Style is Everything
BUT HOW TO DEVELOP YOURS? (2)
THIS ARTICLE FOLLOWS ‘Style is Everything (1)’
Style as innate aspect of personality
The contradiction shown earlier has not yet been resolved. I have argued that we can actively develop our style by conducting our artistic search in the outside world, adopting strategies and crafts that we appreciate in other artists’ works; we can strive to express authentic ideas by surrounding ourselves with musical models that inspire our growth and challenge our point of view. Also, we can measure the originality of our voice against other external voices we find relevant. In other words, style will emerge from our interaction with the art outside ourselves. But style, somehow, also comes from within.
Taking this perspective on style, we view it as an individual’s innate quality, which cannot be shaped or developed.
It is an expression of our deepest self: as such it cannot be pulled to the surface by will, it must emerge by itself. We must contend with the idea that some forces are active within ourselves and that we don’t have access to or control of them.
Some of us feel good when our deep self finds expression in the outer world, others feel uncomfortable. Some are interested in investigating their unconscious world while others are uninterested, or even scared of it. There is no doubt that our deep self finds its ways out more often than we are aware of: sometimes it reaches the surface as a form of expression, like art, and true artists welcome this skill as something they have been gifted with, rather than something they are capable of.
And if style is a pure reflection of the self, how can we shape it, or have any say at all on it? We probably cannot. Any conscious attempt at ‘using your style’ will only create a non-authentic version of it. Consequently, the only way we can actively affect our style is by making changes to ourselves.
The contradiction seems striking. I am now arguing that style cannot be developed, but I spent several the paragraphs earlier arguing that it can. Technically speaking, we can develop the conditions and skills that can help authenticity to emerge, by way of more informed choice-making and a more sophisticated palette of techniques. Authenticity is expressed by the things that we like and that moves us, which we ultimately don’t have control over.
Attraction or repulsion for art, music, architecture, or any aesthetic object is a reaction which depends in great part on unconscious motivations, regardless of how many rational arguments we find for it. Beauty is subjective and no rationale will ever convince someone who doesn’t see it.
But what should an artist do? Should he/she search for style or wait until it emerges on its own? As a student I received two opposite pieces of advice from two equally respectable and accomplished music mentors. Both moved by a search for authenticity, each would suggest the exact opposite strategy.
The Jazz teacher told me I had to find my voice, my sound, my style while the Composition teacher told me that as soon as I begin recognizing a style emerging in my writing, I should drop it and conduct my search elsewhere.
One encouraged me to find a style that would feel mine, that would serve as a guide while developing my creativity, and the other warned me of the dangers and limits of wilfully adopting one style, exposing my ideas to the risk of constantly being framed within that one set of pre-adopted stylistic solutions.
Is one solution better than the other? Or is being somewhere in the middle the best strategy? Or is there any other option? A couple of examples might clear the fog.
Herbie Hancock, one of the most prolific and universally praised figures of Jazz, has built his signature style exactly by never settling on ‘one style’. A true voice of multi-culturalism, an inspiring force for artistic explorations, his output touches all musical genres. You might hear similar solutions from one recording to another, but it would be difficult to draw a single stylistic trajectory throughout his artistic career. On the topic of artistic authenticity, Hancock probably represents a musical chameleon whose unique style is consistent only in relation to the playfulness and variety of his experimentations.
If style were a spectrum, at the opposite end to Hancock we would find another central figure of Jazz: Keith Jarrett, whose artistic search for authenticity has rarely guided him away from his unique centre of focus, the piano (and when it did, jazz critics and fans have not been too enthusiastic).
Jarrett’s explorations of different genres (Classical, Contemporary, Country, Blues, Rock, Improvisation, and even Meditation Music) are always bound to his main instrument and almost entirely delivered in performances for solo piano, piano duo, trio, quartet.
You can easily recognize his style (a special ‘Jarrett’ sound, a way of phrasing, a characteristic inventiveness, a series of solutions and patterns that occur more than once throughout his career), but you will hardly find two passages that are the same, in 50 years of recorded music. Jarrett is an example of how someone can be truthful to his own self and yet be conducting a lifelong search for newer ways of being himself.
What is the right way? My answer: it is up to you to find out.
If artistic expression has no rule, then the search for authenticity might depend on what it is that constitutes the authentic you. If the history of Art has taught us anything, it is that great artists have worked relentlessly on their craft, their vision, their inspiration strategies: each has developed their ‘voice’ with constant attention to what was their authentic self, while searching for new, inspiring, and original ways to be themselves.
The question ‘How can I possibly develop my style, if it is an innate quality of myself?’ should probably be rephrased in this way: ‘How can I develop myself in ways that will inform my inner style?’
Let your favourite artists guide you in the search: don’t imitate their solutions (although do know all about them…), but instead imitate their relentlessness in searching, in trying alternative ways, in their curiosity, boldness and playfulness.
If you feel in tune with a few special artists, figure out exactly what it is that makes them so close to you and explore that way, without the fear of missing out on other stuff.
Style is an expression of taste, personality, and sensitivity, so make yourself more sensitive to Art, challenge your taste, expose yourself to unusual artistic journeys and explorations.
Welcome your limits as well as your potentials, embrace the constant state of chaos in which Art exists, and forget about perfection. Be brave and unapologetic about it: you are doing what Art requires you to do, which is to be yourself, whatever that entails.
Alberto L. Ferro
I teach at the London Contemporary School of Piano, open to all students in UK and abroad. For inquiries contact me or the school directly.
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