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Some people are born teachers, some become great through experience, and some become famous through their students. The renowned violin teacher Dorothy DeLay fits all three categories. She discovered her innate talent and love for teaching early in life, inspired by the great pedagogue Ivan Galamian, but her long association with him, first as his student, then as his assistant at the Juilliard School, ended in an acrimonious parting of ways. She then developed her own class of students at Juilliard and other prestigious conservatories, and soon acquired a worldwide reputation as unrivalled producer of prodigies and virtuosos. One of her first star pupils was Itzhak Perlman; it might be said that they made each other famous. The music world has long speculated about what sets DeLay and her teaching apart, and in this book, 10 years in the making, Barbara Sand tries to find some answers. She observed DeLay in action and interaction with her pupils at Juilliard, the Aspen summer school, and at home, and talked extensively with DeLay and her husband of almost 60 years, Edward Newhouse. Sand interviewed her assistants, her students past and present, and the conductors and managers who engage them. What emerges is a portrait of a woman whose inexhaustible energy, determination, inquiring intellect, and single-minded commitment to her work and her students give her a larger-than-life quality. This is a personal profile, not a description of a teaching method. Indeed, DeLay claims she has none, though it seems clear that she is guided by Galamian's technical principles. However, she rejects his well-known authoritarianism, responding to her pupils' individual needs and tempering stringent demands with generous encouragement and support. What makes her approach unique is her deep involvement in her students' lives, from choosing their wardrobes to remaining available to them as adviser and confidante long after they leave her studio. Even more remarkable is her ability to launch them into the concert world. Their gratitude and devotion are unstintingly expressed by Sand's carefully selected interviewees, as is her own wholehearted admiration. The book is a hymn of praise.
However, like all successful people, DeLay has her share of detractors. Sand dispatches them in a single chapter, mostly devoted to refuting criticism, some of which is undoubtedly inspired by envy. It is said that her students win major prizes and make successful careers because she attracts the best talents from all over the world, and because she has attained an unprecedented position of power and influence in the music profession's slippery back corridors. She takes only highly accomplished, motivated students who are preparing for solo careers and practice all day. Even the youngest children arrive playing virtuoso concertos, which indicates heavy family pressure and means that she can hand out the carrots while the parents wield the stick. Nevertheless, the chapter on prodigies makes the tortuous process of training and "handling" them sound utterly benign and healthy.
Sand discusses DeLay's well-known habit of keeping students waiting for hours and leaving much of the teaching to her assistants (whom she gets on the Juilliard faculty), explaining that she accepts too many students and spends too much time promoting them. But she mentions legitimate pedagogical issues only by implication. Unlike teachers who also perform, DeLay never plays for her students (beyond some technical demonstration) to avoid exposing them to a single influence; instead, she advises them to listen to different interpretations on many recordings. But doesn't this also produce imitation, and perhaps confusion as well? Entirely performance-oriented, DeLay focuses on what is effective onstage and encourages a large-scaled, extroverted playing style. She speaks emphatically about teaching her students to think for themselves, but never mentions fostering their emotional response to the music or helping them in the slow, inward process of discovering their own feelings. Yet isn't this the key to becoming a communicative artist?
Sand is an empathetic, adept interviewer, winning her subjects' confidence and eliciting frank, informative responses (though some could have used editing). Galamian, perhaps to contrast his teaching style with DeLay's, generally comes off rather badly; DeLay herself speaks about their rupture candidly but without rancor. The book contains much absorbing information, punctuated with many detailed descriptions of people's looks and attire. There are sweeping statements about players and teachers. Why, for example, are such great artist-teachers as Flesch, Busch, Enescu, Rostal, and Bron not mentioned among the 20th-century "teaching geniuses"? Sand's style is a pleasure to read, engaging, lively, humorous, and to the point, despite some moments of confusion and contradiction. Her perceptive insights and warm feeling for her subject bring us closer to understanding what makes Dorothy DeLay such a fascinating, controversial personality. --Edith Eisler
Book Description
Itzhak Perlman, Kennedy, Midori, and Sarah Chang were among Dorothy Delay's students during her five decades as a violin teacher at Juilliard. For more than ten years, the author was granted access to DeLay's classes and lessons at Juilliard and the Aspen Music Festival and School, and this book reveals DeLay's deep intuition of each student's needs. An exploration of the mysteries of teaching and learning, it includes a feast of anecdotes about an extraordinary character.
