dinosaurs in the Morning: 41 Pieces on Jazz (Philadelphia:

Lippincott, 1962), p. 215.
2From a lecture, quoted in Gunther Schuller, "Third Stream Redefined, Saturday
Review, IV, No. 9 (May 13, 1961), 54.
A\ am using the word "classical in its common, most inappropriate usage. My apolo-
gies for use of the word "jazz," considered by many Pan- African groups as racist.

This content downloaded from 192.188.53.214 on Sun, 20 Nov 2016 20:34:55 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
140 COLLEGE MUSIC SYMPOSIUM

be labeled, a new term such as "salsa" will be c

name of the author, e.g., Mingus.
I have talked with my colleague Larry Livin
president of the New England Conservatory and
the newest word to be coined may be "streamin
cian is 'streaming,' he or she is realizing in publ
private voice which is constantly being shaped,
the presence of other musicians who are 'stream
ensemble environment or in coexisting solo en
ing' originality is as important as competence."
To summarize, the three components of third
a process, that the music is primarily improvi
music, it is a deeply personalized vehicle for the
However, my purpose in writing is not to r
definition but to contend that it is the ear wh
direction a particular improviser takes, and acc
improvisation. It is the ear's strengths (and limi
important elements in the creation of an individua
reproduce memorized, virtuosic licks at roller-c
When musicians have this skill, along with im
ance as well as the ability to communicate, they
curriculum it is the ear which is ignored in fa
scores, and especially technique (although some
not mutually exclusive). Perhaps this would
back-track.
I grew up improvising constantly, and in the late 1950s at Bard Col-
lege, I finally persuaded the administrators to allow me to major in "jazz,"
only to realize by the time I was preparing my senior performance project
that my music was not considered jazz by other musicians and peers, and
eventually not even by me. I used the African aural tradition in acquiring
and "composing" new repertoire, but my inspirations were Debussy, Bar-
t6k, and Stravinsky, with maybe a little sprinkling of Pentecostal music.
Later I became more exposed to black music but the only pianist I could
honestly relate to was Thelonious Monk. After years of productive yet of-
ten frustrating study with outstanding "jazz musicians," I finally found
myself when I studied with Gunther Schuller.
Later I joined him at the New England Conservatory, where we both
realized there was a need for a department which could offer a nonrestric-
tive, disciplined approach to improvisation without taming the genius and
the madness which might be trapped in the young and undeveloped musi-
cian. So in 1972 the Third Stream Department - the first of its kind - was
established at New England Conservatory. Today we are not alone in our

This content downloaded from 192.188.53.214 on Sun, 20 Nov 2016 20:34:55 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 THIRD STREAM 141

work with the ear. There are peopl

research projects on auditory pr
place in laboratories and may be of
lifornia today Randy Masters of th
encourages students to explore a d
program is unique, however, in th
plined ear work and for finding th
munity of musicians attempting t
tion, we do not hold a monopoly.
Improvisation was stressed from
only because I felt that there was a
form, but also because there was a
had no place to study where they
"church," whereas composition d
bases, and faculty and students we
diversity of sources, making ventu
a wide variety of foreign ethnic cu
had less chance of being turned awa
the musician who primarily prefer
Yet if things were becoming less
wishes to notate, it was not so for
seldom allowed a similar license.
usually anything but that for the
woodwind, brass and percussion pl
were chances to improvise, certa
which usually played chord chang
because of lack of rehearsal time o
the written changes, cloning the e
patterns. The symphonic players o
that they may not have had the ch
skills of aural retention which cou
rization of the easier Bartok Mikro
tened passionately to artists like B
gatory rock groups outstaged ev
performers walk out of their own
During the first few years of th
valuable class time exploring the
Jackson, bossa nova, and Charles I
that there were no barriers in any
exercised, and because we moved
diverse musical styles did not hav
selves.

