Sustained Procrastination
(Note: This post has been updated (1) as of 6:56 PM Eastern on 11 Aug. See below)
Alex Ross makes note of his personal best of sustained procrastination in connection with a book he began reading in 1994, and only now has gotten around to finishing. And with happy result, too, thanks to the procrastination, for, as Alex remarks, "back in 1994 [he] would have had no idea what [the author] was talking about."
Well, 10 years sustained procrastination by anyone in finishing reading a book is surely a contender for a record of some sort. But it's a trifle, a mere bagatelle (as Ralph Kramden would have put it), compared with my personal best of sustained procrastination in the matter of finishing reading a book. Alex's "odd reading habi[t]" of "bury[ing] one half-finished book under the next," is one I share, and such was the fate of Charles Rosen's award-winning, The Classical Style, which I began reading in 1975, and only last week again picked up to finish reading.
Huge mistake, that procrastination, as it turns out, for in 1975 I was able to follow Rosen's detailed, highly technical, and closely argued musicological arguments with a fair if not perfectly fluid facility even though at that time I was already some 10 years past my in-practice music theory best. Today, after nearly 30 years of total disuse, my facility at music theory is so arthritic as to be all but useless, the ineluctable consequence of a too-late learning (my first introduction to music theory beyond the minimum required to play the fiddle was at the truly ancient age of 17). I can, of course, with some expenditure of effort and slow reading, get the gist of Rosen's arguments, but real understanding is, I suspect, now sadly beyond my capabilities — that is, short of my first learning and practicing at music theory all over again, and I simply can't face that daunting prospect at this stage of my life. Damn shame, too, because the book is beautifully written, and what remnants I still retain of my prior knowledge permit me to recognize that Rosen's analyses are trenchant and awesomely informed, whether he's 100% on-target or not.
Mothers, if your kid shows genuine musical talent, get that music theory in his head and in his ear early, right along with his learning to play his instrument. Learn it early, and it's yours for life. Learn it late, and it's use it or lose it.
Update (6:56 PM Eastern on 11 Aug): For an important clarification, see this post.
