April 6, 1970
The N. C. Essay
Page 2 ^
A^JO
,CS,A. COMPARED
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Up in the northern Michigan
woods an unusual experiment in
education began seven years ago and
has grown and flourished to be
come one of the most unusual
schools in the world.
Called the Interlochen Arts
Academy, it is a four-year
college preparatory school that
emphasizes music, dance, drama and
the visual arts. The school is an
outgrowth of the famous
summer music camp, called the
National Music Camp, begun by
Joseph Maddy in 1928.
While the music camp (it has
now become an arts camp) is large
with 1800 children in attendance in
a summer, the arts academy has
only about 400 students. It
intends to remain at that size.
One student there called it
"a musical utopia." To most of the
teen-agers at Interlochen, who seem
to have found their thing at a
precocious age, there is an almost
overwhelming opportunity to eat,
breathe and sleep music - or dance,
or sculpture, or acting.
"The long and winding road always
leads me to your door" -
Don't Keep Me Waiting/'Paul
McCartney
Despite the rumors and realities
concerning the stability of the
Beatles, the quartet continually
produces excellent music. There
remains a certain quality which
makes it uniquely important,
charming, and refreshing. To
their credit, they are able to create
pieces of substantial vision and
merit even in personal (artistic)
crisis. Of all the artists in rock,
few have the charaismatic and
aesthetic appeal of the Beatles.
As an art form, rock has pulled
a curious trick. Rather than con
tinue to forge into the new terri
tory it once opened, rock is
currently re-examining its basic
format. And the Beatles are among
the chief, if not primary, investi
gators. (Some might call this
artistic regression, but it is
essential to the art that its roots
be fully expanded before any truth
ful mutation occurs).
The Beatles latest LP, Let It
BSj although not-.yet;., off icially re
leased, is available on a bootleg
label (Kum-Back Records). Pro
cessed from raw tapes of the original
recording sessions, the record is
of extremely Inferior quality, im
perfect and hollow sounding. At
best, the sound resembles a transistor
radio. Yet, a definite impression
of the music can be formed.
On a recent weekend in early
March when "nothing special" was
going' on students- who wanted to ,
were bused in to Traverse City
(the nearest town) on Friday night
for a concert by the Amati String
Ensemble.
Alexander Schneider, who played
here for so many years with the
Budapest String Quartet, was on
campus for a couple of weeks re
hearsing the orchestra. Saturday
afternoon he led the orchestra in
a demanding rehearsal and that
evening the whole school turned out
for the concert. Attendance was
required but the place would pro
bably have been full anyway.
After the Saturday night concert,
the bleachers were rolled away and the
ai-ea was turned into a dance hall
with a rock band from the University
of Michigan. The band was composed
of Interlochen alumni who, remembering
the isolation of their school days,
had volunteered their services.
On Sunday there was a student
recital and a concert by the school
cello instructor.
As The Eeattes and Abbey
Road explored the basics of rock,
Let It Be keeps distinctly in touch
with thfe music's origins. Few
Sgt. Pepper decorations appear. As
one song-suggests, the Beatles are
"getting back".
Let It be will be (is) an im
portant LP because it recognizes
in full brevity the scope of rock
and roll tradition; indeed, it is
a celebration of that tradition.
Not to say that it recalls the old
days or is part of the current
rock and roll revival hype. The
Beatles musically express know
ledge of and joy in basic rock.
But they add their own (sympathetic
nuances and expand what is essen
tially a limited form .pure rock).
They ev*n embrace rock cliches,
turn them around and give them life
and meaning.
The following is a sequential
evaluation of Let It Be:
Side I - Get Back starts
the record, the same version as
the single. A comfortable place
to begin and we're set with the tone
of the record. Get Baak Home^
Loretta, A strong '50's backbeat
supports either Paul or Ringo -on
Can He \^aVk7 The words are in
comprehensible (a very poor take)
it lasts only a minute. One, two,
three, four... and we're into
Let It be. An irresistable
McCartney composition with piano and
(Cont. on page 4)
The isolation of Interlochen,
which gives it such a peaceful
- picturesqlie air to the visitor,
provides the schbol with some of its
major headaches. A surprising number
of first-rate artists fly to the
northern tip of Michigan for short
stays as artist-in-residence or to
give single concerts. In the past
year the school has been visited by
Isaac Stern, Dave Brubeck, Jorge
Mester and Lukas Foss.
On the other hand it is hard
for the school to get and keep
musicians of top quality for year-
round teaching staff. The musi
cal environment includes the
students themselves and their un
usual musical sophistication, the
resources of a huge record-
listening library and lending
library of orchestral and solo
scores; the marvelous and numerous
practice rooms which line the
basements of all the dorms; and
the opportunity for daily orches
tra rehearsals, playing in small
chamber groups and hearing an al
most weekly orchestra concert as
well as solo concerts by students
and faculty which are scheduled
several times a week.
All this adds up to a stu
dent body that gives the im
pression of clear-headed energy and
focus in a time when those
traits are sometimes im short supply.
These privileged students are
living in an atmosphere where a
single-minded concentration on the
flute or the bass fiddle is an
accepted way of life.
Music is the big thing at
Interlochen but there is a
sizable dance department too.
Students take both modern dance
and ballet. Helen McGehee, a
principal dancer with the Martha
Graham company, was in residence
for two months this year and the
dance compnay performed at Carnegie
Hall this past December.
While the dance department
has grown steadily since the
opening year when there were only
seven majors it dipped slightly
this past year, possibly because
the head of the department left and
has not been replaced.’ The
level of competence of the student
dancers does not equal that of the
music majors.
Interlochen has trod a
cautious path in its unusual com
bination of a school bustling with
long-haired artist students and a
generous endowment of conservative
Midwest money. Insurance tycoon,
W. Clement Stone is a principal
benefactor; others are Roscoe Boni-
steel and Dow Chemical.
There has been a considerable
change in the campus in the past
year and from here it looks like a
healthy flexibility. This year the
(Cont. on page 4)
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