This content downloaded from 192.188.53.214 on Sun, 20 Nov 2016 20:34:55 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
142 COLLEGE MUSIC SYMPOSIUM

Gradually I slowed down and began emphasizing the

thought we were escaping from, the music called jaz
place to begin because street musicians use their ears t
were models for emotion and improvisation. The authe
Holiday's and Charlie Parker's reactions and improvi
Alley tunes is often missing from well-intentioned im
occurs in aleatoric music. Singers from a European
learn much by emulating Aretha Franklin (privately) a
bring this intensity and truth to their own original id
interested in black and folk music can gain other insig
music.
So first-year Third Stream students commence t
smaller scale, with the 32-bar song interpreted by Billi
music is banned. To this day I still antagonize musicians
everything be learned by ear.4 This invariable comm
lowed with difficulty by musicians who profess toleran
and new teaching techniques.
To the musician who has grown up without being en
by ear, preoccupied with playing Chopin preludes on th
est copy of the Real Book (an updated, trendy fake bo
guitar, learning totally by ear is as difficult as it is for th
create homemade mayonnaise from oil, vinegar, salt an
position counters that our approach is no less intoleran
that music is an aural art. If you want to use eyes, dig
come here for a musical stenography.
The student starts this process by painstakingly hea
over and over again via cassette (better than the phon
singing along with the tape and later without it. This
must be achieved before the student touches the ins
black key starting note on the piano or depressing a val
visual and tactile crutch. Naturally the memory must
manuscript paper at this time. Only without resort to
uscript paper can the ear be fully liberated and this me
into the memory to become part of the musician. This
ear irrigation, development, or as students say, a gymn
precede technical proficiency on the instrument, be
finger moves faster than the ear.
After bass lines and triad progressions are introd

4Musicians studying a score which they hear in their heads is a

ten theory teachers, who themselves hear material, fail to convey t
portance of hearing before analysing.

This content downloaded from 192.188.53.214 on Sun, 20 Nov 2016 20:34:55 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 THIRD STREAM 143

ready for a listening survey in the

ear has been exercised heartily ov
memory and a discerning apprec
tening to music in a similar style
From the beginning there is a
that done in many jazz or Afro-
more than 50 of them on my re
more rigorously to jazz, often th
cent rock. With few exceptions a
them constantly. (I am saying thi
nessed this.) In the most extrem
chords dictated in the symbols on t
dozens of updated ones are publi
couraged to leave the chord or t
are many teaching situations where
Solos are rarely taped or discusse
experience in reading and ensem
on-the-job discipline that they re
their direction.
In the Third Stream discipline, Billie Holiday, the music of Sephar-
dic Spain, different forms of black improvisation, jazz, ethnic and contem-
porary concert music are heard. Here as before the music is learned ex-
clusively by ear. When it becomes more difficult, tapes are played at slower
speeds and in rare cases a student is encouraged to transcribe the particu-
larly difficult measures, then tape the music and afterwards learn it
through the ear at a slow tempo.
Transcriptions come under discussion when we start studying
specific solos by significant jazz artists such as the Prestige version of the
Miles Davis solo Walkin'. Students are invited to answer each twelve bar
chorus of Davis with their own response, first in the style of that improvi-
ser and later as an extension. For obvious reasons already stated, this is
handled better if musicians are not sight reading from a music stand, even
if from their own transcriptions.
However, the written page is not always discouraged. Students are
asked to maintain a log. At first it is merely a listing of the objectives of the
material presently studied, the amount of time taken to conquer the mate-
rial, the problems that arise and conclusions. From the start the improvi-
sers must begin diagnosing their own strengths and weaknesses, and it is
better if this is done first on specific memorized material where there is a
right and wrong rather than our analyzing the students' first attempts at
free improvisations. It is important not to be too critical of the students'
first attempts at improvisation. Later the log becomes a glorified diary in

