TIME AWAY

I ventured back to Raleigh for Christmas and New Year's and although I did not return to New York as soon as I might have liked for personal reasons, the time away allowed me to reflect and take care of some things that had been neglected.  I practiced every day.  I took the time to look over my blog postings to edit and revise (aghast at the large number of typographical errors in them!). 

In thinking about the slightly less than four months I have spent in NYC I still feel much more like an "intentional tourist" than a New Yorker.  However, my experience in the city has been much more than a series of events.  Were that not the case I would still be bemoaning some of the events I could not get to. I have been forced to think and live in a different way.  I have had the luxury of making mostly "no lose" choices.

One of my "quests" while in NYC has been to broaden and deepen my understanding of its music and musical life.  While searching some sources I encountered a name I had not thought of in years, that of the child prodigy, pianist, composer, novelist, journalist and reporter Philippa Schuyler.  I purchased a biography of her by Kathryn Talalay and was instantly absorbed in the life of this unique, to say the least, phenomenon. I refer to here as a phenomenon because she was in many respects the result of an experiment conducted by her mother.

Philippa Schuyler's mother was a maverick personality from a wealthy Texas family.  She married black writer and journalist George Schuyler, a prominent name in the Harlem Renaissance. Philippa was born in 1931 at a time when interracial marriage (especially between blacks and whites) was not accepted and was even illegal in some states. Philippa was raised according to the principles of child rearing advocated by behavioral psychologist John Watson and also given a very unorthodox diet of only uncooked foods (including meats). Here mother carefully maintained a journal of Philippa's life.

Philippa made a name for herself quite early as a prodigy who could read, write and speak at a very early age.  She studied piano and quickly established herself as a musical prodigy as well and was even compared to Mozart.  Her career as a pianist soared and as an adult she also became a highly regarded, if controversial, journalist and reporter as she traveled to South America, east Europe, Africa (especially) and, finally, to Vietnam where she died in 1967 at the height of the Vietnam conflict in a tragic helicopter crash.

Philippa Schuyler's life interfaced with so many important events, most notably the civil rights movement in the U.S., independence movements in Africa, and the Vietnam Conflict. This fact required the writer to gain at least basic grounding in many non-musical areas and also provided a window into many interesting and important historical events.

Despite the evident thoroughness of Talalay's research it would have been nice if she had included a list of Schuyler's compositions and also a list of repertoire she performed.  There is still much work to be done with regard to her music but this comprehensive look at her life is an outstanding introduction.

And so it is on to another exciting set of experiences.  Onward!