A musical hero retires
When I was in high school, spending hours and hours listening to Beethoven string quartets and Mahler symphonies, I wondered to myself, “how is this music making me feel this way?” When I arrived at Harvard and started taking Music 51, this question began to be answered, thanks to John Stewart.
John Stewart is a composer and an educator, protégé of Harvard professor Luise Vosgerchian, who in turn was a student of Nadia Boulanger. John carried on the Boulanger tradition teaching harmony with only one “texbook” — the Bach Chorales. He knew every chorale inside-out, and taught us harmony from the ground up, using Bach for every example. What was extraordinary about John was that he taught us the why of harmony, not just the what. Every example was demonstrated with wonder at Bach’s achievement, and an emotional reaction to Bach’s every harmonic move. I like to think that I carry these emotional reactions with me when I perform, understanding the music simultaneously with the mind and the heart. If I am successful in this respect at all, it is thanks to John. Every week when I travel to conduct a new concert, I bring my scores, my tails, my batons, and John Stewart.
John is retiring from Harvard, and it’s not entirely clear that this wonderful tradition of music education will continue there. In fact, it’s rare to find this kind of awareness of harmony in many places these days. That’s because it takes great knowledge, effort, devotion and love to teach it. I hope the tradition that John inherited and passed on will continue. I’ll do my best in that respect.
For John’s retirement concert, there was music by Bach, Stravinsky, and John Stewart himself. It was played by his current students, former students from violinist Joseph Lin to jazz great Don Byron. We ended by singing a Bach chorale together.
John’s music held up very well with the two other greats on the program. That bodes well, since John plans to devote a great deal of his time to composing. Though I imagine that if some wise and curious music student came knocking at his door, he might be able to lend a hand. He is a truly great and generous person — so how could he resist?