바이올리니스트의 자세와 건강: “바이올린을 연주하면 신체에 계속 스트레스가 가해 지지만 우리는 이를 대수롭지 않게 여긴다”
영국에서 발간되는 현악기 전문 월간지 The Strad가 네덜란드 바이올리니스트 그웬돌린 마신 (Gwendolyn Masin)의 자세와 건강에 관한 주제의 저술을 기사로 올렸으며, 아래의 글은 2018 년 3 월 2 일 음악 전문 매거진 ‘더 스트라드(The Strad)’ 에 실린 글을 제가 번역하여 옮긴 것입니다. 이 바이올리니스트는 총체적인 교육방식을 통해 건강한 자세의 이슈를 스케일과 에튀드와 똑같이 심각하게 다루어야 한다고 주장합니다. ※아래로 스크롤 하시면 영어 원문이 실려있으니 참조하시기 바랍니다.


저자 소개>
그웬돌린 마신은 오늘날 가장 뛰어난 바이올린 독주자 중에 한 명이다. 마신은 무엇보다 스위스에서 명성 높은 가이아 음악 축제의 예술 감독으로 잘 알려져 있다. 그녀는 런던의 왕립음악학교에서 최우수 성적으로, 그리고 스위스 베른 예술대학교와 독일 뤼벡 국립음대를 졸업하였다. 저명한 바이올리니스트 헤르만 크레베르스, 이고르 오짐, 아나 추마첸코, 자카르 브론, 사무엘 애쉬캐나시를 사사하였다. 2013 년부터 스위스 제네바 음악대학과 칼라이도스 음악대학에서 후학을 양성하고 있다. 그녀는 상트 페테르부르크 교향악단, 베르네 제 심포니 오케스트라, 벨기에 심포니 오케스트라, 벨기에 RTE 콘서트 오케스트라, 헝가리 국립 필 하모닉 오케스트라, 벨로루시 심포니 오케스트라 등 다양한 오케스트라와 협연을 하였다. 마신은 20 세기 바이올린 교육의 유사점과 차이점을 다루어 트리니티 대학 (Trinity College)에서 박사 학위를 받았다. 음악 교육에도 각별히 관심이 많아 수상 경력의 어린이를 위한 바이올린 입문서, Michaela Music House, The Magic of the Violin 을 저술하였으며 이는 여러 언어로 번역된 바 있다. 2017/2018 시즌의 새로운 음반, 공연 및 출판물로는, 더블린의 국립 콘서트홀 콘서트 시리즈의 큐레이팅, 헝가리, 리투아니아, 프랑스에서 챔버 뮤직 협업, Michaela ‘s Music House의 독일어 번역본 출판, 앨범 Flame (Orchid Classics), ORIGIN (낙소스와 협력하여 Fountainhead Productions) 등을 들 수 있다. 그녀는 7 개국에서 앙상블로 ORIGIN 프로그램을 수행했으며 네덜란드, 아일랜드 및 헝가리에서 2017/2018 년까지 계속 진행할 것이다.“그웬돌린 마신(Gwendolyn Masin) 그녀가 공연에서 보여주는 월등한 테크닉과 세련되고 강렬하며 풍부한 표현은 일류의 기준이 무엇인지 보여 준다” – 스위스 신문 Der Bund
바이올리니스트 그웬돌린 마신에 대해 더 자세히 알고 싶다면, 그의 홈페이지를 방문해보시기 바랍니다.
https://gwendolynmasin.com마신은 무엇보다 스위스에서 명성 높은 가이아 음악 축제의 예술 감독으로 잘 알려져 있습니다.
