Joseph Machlis:
New way of teaching

The Enjoyment of Music came out of his early years at Queens College in New York. He had been put in charge of a music appreciation course and felt that if he was to be effective at all he would have to make his subject as attractive as possible. "An appreciation course ought to focus on the arousal of interest in music," Machlis said. "If I aroused interest in music first the student could then go on to take a history course later." His concept caught on with his students and his classes were always full.

A publisher's representative from Norton came to him and asked if he was using a book. Machlis gave him the course syllabus -- and The Enjoyment of Music was born. First published by Norton in 1955, it has sold more than 2 million copies and is in its seventh edition.

"All music professors know about music, but it is the organization of the material, the quality of writing and the tone of the writer that makes a good textbook," said Machlis. "I guess I said it in a warmer, more communicative way."

Machlis went on to write three more textbooks: Introduction to Contemporary Music, first published by Norton in 1961; American Composers of Our Time, published by Crowell in 1963; and Music: Adventures in Listening, published by Norton in 1968.

His interest in writing didn't stop with textbooks. Machlis also wrote six novels, five opera translations, vocal and piano scores, and 12 recordings, and at 89 is working on his seventh novel about a concert violinist. He said he began writing novels because he felt he had done whatever he could do in the textbooks, and wanted to experiment with fiction.

Fiction, he said, gave him the opportunity to be creative, invent characters and write dialogue. Writing textbooks, he said, involves a lot of research, whereas when writing fiction he can make everything up. "Writing fiction is more seductive because you're telling a story," he said. "I don't have much trouble writing. I'm very verbal."

He writes everyday from noon to 4 p.m. and says this schedule fits nicely around his life. He spends the morning talking to friends, and the evenings out.

Machlis' love of music began at 7 or 8 when he began to play the piano. His grandmother had come to the United States from Russia and gave $30 to $40 to Machlis' mother as a present. She bought the piano with it. He began formal study of the piano at 25 cents a lesson. Although he started out as a pianist, he even won a scholarship to study with Isidore Phillepe, he said he wasn't the type of person who sees his whole life through a keyboard. "I like writing about music. I prefer sitting in front of my typewriter to sitting in front of an audience," he said. "It was a natural transition for me to go from the piano keyboard to the typewriter.

"I was always torn between music and writing, and I finally made my career in writing about music," said Machlis, who received a master's in English lit from Columbia University in 1937. Machlis received a bachelor's degree from City College of New York in 1927, his teacher's diploma from the Institute of Musical Art (now Julliard) in 1927, and a certificate in an artists' course in piano in 1928. He also received a diploma from the Conservatoire Americain in Fontainebleau, in France, in 1928.

Machlis began his teaching career at Queens College of the City University of New York in 1938 as an instructor and became professor emeritus in 1974. He also became a member of the graduate faculty at the Julliard School in 1976. In addition to his teaching, he began translating operas presented by the National Broadcasting Company, City Center Opera, San Francisco Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera in 1956.

Machlis believes that teaching students to appreciate music depends soley on how much the instructor enjoys music. "A lot can be taught if the instructor loves it and wants to share that love with the students. The first course is just an introduction, and the main thing is to stimulate the students' interest," he said.

His favorite composer is Mahler, and enjoys symphonies, operas, and chamber music -- "just about anything I happen to be listening to at the time," he said.

— reported by Kim Pawlak, 1997