Customer Reviews:
Very Fair Portrayal of a Gargantuan Violin Pedagogue.......2007-08-07
Some have criticized this book for giving an overly-fawning portrayal of Dorothy DeLay. However, this book contains an excellent chapter devoted solely to DeLay's critics, and it doesn't shoot the critics down; it discusses the criticisms in a fair way.
Dorothy DeLay died in 2002 but her legacy lives on. This is the woman responsible for teaching Perlman, Sarah Chang, Midori, Salerno-Sonnenberg, Nigel Kennedy, Cho-Liang Lin, Mark Kaplan, Shlomo Mintz, Gil Shaham, Simon Fischer, and too many more to mention.
I never played for her, but did watch a lesson she taught once. Admittedly, it was rife with many of the things of which her critics complain: She arrived about three hours late (Getting "DeLayed"), and once the lesson began she was constantly answering the knock at the studio door, the phone ringing, etc.
However, knowing that many people sought to play for her at least once, so they could then put her name on their resume, she didn't always take these occasions seriously, especially given the hundreds and hundreds of violinists she heard in her life.
Those special musical geniuses that DeLay *did* take a special interest in, though, she took a long way. While some violin teachers like to focus only on developing technique through scales and exercises, DeLay never failed to emphasize the musical, expressive, artistic side of the violinist's development. Whereas her contemporary Ivan Galamian would say "I don't teach music," meaning he only taught technique, musical interpretation notwithstanding, Dorothy DeLay would constantly ask her students things like "Where do you think this phrase is going?" and "What do you think is the most important note in this phrase?" and "What do you think Beethoven might have been thinking when he composed this passage?" So many music teachers today, of all instruments, neglect this area of development as they view performance as an olympic sport of technique. Yes, the profession is extremely competitive, but in such competition, when there are 1000 violinists that can hit the notes, the ones that stand out are the ones with a superior *artistic* finish.
This book is an excellent survey of the inner world of Dorothy DeLay's studio; her philosophy, her former students, and much more. She was the single most influential violin teacher of the 20th century.
Mainly good except for some flaws.......2007-06-27
It's very interesing to know the inner workings of Juliard and business part of the classical world. It is sad but true that after so much hard work, the student may end up with no job (if you have no clout/connections)!
But have to agree that the book has a "fawning" tone abt it. Also, the almost "out of this world" (lack of a better word) praises it heaps on some of Delay's star students makes parts of it difficult to read.
But taking apart all these, it is still a pretty good read.
Amazing.......2003-11-10
Being a violinist, I found it utterly foolish to not read a book about one of the best teachers of the instrument in the 20th Century. The first day I purchased it I read almost 200 pages, literally unable to put it down.
The relationships Ms. Delay had with her students were not only educational ones, but personal friendships. How unreal that despite the graduation of many students, they still went back to her for lessons after landing their professional solo careers! Many times a violinist is too hard-headed and full of himself to get advice from another person, but such is not the case with the students of Ms. Delay.
I felt, as I read the book, that I could not only relate to some of the technical issues the students had, but that I was actually receiving a private lesson from Delay without ever touching my violin.
I definitely intend on reading this book again, and again, and again, with highlighter in hand. I have a completely different outlook on how I not only listen to the phrasing of music but in creating my own phrasing as well.
The world has lost a teacher, but more importantly a wonderful woman, which many could call a friend and mother-figure.
This was a fabulous book and I recommend it to every musician, no matter what instrument you play.
Interesting, but pulls too many punches.......2001-12-28
Barbara Lourie Sand's book about Dorothy DeLay is written by a polished journalist who knows how to tell a good story. The early part of the book is thus the most interesting, tracing DeLay's life and development, first as a moderately successful concert violinist and chamber musician, next as longtime assistant to the great pedagogue Ivan Galamian, and finally as legendary teacher and mentor of many of the most successful classical violinists of the 20th century.
Sand mentions in a preface that she shaped this book during the course of a ten-year association with DeLay during which she was also writing articles about some of her well-known students. She obviously had a warm and close relationship with DeLay, her husband Edward Newhouse, and her students, and while this gave her an enviable access it probably hurt her journalistic acumen in the end. Too often, troubling questions are raised and treated dismissively, or quickly dropped--the hardships of raising and nurturing exceptionally gifted children, or outright abuse in the name of discipline and training, for example. Sand treats DeLay's rupture with Galamian in a fair amount of detail, but does not mention that some of DeLay's students have broken very publicly with her as well. Criticisms of DeLay and her style are mostly confined to one chapter and are largely made by unnamed sources. Though DeLay's approach to teaching is discussed in detail, important issues, such as the pros and cons of learning from a teacher who herself never demonstrates, are left untouched.
In short, this book is a good read and intriguing glimpse into the arcane and competitive world of top classical music-making. Because of her unwillingness to "go for the jugular," as she admits at one point, Barbara Lourie Sand loses a chance to make it even more.
Minor quibble: The Accolay Concerto is _not_ part of the Suzuki violin literature.
Teaching Geniuses and All the Others, Too.......2001-01-23
Through Mrs. Sand's warm, informed voice the reader can enter the veiled world of Julliard: its politics, its students, and its famous teachers. Her subject is Dorothy Delay, a woman, we learn, who from the '40s and 50's on had the brillant talent and requisite nerve to break through the traditional male world of classical, dictatorial music teaching, and assert her own humanistic beliefs and style. This is a book also for people, musical and otherwise, who want to learn how to overcome professional barriers. It is inspiring.
Some may think that Delay's skill in building successful young careers lies in having the ear to choose the most talented applicants to her studio. However, this book is true to its title: anyone can find clues here for becoming a great teacher.
Sand's miraculous feat was to extract both subtle and bold methods of teaching from years of observing Mrs. Delay. Anyone who teaches another, no matter what the subject, no matter what the level, will learn from this book. It is emotionally rich and informative.
Book Description
Jim Murphy once again writes an exciting story of a young boy on the cusp of a great, and sometimes violent, world. Jonathan Dodge has run away from his father's house, fleeing his father's wrathful punishments. He signs on as a "greenhorn," a sailor on an Alaskan whaling ship. On the high seas Jonathan finds more adventure and danger than one boy could have hoped for.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting for both genders........2006-03-07
"The Journal Of Brian Doyle: Greenhorn on an Alaskan Whaling Ship The, Florence, 1874" is a book I'm sure boys will love (not to say girls won't!). I'm not familiar with the history of whaling, so I was very interested in what this book had to offer. It's amazing that such a young boy could be thrust into the brash world, and yet be compassionate to the people around him and have sympathy for the slaughtered whales. I did become confused with the characters since there were so many men on the ship. If you're looking for a different type of historical fiction that doesn't involve wars, then I suggest you give this book a try. I recommend.
What on earth!!!!????.......2005-03-01
Ok, this book was not cool.
First of all, it seems like all it consists of is fights and swearing REALLY bad words at each other. There is almost no whales, which I guess is the whole point, but still.
All he talks about is his brother this and "I wonder what my brother's doing" and "Sean Michael that".
Halfway through the book, they abandon ship because it got frozen in ice, and he sets off walking, and I completely lost the thought of it. I finished it simply because I wanted to see if it got more interesting at the end, but nothing really did.
The last complaint I have is about the epilouge. It never really said what happened to him. He married, had kids and then....nothing. Oh yeah, and he finally met up with his brother.
It's all about "he hates me and I hate him", "he hit me, so I hit him back".
I definitely am glad it was borrowed, I'm not going to buy it, and I do not recommend this to anyone.
WHAT AN EXCITING ADVENTURE.......2004-04-14
Wow. I just got through reading this book. It was great! Brian Doyle is a great charaacter -- a kid running from his father -- who has no idea what he's signed up for when he ends up on a whaling ship. He has no idea how hard and challenging his life will become. Or how he will change by the time his incredible adventure is over.
I think this is one of the best books in the series. I love whales. And I loved reading this.
Average customer rating:
- Can't put it down!
- Zany, Fast-paced Action
- Greenhorns and killer Mountains
- EXCITING
- It Takes Treasure Hunting to New Heights!
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Greenhorns and Killer Mountains
Jim Conover
Manufacturer: Lynch Law Productions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 United States
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Men's Adventure
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Action & Adventure
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ASIN: 0966947215 |
Customer Reviews:
Can't put it down!.......2006-03-11
This is one of those books that you just can't wait to turn the page to find out what happens next. You forget you're reading a book! You feel like it's really happening because Conover's writing puts you right there! Sometimes, even good books have their "slow parts," but not this one! Anyone who likes books that really take you there and is written in such a way that you can truly "see" what's happening will not want to miss this one!
