Just Play Naturally: An account of her study with Pablo Casals in the 1950's and her discovery of the resonance between his teaching and the principle

Review
...the insights into Casals' teaching...are thought-provoking and fascinating. Well worth reading for every cellist--really, for any musician. -- STRINGS, August 2002 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
"Just Play Naturally" by Vivien Mackie, in conversation with Joe Armstrong, goes very deep into the creative process by recounting the steps by which Pablo Casals taught Mackie, as a young woman, to go beyond all her formal training in order to become a r

From the Publisher
From Joe Armstrong, Publisher and co-author

In 1970, toward the end of my first year of training in London London to become a teacher of the Alexander Technique, I heard that Vivien Mackie, a professional cellist who had studied extensively with Pablo Casals, was going to join the class too. Since I had come to revere and respect Casals as the greatest musician of our time, the prospect of getting to know and maybe even work closely with someone who possessed something of his understanding and approach to music was beyond anything I could have hoped for at that stage of my quest as a flutist.

So before I even met Vivien, I knew I would try to question her as much as I could on every facet of her experience with Casals. As luck would have it, we seemed to be on the same wave-length right from our first meeting, and what's more, she actually seemed to be grateful - even somewhat relieved - to have the chance to talk about her work with Casals, because, to my surprise, I was the first person she knew who was really interested in hearing about every detail of it.

Also lucky for me, Vivien turned out to be a natural raconteur, and I began taking advantage of that by roping her into many long conversations. I was struck right off by her telling me how she, like me, had lost touch with something precious in her playing by the time she'd left music school, and it had taken her intensive study with Casals to bring it back. It was soon clear that her experience with him was unique not only because of that, but also because she had worked with him longer than almost anyone else.

But I realized that however illuminating our talks might be, they were probably only scratching the surface of what she had actually learned from her three whole years with Casals; so I decided to ask her if she would consider teaching me how to play the cello--thinking that it could be the most direct way of experiencing and understanding, at least 'second-hand,' the elements of how Casals had taught her that not only brought back what she had lost but also took her to the highest professional level. She liked the idea very much, and we began 'doing cello' there together several times a week during our lunch breaks over the next year and a half or so.

I was amazed at what transpired in the lessons--esepcially compared to some instruction I'd had in a year of string class in music school. (I was actually supposed to be qualified to teach beginning strings merely by taking that course!) I'd hoped that because of this earlier experience I might be a little more receptive as a student, but I soon saw that none of that was even relevant to the way Vivien was teaching me. It was totally different from--even opposite to--what I thought most other string teachers were probably doing in their teaching, because she was getting me to experience a far broader range of expressive and kinaesthetic possibilities all over the instrument right from the start by completely bypassing the conventional dwelling for a long time on the progression of distinctly confined left-hand positiions. In a few months I was able to begin learning pieces I could never have conceived of playing at the end of my college string course. And this difference in Vivien's approach only seems to me more pronounced today, after having had the chance both to work extensively with a large number of fine string players and teachers in my many years of Alexander teaching in Boston and to watch Vivien bring these revelations to most of them in Alexander string courses we've given here together.

As our collaboration developed and we probed further and further into the elements of musical expression, I could see that it would be very valuable to others if we could create some record of Vivien's experience with Casals and show how his great legacy can be understood and passed on--especially with the aid of the Alexander Technique, since the process of learning and teaching it involves so many of the same understandings applied to life in general that Casals brought to cello teaching and all his music making. So in 1984 I suggested we start recording some of our conversations by harking back to Vivien's initial study with him, continuing from there through her experience with the Alexander Technique, and then going on to her amalgamation of the two into her own unique way of teaching--not just cellists, but musicians of every kind--all around the world. She agreed, and this book is what came out of the project. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Author
From Vivien Mackie, author.

When you arrive at the railway station in Prades, France you are immediately in the presence of Mount Canigou, two and a half times the height of Britain's highest mountain and in far more rugged country that I could have imagined--and that gave me just an inkling of the ruggedness and grandeur of what lay ahead in my study with Casals. I would never have guessed then that I was going to stay three years in this wonderful place.

Over the years since I was there in the 1950's, the idea of writing a book about my time with Casals has flitted about like a moth at the back of my mind. But two things held me back.

The first big stumbling-block was that it seemed impossible to write about Casals' revolutionary and revelatory teaching without appearing to denigrate everything about my earlier musical training. So much that he said and did was contrary to what had gone before.

The second daunting thought was that you must have special gifts to be able to write a book. I wanted to weave among the story of the lessons an account of my forays into the formidable country--an arduous pastime that provided a necessary counter-balance to the intensity of the cello work. There should have been illustrations, too, by my own hand.

Then in 1970 I met Joe Armstrong on our Alexander teacher training course, and we began to talk endlessly about music and Casals, and I began to teach Joe cello. His questions and almost daily 'discoveries' as he practised the cello opened up all kinds of backwaters; he made me go exploring in my experience in a way I found quite thrilling. And then we began to think: perhaps this is going to be the book I wanted to write. And here it is. The illustrations never happened, nor the accounts of the rambles--but just as the Alexander experience has flooded continuously in and out of the musical, so I know the essence of the whole experience of living in Prades is in there too. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap
Peter Davison, Poet, Editor:

"'JUST PLAY NATURALLY' by Vivien Mackie, in conversation with Joe Armstrong, goes very deep into the creative process by recounting the steps by which Pablo Casals taught Mackie, as a young woman, to go beyond all her formal training in order to become a real musician, and it goes on to show how an artist, in this case a performng artist, may continue going deeper all the rest of her life.

"The dialogue between Vivien the cellist and Joe the flautist, both of whom are skilled and devoted teachers of the Alexander TEchnique, could profit any practitioner of the arts, but it penetrates beyond art into life itself.

"This book illustrates the evolution of a sense of rhythm, of a connection to the breath, of the ways in which the self combines the resources of the mind and the body, of motion and stillness, of pitch and meter. Even more than the above, this book tells how to change your life, how to get in touch with the reality beneath learned experience."

Rosanna Warren, Poet, Professor of Comparative Literature, Boston University:

"I find 'JUST PLAY NATURALLY' extraordinarily moving - an important account of artistic discipleship, dedication, communion - as well as a deepening revelation of the Alexander Technique."

Walter Carrington, Master teacher of the Alexander Technique, London:

"I can think of no other [publication], except Alexander's own writing, where anyone has described how they learnt the Technique, put it into practice in their professional work, and reaped the results that were to be anticipated." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.