(기사 원문)
Playing the violin places constant strain on the <br />body, yet we leave posture to chance 2 March 2018 Violinist Gwendolyn Masin argues that a holistic approach to teaching should treat healthy body position as seriously as scales and etudes. The world’s leading trade-paper on string playing, The Strad, printed an article authored by Gwendolyn on the topic of posture and health for violinists. Call it an obsession, but I notice how people walk, how they stand, how they sit. When I see people, I see posture, and I feel their presence as transmitted through their body. So, it strikes me that so many violinists have been trained or exposed to teaching that either doesn’t confront posture, or indeed, teaches stance and motions that are not in harmony with natural body movements. One could argue(and many do – given all that I’ve seen and the countless conversations I’ve had with colleagues when it comes to raised shoulders, twisted necks and ribcages, stiff thumbs, fingers and aching backs) that overall, posture is not the main priority when teaching, that sound can be beautiful and healthy even if that means fostering unhealthy movement habits, thereby allowing muscles to bear so much strain that a player is in pain. I imagine that a lot of violin teachers who are aware of the importance of posture feel that it’s not their place to help students in this way. Perhaps they might feel that it is too intrusive to have such a holistic approach to playing. We have all heard stories of established musicians who have had their careers come to a halt due to issues of physicality – from muscle strain and burn-out to chronic pain and focal dystonia. I know this all too well, having experienced it firsthand, as well as having close friends who, like me, learned their lesson the hard way. The ability to perform well and for great lengths of time is almost entirely dependent on “intelligent” muscle performance and a calm mind, free from physical anxiety and stress. My approach to teaching “intelligent” muscle performance is sometimes seen as a novelty. vividly remember one particular time when I was teaching a student how to use a yoga ball to self-massage – thereby simultaneously “teaching” the motor cortex to let go of muscles that are, seemingly, in a perpetual state of heightened tonus. Students from other classes were opening the door and peeking into our lesson, their mouths widening in surprise. In violin circles, it continues to be taboo to speak freely about how unhealthy the act of violin playing really is. The assumed position required to perform is far away from the body’s natural stance, and the strain placed on a player’s muscles is immense. It appears that showing vulnerability when it comes to sustaining injuries as a violinist is seen as a sign of incompetence, something that diminishes the player. Many times, violinists prefer to sight accidents and burn-out as the cause of an enforced “time-out”, rather than admit to needing to reevaluate and review the very essence of what they do, which is move. Playing the violin is equivalent to being a professional athlete, except we violinists don’t acknowledge this, and therefore, as a rule, spend far too little time looking after our bodies. We spend hours a day practicing. When doing this, we repeatedly place our arms in a forward position, creating a static position in the left shoulder and repetitive movements in the right arm and left hand. Assuming that any player had optimal posture and a clear knowledge of the biomechanics of the body, they would need hours of physical conditioning and stretching to balance the bonus in the body produced by hours of playing. The exercises needed would involve movements that are opposite to the ones violinists perform daily. Unfortunately, most of us don’t do any such exercise, leaving us in differing stages of physical dismantlement. An unfortunate thing happens to young children as they transition into mobile independence—they take on the good and bad physical habits of the adults they see around them. They passively learn how to be (or not be) in their body. For example, a father walks, mainly, with his weight on the inside of his right foot and raises his leW shoulder as he walks. His child will inevitably take on these traits. What follows is that moment when a child begins to attend school and the first of many teachers commands, “Sit still!”… The worst habit of all is not moving, not breathing, compounding that already misaligned spine, pelvis, those hips, ribs, and so on. Sitting still solidifies bad habits, and this has inspired movement therapists to claim that “sitting is the new smoking.” Sitting still in a misaligned position not only stresses muscles, tendons, ligaments and so on, but squashes organs, leads to poor blood circulation and disallows the body to function as the miracle that it is. And so begins the tragedy that is the modern gait. But what of those individuals whose bodies are able to compensate and whose ill posture does not cause the kind of damage that the player can feel? Th my mind, the ideal body alignment is central to the production of sound, the ability to perform with dazzling technique and assuredness, and (though this should speak for itself) a feeling of joy when performing. (2. March 2018 from ‘The Strad’)