Zany, Fast-paced Action.......2002-10-28
I don't usually read Western or Adventure novels, but this one is fantastic. I neglected some chores and rushed through others to get back to it, and stayed awake past my bedtime reading. Don't be intimidated by the number of pages. The font and short chapters allow you to zip along. It's one of those you'll never forget.
Greenhorns and killer Mountains.......2000-02-10
Look out Jim Conover is on the scene! This book is fantastic. I absolutely loved. It's a great treasure hunting adventure with characters so colorful you know every one. I couldn't put the book down and when I did I felt like I had stepped out of a movie theatre, not put a book down.If you don't read another book this year, read this one, get to know Clay Morgan and Big Alice and feel as though you've been to the Superstition Mts. in Arizona. This book holds your interest cover to cover. Can't wait for his next book..
EXCITING.......2000-01-05
I read Greenhorns & Killer Mountains coming home from Mississippi on a bus trip. I was so interested in the story I wouldn't even get off the bus at the rest stops.
It Takes Treasure Hunting to New Heights!.......1999-12-29
As a former resident of Pekin, Illinois, I first heard about Jim Conover's books from a webpage showing different events in our hometown, including a book signing for his books. I decided to read his first book because he was from my hometown. Was I in for a pleasant surprise--it was great! I couldn't wait to read his next book! Normally, I prefer non-fiction books, so when I read that Greenhorns was fiction, I wasn't particularly excited about reading it. Was I in for a shock! After starting the book, I could literally not put it down. What intrigued me the most was the number of characters used and how Mr. Conover was able to weave them throughout the plot and subplots to exciting conclusion. I highly recommend this author and look forward to future books!
Average customer rating:
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Greenhorn and The Elephant
Van Zabava
Manufacturer: Wheatmark
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
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Military & Spies
| Professionals & Academics
| Biographies & Memoirs
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General
| Civil War
| United States
| Historical
| Biographies & Memoirs
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General
| Military
| Leaders & Notable People
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General
| Civil War
| United States
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ASIN: 1587367726 |
Book Description
Greenhorn and The Elephant is the action-packed story of a new recruit's journey into the reenacting hobby. Learn about Civil War reenacting at its finest and most exciting. Take a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on inside the hobby and explore the legends that each event is based on.
You will get to know the participants personally as you share in the thrills and chills, with firsthand accounts from the men in uniform. Learn what life was like for real Civil War soldiers and the hardships they endured as it is recreated before your eyes by present day reenactors. Fasten your seatbelt for the ultimate ride of excitement! This non-fiction story is written through the eyes of the author, who has studied the American Civil War for over sixteen years, and participated as a reenactor for five.
Customer Reviews:
Vividly came to life..........2007-06-13
I have never been very interested in history, but this book was awesome! The author did an excellent job of describing every detail. I could see it as it happened. Great job! I was very impressed! You've done well!
k davidson
Book Description
Why would a man tie up a cheap suitcase with grass rope, leave his family and his paesani in Italy to risk his life and meager possessions among the dock thieves of Naples and Genoa to suffer the congestion and stench of steerage accommodations aboard ship, to endure the assembly-line processing of Ellis Island, to wander almost incommunicado through a city of sneering strangers speaking an unknown tongue, to perform ten to twelve hours of heavy manual labor a day for wages of perhaps $1.65—most of which he probably owed to the "company store" before he got it? Why were there not just a few such men but droves of them coming to the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century? How did they survive and—some of them—prosper? How did they surmount the language barrier? Why did some stay, some go home, and some bounce back and forth repeatedly across the Atlantic?
Michael La Sorte examines these questions and more in this lively study of Italian immigration prior to World War I. In exploring for answers, he draws upon the commentary of recent scholars, as well as the statistical documents of the day. But most important, he has searched out individual stories in the published and unpublished diaries, letters, and autobiographies of immigrants who lived the "greenhorn" (grignoni) experience.
In their own language, the men bring to life the teeming tenements of New York's Mulberry Street, the exploitative labor-recruiting practices of Boston's North Square, and the harsh squalor of work camp life along the country's expanding railroad lines. What emerges is a powerful, moving, alternately funny and appalling picture of their everyday lives.