This content downloaded from 192.188.53.214 on Sun, 20 Nov 2016 20:34:55 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
144 COLLEGE MUSIC SYMPOSIUM

which events are listed. Much later yet the individ

foresight to appreciate the priorities and the experi
processed. This log can help determine direction an
in self-review.
Other activities and directions take place during the following years,
but I am more and more hesitant about creating inflexible demarcations
about what happens in a given year. In the past I have encouraged stu-
dents to begin seriously considering specific components of the two styles
which most fascinate them, and during the senior year, along with an im-
provised self-portrait in the form of a senior performance recital, to begin
the process of interpretation (which I did under Gunther Schuller's men-
torship). I often insisted the student offer this prescription, no matter how
embryonic, of what was to be a life-long pursuit as a prerequisite for the
undergraduate Third Stream degree.
Now I realize this can be difficult for all but the most musically ma-
ture students, and that if the second musical tradition has not had enough
time to brew and breathe, then the hybrid may not only curdle but it may
sound as if the second stream were hastily added as if it were an after-
thought, or worse that the musician is slumming in the second style.
Ideally it will take about six years with constant guidance of no more
than two and preferably one mentor to achieve this ability for self-review.
During the last two years, this intensive study would best be done at the
graduate level or perhaps privately. As can be seen, our system is in con-
stant flux.
I would like to point out that if in the first year there is stress on the
training of the ear, and that if the middle year includes a broad survey of
twentieth-century styles as well as discovering what lies within each stu-
dent, there is attention paid - perhaps not enough - to future goals. Four
years of Third Stream can prepare students for teaching (some students
who become turned on to the importance of the ear become excellent
teachers, both on the private level and with added courses in education, in
the public schools). Some of our student graduates are already teaching. It
also prepares them as performers. If you develop your own unique
sound, it may take you longer to get a break, but you cannot be replaced as
easily, and there is some security in not being forgotten. Our students are
also encouraged to participate in other ensembles in the school which
offer different experiences. Students can always take a summer off and
enroll in courses which prepare them for studio arranging, reading, re-
hearsing with stage bands, and so forth.
Students enrolled in a Third Stream program in a university or con-
servatory would probably have two hours of class and a half-hour of

This content downloaded from 192.188.53.214 on Sun, 20 Nov 2016 20:34:55 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 THIRD STREAM 145

private lessons in their specific per

as ours, they are required to take p
technique and interpretation, plus
tening, ensemble workshops and t
dents eventually choose to express
ted music. Of course since their b
style and emotion, their groundin
and courses such as score reading
posers have traditionally received m
music as it appears on a score (e.g.
the style (classical, romantic, Gyps
der for it to have full meaning to th
analysis as long as the students hav
begin with.
It also goes without saying that
of the classroom cannot and sho
communions, the midnight block
one-to-one contact with that elder
studies of music, the atmosphere o
students when they are communic
Yet often students find the most s
take place in the private studio.
In the Third Stream Department
important for the hungry improv
broad spectrum of tastes, and unt
was hard to locate. There were ver
lationship progresses, the guide m
the copilot, and eventually the solo
to occasional pertinent back-seat su
However, what Third Stream is o
the realization that the Third Stre
prominence it enjoyed during the
viable form of musical expression
to give academic credit and recogn
as the conduit to the inner musica
creased meaning and interest to ed
philosophy in music is not improvi
If the edification of the ear and
are not encouraged by academia, i
will only be considered an authent
hard-core fans; the main stream w

This content downloaded from 192.188.53.214 on Sun, 20 Nov 2016 20:34:55 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
146 COLLEGE MUSIC SYMPOSIUM

rets and as practices in stage bands. It will not be

who get the attention, but those musicians who ha
facility, gained from memorizing licks.
The intensive new approaches in African au
described would be of great benefit to all musician
not recently invented. Music was handed down aur
small children for centuries, and was the earliest
tion. Let us hope that in the 1980s more schools w
seriously, whether the musician intends to perform
Streaming styles.

This content downloaded from 192.188.53.214 on Sun, 20 Nov 2016 20:34:55 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms