MUSICAL INTELLIGENCE

You’ve probably noticed that among the people you know, you are one of a kind. Far from clones of yourself, your friends and relatives possess greatly varying skills, personalities, interests, preferences, etc. 

Howard Gardner, the Harvard professor who is father of the theory of multiple intelligences (author of the book Multiple Intelligences) asserts that special talents and interests are indicators of a biological imperative that drives the psyche of individuals. Furthermore these biological imperatives are gateways for optimal learning for individual children.  Gardner has concluded that these are distinct intelligences, which are likely to be entry points for the expression of genius.

Beyond this, could it be that a little bit of protégée, that lacked sufficient encouragement as a child, shadows your daily life?

One of those intelligences proposed by Gardner is musical intelligence.

Yehudi Menuhin was fortunate in that his parents recognized their son’s powerful reaction to music from the time he was a tiny child. And they had the foresight to take action on his behalf. When Yehudi Menuhin was three years old, his parents smuggled him into the San Francisco Orchestra concerts. So entranced was Yehudi by the sound of Louis Persinger’s violin that he begged his parents to give him a violin for his birthday. Louis Persinger was so impressed by the youngster, that he agreed to comply with Yehudi’s demand that he be his teacher.

Who would have thought that as an adult this musical acumen would even be considered essential for winning a war as evidenced by the following cable received during WWII:

We request that you definitely cancel all arrangements for Menuhin concerts up to and including 13 October. His presence in Europe with fighting troops at this critical juncture of the war is essential in its effect upon their morale and most important. - General Eisenhower cables from Supreme Headquarters.

I have never heard of anyone who didn’t enjoy time spent following this biological imperative in his or her work and play. In the words of Yehudi Menuhin, “Anything that one really wants to do and one loves doing, one must do every day. It should be as easy to the artist and as natural as flying is to a bird. And you can't imagine a bird saying, ‘Well, I’m tired today. I’m not going to fly.’"

There’s much more to fostering adult competence than the verbal/linquistic and mathematical intelligences to which most of schooling has narrowed its focus. Even though we have a one-size-fits-all approach, emphasizing verbal/linguistic and mathematical skills, the human reality points to the need for a plurality of educational approaches, and allowance for multiple roads to success. Surprises abound among renowned geniuses.

Luciano Pavarotti the Italian operatic tenor, who also expanded to popular music, became one of the most successful tenors of all time. During Pavarotti’s brilliant career, he starred in well known operas such as Aida, Boheme, Tosca, and Madame Butterfly. Indeed many consider him to be one of the finest tenors of the 20^th century.

Pavarotti achieved this brilliant career in music despite one skill, the lack of which, his music teachers very likely considered prohibitive of success: he never did master reading musical notes.

True, the examples in this series on Multiple intelligences include child protégées. We mostly tend to think of such people as unusual, rare human beings. Yet how many of the behaviors of these labeled and/or drugged, or simply bored children of today resemble, in their attitudes and behaviors, those of world renowned geniuses when they were children? Almost without fail either parents of an influential relative had the insight and foresight to prioritize the fostering of that genius that became world famous.

Perhaps a suppressed or ignored potential protégée shadows you or someone you know. The more we pay attention to the life stories of geniuses who become household names, the more we discover among such representatives of surpassing talent that their path to success diverged from the system, or at least proceeded outside the closely guarded perimeters of its gatekeepers.

I’m not suggesting we eliminate academia. Just that we widen its corridors – considerably.