Through detailed narration, La Sorte traces the men's lives from their native villages across the Atlantic through the ports of entry to their first immigrant jobs. He describes their views of Italy, America, and each other, the cultural and linguistic adjustments that they were compelled to make, and their motives for either Americanizing or repatriating themselves. His chapter on "Italglish" (a hybrid language developed by the greenhorns) will echo in the ears of Italian-Americans as the sound of their parents' and grandparents' voices.
Customer Reviews:
Voices Come Alive.......2004-03-10
LaSorte's account of the early immigration from Italy to America is a detailed and powerful study. Each chapter -- from "Leaving Italy" to "Working in America" -- is carefully researched and includes facts from current day scholars, contemporary documents, and most importantly from the autobiographies and diaries of the young immigrants themselves. By including numerous and lengthy passages from these autobiographies and diaries, LaSorte gives this sociological study an emotional impact rare among academic work. This book will be of interest to anyone interested in immigration studies or Italian-American history.
Brilliant and extremely difficult to put down!.......2001-12-15
Mr. La Sorte's wealth of information about the Italian immigrant's experience in the United States is matched only by his attention to details. (...)
Average customer rating:
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How lost was my weekend, a greenhorn in Guatemala ;
David Dodge
Manufacturer: Home and Van Thal
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
History
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| Africa
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| Ancient
| Arctic & Antarctica
| Asia
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ASIN: B0007J262O |
Customer Reviews:
Pueblo, Hardscrabble, Greenhorn: Society on the High Plains, 1832-1856.......2007-05-15
Absolutly terrific book about the area, the history of the three communities and their tie into the Taos area. Very enlightening, well researched and documented. Good information about the Mountain Man's demise, how he ended up in the Pueblo area, the connection between the northern ans southern part of the state and the "trail system". For those who grew up in the area this book can be quite enlightening about places and times that are "in your face" but not seen. Very good history of the upper Arkansas.
Top quality western history .......2005-01-09
You'd never know from the dullish title, but this is an interesting, well-written, authoritative book of Western history. The subject is the upper Arkansas River valley around the present city of Pueblo -- not one of the West's most storied locations. There are a number of famous people who pass through the pages of this book -- Kit Carson, John Charles Fremont, Francis Parkman, and the Bents -- but the main characters are unfamiliar and have unalliterative, forgettable names: George S. Simpson, for example.
All the disadvantages aside, Janet LeCompte has written a small masterpiece about a handful of ex-mountain men, Mexicans, and traders who established several communities along the Arkansas River from 1840 to 1854. In the latter year, the Ute Indians killed most of the traders, thereby erasing Pueblo's claim to being the first White settlement in Colorado.
Most of the histories of the west are expansive, looking a big men and events. "PHG" is micro, focusing on a relatively unimportant region, and deriving its importance from a reconstruction of daily life among the Anglos and Hispanics at the isolated settlements. The author says the book is about the men and women who struggled to make a good life "out of the wild Indians, stubborn soil and thin grass of the difficult valley." Their failure, unnoticed as it may be in the larger scheme of things, is the drama of this homely story.
Smallchief
Average customer rating:
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Greenhorn
Sandor Sigmond
Manufacturer: Lion's Pride Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
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Holocaust
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Jewish
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Memoirs
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Hungary
| Europe
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ASIN: 0972194711 |
Book Description
In a personal journey that spans over eighty years, Greenhorn recounts the fate-driven life of Dr. Sandor Sigmond. Born in a small town in Hungary, Dr. Sigmond spent part of his young adult life in a pre-war concentration camp before voyaging to freedom in the US only to return to Europe as an American soldier in army intelligence. This is a story of struggle, love and a lifetime of happiness peppered with tragedy. It is a story about finding the inner strength to face both life and love head-on.
Product Description
Originally released in 1983, this classic is back in print. In 1926, the B.C. Government had a plan: 160 acres of land in exchange for hard work. For Olive Spencer Loggins, who was six months pregnant, and husband Arthur, heading for the Cariboo and leaving the great depression behind in Vancouver was a dream come true. They traded urban soup lines for the thin gruel of their first winter in the north. The greenhorns learned fast. Their Indian neighbours taught them to fish, their community danced them through the night, and they all valued work before money. This is a true story of the Canadian West, complete with bandits, hard-working women, and renegade moose.
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